Just like...blah.

It's been a weird day.
I found out my friend's dad died last week.
I haven't seen her in a while, and we all knew it was going to happen, but I just found out about it this morning.
But from what I hear, she seems fine.
Well, she's SAD.
But it's not as though her dad just died.
And I know it's a front, and I haven't exactly "been there" for her through all this, but she's sort of closed herself off from everyone except for a select few.
So she's sad, it sucks, but there's nothing I can do about it.
My dad told me that when a guy likes a girl, he often has a backup.
I mean, if you set your sights on one girl alone and she rejects you, well, that would hurt.
So always have a Plan B!
It sounds sort of terrible, but it struck me as funny when he said it.
I don't know. I suppose it might have crushed me a while ago.
It explains some things.
But I don't feel like complaining about how "jacked up" boy culture is.
Girls are just as bad, something Women's Studies does a very good job of pointing out, though that's not Mrs. Taylor's objective.
So I'm gonna get my life together in the mean time.
Focus on the stuff that's actually important.
According to Matthew 6:25-34, everything God has planned will happen when he wants it to, when I seek first his kingdom.
I was thinking on the bus ride home about how weird it is that so many seniors will be leaving youth group at the end of the year, after I JUST go to know them.
Then it will be time for me, and then COLLEGE.
And WSU seems too isolated, but UW and OC are not places I could EVER see myself, and, though I love Colorado, every time I think of leaving home I start to puke.
It turned into this huge worryfest, but my mom managed to talk me through it.
Because God HAS A PLAN FOR ME, one to give me a hope and a future.
And what he has is SO MUCH BETTER than anything I could ever dream of.
And he'll put me at the best possible college. But we're not at that part of the journey yet. I've still got 2 years. And they'll be good ones.

Home again...sort of

The day we left Colorado, it started raining.
Like serious "the gods are angry" type rain.
Then we get home to Washington...and the weather's been insanely nice.
Not to mention HOT.
90 degrees?
How very Twilight Zone.
It's good to be home again.
I thought things would be different when I got home.
I'm not sure how I thought they would be different, but when I got back, everything was back to normal.
I sort of just..."fit" right back in.
I'd kind of wanted to be different somehow, like things just "weren't the same".
But then I'd be Christy Miller.
And I praise God every day that I'm not.
And that was a little...stupid, self-righteous, who knows...of me to think in the first place.
Oh well. Life goes on. And I have changed. At least a little bit.
It was a great trip.
We have a *cough* beautifully written team blog and a couple of videos.
My dad was worried watching the videos that I wasn't having a good time, because I look miserable in the videos.
But no. I was actually completely enjoying myself. I just take bad pictures.
The VBS part was great. The highest number of kids was 42 and on the last day we had 39, and at least 15 were saved!
2 out of 4 brothers in one family were saved, and 3 other kids (all in the same family) got saved and were so excited that they brought their jr. high brother.
He completely hated the VBS, but at least he got to hear the message.
And the jr. high group hadn't had kids for the first three days, so it was nice for them to finally have at least one.
The first graders were squirrelly, but so cute. One of the Australians was the youngest of 4 brothers and knew how to get his way oh so effectively. He had the most evil smile.
Another would tag-team with his younger brother and cause chaos.
But he got saved and ended up being a total sweetie. On the last day, during the carnival, it was the happiest anyone had ever seen him.
Probably because he won an ungodly amount of candy.
But still.
Ew, when Tootsie Pops lay in the sun for a long time, they cease to be delicious.
The team bonded, it was all good.
But really, I honestly feel closer to these people and I made a lot of new friends.
Woo, I sound like a kindergartener.
The encouragement board was my favorite part. I loved getting notes. One of the leaders wrote me the nicest note.
Ugh, there were a couple low points. One of the leaders was kind of a jerk.
Scratch "kind of". He was a jerk.
He was like an overgrown frat boy. He'd act like an immature loser half the time, and then suddenly expect you to give him respect. And he'd do stuff we weren't supposed to do, yet when we pulled crap like that, he'd INSULT us to no end.
Or maybe that was just me. Ugh. He was such a loser.
And then one of my teammates and I didn't get along. It was a matter of misunderstandings and differences in personality, but when I finally started trying to make amends, he LITERALLY turned his back on me. Funnily enough, we kept getting thrown together in EVERYTHING; family groups, VBS, etc. So I think we should work it out. But I don't know how he feels about it.
And, frankly, I no longer care.
Wooooooooooooooo, anyway.
There was delicious food every morning from the dream-crushing cooks, and hot showers in the CCU locker room.
CCU sounds like a cool school.
They gave us goodie bags full of college-y stuff.
I got a mug, a frisbee, a CD, and college information! Yes! For sure!
And the guy who gave us the spiel about the school was so darn convincing.
Hmm...Christian school...never really thought about that before.
Denver itself is great. Outdoor malls? What are those? Now I know! We found an epic indie bookstore, too. It was GREAT!
And there was a fantastically awkward bus ride.
Well, there were a couple of those. And not all of them were fun. :P
But the one I'm referring to was funny because it...wasn't...funny.
I ended up buying 7 ninjas and 3 books.
Don't ask.
And all for $25.75!!
Woohoo. And now I'm going to crash. To bed!

