Where should I begin?

Alecia and I saw The Village today. It was pretty good but really weird. I also bought two round floaty things.

There's so much about camp to tell. The drive down was pretty uneventful. There was one guy who forced me out of the middle lane with his boat and that one time when we took a wrong turn, but besides that... Ross, Ryan, and I stayed at my aunt's (and uncle's, I suppose) house in Goshen on Sunday night. We watched a movie with my cousin Jonathan. For a while the movie wasn't looking too interesting but the ending made it great. I think it was called Usual Supects or something like that. We drove to camp the next morning. Camp was awesome. The first day is always the worst for me and this year was no exception. It just hard for me to get comfortable with everyone and everything, and I usually go there not really looking forward to it but it always turns out great. I can't think of one time where it wasn't great. Sure, there have been tough times in some years but it always turns out for the best. I can't even explain what I'm feeling right now... Camp is life-changing. I don't even know what to say. I want to talk about it; I want more of it. I need you, I want you, I need you, I want more. Sure, it was fun and great and fun but the things that have made it so meaningful are the things that are so personal to me. Maybe I'll go into it more later.

My relatives are coming up tomorrow, and that is wonderful because I only get to see most of them once or twice a year.

I'm going to go to sleep now. My sleep has been virtually nonexistant lately.

Awesomeness

Camp was incredibly awesome... I can't even begin to describe it. So much happened and so much changed. JB and Carla's son, Noah, is so cute! I can't really go into any of the occurences right now because I could never decide what to say first... maybe tomorrow. Wow, it was awesome.

Better For You

I'm all done packing and now I'm waiting for Scottie to show up at my house.  Ross got out of work early, so that was good.  Isaiah is going with his parents now, and that is good because I don't think there would be enough room in the car for us and all of our stuff.  I packed as much as I ever do... maybe even more.  If I packed this much for one week, I can't imagine how much I'll pack for 4 months at college.
 
Kev B. is a very good teacher/speaker.  He can catch his audience's attention and successfully hold it for any amount of time.  He's a wise person.
 
"I sometimes wish that I could fly... Hold me tight in your arms tonight... Sick of living inside a lie, alright... I can't count the times I've tried... Stand alone just to lift you high... You're my answer to the question why, why."
 
We're off to Indiana.  Wish us luck.

All Alone

Vanessa is in Michigan now for awhile.  She had a surprise birthday party for Aaron today at the beach.  There was pizza and swimming and general good times.  I think I got a little burnt.  The water was nice and the air wasn't actually too cold even though the high was supposed to be in the 60's.  I was there for a few hours.  Now I'm waiting for Rosster to get home.  I left a message on his answering machine for him to call me but I'm on the internet so yeah.
 
The Butterfly Effect is good.  It wasn't exactly like I expected it to be... it was better than I expected.  I saw that and Crazy Beautiful last night.  Crazy Beautiful was good but not as wonderful as Vanessa made it sound.
 
There's this Kutless song that I really really love but there's one line that totally does not go with the rhyme scheme and it annoys me.  Everytime I hear it, I want to change it.  WHY COULDN'T THEY JUST MAKE IT RHYME?!?! 
 
I need to pack but I'm not.  I like packing for some odd reason.  I started packing yesterday... I always take A LOT... like a medium size duffle bag, a largeish suitcase, at least one backpack, and then of course my pillows and blankets and sleeping bag and sheets...  Perhaps I'll try and tone it down a little.  All I can say is that Ross, Ryan, and Isaiah better not pack a whole lot.

Not What You See

Yesterday was normal... all my days are normal.  I went swimming with Alecia and after awhile Jen and the boys (sounds kinda like an old band name) showed up.  The water was cold at first but not too cold; I got used to it.  I enjoy floating on the round floaty thing, and I was already in Tawas today so I should've bought one at Save-More but I didn't think of it.  I had to get up at 8:00 a.m. to drive my mother to work so I could have the car to go to my dentist appointment at 10:00 a.m.  It was interesting because I was wearing my glasses instead of my contacts and the prescription on my glasses isn't as strong as my contacts so I was driving and I really couldn't see much... and it didn't help that I was hardly awake.  I rolled (literally) out of bed and put on my Michigan sweatshirt to match the Michigan shorts I wore to bed, put on my glasses, and drove my mother to work.  But then when I got home I took a shower before I went to Tawas.  My dentist is nice but... I don't know... he's kinda weird.  He told me to wear my retainer more and I didn't hardly at all since the last time and he said my teeth were looking great.  Ok, whatever.
 
