"One part ice cream, two parts awesome! "

Wow, it has been nearly two weeks since i wrote anything. Now there's only five weeks between me and the next two years of my life.

I went to jackson over the weekend, and it was pretty great. I actually managed to see everyone, if only for a few minutes. Friday night i drove up to jackson. It was a pretty nice drive, nothing crazy, not like the drive home, but i'm getting ahead of myself. I had this genius plan to call in a take-out order with a fake voice (under the name Dr. Payne) and give johnny all sorts of hard times, but then my phone died on the way up. That also meant i couldn't call ahead and figure out what was what, but luckily everyone in the known universe works at Sal and Mookie's now, so I headed there first. I talked to caitlin and johnny for a bit and found out that everybody was over at Jerusalem Cafe, so i went over there and got to hang out with a bunch of people for a while. After that we went over to the McCrazies house, for a weird party with a bunch of high schoolers. It ended up with all the people over 18 hanging out on the steps where it was cool and mature or something, so that was fun. After that we hung out at emmett's for a while while johnny and emmett decided what their tattoos were going to look like.

The next day I had planned to set up ultimate, and it looked promising, the McIntyre's were in, as were kyle, mcnally, spencer, michael, me, maybe ian, and whoever else happened to show up. Unfortunately, i was the only one who showed up, but i ran into Mrs. Van Uden at the park, and talked to her for a while, so that was way cool. After that i bought a tooth brush (i had left mine in biloxi and was feeling pretty gross) and some breakfast and found McNally and tried to figure out what to do. We ended up going to Sal and Mookie's for a while and then met up with Johnny, Caitlin, and Emmett and headed downtown to where Emmett was getting his tattoo. From the outside, the place looked like a good place to get shot, but inside it was pretty urban and awesome. Hopefully jackson's downtown can keep getting hip businesses where old rundown buildings are so that downtown isn't just a place to go to work and/or get mugged.

Somehow, i ended up responsible for giving emmett a ride home, and apparently when a tattoo artist says 45 minutes, what he really means is two and a half hours. So that was sort of frustrating. After that though we did...something. I think maybe we went to spencer's house and played video games. We also watched Michael Phelps be incredibly awesome, so that was pretty impressive. After that we played some more video games and went to sleep.

Sunday, i went to church in madison, that was way cool. I got to see a whole bunch of people i haven't seen in a long long time. After that i went to caitlin's and ate lunch and eventually johnny came over and watched psych. Then we went and had birthday festivities at Johnny's house, they got presents and we got cake and dinner courtesy of the Breauxs. (i've never pluralized breaux before, it looks wrong) Then we went back to caitlin's and hung out for a while and i learned how to open a butterfly knife awesomely, but then the awesome was too much for it and screws started coming loose, so i had to stop. I watched mythbusters and actually managed to get an indecent amount of sleep, having gotten around 5 hours the last two nights. Monday was my last day in town, so after sleeping in until noon, i got some breakfast and i then went to Murrah to visit teachers. I ran into melissa on her way out of murrah, so that was cool. I saw Ms' Williams, D, Lamb, and Van Uden. Ms. Brierly was out on maternity leave, so i didn't get to talk to her, but i think it was still a pretty good run. Michael and Spencer met up with me at murrah, and then we went to his house for a while and then met up with a bunch of people at Kiefer's. That was pretty delicious. Then we went to Emmett's and partied the night away. It being my last night, i had to say goodbye to people every time they left, it was sad. We took a bunch of pictures though, and had generally good times. I slept at emmett's that night, and headed out the next morning, today, saying Adeus to Spencer on my way out.

All in all it was a pretty great Jackson Trip. The drive home was probably one of the more exciting drives of my life. The first half was pretty smooth, i made great time (which is always tricky on 49). At some point i got stuck behind a truck carrying these giant bridge looking things. It was taking up both lanes completely, and the escort guys were going a terrible job. The truck was just small enough that it would probably be possible to get around it if you went on the shoulder just a little, and it was driving sort of to the right so this little suv kept trying to get around it but the little escort car kept cutting him off. Had the truck just driven in the middle of the road it wouldn't have been a problem. So i had been stuck behind this truck for about five minutes, but we were cruising along in the upper sixties, so i wasn't too upset, when suddenly the truck just plowed through a sign on the side of the road. It wasn't like a mile marker sign either, this was a substantial, six foot wide sign with two bars behind it, but it was completely destroyed. So at that point i lost a lot of respect for this guy who before was just doing his job, but now was doing his job really badly and if things had gone a little differently could have caused a pretty serious collision. Anyway, eventually the lanes widened a little and we got a better shoulder and i managed to squeeze by him (which seemed a little dangerous and is the sort of the escort guy is there to prevent from happening, but after he blew up a sign, i decided i was getting far away from him.)

