October

Is over, with nary a blog post (of mine) to be found.

That's almost impressive.

But I've been ridiculously busy. Life's been hectic, but in the best way possible. As I believe I've mentioned, I joined the tech crew for my school and have been given the job of head props person for the school play. This excites me quite greatly - I actualy have a real job, of real importance. I'm in charge of figuring out what props are needed and finding them for each of the scenes. This means not just props mentioned in the script (like the ticket for a police officer to write), but also things like backpacks in a school scene that simply contribute to the realism of the situation. So I'm pretty pumped for that.

Hmm, what else... well, again on the tech stream, tomorrow is my school's pep rally, which means that I'm missing a whack of classes today and tomorrow to work on that. I think for the pep rally, since there aren't props involved, what I'm doing is running back and forth between lights and sound so they each know what each other is doing, since our headsets aren't working. yay.

But really, I don't have much else to say. So much has gone on in the last 5 weeks that posting about it would be almost pointless, if you know what I mean. But I'll try to post a bit more often so that my, what, two readers? can know what I'm up to. Hehe.

~~~

"Thanks to that mix up, there is now one man in the world who is VERY scared of me..."

Yeah. It's been a while since my last post, and I'm sorry about that, but a lot has happened. I've been really busy, what with school and youth starting again, and my home computer stopped working, meaning that my only computer time is the limited amount I can wrangle in computer class - generally, enough to check my email and read messages, but not enough time to reply. But I have enough free time today to at least start this post - whether or not I finish remains to be seen.

So, moving along in chronological order from the last post: the day after my last post was the first day of school. As you probably know, I was a little apprehensive, but it turned out I had nothing to be worried about. There was one girl, Holly, that I had sort of been friends with last year, but hadn't spent a bunch of time with because she didn't get along so well with the three girls I mostly hung around with. I saw her fairly early on this year - I think at lunch on the first day - and we were fast friends again, which made me really happy. She's also friends with some of the people I had kind of known last year - you know, they'd been in one or two classes with me, we'd had a few conversations, but i'd never really bothered to get to know them. Now, however, I am and they've turned out to be great people and good friends.

The people I met working on the school orientation day have become close friends as well, especially Gil, since he and Holly already knew each other and it worked out that the three of us were in the same chemistry class. That's become my favourite class - the three of us have more fun than should ever be allowed in class. :P

I think I also mentioned being a wanna-be techie, since Gil and my other friends from orientation were all in tech crew (that's the group of people who runs sound, lighting, etc. for all the big school functions.) Well, I'm no longer a wanna-be! I joined the tech crew, as did Holly, and it's exciting to get to know people from that group as well. I even got my locker switched from some random corner halfway across the school into the drama/ music room hallway - easy access to the stage and drama room for tech stuff, and it's right next to Gil's locker and close to Holly's and her friends who I'm getting to be friends with. (see a couple paragraphs above.)

So overall, school is shaping up to be really great. Besides the social aspect of it, I'm mostly enjoying my classes and quite like the majority of my teachers.

Also, last Monday I got a cell phone. That was VERY exciting for me, considering how I've wanted a cell phone for ages. I've kept track of all the major milestones too:

First number dialed from the cell: Kari's cell
First text message sent: Kari
First text message received: Tyler
First person to answer the phone when I called from my cell: Amy
First call received: Home
First contact added: Kari
First time I saw my cell as a contact in someone else's cell: last Friday in Jordan's phone
First time I dropped the cell: Saturday at the church garage sale

Yeah. I'm really doting on my little phone, and I think my poor iPod feels left out. It used to get that kind of attention, but now... poor thing.

Quizzing and youth have started too - a very welcome addition to my life. I've missed them greatly. I've got to run though, I'll post again soon. Hopefully.

~~~

"Insanity is the best status you could possibly have in the mind of another. It frees you from all expectations, and people are pleasantly surprised when you do something half-intelligent."

