Back Once Again

This is pretty much solely for my uncle Charlie, who continues to ask me why I never update my blog. Answer: I just got out of school (finally), I have a job (yeah, still! Crazy, ain't it?), Blogger has been taken by Google (meaning I had to try about a bajillion different passwords to remember which one was the real password), and I'm just a lazy little booger (read: teenager).

Life here's been all right since my last update. There has been some drama from a certain juvenile delinquent (not me), but nothing that my family hasn't been able to handle without the help of a lawyer and a lot of sarcastic humor when we're in our own little corner. I've been breezing through my taekwondo training, though I've been busy this summer. On Saturday I'll be testing for Recommended Black belt, the last belt I will have to complete before being certified as a full-fledged black belt. In other words, I'll probably get the black belt some time in the winter. Makes me glad I have a job; apparently the test costs about $160 to test, even with the Black Belt Club discount. Mind you, that price includes certification, a new uniform, and the customization of the belt (the thing gets embroidered with your name and the name of the school). But for right now, I'll focus on completing the requirements for Recommended Black as fast as I can; I'll probably try to get some private lessons in to make up for the time I lost this summer.

Why was I gone so much, you ask? Well, in the second and third weeks of June I was involved in a program called Servants, which is run out of Kentucky Christian University. The first week was spent at the university in a musical boot camp of sorts. The director was really strict, but still had a great sense of humor (often could be seen popping his collar during morning rehearsals, ew). I was reminded constantly of the director of my elementary church choir; upon leaving the first practice session on the first night, I was thinking, "I've found Perry's brain twin! SWEET!" The music practices were really tough, much more so than I expected them to be. For example, we would practice about 6 to 8 hours a day (with breaks every hour or two) in order to prepare our concert. In between practice sessions were many devos and sessions with our family groups (THOSE were hilarious fun!), during which I got the nickname "Spruce." Our family name was the First Forbidden Frumptious Forest, mostly because the only thing my entire ADD group had for sure was that we were all named after trees.

The second week was the tour. That was the most fun I have ever had on a bus since Bible Bowl: for one thing, taking pictures of people sleeping was pretty amusing, plus the fiasco with Prayer Partners (and how I was pulling many anonymous stunts on my PP, who happened to be the director of the choir, heh heh) were just PERFECT. We (all 76 of us) stayed in the houses of people attending the churches we performed at. Those folks were some of the nicest people I could ever hope to meet-- one lady took in eight girls (me included), and the first thing she did when we got to her house was to feed us chock-full of sandwiches and homemade cookies, and then encouraged us all to swim in her pool (which she opened just for us). Another couple let us four girls have the run of their basement apartment, complete with a fridge and freezer stocked with strawberry ice cream. Everyone in the choir became pretty much family, with no real cliques or groups forming within. The drama was left at home, which was a real relief and a change of pace for me. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and I plan to go back next summer!

The next trip I took was to Bible Bowl Nationals in Kansas City. We did really pretty well in the competition, making it through 5 rounds of double-elimination competition (which is the best my team has ever done) and ranking right in the middle of all the teams at the tournament. Who loves the upper 50th percentile!!! We actually got our team into the standings on the Bible Bowl Web site, of which Mom was really proud. The text for next year will be the gospel of John, 1-3 John, and 1-2 Peter. Should be interesting, since there aren't nearly as many places to memorize (unlike a couple years ago with Acts...). We'll see how this year goes; hopefully we can all beat our own bests while actually learning the Word.

A week from today, I'll be flying up to Minnesota to visit my brother Chris. I'm really looking forward to it; I haven't seen Chris since Christmas. Amy should be up there as well, so we'll at least have a three-fourths voting majority. Not sure what we'll be voting on, maybe Phil. Should be fun.

Mom has already enrolled me in my courses for junior year. This year I'll be taking American History, Chemistry, Accounting, AP English Literature and Composition, and Trigonometry. The trig only lasts for a semester, though, so perhaps I'll start Pre-Calculus in January. It's either that or statistics. Either way, I start school on August 6, sooner if my books arrive. It should be an interesting year. I'm sort of nervous about the literature course, but if I work hard enough things should come to me. I'm not big on recognizing symbols and whatnot in novels, not to mention I tend to see the 'wrong' lesson within the story. For example: In Romeo and Juliet I decided that the lesson was "Don't marry the 14-year-olds," but apparently that wasn't it. (Yes, I knew that the lesson was not to carry huge grudges against random people for no reason.) Ah, well, good thing I'm getting some practice, then.

Well, I do hope that this has been (somewhat) satisfactory for those that haven't seen anything out of me for a while. (Hi, Charlie! Next time I know I'm going to see you I'll bring some bread. :] )

Current Mood: Waiting in utter excitement

Random Useless Fact of the Day: James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States, dressed up in a style similar to that of George Washington. Why? Apparently he was THAT flattered by folks' comments about his resemblance to Washington. (talk about someone's fashion being out-of-season....)