I'M ALIVE

I know you all are insatiably curious. It's my birthday. I'm on my way back from Awanita. I'm facing a 18 hour bus trip. Wedged between Cakestraw McCraw Master of the Cotton-Eyed Robot (Cougs/Josh/my colourblind little brother and pillow) and Teddy Bear, in front of Mr. Cupcake, behind Jaws and across from Spanky, we all sit watching Peter Pan. Again. It's the official Pipeline movie and gives way to the official chant (as aforementioned in previous post). My pink teddy bear Chai has become an object of much lust somehow. Everybody wants to cuddle with him.

There are pixie sticks.

On a different note, you would be amazed how much junk about 20 girls can bring to camp. It is truely frightening. Also frightening is the number of unaccounted-for cuts, bruises and minor abrasions I can find on me. I am surprised however that I am not worse off. We were deep in the mountains of North and South Carolina. Lots of steep inclines and slipery rocks Put it together. Oh and there's an ice cold lake at the bottom of the hill that my 'cabin' was on. Just think on that. We had to walk just about a mile up and down hills and around the mountian to the mess hall. I think we all lost weight. And gained scars. Oh, and there were two trips to he hospital. Yes. Two.

I'm very bored. I've slept on Josh, Bailee and Maison, I've read in my Bible, in Sophie's World, Jeeves in the Offing, and the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxcy. My head is on Maison's pillow on her lap, I am laying across my seat, slung across the aisle and my feet are on Josh's lap. I feel nausiated.

It's amazing how much one particularly short boy with hysterical bed head can rattle off semi useless and astoundingly random information.

It's been an emotional, teary week and I am drained. I may post more later.







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Location:Bus

The revenge of Cougs, Care Bear and Sparky the Owl

Ok. This post is written from a bus, a bus full of hyper middleschoolers on the way to camp. It's way loud. Were singing VBS songs. It's also 7 am. We've all been up since 5 or earlier. Earlier in my case. We all have settled on our nicknames, some new made up for some antic this morning, some older with intricate backstories. We have Skittkes, Cougs and Care Bear and Sparky the Owl(me). Shorty has an ipad 0_o. I was dubbed Cougs' honourary 'mommy' by his sister to keep him in line and to make sure he doesn't get too high on pixie sticks and Five Hour Energy. Or at least make him share :). Spike went with a brigh green, sparkly Mohawk. We rock. Go for awesome coloured hair! Alex (yes. It's a nickname with a very intricate backstory) is brave and sitting between Cougs and Care Bear. I admire her strength. Sawyer is being a human 'Bopit'. Lots noise here. Polkadot is texting Tutu and they're sitting together. SJ and Highliter aren't here and that's depressing. Cici is somewhere. I really don't know where. Everybody is chanting "I do! I do! I DO believe in fairies!" every hour in the hour. Pipeline tradition and official chant. I think that's all for now.


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A splash of summer. ( ok that was corny)

Hello my dear followers! As several of you know, this summer has brought about a few changes for me this year. But I'm not gonna blog about that. So to commemorate those changes , I will do all of my summer posts in yellow. Now that that very important matter is been (yes, I said it that way, I meant it that way, and if you disagree, I will glare at you) dealt with, on to less important business.

In honour of my brother JACOB DEAN!™, I will be blogging about water today.

Water is a distinctly integral part of summer! Think about it! From hoses, sprinklers and pools to water balloon fights to the beach and ice in your lemonade. Water is everywhere in summer. and ya know what? I love water.

Water. It's the most needed thing on the planet. It keeps you alive, it can kill you. Water can be a gas, liquid and a solid, but all of us who passed preschool know that. EVERYBODY has experienced water. How amazing is that? (How many things can you really say that everybody in the world has in common? Several I'm sure, but don't spoil my fun, you critic, you.). Many of the most popular sports require water: Skiing, swimming, snowboarding, ice skating (and yes, I will be going ice skating this summer =]) and dancing in the rain. THEY ALL REQUIRE WATER!

But that gets me thinking. Rain. Its also an integral part so summer and the cool thing is, it's water.[insert several paragraphs on how rain is formed and how it benefits the entire world] I think I like rain better than anything else (yes, even hugs, but its an indefinite thing). It's awesome. I love the sound ( www.rainymood.com [also compliments of JACOB DEAN!™]), I love the feel, I love the thunder and the lightning, as long as it is not preventing me from being out in the midst of it. * is thirsty, leaves the computer and gets a very big glass of water. *

I will leave you with this quote:"Would it be possible to kill someone by spraying oxygen and hydrogen at his face at the same time, thus creating a water vapor around his head?" -- Guess who.

Thanks JACOB DEAN!™

Thinking out loud here. Well, on paper (it's not even paper really!) I guess. Here, let's call it the thought of the day. That works well!

Scientifically speaking, which colours really exist? I mean all colours we see, we see in the negative, and other colours we don't even see at all. Is green orange? Is black white? It does not make sense!

Then, on top of that, our human eyes can't see all the colours that other animals can see! Every living creature has colour receptors in it's eyes. People have three (red, yellow and blue) but other animals have more! There is a kind if crab that has five colour receptors! That means there are at the very least TWO more primary colours that people can't see! I don't even know how to imagine or what to call those extra colours! More over, why can't we see them (beside the obvious lack of colour recptors)???

(I just noticed that I type faster on my iPod than on a real keyboard...)

And then is the more confusing matter of the images we see. Which side is up? In grade school we were all taught that when our eyes first see something, before our brains register the image, our eyes see the thing we are looking at upsidedown! Now why by all the letters of the alphabet does that happen? I don't know. It seems that what our brains register our eyes to be 'seeing' is quite the opposite to what is really there!

What a creative God we have!

