Life is good

Since last week was my last week at camp, I've spent the last couple days sort of lounging around, playing with the Wii and watching awesome movies. Carole has this pile of movies she said I HAVE to watch, and I've been making my way through it. I've seen Funny Girl, Funny Lady, Camelot, and as I write this, I'm watching Giant, with James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson.

When I grow up, I hope to be like Elizabeth Taylor's character. Not only is she drop dead gorgeous, she has a mind and isn't afraid to stand up for what she believes in.

Whenever I watch older movies, I worry about the generation difference and I always doubt I'll like the movies. However, all of the ones I've seen have been phenomenal. I never liked Barbra Streisand until I saw Funny Girl and Funny Lady. Both are great musicals and her acting is stupendous!

Tonight we're going to Nofo's, a restaurant I really enjoyed the last time I was in Raleigh. It should be a fun time.

Anyway, TIME FOR THE BIG NEWS!

After much deliberation, scheming, planning, and wishing, I am proud to say I am seeing the Jonas Brothers in Raleigh on July 30! My mom graciously changed my flight, got me tickets, and I have someone to go with! Carole also had to drop a check off at Belks (a department store they have out here), and I found the most AMAZING dress. I'm really excited about wearing it to the concert!

I'm looking forward to the rest of the week, which will include taking a day to sit by the lake and sketch it, and finish this pile of movies.

Stay tuned

xoxo

Last week of FDC :[

I've gotten really lazy and haven't blogged since last Friday! So much has happened since I last posted, and the trip has gotten MORE fun, if that's even possible. I'll try to recap this past week as briefly as I can though...


Saturday, 7/12/08
I still wasn't feeling well, but we went over to Mike and Cherie's for dinner. Nautica was adorable and hyper as always too. We ended up watching RV, which is really a cute, funny movie. Then we played Rockband! I was pretty decent, actually. We did a lot of the songs that I knew (thank goodness) and Cherie took a hilarious video of us :]

Sunday, 7/13/08
I went to lunch with Cherie, Carole and Ray then we went to a museum to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. It was really awesome to see real copies of the Bible, written by the people of Qumran.

FDC of course started Monday, and the theme for the week was The Olympics. On Tuesday, I got to paint the bulk of our huddle/country's flag - Spain. It's a really complicated flag! Anyway, They told us that Wednesday would be a boys vs. girls comopetition.

Wednesday, 7/16/08
All of the girls in Camp 2 were told to wear pink, and the boys wore blue. We did a photo scavenger hunt - the girls split up into 2 groups, as did the boys. Each counselor was equipped with a camera... in my group, we used mine (big surprise, right?). Each group was given a list of items to find and we had to take pictures of them. The things we had to take pictures of ranged from a picture with a certain counselor to a blue jay to a group jumping picture. It was really fun to get to know the campers in other huddles and take cute pictures with them :]


Thursday, 7/17/08
Today was the Olympics day, so we came decked out in our country's colors. Spain's colors are red and yellow, so there was definitely a lot of those around. We did a water relay and played capture the flag. I think tomorrow they're announcing who won... I hope Camp 2 (Europe) wins!

OH and one of the highlights of today was definitely watching Cooper get his head shaved. I introduced him in a previous blog, and he's quite a character. All the kids were really excited about it and a bunch of people were taking pictures ahaha :]

xoxo

The end of my first session

Wowzers... TGIF! This week has been full of surprises, but unfortunately last night I got sick and had to leave camp early today.

Time to recap!

Wednesday: Chaos!

For the first part of Wednesday, Camp 2 participated in "Chaos" - exactly what it sounds like. There were 6 stations set up on one of the playing fields, 1 being the closest and 6 being the furthest. My huddle (Huddle 8) was blue and we named ourselves the Blue Jays. There was a competition amongst the huddles and whoever won could make their counselor "walk the plank." To win, each huddle had to finish the activity at every station, after rolling a die to see which station to go to. That is definitely where they got the term chaos from... constantly running from a station to the picnic table, then rolling the die only to run BACK to another station! It was fun though. We didn't end up winning, but I got to paint everyone blue :P

Another highlight was seeing Andrew being made into a sundae. One of the stations required turning a counselor into a human sundae teehee

There's a portion of the day called 'choices,' where the kids choose what activity they want to do. I normally go to art (Go figure) and never do archery. However, my huddle had the chance to go to archery AND I got to go to art later, so I finally did archery lol. My mom bugged me all summer last year about doing it, so now I've done it!

