Herman Cain - Innocent or Not?

Soooo for our new journalism assignment we are supposed to post about our views and opinion of the allegations that Herman Cain sexually harassed four different women.

For the most part, I could care less what his personal life is like. I also have no room to judge him because I don't know all of the facts. However, as a presidential candidate, I would never vote for him. He would have been married to his wife at the time and the way I see it, if his wife can't even trust him, then how could we as a country trust him?

I will admit that it looks bad for him. Three of the four women who have claimed that he harassed them actually have the complaint on written record. In fact, two of the written records are in the state court system.  One happened in 1990. The second one was in 1998 where the woman received a $35,000 settlement. The third was in 1999 where the woman received a $45,000 compensation.

So whether these women are all lying (which I will admit is possible. They may have just wanted money.) or whether Herman Cain actually did it, I will probably never know. The best I can do is continue to listen to the coverage of this story on unbiased news stations.

Why I Write

As a homework assignment, I was told to talk about why I write. This was something I had to think about for a while. The first answer I could come up with was that I write because I have to, whether for English class or Journalism. The fact is, the only time I ever write is when I do have to, even though I dislike being told when to write or what to write about. However, when I was younger, I had my own diary. I honestly thought the diary was silly when I first got it, but either from extreme boredom (I live on a farm, had no cellphone, and facebook didn’t exist yet) or because I truly wanted to write but never had any motivation, I began to document how my day went every night.

A few years later, I found my old diary in my cedar chest. As I flipped through the pages and read what my 11-12 year old self wrote about, I noticed how many quirky little sayings and quotes I had come up with. I made my life sound like a movie, with good guys and bad guys and love interests. (I hadn’t realized it, but in the 5th grade I had the hugest crush on an 8th grader. The weirdest thing is that when I started high school and he was a senior, we started to date!)

So whether I would admit it or not, just like my younger self, I enjoy writing. I usually have to be in the mood to start, but once I do, ideas flow. I’m pretty sure I didn’t answer the question quite the way I was supposed to, but I got a background-story in so I think that’s good enough. :)

Short Story

The Suitcase

A short story by Katie Showalter :)

          Shifting her glance to the side of the chair, she noticed a small, shiny, green suitcase. It seemed so out of place tucked in the corner of the dingy attic room in the creepy manor. In fact, it was the only thing in the entire house that wasn’t covered in an inch of dust. Seventeen-year-old Abby Taylor quickly glanced behind her before advancing forward, certain that she was being watched. Of course, it was completely possible that her three best friends were watching her. It was they who dared her to sneak into the old, abandoned mansion on Halloween night, and even though it was the last thing she wanted to be doing after dark, there was no way she would turn down a dare. After all, she wasn’t a chicken.
          But there was just something about the little suitcase that seemed out of the ordinary. If it had been there since the 1940s when the owners of the house were supposedly driven out by ghosts, then why wasn’t it covered in dust? Why did it look as though it were made out of modern synthetic material instead of something more old fashioned? And most importantly, what was it doing here?
Abby leaned forward, slowly moving her hand toward the suitcase. With her fingers just inches away, she paused. Did she really want to know what was inside?
          “Well duh,” she whispered, surprising herself by how loudly her voice projected throughout the room, despite the fact that she spoke so quietly.

          At that moment, the floor creaked. Abby’s heart skipped a beat and her stomach swooped as she spun around. Seeing nothing, she quickly walked back to the doorway and out to the grand staircase. Her gauzy skirt rustled and her heels clunked against the wooden floor. Again the volume that was produced by such subtle sounds startled her. She paused again to listen. She could hear nothing but the tree limbs scratching against the window panes and her own pounding heart.
         Despite her growing anxiousness, she couldn’t help but marvel at the detail and beauty of the manor. She stood at the top of the staircase eye level with an enormous glass chandelier and peered down at the huge ballroom, the floor at least 30 feet below. It must have been an absolutely spectacular sight to behold in its prime. Why would anyone abandon it?
          Just then a feeling of extreme cold washed over her and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. The wind died and goosebumps appeared all over her body. She shivered.
          Suddenly, a large, dark figure fell from the ceiling with a bloodcurdling scream, taking with it the chandelier. Glass shattered everywhere as five more figures flew out of the rooms of the house, including the one she exited moments ago, banging into walls with crashes louder than thunder, dissolving into nothingness.
          Two more appeared, this time on either side of her, advancing menacingly. They were human shaped but then again oddly not, dark as though shadows but yet oddly solid. They were at least twice the size of a human, growing larger every second. Abby screamed and rushed back into the room, realizing too late that they were driving her there. She slammed the door and shoved the dresser in front of it, glancing frantically around the room. She spotted the green suitcase and felt as if it were calling to her. She raced to the corner, knocking over boxes and pushing books out of the way. Without a second thought she unfastened the metal clasps and threw open the lid.
            Inside was a photo. It was an old fashioned Polaroid bearing a single headstone. The inscription read Abby Taylor, beloved daughter, sister, and friend. June 17, 1994 - October 31, 2011. Suddenly she felt a cold hand on her shoulder. It was one of the black figures.


