Leaving in a Mazda.

I'm home, if only for a moment. I just got back from youth conference and i'm a little overwhelmed by the enormity of the task that stands between me and the rest of my vacation: Packing up all my stuff. So instead i'm going to take a break for a bit and post on my sadly neglected blog.


Youth Conference was amazing. Like really really awesome, it makes me wish i were going to byu in some ways, which i imagine being similar to four years of youth conference. I think i made the right choice with the U, but being in a big Mormon bubble is actually pretty comforting from time to time. Also, i see now a bit more how easy it is to go away for a weekend and realize what you really want in life is different from what you imagined it was, even without brainwashing. We had some good lessons about dating, a topic i wrote about extensively in my real journal, but one that i'll probably save for a later date (ew, accidental pun). We also had an interesting little lesson about Hazardous Materials, i.e. drugs, alcohol, caffeine (which, by the way, is another example of the uselessness of the i before e rule, especially when not modified to fit neighbor and weird, but i digress) which isn't really a problem for me, but i learned a couple things none the less. We also had a great discussion with Brother Thordinson (who's name i can only half remember, i know it starts with Thor, cus that's awesome) who reminds me distinctly of Bill Murray in What About Bob, he's funny. He talked about who we are, and all that stuff, which is always good. Lets see, that night we had a dance, it was actually the second dance, but the first one isn't really worth talking about. The second one is worth talking about for a couple reasons, mostly because it was my last youth dance. There may or may not be more to talk about later, right now i'll just say it was a fun last dance, and i'm glad it, instead of others i've had, was my last. Anyway, moving on, we also did a service project on friday, where we made care packages for soldiers in Iraq, and wrote letters. I decided it would be weak to write it in a way that suggested i support the Iraq war, but i think i made a pretty decent letter. It's kinda wack, cus we're giving them tiny bits of candy. I'm sure soldiers are grateful for what they get, but i dunno, it seemed pretty cheap. So whatever. That night we had our keynote speaker, which was really really cool.

Mario Facione, an ex-mafia member and current member of the church from michigan. He's an awesome guy. I dunno, it's hard to describe how cool that was, but he had a great life story, and a great humor about him. Also, anytime he described any conversation or discussion he had i couldn't help but thinking about how the mafia would discuss something. And he had a sweet italian/Michiganite accent, so that was cool.

Saturday we packed up, had a good little Q and A type thing on church, social, and personal issues. Then we had our Testimony meeting, which was really good. And then we watched a cheesey but good movie that they had made about youth conference. All around it was definitely one of the best youth conferences i've been to, maybe even better than Nauvoo, although the food was lacking, and the game room was closed. I have no complaints, it was definitely the best way i could have spent 3 days.

So! despite the title, my bags are not yet packed, and i am far from ready to go. So i'm gonna go work on that....i guess, man, it's crazy. Oh well, more on that later too. My computer needs to get put up, along with the majority of my clothing and belongings. So adieu, adieu, until i next get my hands on a computer (which may be quite a while)

There must be some way out of here...

Man, time is moving way too fast. My parents will be officially living down at the coast next week, and i'll be up comparatively alone. Quite a bit has been going on recently. Last night i had my eagle awards ceremony, and that was really nice. Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Polanski came, which was very nice, and a bunch of other people. Lots of people said really nice things about me, which is always nice and a little awkward. Good refreshments, and the Eagle medal is really cool. So that was good, eventually there will be pictures, but i think my dad took the camera with him back to the coast. Right after the eagle ceremony (Which was at my church) i had a good interview with President James. This morning while cleaning my room, i shoved a For the Strength of Youth packet into my wallet (which is now big enough to hold it), and i realized that i'm only going to be a youth for another couple weeks.

Saturday i had work all day, but in between i went swimming and ate lunch, so it felt like a pretty cool day. Also a whole mess of people got yelled at, and i wasn't among them, so that made me feel good for some reason. Then i got off work early, which made me feel good for a very understandable reason.

Friday was a pretty action packed day, i had to tear apart my room to decide whether to keep or give away all my stuff for the yard sale saturday morning. Then i went to oceans 13, which was a good movie, but not a great one. I actually liked 12 more, just because it was a little more twisty, while this one was almost completely straight forward. Neither of them are anywhere near as good as the first, which is too bad. It's really the stories that are lacking, the sequals just don't have the best plots.

After the movie i spent some more time making my room really messy, and then i went to a little mini prom thing theresa was having at her church. That was pretty fun, very much a church dance, but i met some cool people, and slow danced, and had fondue.

I left early from that and went to spencer's party, which was also fun, and i played games, and video games, and ate some food, and some cake, and realized i ought to have bought i birthday present, but hadn't. So now that's on my list of things to do, along with a few other presents.

The rest of last week i've been working and hanging out, if i remember correctly. I think that's about all that's been going on.

~The Joker (or the thief)

"It's my blog...it's kinda a big deal"

I've been bad about updating consistantly, but, in my defense, a lot has been going on lately. I graduated. That's pretty monumental i guess. It doesn't really feel monumental, i hope other big milestones in my life are less anticlimactic. Despite what people say, i haven't been building up to graduation for 4 years of my life, i've been building up to college, and being out of high school. Being out of high school is not at all dissapointing, and is every bit as independent and enjoyable as i had hoped. Thus far, it's been significantly less productive, and i still haven't gotten in the habit of working out. My New Month's resolution is to start monday working out consistantly and keep going through the entire month of june. I'm going to swim too, so that i'll be in shape for backpacking.

I went shopping today, completely on my own. It sounds kinda stupid, but it's the first time i've gone shopping completely independently for a long time, probably since the cambridge years. Usually i'll at least have to ask to borrow the car, and or clear some spending with the parentals, but today i just up and went after cashing my check, and then went to work.

I bought some sandals, some shorts, and some khakis from target, and i'm pretty happy with them. The sandals are, in truth, more of water shoes, but i like the way they look and this can be fodder for some new nick name. I also need to buy some new running/hiking shoes, but those are expensive, so i'm going to shop around some.

I got another Wii remote on wednesday night for a graduation present, which is pretty awesome. Now we can play 2 player boxing and tennis and baseball on the wii. And i downloaded Starfox 64 and Mariokart 64 for the Wii. I think i wasn't supposed to let logan know, but whatever.

Lets see...in other news i'm working a lot. That's taking away all my hang out time, so i'm having to be creative with my fun times, like in the mornings, or the middle of the night. Yesterday michael and spencer hung out at my house and we played video games and watched a movie until around 5am. That was a bad plan, i was sleepy this morning, and though it was mostly okay, spencer missed his grandparents leaving, i feel bad about that, I really failed at being woken up by my alarm. I don't even remember it at all, at some point i managed to turn it off without waking up. So that's something.

I think that's all that's been going on right now. I got payed today, so i have almost enough money to completely pay off the parents. That's pretty fun. Oh, we now have a house rented down in biloxi. I say we, i really mean they. I'm never really going to live in it, which is weird. But because of that i have to pack up all my stuff and be pretty much packed for college sometime in the middle of june, apparently i'm living pretty much on my own for the second half of june, which is going to be a little weird, probably some fun, hopefully i'll stay productive. We'll see. I think that's all the news from the Ammon front. Stay tunes for the next exciting installment of Ammons blog.