The newish Kutless CD (Sea of Faces) rocks.  The first song is my favorite so far but the third one is cool too... I like them all.  The new Pillar CD (Where Do We Go From Here) is good as well.  They definitely weren't a waste of money to buy. 
 
I realized that I realized something on the way back from Tawas, but I don't remember what it was now.
 
Camp is soon!

Oh, The Frustrations!

ARG!  I am quite frustrated at the moment, but I won't go into why simply because I don't want to bruise anyone's feelings.  But you have no idea how freaking frustrated I am right now.
 
I was cleaning my room today (because I wanted to and it's something I occasionally enjoy) and while I was in my closet I found something that I had been searching for for over a year.  It was just my class pictures from elementary, but it was a nice discovery.  I also found some money that I had forgotten about... coins but still money.  My room might actually be considered messier than before, but, as is the tendency, things will get worse before they get better.
 
It is hot... very hot.  I looked up the weather for camp, and it said the temperature would be in the low 80's.  It's not what I was hoping for (70's) but it's better than it could be.

Scottie Got A Haircut

I did not forget to go to jazz band this morning.  After only 5 hours of sleep, I got up and went to jazz band.  It was fun even though Ross wasn't there.  It gave us third and fourth trumpets some room to shine... or suck.  Evil Ways was fun.  Hep Cat Jive is really easy and so I had fun blasting out on that one.  Children of Sanchez made me happy with its first 10 measures.  Thankfully, we did not play the one song... I'm not sure what the title is, but it doesn't really matter.  It's all good.
 
Vanessa and I talked again last night for 5 hours.  Her house sounds cool.  We spent most of the time reading old journals and remembering old times.  It's really quite fun to read old journals, diaries, and blogs.
 
After jazz band this morning, Ben and I went to Ryan's.  They played Halo and I watched.  It was actually pretty entertaining.  I got to fill in for Ryan at one point, and I was doing ok until the truck we were in flipped and I had to start walking.  Somehow I ended up throwing a grenade at Ben and that's when they thought it would be a good idea for Ryan to take over once again.
 
Later we dropped Ben off at Jim's and then Scottie and I went for a drive.  I love driving.  I thought about taking my usual route, but that would be kind of boring so we found some scenic roads and drove around all over the place.  If gas wasn't so expensive I would've kept going, but sadly it is quite expensive.
 
I'm eating supper/dinner right now.  I call it supper but others call it dinner.  Dinner to me was always something like a big Sunday afternoon meal.  Supper was always the last meal of the day in the evening.  Whatever works for you, I suppose.

Jerry Holmes, Picture Frames, and Pain-Killers

Last night I talked on the phone with Vanessa for 5 hours... seriously.  As soon as I figured out who it was, I knew the conversation would be long unless she was only calling for a specific reason.  Sometimes during the school year our phone conversations would go on and on and I'd have to end it sometime before midnight because I wanted sleep, but not now.  When I realized it was Vanessa, I vowed to let the conversation last as long as it would because I could now do that without consequences.  We finally ended the conversation around 2:35 a.m.  It's great because we could've kept going without effort.  Our phone conversations are always like that.  We just keep talking and talking about anything and everything and it's all interesting to us... stuff normal people wouldn't usually talk about.  For example, we talked about our toothbrushes for 15 minutes and about flouride and our feelings about going to the dentist for 10 minutes (btw, I hate going to the dentist).
 
Earlier in the day I went to Riverside's sunday school picnic.  It was alright... nothing overly special.  But it was a good thing to throw into my boring monotonous schedule to break it up a little.  Monica's friends were fun.

Oh, my poor head!

My head is in pain.  Headaches suck.
 