Things smoothened out for a while, but then it got really rainy, and i experienced my first high-speed hydroplaning. That was exciting. I started drifting off the road as the road was turning a little and completely covered in water. But like a good driver a eased off the gas and steered very gently. Happily i didn't run off the road, and i got back to biloxi without any further incident, so that was cool.

So yeah, all in all, a good trip to jackson. I think this entry is long enough without any further comments.

~Something clever

My mom is getting satelite, the apocolypse is come.

Today I got my passport. As such, i can, and must, now be referred to as intrepid. It is cool though, and it makes me feel awesome and global and all that stuff. I've never actually seen a passport before, except in movies, so they've got this aura in my mind similar to that of hovercraft and laser cats.

So yesterday i got back from my extreme utah adventure, and i must say it was pretty fun. The drive out was one of the most pleasant 30 hour drives i've experienced, not the most fun, but probably the smoothest and one of the more comfortable ones. So anyway, we got into salt lake saturday night and stayed at cami's. Somehow, i managed to convince my mom to let me stay in salt lake for a few days, so that was fun. I guess i've talked a bit about that already, but yeah, it was cool.

After my independent friend time ended, the family time started up in full force. Tuesday i picked up my dad and we grabbed some lunch at Hires (which is great by the way, and i plan to start eating there often when i get back to town) and then went to Mr. Mac for some suits. I am now the proud owner of two suits, as well as a whole bunch of shirts, pants, and even some new shoes and socks. We got a sweet insider deal on account of knowing Mrs. Mac's mom, so that was cool. Saving large quantities of money is always fun. After that we drove up to cache valley. The days sort of blend together, but here's the gist of what i did:

Ate dinner with some family and my cousin tyson, who just got back from a mission. Played games with the vail side of the family, including a pretty extensive game of werewolf. Went on a hike up to and past white pine with my dad. That was pretty awesome, and was another instace of the worst possible time to not have my camera. Anyway, cool stuff. Swam a little bit in Tony Grove. That covers everything before the reunion i think.

The reunion was pretty fun. The first day was not great, a lot of people were gone, and the bird refuge was weak. The rocket garden thing was pretty sweet though. I saw promontory point for the first time in my life, and probably one of the last times. The next day we went up to Heber for the Reunion camp. That was pretty cool. It was a girl's camp most of the time, so lots of things that make a lot of sense for girls camp really suck for normal camp. But whatevs, that night we played some more mafia, and the next day we went on a hike and did this climbing thing, that was pretty often, and just a little scary. After that we did those object lesson games they always do at youth conference and stuff.

Lets see, then we drove back, and the next day we we went to Tyson's homecoming thing, and then went to the lions lodge for a dinner deal thing. Then we went back to lisa's for another family dinner, after which we played yet more werewolf. Then we had a talent show thing, which was nice. I played a crappy rendition of Claire de lune, on account of not having practiced in a rather long time, but it was ok.

That night we drove back to cami's and headed off at around 10 the next morning. the drive back was ok, it was kind of hard, but we eventually made it back. So now i'm here. There'll be pictures once i manage to work out this uploading thing, or when i get my computer back in action. I dunno how well the uploading directly off SD card works.

Ciao.

Forsooooooth

I generally don't post videos and the like, but this is probably one of the funniest things i've seen all day, and having been to the dentist and walked around salt lake for a while, that set's the bar extremely high.



So other than that, i'm sort of wandering around, my day's being rather slow with everbody busy, and my nights taken up with reunions and such, i'm having to finagle ways to spend time with friends. My biggest challenge is going to be finding a way to be in salt lake wednesday night to go bowling, but i think i may have figured out a way to make that work. We shall see.

~Who

Glitter is the Herpes of Craft Supplies; Sand is the Glitter of the Earth

I'm posting really a lot lately, but i figure i won't post much for the next two weeks, so it's alright. By the way, two weeks from now i'll be walking out of The Dark Knight fully satisfied and with a renewed man-crush on Christian Bale. Seriously though, isn't he just the coolest? i digress.

Tomorrow, or rather, in 4 hours, we're supposedly leaving for Utah. Realistically it'll be lucky if we leave before noon, but my goal is to be completely ready for 6 so that i can sleep in the car. The hours of 5-10 aren't something i generally experience these days, and i anticipate it will be painful.

Today i mowed the lawn, nearly ruining the lawn mower in the process. No one has ever explained to me the vital importance of not-over filling the oil, or how easy it is to do this. Anyway, forty-five minutes of siphoning and adding new oil later, the lawn mower was running great and finished the lawn with flying colors, mostly green.