ALTERNATE ENDING!!!!
(Just because I think the first ending was too scary and I don’t like sad endings.)



          Inside was a photo. It was an old fashioned Polaroid bearing a single headstone. The inscription read Abby Taylor, beloved daughter, sister, and friend. June 17, 1994 - October 31, 2011. Suddenly she felt a cold hand on her shoulder.
          “Scared yet?” her best friend Rebecca Robinson asked with a grin.

Heaven is for Real

Soooo if you've never read the book Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo and his wife Sonja about their son's trip to heaven...... you need to.

That's all I have to say about that. <3

Football!!! :)

Sooooo this weekend five of my most favorite football teams in the whole wide world won!

The first win was by our high school team the WPHS Bobcats for their fourth consecutive win! Also last friday Lacrosse High School (with their super uhhhmazing quarterback Taylor Stull! :) beat Salina South for their fifth win.

Saturday I watched K-State beat Baylor in an upset win which was extremely exciting to watch. The Baylor quarterback is probably the best in college football right now (and a LOT better than a few professional quarterbacks I know). However, with K-State's awesome defense, the Baylor quarterback threw his first interception of the year which the Wildcats later converted into a touchdown.

On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs got their first win of the season. It was probably the most boring game I've ever watched on TV and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep at least twice. Granted,  they were playing the Minnesota Vikings, but a win is a win and I'll take it. The New York Giants also came out with a win on Sunday. Yay Eli Manning! (Hmmm... I've kinda noticed that I pick my favorite teams based on how their quarterbacks look..... Oh well!)

The End! :)

Random Picture That I Took Of Elizabeth And Myself

This picture was taken by me with my phone in Ness City while I was waiting for my two brothers to get out of swimming lessons. Elizabeth had just gotten out and we decided that we would take pictures of random things, including ourselves! Swimming lessons lasted two weeks and I took three of my four younger siblings 6 days out of the 10 that they attended. All three passed to the next level! Go them :)

Adventures of "Bat"man and "Rob"in

Soooooo yesterday in church was extremely entertaining! While we were listening to the 1st reading, something dark and mysterious swooped out from the choir loft over the entire congregation's heads and landed up on the cross! Everyone in the entire building had a huge grin on their face, a few people were even giggling! The poor person reading probably thought they were laughing at him.

 A few minutes later, the mysterious thing took off again, this time flying up and down the pews, nearly taking out an old woman in the process. As it flew just inches from my mom, I whispered to Emma that it was a bat! The priest motioned to the servers to open up the doors in so the thing could fly out. After a good five minutes, the bat finally landed in the aisle right beside my dad ("Bat"man). He stepped out of the pew and using a book, trapped it underneath. It let out the highest screech imaginable as he tried to close it between the pages. My uncle Rob, (a.k.a. Robin) was sitting two pews ahead came rushing to Batman's assisstance.

Robin was finally able to grab a hold the bat and carried it outside, much the to dismay of the congregation and the joy of the priest. :)

 To Be Continued?!?!?

September 11th

Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the falling of the twin towers in New York City. I watched the memorial service in the morning before going to church. It was very touching to see the children of those who passed away calling off the names written on the newly unveiled memorial. In the afternoon I watched part of a special that documented the last moments of each of the four commercial airplanes that were high-jacked. I didn't dwell too much on the sadness of the day, but I did try to pay the proper respect to those who died in the attack.

Top Ten Favorite Songs (as of Sept. 8th, 2011)

Soooo even though I change my favorite songs almost weekly, here are my top ten as of today! This list includes new and old songs and even though it probably should be, it is not really in any particular order :)

10.Love You Like a Love Song - Selena Gomez
9.  Jailhouse Rock - Elvis
8.  Let it Rock -Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil Wayne
7.  See No More - Joe Jonas
6.  Baby Its Cold Outside - (I actually don't know who originally sang this, but I like the Glee version)
5.  Battle of New Orleans - Johnny Horton
4.  Now or Never - Cast of High School Musical :)
3.  Whatcha Gonna Do With a Cowboy - Chris Ledoux & Garth Brooks
2.  You and I - Lady Gaga
1.  Mean - Taylor Swift

All About Me!

My name is Katie Showalter and I am a junior at Western Plains High School. I am the oldest of five children and we live on a farm 5 miles south of Alexander. Alexander is about 45 minutes from the town of Ransom where I go to school. I play volleyball and basketball in school and play on coed softball teams in the summer. I participate in track, cheerleading, scholar's bowl, the school newspaper, band, vocal, and have played piano for 7 years. I am president of our school's KAY club and vice president of both the FFA and FBLA chapters.

My favorite subject in school is American History. I also really enjoy all areas of science and music. My favorite sport to play by far is basketball. I also like to coach grade school and junior high softball. (The junior high coed team I coached this summer took second at the Ness City tournament!) I like to play piano and I teach my little sister the basics of reading music whenever I get the chance. My brother is playing football with LaCrosse this year and I am extremely excited to watch his first game. This blog is pretty rambly (which is a word, I looked it up) but it is the first one I have ever written and I'm not totally for sure what I am supposed to talk about. So if this is graded for grammar and writing and such then please disregard the last few sentences because they have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the blog. Thanks! :)