Today was interesting... I went to Saginaw with Leslie and Alecia and we checked out the salvation army.  There were no good finds for me today.  I don't really remember all we did... it wasn't much, but it was fun.  The way home was quite interesting.  After leaving Blue Knight, we encountered some dumb/weird people on M-13.  The dumb guys in the red truck didn't know the meaning of "lane" in terms of "pick a lane, buddy!"  The other people, a guy and girl, were just weird and kept giving us weird looks when we would pass them, so one time when we passed them Alecia and I gave them weird looks.  They ended up in front of us again and the red truck idiots were on our left.  The girl in the car mooned us and then like 15 seconds later the guy in the truck "flashed" us, though it could hardly be called that (yeah, thanks for showing us your nasty hairy chest buddy).  So that was fun.  The day ended with Alecia mooning Jared.  I was laughing so hard on 13 that I gave myself a headache.
 
My new Veggie Tales movie is nice.  I watched that a few minutes ago.  But my head hurts and I'm tired and I really don't have much to do on the internet now...

M Go Your Mother!

I am so freaking awesome!  No, not really... I'm just very very excited about my AP scores.  They came in the mail today and even though I already knew what I got, it was nice to see them on paper.  Biology: 4, Chemistry: 5, Calculus AB: 5.  Ahh!... and that's not all!  I checked my U of M email this afternoon because I hadn't checked it in forever, and there was a message about AP scores.  It said if you wanted to see how your scores turned into credits to go to a certain place on the UM website.  So I did and this is what I found out:

***For Biology, with a score of 4 or 5, I get credit for Biology 162, am eligible to enroll in any Biology course with Bio 162 as a prerequisite, and get 5 credits.
***For Chemistry, with a score of 4 or 5, I get credit for Chemistry 125/126 & Chemistry 130, am eligible to elect Chem 210/211, and get 5 credits.
***For Calc, with a score of 4 or 5 (might have been changed to just 5, but that doesn't affect me!), I get credit for Mathematics 120, am eligible for a variety of different math classes, and get 2 credits (I will receive 2 more credits after successful completion of my first semester calc class).

Soooo... that is a total of 12 credits right now and 14 credits after my first semester, plus approximately 15 credits for my first semester.  By December 23, I will have (hopefully) 25% of my required credits for graduation!

ugh

Yesterday was fun until BethAnne felt the need to be crabby and dumb.  So Ross and I left and drove around.  We went back to my house and watched some hot '97 Spring Concert.
 
My mom got home earlier than usual today and that wasn't cool.  She's so annoying.  I try to be gone as much as possible just so I can aviod conflict.  I can't stand my parents most of the time.  They anger me.
 
I don't know what I'm going to do today.  I thought about going shopping but that thought it not very appealing right now.

Watermelon

I hate it when I'm looking for an event that I was sure I had recorded somewhere in one of my journals but can't find it. That happened today. I was looking for my journal entry about the only time I was really yelled at and lectured to by a teacher my senior year... I remembered it but I wanted to read what really happened again. As my luck goes, I had never written about it. I mentioned it once in one journal and once in another but I never went into the detail that I was looking for today. Wow, everything that happened my senior year is so jumbled in my head... it's hard to remember when specific things happened in relation to other things. Yeah, I miss high school.

My Lovely Day

Today I went to St. Vincent's with Alecia. She bought 101 Dalmations for $2 and I bought Good Morning, Vietnam for $1. We watched 101 Dalmations when we got home. On the way home we tried to get lost, but it's hard to get lost around here.

I've started to read The Odyssey. I wanted to read The Iliad first since it comes first, but I don't own that book. Greek literature... oh joy.

Right now I'm looking up used Disney movies on amazon.com. The Return of Jafar used is just 45 cents.

Back in the day

I actually have two blogs. One is on a different website. I've had that blog for almost two years now (1 yr 10.75 mths). On August 20th, that blog will have turned two years old. Wow, they grow up so fast. This blog, on the other hand, I've only had since June 18th. ...some classic posts from my other blog:

-* "Grrr! Tomorrow school starts. Double grrr! I'm trying to look on the up side but I'm having a difficult time finding one. I'll be a junior. Yay... or not. That means only two more years of school but it also means only two more years before I have to decide what to do with my life.

I like 12 Stones. The whole CD rocks, but my favorite songs are Crash, Broken, and The Way I Feel. "And I feel like I'm falling Farther every day But I know that you're there Watching over me And I feel like I'm drowning The waves crashing over me But I know that your love It will set me free" - Crash" 8-25-02


-* "I have a huge bruise on my shin from when I was jumping at the Newsboys concert. My shin hit a chair on the way down. Newsboys rocked. Rock & Roll Worship Circus was ok. On Friday it was warm and rainy but Saturday was freezing." 3-30-03


-* "My word for the day: despondant... I don't know if that's spelled right or not.