I went to Institute which was alright, and then tried to go to some rope swing in D'Iberville, but there ended up being a mess, a gaggle if you will, of trashed teenagers, which took away from the awesome just a little. We spent a lot of time driving around and ended up at the beech, which was boring because the beeches here blow. Then we went to Denny's, which never disappoints. Brinner is the best.

Reading through the first half of my journal last night (which covers essentially all of 11th and 12th grade) was more than a little depressing. I'm glad i've matured a little since back then. Hopefully my 19 year old self won't be as much of an embarrassment to my 22 year old self as my 16 year old self is to me.

So now i'm waiting for my laundry to finish. I still have 1.5 runs in the dryer to get through before i can finish packing, so i figure i'll start on that and be ready for my clothes when they're done. I've got an exciting 3 days of driving ahead of me, and on Sunday i'll be in Utah. Hoorah.

In case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.

Oh, P.S.- Happy Birthday USA. Just because I'm super excited about leaving you for two years, and have toyed with the idea of just leaving forever because of how screwed up people have made you, doesn't mean i love you any less. The last eight years were hard and a little embarrassing for me as well, but now that we're out of that awkward stage, we can learn from our mistakes and move forward, make new friends keep our best friends around, and find our place in the world. Happy 232nd, and many more.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!

So, i'm in jackson. I've actually been here since friday, but being without a house or a large amount of spare time, blogging hasn't been my main priority, but i figure i could update while i'm waiting for spencer to drag himself out of bed.

This jackson trip has been quite a bit more fun. The drive up was nice, although i got a gnarly sun burn on my left arm, including a nice t-shirt line and a stripe where my wristband was. Friday i came in and, after running some errands, swung by Sal and Mookie's and got to see a whole bunch of people who I'd worked with, and a lot of new people that i haven't. After that i went over to spencer's and hung out for a few hours, and then went over to Emmett's for a party where i saw lots of other people i hadn't seen for a long time, so that was fun.

Saturday i got up pretty late, on account of the party, and then...did...something. It was awesome. Oh right, we went bowling eventually, and that was way fun. I ended up bowling six games, one of which i did pretty good, but that was the one i was really trying, so that's all that counts. That night i slept at caitlin's, and had planned to watch Doctor Who that night, but i realized at 2 a.m. if i wanted to wake up for church i should probably get some sleep.

Sunday i went to church in jackson, and that was cool, lots more people i hadn't seen in a while. After that i went back to spencer's and ate lunch/breakfast, and then we watched Doctor Who, which was cool, although not one of my favorites. It was a little more dramatic and less witty than some of them, but i'm ok with plot development. That night we played risk which, despite some unpleasantnesses, was pretty fun.

Monday we went to the lake, and that was cool. We swam/floated across to the lake house again, and hung out there for a while. At some point this old lady wanted to kick us out. After that, and some confusion, we got papa john's and watched TV at caitlin's until it was bed time.

So now it's today. I'm thinking i need to talk to Melissa and Hunter before i go back to the coast, so i think i might go to Broad St, because that stuff's delicious.

Challah back.

Leaving on a jet plane

Real quick because i need sleep. I'm supposed to wake up to fly back to utah in 2 hours, i hardly see the point in that little sleep, but at least it'll differentiate today from tomorrow, which looks to be a wicked hectic day. I fly out at 6, and classes start at 10:45.

Now that i'm actually leaving i'm kinda sad to go, more than i was the first time. But then last summer was weird, i barely saw any of my family and i was off to new and exciting things. This time i saw almost nothing but my family and i'm off to old but still relatively exciting things. Either way, saying goodbye to isaac was sad, he's by far my favorite little brother.

Today was a nice last day, i had church and then had my dad make some really good asian noodley stuff, and then we played some games and i got packed and so forth. I finished Katie's gift, and it's awesome. There are pictures, but i'm not going to upload them for a few days, thereby maintaining the surprise. Hopefully katie will post some pictures when she gets it. Now all my presents lie in the more than adequate postal abilities of my mom.

So that's all for now, i suppose i'm going to meet my new roommate today, that'll be exciting. I was pretty amped about having my own room, so i've been thinking of ways to get him to leave. He's asian, and i wonder how he would respond to me playing the typical asian music on my keyboard everytime he walks in...or just use the gong sound. I think that would actually be pretty hilarious, and if he thought it was funny, i'd know he was a keeper, and if not, then i'd have 200ish glorious square feet of room to myself...anyway, i guess i'll take what little sleep i'm offered. I've never been one to sleep on airplanes or in cars, so i'll probably take a nice nap in the afternoon tomorrow. So that's it, signing off from Mississippi.