Grade 11

That's right. Tomorrow I go back to school and start grade 11 - my second-last year of high school, or grade school period. It's so hard to believe, hard to believe that it's already September, that the summer flew by so fast... but I guess it shouldn't be. It was an amazing summer.

My ten days in Costa Rica were beyond incredible. Probably one of the most powerful experiences of my life, I learned so much and grew in so many ways, and of course had a great time. When I got home, I had the first surprise birthday party of my life and I saw one of my favourite singers, Chantal Kreviazuk, perform live. Then a family vacation to Idaho which was relatively enjoyable and took up a couple weeks. It included powering through the seventh Harry Potter book and feeling intense satisfaction, and a couple giant shopping trips with tons of bargain scouting.

Then in August, we had close family friends who we hadn't seen in a couple years come over - they have a daughter about my age, and we've always gotten along really well so it was great to see her again. The following weekend my cousins from Grande Prairie visited and we had a great time - I only see them a couple times a year but I love them to death and we always have a blast together. A week later, it was out to Camp Nakamun to plan orientation day at school, and I wound up having a bunch of fun.

Thursday of this past week, I had to be to my school for 9:00 am to set up said orientation day. That was a gruelling day - lifting chairs, desks, and tables, setting up the gym and classrooms, blowing up balloons... but I had a good time and got to know even better the people I had met the previous weekend. And then Friday was the big day. I had to be at the school at 7:30 am, since kids started trickling in around 8 and the day officially started at 9. I hadn't even woken up before 7:30 in ages, so that was a bit different, but not too bad.

The day was a long one though. I had to sit at a registration table and hand out mock timetables to the kids, telling them what classrooms they would be visiting that day. Then there was the pep rally, during which I did some technical stuff like cueing music, seeing as all my new friends are the techies and I'm a total wanna-be. I try though. Then I had to run a couple classroom activities, and it was a lot of fun, but I had to be upbeat, energetic and friendly all day. It came fairly easily, but it was exhausting! I didn't realize having that much personality could be so draining, but by the end of the day, I was absolutely wiped, and it was only 3:00. It was definitely a fun experience though.

Littered throughout the summer were phone calls to my friend in Australia, which are always so much fun, largely due to his wicked accent.

Then last night I got to go to Symphony Under the Sky with my friend Joanna, since her mom plays french horn in the ESO. It was a great show, especially since Tyler Hamilton, Canadian Idol season 1 finalist, was the guest singer. Haha. We talked to him in the intermissin and he's very friendly, but we'd also already met him way back, three years ago when Tyler opened for Ryan Malcolm. We were crazy fangirls back then though, and we didn't mention that evening to Tyler last night - we don't want to be remembered that way. :P It was fun though; I really don't see Jo often enough.

All things considered, it's been a madly awesome summer, and I really shouldn't be surprised that it went so fast. You know what they say - time flies when you're having fun, and fun I had.

And now quizzing has started again, school is about to start... I really need to get my binders and paper and pens and highlighters and such together, and I should give my room and bathroom a good cleaning today, cuz who knows when I'll get the chance to do that once school's started. The biggest difference this year will be the fact that for the first time since grade 1, I'm not taking piano lessons, but oh well, I can still play. I'll have to make myself do it - I really don't want to lose it.