So I've been really busy lately. I have AP chem class after school on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:30 - 7:30pm, AP calc class on Wednesdays from 7:30 - 8:30pm and in seminar on Fridays, Bible study on Tuesdays from 7:00 - 9:00pm, "let's do homework" time with my friend on Thursday nights, and I have to march (marching band) on Fridays when there's home games. I barely have time to check my email much less go here. That makes me sad. :( <-- see, I'm sad.

I made the knowledge bowl team! It's kinda bitter-sweet. I got in but Ross (who talked me into trying out) didn't get in. Hmmm... it's sad. But the cool thing is that I got the highest score and was ranked first in the tryouts.

Pillar rocks! They'll be in Battle Creek, MI, for the underground uprising tour! I need to get a UG Army shirt and card. Pillar rocks! Pillar rocks! Pillar rocks!

FCD is next weekend!" 9-12-03


-* "CMU Jazz Festival was today. We did good, but I don't know if we got any awards. It would be cool if we got best band or runner up but I'm almost positive we didn't. I had to get up at 5am this morning. The bus ride there and back was fun.

I don't want to go to college. It's too much work. I'm going to join the circus and sell cotton candy." 2-13-04


That's all for now. I really had nothing to say this morning... maybe later.

I totally slept through jazz band this morning

I woke up for 2 seconds this morning around 9-ish, looked at my clock, and went back to sleep. Then I woke up permanently around 10-ish laid in bed for a little bit, read a chapter or two from my book, and then took a shower around 11. After my shower, I went to my comfortable chair and read some more of my book. At noon I got a PB&J sandwich out of the fridge and went back to my book. After a little but my cat, Smokey, began meowing at the deck door. I looked over my shoulder at her and told her nicely to be quiet. As I was turning my head back to my book, I noticed my trumpet and music sitting in the corner. I thought, "Hmmm, was there something I forgot?" A few minutes later it hit me... it's Tuesday, it's after noon, and I missed jazz band. Grrr. This totally bummed me out. Jazz band is something that breaks up my uneventful weeks and I missed it. Well, there's more. As I later found out, Ryan wanted to call me and see where I was or something, but Ross told him not to. I feel so unwanted and unneeded. And so that was my morning.

Yesterday's bonfire was fun. There's not much to say about it... just a bonfire. Leslie and I had some good discussions. Monica and I had some interesting discussions as well. "It's my Benny-hero!"

Joy and Exultation

Hey, hey, there's the hot new Youth Group message boards that all youth group members should check out! They are rockin. Yes, as the dictator, I was privileged enough to be granted a mod position. I've been a frequentor of message boards for years and years without ever being a moderator. I feel so special, and it's all thanks to Ben.

Youth group bonfire tonight!!! I shall bring the chips. Har har, I am in such a good mood. No one understands how good of a mood I'm in. I just want to through my head back and laugh histerically.

I am currently reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Hmm, I don't know if it will be able to live up to The Count of Monte Cristo. Now, that was a great book. I couldn't put it down.

Pirates of the Caribbean! I am so listening to the soundtrack at this very moment. I know, you're jealous. What can I say? POTC is hot!

To be or not to be annoyed

You know what bothers me? A lot of things do, actually, but some things more than others. One thing that bothers me is people who look at every person of the opposite sex as dating potential or who become obsessive over one person after one meeting because the person is hot. Thank you for being so shallow. Sure, what people prefer is their own business. If you will only like someone for their body, well then go for it. I don't care what you do unless, say, one of my friends get involved, and even then I won't butt in unless I'm asked to. As for me, I do notice when guys are hot but I don't obsess. I'm a firm believer in friendship.

Another thing that bothers me is when people are like "Every religion is equal, no religion is better than the other, no one should look down on any religion... except Christianity because they suck and so I'm going to hate everything that is Christian and be against everything that is associated with Christianity." Hmm, seems like you're going against your own philosophy there buddy. But actually I'm kind of glad that people think that way becuase it enforces what I already believe to be true... that Jesus is the Son of God and he is the only way. The fact that people will dismiss Muslim murderers because they don't represent the true Islam but won't see past the hipocrisy displayed by some Christians is ludicrous. Hipocrites don't represent true Christianity anymore than trees represent the planet Mars. People are not perfect and people, including Christians, will sin. It takes a perfect God to save us, and he did. All one has to do is accept it. But anyway...