~Sister Susie Sittin' On a Thistle
(for some reason this song is stuck in my head, which makes no sense, other than that it sort of reminds me of the Oscar Mayer Weiner song, which was stuck in my head moments ago.)

In case of emergency, spend all day in bed.

I just realized it was saturday, that was kinda disappointing. I've discovered that my pain medicine makes me sleepy. This isn't all that suprising, since it says right on the botle that it may cause drowsiness, but this is the first medicine that's made me drowsy. Niquil and Benadryl, while difficult to spell, don't really do anything for me, so this feeling of just wanting to lounge around all day and read lemony snickett is novel.

I have been occasionally productive though. I made another camera case, since my first one was lost and then slept on, and then i improved it to make a pocket for my little felt screen cleaner. I've taken copious amounts of photos, and made a time lapse of a settlers of catan game, and realized that a time lapse of risk would be rad, and decided to do that some day. Yesterday i spent a few hours working on my made gift, which required bamboo, a guitar, and a power saw, so now that's almost done.

Other than that days have been pretty slow filled with games and planet earth. I guess i'm going back up to jackson in a couple days for new years, so that'll be a party. Hopefully the package of stuff for friends will have come in by then, or else i'm going to have to mail it or something, and that'd be weak.

salut

Christmas!

Christmas has once again come and gone, and twas pretty awesome. I got a Digital Camera and a printer, both are pretty high quality. I also got a game and some clothes and 20 bucks, so not the greatest catch as far as quantity, but i'm vvery happy with it. I just made the obligatory case out duck tape and felt, which is pretty good considering i did it entirely on my own.

So, pictures!


Isaac got some lego, and he's been pretty happy about that. He also got a bike, but he doesn't know how to ride one yet, so i think he's more happy about the lego.



the parents got Dread Pirate, which we played. It's very fun, and the board is awesome. The map is on this canvas type thing, and the dubloons are actually made of medal.



Isaac also got Operation, which he wasn't too happy about at first, but it caught on eventually. It provided a good subject for playing with the macro setting on my camera.

Today has been pretty chill, we had breakfast and have played games and i've spent most of the day fiddling with the camera. Now we're watching planet earth and waiting for my mom to finish this math crossword thing.

Tomorrow i get my wisdom teeth out, that'll be an adventure. So hopefully the anesthesia won't kill me, because that would be a dissapointing way to die. There was a pretty sketchy defibulator in the office when i got my oral exam. Anyway, that's about all for today. Happy Christmas everybody.

Marley was dead, to begin with.

Hm. Charles Dickens ends a sentence with a preposition.

I want to post my 100th blog entry on new years or new years eve or something, because i think having a round 100 posts for 2007 would be nice. Therfore, i need to post some 5 times in the next week, and so off i go.

When last we left our intrepid hero, he was just getting into biloxi. I spent that weekend with the family, enjoying good food, hanging out with isaac, watching movies, and playing games, all sorts. On monday i went to an Oral Surgeon and set up an appointment to have my wisdom teeth taken out, on this coming wednesday. After that i drove up to jackson and went to a Sal and Mookies party and hung out with caitlin and josh and johnny and meghan, so that was all kinds of an adventure. I slept at Caitlin's that night, since her brother was out of town I had a fairly large room and a bed to myself, so that was cool.

Tuesday i had a dentist appointment, but i watched starwars 5 for a while before that. Yoda is funny as ever. The dentist was about as enjoyable as any experience that involves sharp medal and teeth. I found out i have a cavity in the Widsom tooth i'm keeping, so that's going to have to get taken care of at some point, i guess now i have motivation to find a dentist up in SLC.

otherwise tuesday was pretty chill, i went down to johnny's and got dinner with him, terri, and andrew, on Terri's dime. After that i played a lot of World of Warcraft and didn't go to Emmett's. I thought about it, but ended up staying at johnny's that night. Wednesday i played a bit more world of warcraft and then we went up to caitlin's and did some more hanging out, and i saw michael in all his long haired glory. Roberta was there too, so that was cool. Blow guns are pretty fun.

Lets see...thursday was nice, i stayed at caitlin's again on wednesday and we made brownies. There were originally plans to watch the lord of the rings extended editions, but that fell through. We drove to Cups eventually to drop kyle off, and ended up staying there for a while because Emmett and Tyler were there, so we hung out with them for quite some time. Then we went to spencer's and played guitar hero, which was way fun. Oh, and i saw kirk and michael and, obviously, spencer. I slept at spencer's and played lots of Super mario Galaxy that night, which is a very fun game.