So that's the summer in a nutshell. I guess I am excited for the coming year - I've got new friends and my old ones are... well, gone, leaving me with a fresher start and everything. It should be good; for now I'm staying optimistic.

~~~

"Nerdular nerdancy..."

A surprisingly enjoyable weekend

I was away this weekend at Camp Nakamun for a school retreat. We were planning the orientation day for all the new grade 10s and so a group of us went out to have an intense planning session and just hang out, but I must admit I was rather apprehensive. I didn't know a bunch of people in the group going out... I've posted before about some of my awkwardness with friends and the fact that I don't exactly know a ton of people at school, and so I brought my iPod and a couple books just in case no one talked to me and I didn't have the guts to talk to anybody, which I figured would be a likely situation.

BUT as soon as I got in the school on Friday, I saw a guy from my former English class who I'd chatted with a bunch, and so I said hello, and he introduced me to another guy and girl, and so the four of us hung out for a lot of the weekend. It was actually really cool, to find these people that I wound up getting along with so well, instead of all the other people who were there, most of whom I know a bit and I know are realllly not the type of people I'd be friends with. Just not compatible personalities, but I was so happy I really did make friends, and I'm getting slightly excited for the new school year now.

So it became a rather enjoyable weekend, though I really hadn't expected it to be. It was also so diffierent from any of my other Nakamun trips - I've been out there 8 times, I calculated - 4 quiz meets, 2 quiz retreats, 1 youth retreat, and my grandma's 80th birthday. But each of those was in the winter, with the exception of the quiz meets, which are obviously very scheduled, and so we didn't use the climbing wall, human fooseball, campfire or go canoeing - all of which we did this weekend, and had a great time. So that was definitely a new experience, as was the fact that with my church group or family, there's a huge measure of comfort and security. I know everybody in my group, and I'm really comfortable with them all, while this time, I didn't know anyone very well and didn't exactly start out super comfortable with them - another different thing.

Food though, that was exactly the same, and before every meal, I would tell everyone what we were going to have, and I was always right. Bahaha.

But yes, that was my weekend. It is now exactly 8 days until school starts again, and because I'm sort of not looking forward to it, and sort of excited, they cancel each other out and I have no feelings on the matter.

~~~

"He looks like he's giving birth!"

4 letters

Just 4 letters. 4 certain letters which, when arranged in a certain order, form one certain word, and that word totally defines me. It's my name, and I find it incredible how this simple arrangement of 4 letters - that I didn't even choose - defines so much of me.

If I meet someone with my name, I feel an instant connection to them. If I end up disliking that person, however, I really dislike them all the more - I feel like they're disgracing the name, MY name. I judge people so much more highly if they're an ambassader of my name, my 4 letters.

I recently read an article about a woman with my name who stopped a man who had stolen someone's purse. I was filled with a fierce sense of pride - look what MY NAME can do! And then last night on the evening news, a young girl with my name was killed in a car crash. Though I don't know the girl at all and she didn't even live in my city, I felt so awful hearing that. No one deserves to die like that, but in my mind, she especially didn't. She holds my name, and so her pain was, briefly, my pain.

It's only 4 letters, but it's so important. It's the way I'm introduced to people, the way I'm initially different from everybody else, and it really is my identity. Those 4 letters carry my entire life, and I'm so attached to them. Without those letters, without that one small word... I would just be a nameless human being in a sea of faces, but at least my name, my 4 letters, are something to hold on to. In my life, in my world, to all my friends and family, they define me.

There have been times when I've met people, given them my name, and they've said "Oh! I know a girl with your name! She [liked this, disliked that, had this hobby, etc.] Are you the same way?" After just 4 letters, they formed an automatic idea of me. If they didn't have my name, they'd have to formulate their conclusions from who I am rather than the 4 letters that sum it all up.

So maybe it's not as important as I've thought. I've felt connected to people without ever knowing their name, or them knowing mine. I guess it's another handle to hold on to someone by.

But that's my deep musings for the day.

~~~

"Wow, that was a big word! I'm impressed!"
"Thanks! Yeah, I like to think I have a broad... uh... mm..."
"Vocabulary?"
"Yeah, that's the one."

Your friendly neighbourhood spider-saver

That's what I turned into over the past two weeks in Idaho. It's a darn good thing I'm not afraid of spiders, or else we would have had a major problem, since pretty much every time I went into my bathroom, there was a lovely spider right beside the toilet. However, I'm a good person, and I like spiders, so rather than killing it, I would scoop it into my wastebasket and toss it into the garage. Unless it was late at night, at which time I would just flush it down the toilet - but that only happened a couple times.

My brother, on the other hand, is terrified of spiders and refused to use the downstairs bathroom for the entire holiday. Not that you'd see me complaining - it meant I had the bathroom to myself.

And on a slightly related topic - I saw the Simpsons movie and laughed myself stupid at the Spiderpig scene:

Marge looks up, says "How did the pig tracks get on the ceiling?"

Homer is holding pig up to ceiling, singing:
"Spiderpig, Spiderpig
Does whatever a Spiderpig does.
Can he swing from a web?
No he can't, he's a pig.
Look out, SpiderPig."

Thought of Jessica and died laughing. Drove my brother nuts. :P And laughed even harder when Homer later put a scar and a pair of glasses on the pig and declared, "He's not SpiderPig anymore. Now he's Harry Plopper."
I found it hilarious.

Speaking of Harry Plopper, I loved the last Potter book. I think the romantic pairings definitely ended up right, and overall it was a satisfactory ending. Maybe around Christmas I'll read all seven books in a row. That should be fun.

Not much else to say though. Later days.