Thursday: Circus Day

Everyone was supposed to come to camp dressed up like something/someone from the circus and there were special circus-themed activities for the campers that day. I didn't want to be a clown, so I settled for a mime... a sad mime lol. I had gotten face paint the day before so I could paint campers for Chaos, so I had appropriate face paint to become a mime. Although Carole and I stayed up late trying on makeup and playing with my new suspenders, I didn't do the FULL mime makeup (because I terrified myself in the mirror) and decided against the suspenders.

At first I was worried I'd look like a doofus (I know, stupid right? Everyone always goes all out :]) but I really loved everyone's costumes. There were a lot of mimes, lions, tigers, ringmasters, clowns, and one kid in our huddle was a bearded lady. During morning assembly, we were told that there were special stations available that day. I was curious to see what the campers would be doing!

Our first station was playing gladiator. You know, like American gladiators. There were pillow sticks (I know that's the wrong name for them. They're pillow something!) that the kids had to use to knock each other off the bench they were standing on. It was hysterical to see the kids battle each other, then battle counselors! They wanted to make sure everyone got to do it before the kids did it twice, so they made me battle our cilt, Lauren. I guess she thought I'd go easy on her, because she fell off right away. She wanted a rematch, but I was victorious once again :]

The next station was a water balloon toss. There was an odd number so I sat out and tried to capture the perfect water balloon toss picture lol

The last station was juggling. I was intimidated already and just watched for a little bit while Cameron explained the basics. I didn't want to sit there and do nothing, so I grabbed the scarves they were using and tried to juggle myself. I got the first basic throws, but I didn't know how to fluently juggle. Lauren and I both tried, but we just laughed at each other and ourselves because we looked ridiculous! We were dropping scarves left and right.

THEN something clicked... I started to juggle. I screamed "OMG LAUREN I'M DOING IT!" and she looked over. We started cracking up again because I suddenly was juggling, though quite badly. I had her take a video of me doing it, SO THERE'S EVIDENCE! I'll post it in a later entry :]

After lunch and during choices, it was nice getting to talk to a couple counselors and cilts I hadn't gotten to know yet. Spiro and I got into an ink/water color fight, Alex and I talked about The Beatles, Ryan and I talked about our artwork (he has yet to send it to me!) and Erin gave me some tips on my new major. They all asked me why I wasn't a counselor and I explained. It's really strange for me to be a volunteer and be so old... it's kind of funny watching everyone's reactions though.

On a totally random, non-camp related note, Carole and I tried eating a cactus pear... DON'T BUY THEM.

Anywayssss

I think that's it.

I'm still not feeling well - I feel kind of nauseous still, but the headache and dizziness are gone. In a little bit I have to get ready for a "date" LOL. It's totally not what you're thinking... but a select few know the absolute significance of me going out with these two amazing people tonight!

Tomorrow we're taking a trolley tour of Raleigh, so I'm sure I'll have something interesting to say tomorrow!

Until then,

xoxo

First Day at FDC

[Edit - the first draft of this blog wouldn't let me add pictures!]


Today was my first day at camp, and it was just like I remember it. The weather was good, and it was even better to see people I haven't seen since last year. I made a few new friends and this coming week should be pretty interesting. However, it SUCKED being so tired because we stayed up late again playing the Wii and having desserts! The picture to the left is the dessert we had last night. It was an Italian ice cream dessert covered in chocolate... mmmm XD

This year, I got assigned to Camp 2, a slightly younger age group than I worked with last year. I was also assigned to sort of shadow a counselor named Boyce (Ha, not really. That's his last name, which he hates but I call him anyway because I like it. His first name's Cooper) who watches a kid named Sam. They didn't tell me much about Sam, but he sure is a handful! He's a great kid, but he likes to wander around by himself and sometimes it's hard to get him involved in group activities.