I realized that night that in a perfect world, or at least the ideal life i imagine myself having someday, video games aren't present. I like playing video games, but mostly either as a social event or as a way to pass the time. There are usually many things that i would rather be doing than playing video games.

Anyway, friday was my last full day in down, and it was alright. We got up late and then went to see I Am Legend, which i liked. It's gotten some criticism for the ending, but i can't think of an ending i would like more, i think it's just in that awkward region between sappy and awful, where you find sad but somewhat hopeful. Anyway, i enjoyed it, certainly not the best movie i've even seen, but fully worth the 5ish dollars. Plus we saw Mr. Chris Cambell at the movies and talked for a while and one thing led to another and i got a Sweeney Todd poster, so that's awesome. I'm not sure if i'm going to be able to get it back to Utah, but we can only hope. I feel kinda weird because although Sweeney Todd is a movie i really think is intereseting, i'm not going to see it for as long as i am living under this decision to not watch rated R movies, so it seems almost phoney to have a massive poster of it up in my room...oh well.

after the movie we went back to spencer's and ate dinner. Michael left and a little bit later Roberta came and we played Risk, so that was fun. I lost early due to some terrible luck and poor circumstances. Spencer won late, which made me happy, because Spencer has had more than his fair share of unreasonably poor luck in Risk, and it's resulted in me beating him at least twice.

Saturday i woke up and went a-hunting for Bamboo with spencer for a gift i'm making, since Bamboo doesn't grow in Biloxi as far as i've seen. After that i drove back, and got back into biloxi around 6, at which point i started practicing feverishly for an accompaniment gig i had agreed to do today, which went as well as i could have hoped. Overall the trip to jackson was pretty good, i didn't see everybody i wanted to, i didn't get in touch with hunter at all, which was unfortunate, but i forgot my charger in biloxi so i was living mostly without a phone. I'm planning on going up around new years and hopefully i'll see him and get ultimate going like i had planned.

It's really starting to feel like christmas, we made cookies today, andt here are presents under the tree. I don't have any idea what i'll be getting for christmas, but hopefully it'll be rockin'. I've gotten presents for roughly three of my friends, and i'm pretty stoked about all of them. I need to think of presents for the rest of my friends, and i'm slightly limited by the fact that i have all of 10 dollars to my name, so it looks like a trip to the dollar store. If you get a present from the dollar store, don't take it as an insult, think of it as 10 percent of my financial worth.

~The Ghost of Christmas Presents

No Crocodiles, or Rhinoceroseses

So i'm home. Now that i'm actually in the house in biloxi, it does feel pretty homey. There's a christmas tree, and my old computer chair (which is still mad comfortable) and family, and catan, and all kinds of cool things. My mom made me tortellini for dinner, which was delicious, probably the best meal i've had in months.

The flight was pretty great, i got there 2 hours early which meant i had to sit for around 2 hours with nothing much to do. I wrote a bit in my journal and watched CNN. I'm not a big fan of CNN. The fact that they give the news all day long means that unless there's a steady flow of interesting news, the majority of the day is news about which i don't care.

Like coffee preferences among the presidential candidates. Why in the world would i care how they like their coffee? btw, clinton sometimes drinks black and sometimes goes with the cream. Obviously she is indecisive and a poor leader.

Eventually the flight got moving and i had a whole 2 seats to myself. My window was pretty shoddy, but i'm glad there was enough room that i didn't have to sit next to random Jack Daniels drinker who was originally going to be in 7C. I mean he was a nice enough guy, but i enjoyed having a bit of space. I almost fell asleep, but that didn't quite happen, so instead i played solitaire on my iPod and managed to lose several times. When it finally looked like i was going to win we were landing so they told me to turn it off. I actually just remembered so i pulled it out and it was still on it but i pressed menu which restarted it. That was a little disappointing.

Oh, so most amazing coincidence. As i was walking on to the plane, what should my iPod randomly shuffle to but John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane." The odds of that were like 1 in 3000. If my iPod's battery didn't just die i could tell you exactly what the odds are, but regardless, it was pretty cool.

I want to compile a full list of the things i want, but i still don't really know. I have gradually thought of more things that i need/want.

The originals still hold, i definitely want a Digital Camera, and i hope that happens, but i'd survive not having it for christmas. That's actually true of most of the gifts i want, they aren't really things i want now, just things i want between now and next year. Anyway, a few new things:

Cool posters, my walls are rather bare. Something by Escher would be awesome, also bands that i like, bands that i don't like, good movies, bad movies, sports, really just any poster that you think i might like would be great. I need to make my walls more interesting.