It bothers me when people are idiot drivers. I do do idiotic stuff sometimes, and I always feel so bad when I accitdentally or intentionally cut someone off. But when people go 45 when the speed limit is 55 or when they don't use their turn signal (GRRR!) or when they drive down the passing lane of the express way barely going any faster than the other lane forcing me to go 10 MPH slower and follow them for miles and miles (the dumb woman in the black SUV... could you not see that I had been going much faster than you and I was right behind you and I wanted to get around but you were blocking my way?!!!) is just sick and wrong.

By the way, I CAN spell September.

I was going to mow the lawn today but it got cloudy, and now I don't know it I will or not. The whole point of mowing the lawn is to get a tan, and so if it's cold and cloudy, mowing the lawn is not at all enjoyable. This whole dumb summer has been cold and cloudy. Seriuosly people, it's July and there's only been a few days so far where the temperature has been in the 80's. It's 73 degrees now.

Yesterday was fun... the whole day was fun. Usually my days start off slow and then turn fun, but yesterday was fun from the very beginning. First, I woke up, showered, checked the email (of course), and spent some time on all my normal morning activities. Around noon, Ryan showed up because we were going to finish watching Paycheck. The others (Ross, Hannah, and BethAnne)weren't there yet so I started calling. Ross had just gotten up, Hannah wasn't home, and BethAnne showed up as I was calling her. So, it was just Ryan, BethAnne, and me. We finished the movie... it was good. After the movie, Alecia came over and we carpooled to Vanessa's going away party. Vanessa and I have been good friends since 5th grade, so it is sad that she has to leave. The party was fun. We watched the worst movie ever, Camp Blood 2, which I just found out was made in 2000. After that, those of us in summer jazz band had to get ready for our concert. The concert was fun, and aferwards we went to Tawas with the intention of getting coffee at The Legacy but they were closed, so we went to the other coffee place. I got a iced coffee chiller and everyone followed suit. We then went to BethAnne's and hung out in the barn with the barn swing. All in all a fun day.

I got a free book in the mail a day or two ago. It was from the U of M honors college and I'm supposed to read it before September 3rd. Speaking of U of M, here is my schedule for the year:
Septemeber 7 - Classes Begin
October 18,19 - Fall Break
Novemeber 25-28 - Thanksgiving Break
December 14 - Classes End
December 23 - Exams End
January 5 - Classes Begin
February 26 - Spring Break Begins
March 7 - Classes Resume
April 20 - Classes End
April 29 - Exams End
I don't know... it's cool that school only goes from Septemeber through April, but I still wish there was more vacation. It's going to be weird only having classes for 4 months instead of 9 months.

First of all...

let me just say that yesterday was fun... yesterday meaning Wednesday. Today was fun. We took movies back and stopped at The Legacy where I had a delicious coffee chiller. Then I had to go to a dinner so I could receive my scholarship money. It was a bunch of smoking old ladies, but it wasn't bad. Jazz band is hot. Swimming was cold. Paycheck is unfinished.

I don't remember if I said this already today so if I did I'll say it again. I don't like it when I log on to my instant messangers and the little thing pops up saying I have email, getting my hopes up that it will be something good, only to get to my email and see that it is something dumb. That happened today with my yahoo. I logged on to messenger and it said that I had one new message. Now, I had been kinda hoping for a certain email and so naturally I began hoping. I got to my email and all it was was a dumb newsletter thing. Grrr. But it didn't bother me a whole lot because I am beginning to disconnect from things... one being the habit of checking my email 20 times a day. Ha, that's actually why I'm on the internet right now... I had to check my email before I went to bed. I am addicted.

Sometimes, sometimes... the things in my head are hard to put into words.

y tu mama tambien

I have about two strong feelings: neutral and angry. I have other emotions- sad, happy, annoyed, etc.- but those are not usually very strong. I don't know how to explain it. I'm neutral most of the time... not caring what happens, not having anything to say. Maybe that's why I'm so boring. Plus, I don't have a life.