The counselors in my huddle are pretty chill, which has its ups and downs. The kids are overall nice - we definitely have a few amusing characters. Today we went swimming, played a fun variation of kickball (which involved a kickball, a football, and a frisbee. Perhaps I'll go into detail about this in a shorter blog), then what I'd like to call a sadistic version of dodgeball. It was a pretty good day. I totally missed the cheers!

After Carole picked me up, she told me she found this awesome store that she thought I might find interesting. It ended up being REALLY cool and I spent, well, a lot of money. But hey, I found some perfect presents for my mom! Anyway, we spent almost 2 hours shopping there... We might go again and hopefully I'll remember to take pictures next time. It wasn't a department store... it was like, a HUGE warehouse broken up into sections. Ever been to a convention or county fair? Well, inside this store was like those - it had "booths" and different sections of merchandise. The stuff they sold ranged from furniture and homemade baked goods, to jewelry and designer dresses. I really hope we go again!

We finally got home and had dinner. Ray and Carole make the BEST broccoli ever. Seriously. We got to eat on their patio/deck overlooking the lake through the trees because the weather was so good. I asked Carole if we could go walk down by the lake later in the week, and she said we could go then. Carole and Ray live by a BEAUTIFUL lake that I love, so we walked the dog around a good portion of the lake.

To my great amusement, there were tons of fireflies and a lovely view. Fortunately, I took quite a few pictures :] Carole and I walked for a long time, exchanging random stories and stopping to admire the turtles. She told me about her old dog, Honey, and how she loved to walk by the lake. I also mustered enough courage to catch fireflies and hold them. They're such weird, fascinating things<3

4th of July Weekend

I haven't even been here a week and I'm already having a blast! Last night was my first night staying at Carole's in Raleigh, and it was HYSTERICAL. After raiding Donna's house because she's moving and has stuff up for grabs (like her adorable mugs that now belong to me!), we went to Raleighwood and saw "What Happens in Vegas." Raleighwood is like a dinner movie theater - instead of stadium seating there's tables with big, plush chairs. The movie was really cute and everyone walked away loving Ashton Kutcher.

After we got back from the movie, Donna and her husband Joe came back to Carole's house... we ended up playing with their Wii until 1AM! Gotta love that bowling :]

Anyway, let's back-track to my shopping spree. While I was still at Margi's, we went shopping on Saturday. While we were driving, we went past a thrift store and I asked if we could go. She took me and I got some cute stuff. Then we went to a couple other ones in this little downtown area of Pittsboro... I found AMAZING vintage stuff. I bought a 20's hat, complete with a veil, a couple of vinyls (Elvis & The Rolling Stones) and some red suspenders. The shop was full of history - the lady upstairs was a really interesting British woman who told us about her life in London.

I've also met some ridiculously interesting people during this trip... I told Christine this morning that I might write a short story about them. One of them was the lady sitting next to me on the plane to JFK. She seriously looked like the kind of woman I want to be in 15 or 20 years. She had a stylish outfit on, a short fun haircut that was dyed blonde, and she generally looked trendy and interesting. She was really nice, too. Half way during the flight, she whipped out a small meal she packed - it looked completely gourmet, complete with a wedge of expensive looking cheese, some kind of fig salad, and crackers. When we got off the plane, I ran into her in a small food store in the airport. She smiled at me, I smiled back, then she approached me. Even though I was on the phone, she asked me if I needed a ride into the city. I wish! I told her I had to catch another flight, but thanks for asking.

This will definitely be a short story :]

Today we're planning on going to Mellow Mushroom Pizza - my FAVORITE pizza place. You can order a custom pizza... I usually get tofu and Spinach XD

Tomorrow's my first day volunteering at camp! I'll definitely be blogging tomorrow if anything interesting happens :]

Big News!

Greetings from the Tarheel state! I’m officially in North Carolina, and things are already a whirlwind. I have a lot of exciting news...