Music is always awesome, I love being introduced to new music. Burned cd's are probably the best cheap present in the world because they're almost free but are made with love...and piracy. And who doesn't love pirates?

As far as video games, i dunno. I need to play mario galaxy, but i think that might be a game i could rent, beat, and move on with my life.

Clothes and stuff are great. I like having new clothes, but there are only a few people i know that i trust to buy real clothes for me, but clever t-shirts and hoodies are much appreciated. Hoodies especially, it's wicked cold in utah (not so much here. My first thought as i got off the plane, even before, "New Orleans smells bad" was, "man it's warm here". Biloxi actually feels pretty nice, pretty cool and not too humid).

Candy is cool, but candy doesn't last very long, and half the fun of presents for me is the fact that i always remember where they came from. So everlasting gobstoppers are great, not those cheap ones that you find in the grocery store. I'm talking about the stuff straight from Wonka's shop. That stuff is quality.

Books are good, but barring a few amazing books, i can just borrow a book and give it back and i'll get pretty much the same effect.

And any other cool stuff is probably safe. Some of my favorite gifts have been absolutely random stuff, just because of the memories they have. A good rule of thumb is if you want someting for yourself, i'll love it, unless you want something that i obviously wouldn't want (like girls clothing) or you want to punch me in the face; i will not love that.

Well, it's getting late even by college in mountain time standards, and i have a full day of being on vacation to prepare for, so adieu, adieu, parting is such sweet sorrow.

~Sister Susie sittin' on a thistle.

P.S., just because this is awesome, years ago i really wanted a rhinoceros for christmas, and so my mom wrote me a poem, reminiscent of Shel Silverstein's stuff, about wanting a rhino for christmas.

times like these

So i'm in somewhat of a melancholy mood at the moment, and i decided that listening to Coldplay wasn't helping, so now we're seeing what Jack Johnson can do. Jack Johnson is generally a good way to feel happy.

So yeah, life these days is fairly decent, i have friends, so that's cool. I took care of all things unsaid in my real journal earlier tonight while i was emo, so i'll just chronalog the past week, which was pretty good.

On friday i went to Calculus which was about the same as always, then i worked very hard to not go to sleep and motivate myself to go to Colorado. For a few days there i was feeling craptacular, pretty much exhausted always, which i think was partially mental, probably stemming from the fact that i'm partially mental, but i got over it because Colorado is way too cool a state to skip out on.

The drive down was pretty uneventful, I half slept through most of james driving, and then enjoyed Wyoming in all it's beauty for Madeline's shift. We got to Molly's at around 9, it would have been sooner but we got caught in some very slow traffic for the last 2 miles. We ate dinner, courtesy of the molly parents, and then played password, which me and james beat molly and blaire in, although just barely. hm, that should be "in which" but sometimes i like to not be so pedantic a.k.a. grammatically correct. Anyway, at some point we slept, with the unrealistic idea of going hiking at 9am the next morning.

Madeline got there around 11 or 12, and suprisingly we ended up hiking. James, Madeline, and I left Molly (since molly had to go watch the Rockies lose up close and personal), and met up with Madeline's friend...jake...i think. Anyway, he seemed like a cool guy, reminded me a little bit of Kimball, but of course no one reading this knows who he is, so that doesn't do much good. Anyway, we went on a nice hike in Estes Park, which took us up to the Meadow (prompting various bambi references). Me and jake were feeling somewhat adventurous, or rather i was and jake was cool enough to follow, so we hiked up to the top of the little mountain we were on, which was pretty amazing. The hike back down was fun, and involved a bit of bouldering and trying not to die. The hike back went pretty fast, since it was all down hill, so that was cool.

We went from there to Porter's (another friend of madeline) house to watch that game and/or The Invisible. Porter's lady friend...ellie?...ella?...i'll go with ellie, said that we were jinxing the game by watching it, so we didn't really see them lose at the end. After the game me, porter, and james took on madeline and ellie in an intense game of Disney Scene-It. It was way intense, we lost because we said flubber instead of the Absent Minded Professor, but it was fun. That was saturday.

Sunday i went to church in some random ward, which made me appreciate the lack of babies in my ward, but Church is Church no matter where you go, which is always nice. Sunday was pretty chill, i took a nap, and then packed when molly and james got back (they'd gone up to Fort Morgan, where Molly used to live). We left at 2ish, and i drove the first stretch, which was fun. James and Molly were mostly asleep so Madeline drove the final leg. We started getting pretty tired with an hour or two still to go, so we played freeze-out (roll down all the windows when it's cold and go for as long as you can). That turned out to be way too intense for Molly and not nearly intense enough for me and madeline, and it looked like the windows would just be open for the rest of the drive, so we invented Freeze-out Extreme, which requires you to hold your hand out the window (holding onto the top of the car). We lasted about 12 miles and i decided i cared less about winning then i did about the inevitable nerve damage i was doing to my hand, so madeline took the prize for most hardcore/stubborn person.