~~~

"You've gone mad with power!"
"Of course I've gone mad with power! Have you ever tried going mad without power? It's boring and no one listens to you!"

Last update until after Idaho

Well, the days since my last post have been relatively full and exciting.
First, on Saturday, well... first I should set the mood.
I was grumpy. Very, very grumpy. I had been in a bad mood all day and then Mother started getting after me to clean my room and hang up my clothes, and then I realized that she had hung up my pants on the small hangers instead of the large hangers, and she moved my long-sleeved shirts to the other side of the closet, and since I'm very particular about my closet organization, that really did not thrill me. So I got even grouchier.

All day, I had been looking forward to around 7:00, because I was going to phone my Aussie, so just before 7, I asked my dad if I could tie up the phone for a couple hours and he asked me to wait until after 7 because he was expecting a call. I semi-cheerfully cooperated, and then at 7, the doorbell rang. He hollered at me to get it. Then it rang again. And again. I thought it was my brother, so I fired the door open very irritated, and there are 13 people on the doorstep shouting "Surprise!"

So basically, my mother rigged up a surprise birthday party for me. There were a ton of my church friends there, plus one junior high friend and one friend from way back in elementary school who I've been friends with most of my life. I didn't really know what to do - I just left them outside, ingesting what was going on, until my mom opened the door and let them in. So we all traipsed downstairs and hugn out for a few hours.

It was so cool though - I've never had a surprise party before. It was exciting for me to have people like Graham there, who I had barely known before the missions trip, and realize that I really did make friends on the trip. And my kung-fu card from Kyle, and having Becky and Joanna, who I don't see nearly as much as I'd like to... anyway, it was a good time. I made sure to thank my mumsy and apologize for being so grumpy.

Then the next day, Kyle brought me a present which he didn't on Saturday because the invitation said no presents (grr... mother!) It was... a Canada. Smarty-pants. And a little calendar and a cheesecake recipe from his mother - I feel very special. His mother gave me a birthday present. Haha.

Later that day was Ellie's birthday party, which was fun. I gave the youth group gift to Natalie and was very excited to do so. Ellie's such a cutie pie! Hey Amy, what happened to the picture CD? Just thought of that now...

And then that night, Mom took me to Capital Ex (almost wrote K-Days there... Cap. Ex is a pretty dumb name though) to see Chantal Kreviazuk. She's a singer, she was playing at EdFest, and since I've liked her for a while and entry to Capital Ex and the show was only $10, I begged to go. It was actually really amazing - she can really play the piano - I mean, she just killed the thing. It was incredible. And then to look out and see the sunset and the rides all lit up by neon lights, and then around 11, fireworks starting... I can't even describe the beauty of it. It looked like something out of a movie. It was incredible.

And then the past few days have just been blah, getting ready to leave for potato country (Idaho) in the morning. Goody. I'm actually really excited to go shopping in the American stores though, and we're going to an amusement park and staying at a lake, so it should be a relatively good time. Anyway, that's all for now, talk to you when I get back!

~~~

"mumble mumble mumble."

P.S. Amy, women don't share their men. It just doesn't happen. That book really is a fantasy novel...