SO

This will be a long entry; I’ll put it in sections so you can read what you’d like :]

Uno: Idols Live! Concert; 7/2/08
Because I was flying out the 3rd, my mom and I decided to drive down to San Diego to see the Idols Live! Season 7 concert. I really loved this season and my favorites were Jason Castro and David Archuleta.

I made an amazing shirt (if I may say so myself) with Jason & David on it, along with some of my infamous artwork. I got my hair done at 12, and we got to the venue at around 3. Caitlin had been texting me, so I knew the Idols had come out already. My mom and I hadn't eaten, so we went to Chili's, which was practically next to the venue. As I was about to take a bite of my food, Caitlin called me and told me Jason Castro (MY FAVORITE) was there again and I should come! Long story short, I ran around the WHOLE venue, only to miss him by a couple minutes =_=

After we ate, we went back over the buses so I could hang out with Caitlin, catch up, & just chill. I got to finish my food and Caitlin looked through my sketchbook. We walked over to sign the Word Nerd banner and then went to the venue door to go in.

My mom told me we had 7th row seats.... but we were right at the end of the catwalk! I was totally stoked and couldn't wait until Jason came on XD

I won't go through a recap of the WHOLE concert... it was overall amazing and I really enjoyed it. Brooke, one of my least favorites, was actually good and smiled at me when I knew the words to one of the songs she sang (Feist ftw). Syesha did the same, and my Jason sign made him laugh (SHAKE IT, JASON). David Archuleta was ADORABLE, and David Cook gets the award for best outfit of the night.

After the concert, I really wanted to meet the idols but the crowd was HUGE. I started to whine, but my mom said we should try anyway. After a while, after a lot of shifting, I ended up second in behind these little girls. Kristy then came out, followed by all of the other idols. I had them sign one of my drawings and got to take a couple pictures. I only wanted a picture with Jason and Michael Johns, so naturally I almost lost my mind when they came around. Jason is SO much more beautiful in person and is a total sweetheart! My pictures both came out kind of weird, but I still got them<3

We got home at like, 2AM, I went to sleep at around 4, then hopped on a plan to Raleigh<3

Dos: Major Change
I won't go into details, but I've been struggling with my bio and chem classes the past two years. I've been stubborn enough to stick out the major and try to do well, but it just hasn't happened. I realized I didn't love it like I thought I did, and I'd rather be happy. I'd always been concerned about having a career in art, but my mom reassured me that I'd have plenty of job opportunities. So... when I get back, I'm going to become an art major! *excited*

Tres: North Carolina
On July 3rd, I left for NC. My flight was at 11, and I had a 2 hour layover in New York. Unfortunately, we were late leaving from New York so I didn't arrive in Raleigh until midnight. It was good to see Margi and Frank again! I stayed with them that night and I'm staying with them tonight. Tomorrow, after we go to this thrift store I want to go to, Margi's going to take me to my friend Carole's house, where I'll stay for 2 weeks. Today we went to Margi's family's house for an AMAZING barbecue and to spend time hanging out. After we got back, we hopped into the pool for like, 5 minutes, only to get out once a thunder storm was starting.

So here I am now, cozy in Magi's living room listening to the thunder and looking forward to the adventures to come!

Stay tuned for more adventures in North Carolina<3

I love my life.

Someone left a rude comment in my truth box on Myspace a while back. I was initially slightly offended that someone would go out of their way to say something mean to an almost complete stranger.

Here's the comment:

Anyway, I was thinking today. After I got my nails done and grabbed a chai, I realized how good I have it. I've never claimed to have 'everything.' Lord knows my grades are DEFINITELY not what I want. But anyway, back to my point.

Driving home today, I realized that I sort of DO have everything... Everything I really want, that is. I have a few close, amazing friends, I'm not hideously deformed, my family lives a comfortable lifestyle, I have fun hobbies, and I have a future. What more could I possibly want?

So thank you, anonymous jealous/bitchy person, for reminding me that I DO think I have everything.

And I'm not ashamed of it.

xoxo