We got back into Salt Lake at 9ish, and i think we did something, although i don't quite remember what. This is getting long, but the next few days weren't nearly as intense.

Monday was mondayish, and that night we watched heroes and met James new roomate Nick who seems like a nice addition to the group. Then we hung out and me and Madeline played with James awesome laptop (complete with tablet screen thing) and drew a picture of what molly and james would look like, were they unhappy pilgrims. Molly and James didn't seem to appreciate it nearly as much as we did, but it was fun either way. Oh, all day monday i was weirdly energetic, i'm not quite sure what happened there, since i definitely didn't get enough sleep.

To contrast, tuesday i was weirdly unenergetic, but i found out i made a 99 on my IT midterm (which was dippin awesome). That night we went and saw the Simpsons Movie, which is funnier than i remembered it, and then watched zoolander, which was exactly as funny as i remembered it.

Wednesday was halloween, and another dissapointing year. I came pretty close to having a costume, but as it turned out nothing happened, so it never happened. Me and Madeline and then Kelsey and Cathy and Vanessa and Flora and James and Molly (in order of arrival) watched Spiderman 3, which is funny and awesome and tacky. I'd forgotten the ending, and remembered it all of a sudden a few minutes before the end. After that we went looking for something to do, the creepy Chapel of Chapel Glenn seemed like a good choice, but it was locked, so we wandered around and me and Nick climbed on things than i climbed the hardest tree i've ever climbed (the first thing to hang on was about 15 feet up, so it involved some hardcore climbing.) And then i sat there for a while because i was having flashbacks of Arm-break 2006: The tree house of horror. I think after that we went to some mexican restaurant and then hung out in james room until i was too tired.

Thursday james got a couch, that was pretty awesome. Me James and Nick got front row seats to the Utah - Montana basketball game, which was lots and lots of fun, on our way out we saw a dippin dots, and that's when i realized that dippin is a good word to say in place of frickin, so i'm going to try to work that into my vernacular. We also watched The Emperor's New Groove with some girls, since 3 guys alone watching disney movies is somewhat suspect.

Today, friday, i lost my soccer game. It sucked a lot, we should have won, and i played like crap, so it's pretty hard not to blame myself, but happily no one else did verbally. We lost in a shoot-out, so i'm sure the shooters that missed and the goalie feel at least as bad as i do, but still, it sucked, i hate losing, but i really hate losing when i know i should have done better.

So yeah, that's my week. I did do some college work too, read some plato and aristotle, re-wrote an essay on oedipus rex, took a midterm and other collegiate things. Tomorrow i'm going to finally do laundry, since i'm down to dress shirts and soccer socks. This entry got way long, and took up nearly an hour of my time, which is good, my time right now is going way too slow.

~More than humid

Random Note 5/17/08: James' roommate's name was Tim, not Nick. I dunno where Nick came from.

If i go crazy then will you still call me superman?

I've almost made it through this week, only one more day and then everybody will be back and life will continue. Good times.

I've had a pretty unproductive week, although i've gotten a few things that i needed to get done out of the way. Otherwise this week has been very thoughtful, and i find myself missing mississippi. Today i was hiking about through the mountains, and it reminded me of being a little kid and wandering around the woods near my house. I wish i'd had utah then, there's so much more to explore, i could go for miles just behind my dorm.

Today i've been missing murrah soccer. We really had some good times. I don't think i'll ever have as much fun as i did at some of those games. Even though i have intermural here, it's not the same, we're not a team, and winning and losing barely matters. Most of all i miss a way to constantly play soccer. I really like soccer, like a lot. I think if i were good enough i would have no trouble playing pro-soccer. It'd be so much fun. Since it's too late now, i'd settle for a large group of soccer playing friends.

I miss Sal and Mookie's too. That was a really fun job, i think if pro soccer doesn't pan out, i would enjoy working at a restaurant. I know it won't happen, because i don't want that as my career, unless i became a chef or something, cus those guys are awesome.

Lets see, what else. I just generally miss having a lot of friends. When you only have a few friends it's pretty easy to find yourself with nothing to do.

I'm pretty much out of things to say, i wrote extensively in my real journal today, that was good. Other than that my life is pretty calm, tepid even. Maybe i'll have exciting dreams...

gosh, these are so emo sometimes.

so these osprey have taken up residence outside my house, and now all day it sounds like i'm on national geographic, except for the chainsaw across the street, which sounds nothing like national geographic.