Normality and Invisibility

Before I start, I'd like to share a little bit about post. I wrote it about a month ago and never published it knowing the curtains that are torn away with it. I am not sure I really want those curtains torn away because I am hiding in them and I'm not sure who will find me, but I know that they need to fall and I need to be found. It's something that I feel very strongly about and, well, ... So, know that this is a really heart felt post and I'd really like your opinions after you read it.This post was really hard for me to write but I know that its a thing other people need to hear. It's a long one, but bear with me.

Ever noticed how everybody (at least in middle- and high-school) strives so diligently to be considered normal, to be just like 'them' (whoever them is)? Have you seen people do stupid stuff merely because everybody else is doing it therefore it must be entirely rational and reasonable? People do it to be like everyone else, to be accepted. Yet to be just like everybody else, you need to stand out, need to be just different enough to be cool, not absurd. Fashion, sports and hobbies are just a few of the things on the list of requirements that add, or subtract from the cool factor. But there's another catch: academics. It's cool to be just barely smart enough to pass tests (or at least get a C- average) while not getting perfect grades. In fewer words mediocrity is what teens these days aim for! What an awesome goal! If you have straight A's, speak your mind, stand out, wear off brands and have barely heard of any big names in music and are even more clueless about what's up on TV... well you're either one of three things: a) a complete outcast in the world of 'in the know' and cool, b) a homeschooler , c) or me (which would be all of the above =])

Well, back to the topic at hand: Why, oh why, do we strive to be normal? What is the attraction? To fit in? To be accepted? But why do these things require normality? Can't we appreciate the differences among us instead of scorn them? Didn't God, creator of us all, intend us to be different? Why on earth would we judge someone for being exactly what they are intended to be? I got it into my head that everybody's opinion matters.

I am not a naturally outgoing kind of person. I need to be in my element before I feel comfortable in my environment. Most of you don't really get to see me any other way, so just trust me on this one. I don't like change that is out of my control. I don't like to stand out, rather just be rather overlooked by a great part of the rest of the world. I want to be myself without the people around me noticing me unless I choose for them to care. I'm generally content with a handful of close friends who I know and trust deeply (something that is really hard for me) but to be ignored and overlooked by the rest of the world. I'd rather serve than be served. I like for people to get to know me, but not all of me unless I know them. Really, really well (which goes to make some of my newer relationships all the more special and confusing). It's not that I don't like people. I love people. I would rather know people than for them to know me. I guess you could say I like to be invisible.

At a science class I used to take, I was teased, and teased, and taunted and jeered at. Middle school girls can be pretty brutal. I have never been in the cool or popular group, and I have never been tried to be. When I took a class that none of my friends were taking, I was teased for not having friends in the class and for several other seemingly silly, small, petty things like always getting good grades and an ability to answer questions succinctly (yes, I'm an academic. It's what I do). At first I would just ignore their snide remarks, but they kept on pressing their opinions on me. Their words started taking root and I began to take their words to heart. I began to dread the class every week and did my best to get out of it. My friends and family told me that they were just jealous. Sure. Who would be jealous of a geeky looking, glasses wearing, know-it-all (yeah, I recognize I do come across that way sometimes)? I kept coming back to their cruel remarks and swallowed them one and all. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and hide from everything. Invisibility (ninjas must really have it good). And this was a CHRISTIAN class. This was almost a year and a half ago. I didn't handle any of this really well and just recently have I begun to deal with it.

I don't know what has changed within me, all I care is that it has. I know I'm not the only one one who struggles with trying to fit in but I also know that it can feel that way. Being normal is impossible. It's just a mask that can slip of and shatter at any moment. Striving to be normal is just gonna end up hurting you so why try? I think being loved by those who you love is a better goal. The opinions of those who you don't like don't matter. Let their opinions be their opinions and stay that way. Normal is a lie that masquerades as truth, as something good, something wonderful... "So encourage one another daily, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you may be tricked by sin's deceitfulness" Hebrews 13:13.

In the Dark

Today in orchestra we played in the dark. Literally, all the lights went out. We were in the back Studio B in the Shakespeare Center, the one with the walls painted black, no windows, warm, with a door that, when it closes, lets in no, absolutely no light. We played in the dark for about 20 minutes. It was so much fun (for me at least, I like the dark better than the light) and we all played really well considering. I am one of the few who has her music memorised (yes, that does imply that none of the boys have memorised music) Asia (my [atheist] stand-partner) and I played nearly perfectly. Miss T was very profusely complimentary and had us play up front, without a stand (an awkward situation because, short as I am, she is shorter... by a lot). We had a ridiculous amount of fun. The Cellists must not have for Kendrick, first cellist and super-duper sarcastic (to an annoying, peevish level) and astoundingly tall asian kid (younger than me, surprise surprise), was absent. He essentially carries the entire cello section, sad really. I'm gonna stop rambling now...

Love you guys!

Into Non-existance

Today has been a day full of Hannah moments:

8:00(ish) a.m.- Fell out of bed

10:15 a.m.- Went to Johnsons, missing breakfast entirely... =(

10:45(ish) a.m. - Was pushed, quite by accident, off a table while holding an electric razor when giving Arwin (shaggy Irish Setter) a trim

Lunch- Luke: "The all new Taco Bell Slim Taco *SHING*" (yhtbt) [not a Hannah moment, but had to go up]

3:30-6:45(ish) p.m.- - Painted shutters. Black paint all over me, especially my face.

7:45 p.m. - Realised that I left my sunglasses and jacket, and shoes at the Johnsons. Also realised that I'm helplessly stranded at orchestra tomorrow unless I can get somebody to pick me up from downtown...

10:15 p.m. 1- Chat with Landon, learned the sarcmark has no Mac platform.

Wonderful day... =)!!! And about the title, philosophy-at-Regs inside joke.