Yesterday, I learned a new word: immutable. I was browsing through a message boards and happened to stumble across it. It had a different meaning than I expected from just looking at it. What do you think it means?

Immutable - not capable of or susceptible to change

Yesterday I was hanging out with Alecia. She showed up, unexpected, at my house around noonish. We went to Tawas to rent movies and go to Dairy Queen. Later in the day, we went with Ross to Bay City for a concert thing.

Sometimes one feels like a jerk, not because one did anything wrong or unwanted, but because others do not know all the details and perceives one as a jerk. For example, in a matter where my friend was more concerned than I was, I had to comply with my friend's wishes. This perhaps made me look like a jerk to those on the other end of the situation to whom I was being somewhat unreasonable. My friend, knowing all the details, asked me to do what I did because my friend did not want to get anymore involved at that point. And so to those who were incapable of seeing the whole picture, I seemed like a jerk.

Why does life suck?

I hate it when I'm an idiot. My day was going fine... not great but it wasn't bad... and then I had to be retarded. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, as it happens so often, but it still always seems to get to me. It makes me angry, makes me want to use explitives. Now, for those who aren't familiar with me, I don't like to swear... actually, it's more like I don't want to swear. I find it needless and unbecoming. But sometimes I'm around it so much that it appears in my thoughts and in my mouth, and when I get angry it's even harder to supress because then I feel that my words need emphasis. But, anyway, I was angry with myself today.

I called U of M again today because I needed to change the time of one of my classes and I needed an override to do that. They're forcing me to read a book called The Elements of Style. It's all about writing and grammar and stuff like that. I suppose it would be useful to refer to while writing papers, but it's not very entertaining reading.

Pride and Prejudice is a good book. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy got married. I like reading books just for the sake of reading them.

I don't like titles

I woke up this morning and my stomach hurt really bad. It was quite annoying because I didn't know what was causing it. I've experienced it before, and I think it might be a pulled muscle in my abdomen or something because I have felt this pain other times after stretching in the morning.

Michael Moore movies seem to be popular at U of M. At an honors lunch, one guy who had graduated from UM asked what we thought of Fahrenheit 9/11. The overwhelming opinion confirmed my own suspicions. As much as Moore says he is telling it like it is, in the end it is just liberal propaganda. Now I know that other people, very different from myself in their beliefs and values, agree with my on this. No matter what one believes, no matter which side one is on, you shouldn't accept things blindly that come from mankind. Humans are deceitful and self-serving and will twist truth to better serve their purpose. I'm not saying everyone is like this all the time, but, since humans are imperfect, it is probable that they will do this throughout their life, and so there is absolutely no guarentee that what is placed before you is unbiased truth.

A Good Day

Today I found out my scores on the AP tests. It was all a very long process. First, I was talking to Andrew on the internet and he mentioned that he knew his scores. Then I thought, "Hmmm, I could call when my mom gets home and use her credit card or I could wait until they mail me my scores. Hmmm. It would be kinda fun to wait. Maybe I'll wait." As soon as I got off the internet (and I'm talking quick... I didn't even get a paragraph into the book I was reading) the phone rang. Very surprisingly, it was my calc teacher asking what I got on my AP tests. Since I did not know my scores and couldn't find out without a credit card, he offered to call for me as long as I told him my social security number. A few minutes later he called back... and demanded I tell him my birthday. When he called back the second time, the conversation went something like this:
"What did I get?"
"On what?"
"My AP tests!"
"Which one?"
"All of them!"
"Which one do you want to know first?"
"I don't care; just tell me!"
"Which one do you want to know?"
"JUST TELL ME ALL OF THEM! Did I do bad?"
"You got a 5."
"On which one?"
"Which one do you want to know?"
(sigh)"Tell me the chem..." and then I found out what I got. Chem: 5, Calc: 5, Bio: 4. I was so surprised about the Bio. I actually passed it. I was expecting a 3 at the highest.

Some of us went bowling tonight... Me, Alecia, Ryan, Ronnie, Randy, AJ, Chad, Angie... Afterwards, some of us went to Kev and Jen's for a bonfire... Me, Ross, BethAnne, Alecia, Ronnie, Randy... My day was good.