Now that i'm back from my road trippin', life goes on as normally as could be expected. I saw harry potter, which was pretty good, i think it's my favorite movie so far, even though it's one of my least favorite books (not by quality, just by plot line. It's so frustrating and harry is so moody). I also finally watched my two netflix movies that've been living at my house for the last few weeks, The Saint and U.S. Marshalls. I wasn't disapointed, which isn't suprising since i wasn't expecting much. Pretty standard movies, nothing groundbreaking, but i enjoyed them and they passed the time.

I'm eagerly awaiting the mail man with 3 weeks of mail for me, including my ap scores, so hopefully that'll happen pretty soon. I got back home to a shocking amount of gossip that i'm not entirely sure how it happened. But since none of it is bad, per se, and since none of it is entirely untrue, i'll survive, it just surprises me how quickly word can spread. More on that later i guess, probably not. Oohh! a mail man drove by. that means he's going to start spreading is postal goodness across my street. I'm in a weird mood, and i'm typing really fast. Probably going to see transformers today, so that should be an adventure and a half.

Apparently it's raining in salt lake, so says my little weather reporter thing, which is good, since it hasn't rained in salt lake in a long time. Silly desert. Mississippi is very green, our grass is better looking that it's looked in years. which is still pretty bad looking, but it's progress.

I wish movies could be good in the same way books are. I want an 8 hour movie, with as much depth, details, and intelligence as a book, plus all the exciting visual effects that books lack in. but i suppose making an 8 hour movie would be unreasonably expensive, and so movies would triple in price, which would be unfortunate.

Only 4 days till harry potter, that'll be pretty awesome, it has to be. apparently hast is a word. I wish the mail would hurry up and get here so i could stop rambling.

so, ap scores finally came.

Eng lang - 4
Eng lit - 4
Euro - 3
Gov - 4
Calc - 3
Stats - 4

I was a little disapointed with calculus, and not getting a 5 in english, but i'll live. Anyway, now i'm off to lunch and a movie, so au revoir.

Notes from the Underground

I find myself in the basement of the student union with no way out and the torturous smell of unobtainable food drifting on the wind. Luckily there's a rockin' iMac to keep me company. My parents are in a movie until 4:45, and i don't feel like braving public transportation just to wait outside the planetarium while they watch IMAX. So, in the mean time, i thought i'd post a bit of an update on my vacation.

So, as is my custom, i'm going to work backwards, because that's how i am. Today i had orientation, or half of orientation, i came to late to get the beginning, and so ii'm going to get that tomorrow. Orientation was fun, i found myself reminded of how shy i can be at times, but that's alright. I got a free t-shirt and a frisbee, which i'm sure i'll give away (the frisbee, the t-shirt is too lame to give away, but ii'll probably work out or somthing in it) We had some very typically utah lunch, which was ok. i registered for a few of my classes, and i got into the honors program, although i probably won't be in the honors dorm, which is too bad, we'll see though, she said there may be a bed open for one guy, that'd be cool.

I was the only person in my orientation group that was majoring in math. go me.

Yesterday was the last day of the reunion. The reunion was good, but not the best, and quite possibly the worst, although that's still pretty good. The food was awful for the most part, and the activities were good at best. there was really no where for us to meet, or play games, except some of the time, but those times were great. I got to ride a horse, the second time in my life, although this horse was really rebellious, she would stop whenever possible to eat grass, and there was very little i could do to stop it, but that was ok, it made my ride a lot more fun than anybody else's, since everybody else was just sitting on the horse riding in a line. The rodeo could have been fun, but the only cool event, the barrel racing, was cancelled. weak.

Before the reunion we went backpacking with a couple of my uncles and a few of my cousins. That was great. We went on a hike way way up in the mountains, and we saw amazing views and hung out with mountain goats. They were literally less than 10 feet away, and not at all afraid of us. To get back down we had to climb down this nearly vertical slope. There were big areas where there was still snow, so we skied down those (well, there were no skis, so i guess technically we shoed.) that was really fun. We dropped 1000 feet in less than an hour and in about 200 horizontal feet. Then we swam in a lake, it was very cold (there was snow melting into it) but it was great.

On the drive out we went to a few cool places, possum kingdom lake, where we saw deer, and an owl, and we were almost struck by lightning. We also went to Guadeloupe National park, carlsbad caverns, roswell (which was really dissapointing, but i'm glad i went) and sitting bull falls which is a waterfall in the middle of the deserts of new mexico. It's been a pretty fun vacation all in all. tomorrow i stat the drive back, and i'll be 'home' (i really don't know where home is right now) on monday probably. That's about all from me. Peace.

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)