Christians at an alehouse?

Despite the fact that I didn't get into bed until 2:00 AM last night, and then Tie stole all the covers, Grad Night last night was pretty bomb.
And yeah, I was the only one who didn't whip out a brand new prom dress for the occassion.
But my dress was one of those perfect, God-given shopping moments.
You see it and you just know.
Because my life is a romantic comedy with Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman.
Ew, I just watched "Kate and Leopold" and it was terrible.
They always describe Meg Ryan's characters as "quirky" and "independent" when the proper word would probably be "ditzy" or "clueless".
Anyway.
Good times.
And the pastors didn't give me questionable stares because of the amount of leg and cleavage I was showing.
Speaking of pastors, Pastor Mike hid under the stage for 3 HOURS during the "Clue"-esque production put on during dinner.
It's always the quiet ones...
...but it was really Milton Bradley.
And it was a little disappointing pulling up to BJ's in Tacoma after a seemingly endless drive, but the Pizookies were totally worth it.
And the flatbread pizza.
Mmmm, vanilla bean ice cream.
And our waitress was all wise and actually enjoyed her job.
Why that was memorable, I don't know why.
But she was nice.
And had cool hair.
And gave Josh an orchard full of lemons for his homemade lemonade.
Harry Potter seems like perfect summer reading material.
Because every book opens in the beginning of summer, when it's hot out and everyone but Harry is lazing about.
And then, while you laze about yourself, you get to read about a school 10 times cooler than yours will ever be.
Even if it's always cold there.

Could I be different, too?

Nobody knows you, nobody knows you like I do.
"Lagaan" sucks. Surprise! Bollywood musical! But everyone who's seen it has apparently loved it.
The dialogue is awful, and the acting isn't much better.
:P
But "La Belle et La Bete" is pretty fantastic, for a 40's fantasy movie.
The special effects are cheesy, but kind of cool.
Except for the faces on the mantle. And the bed covers that pull back by themselves.
Just about peed my pants watching those.
The Beast is kind of a creeper, but not as much as Avenant, who practically rapes Belle in the first 5 minutes.
If she says no, it's rape!
But he apparently doesn't care.
Luckily, Ludovic walked in.
Ludovic is sort of an awful person, but a nice brother. At least to Belle.
But he tells Avenant to slap his other sister (who's crazy), so Avenant does, and then he gets all mad and is like, "HOW COULD YOU SLAP MY SISTER? WHAT IS IT WITH YOU AND MY FAMILY!? NEVER TOUCH HER AGAIN! EVEN THOUGH I DON'T LIKE HER AND SORT OF WANT HER TO DIE ANYWAY!!!"
Okay.
A bunch of people are doing Running Start next year, which is a waste of time, but I can't stop them, which I want to, because it's a waste of time and other such things.
But I guess I can't stop them.
But one of my friends keeps asserting that NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE and that we'll still hang out ALL THE TIME and she'll GO TO PROM and everything.
But it won't be the same, and she refuses to see that, but I can't TELL HER THAT.
And she acts like I'm challenging her decision ALL THE TIME, but I haven't said anything, because she's doing it no matter what I say, so why bother?
We have new seats in English, and they suck.
Terribly.
Because all the annoying people gravitated to the same spot.
And just have fascinating conversations.

Doc, there's a hole where something was

Butterfly bandage, but don't worry....
Lol. Tyler and I were tuning timpanis in 6th period.
While watching yet another History Channel movie on the Black Death.
Yeah, it was icky.
And a lot more devastating than I ever knew.
And really sad. People abandoned their sick family members and whole families were left to die in their own homes.
And it was a really painful way to die.
But I don't see why Leonard Nimoy had to tell us this.
And why Mr. Hurd had to explain what the movie was about and tell us EVERYTHING that was going to happen.
You obviously know all this stuff. Why are we watching a 45-minute movie if you're just going to condense it into a 10 minute lecture anyway?
Rosey is so cool. He was in the paper this morning.
And "St. Francis and the Sow" is his favorite poem, too.
We were interpreting "Lost" by David Wagoner, and Amanda was being really insightful and understood the entire thing.
We were in awe. She decoded everything to the very last detail.
"The Legend" is so sad. He wasn't just a man on the street! It reminded me of the homeless people in Seattle.
Along with "Miss Rosie".
Poetry is so cool. Only we have to write some of our own soon.
And there's a book report due Friday.
And we have to measure the roots of our radish plants.
And we have a WASL vocab quiz tomorrow.
So the flash cards are due.
And Mr. Macaras expects us to do that massive math packet.
CRAP.

You Are a Cougar

You have more strength than most people, and with it, the ability to inflict a lot of harm. Your power gives you confidence, and you find leading others to be easy. You believe that you need to the best, and you are very driven to excel. Most people immediately admire you, but some people feel very envious of your abilities.

What Big Cat Are You?

WSU, here I come!

PG-13 is the new R.

Meaning my life is PG, thank you.
Wow. Youth Group. Fun.
We got into a rather heated discussion over whether or not gay men should be pastors.
And it got ugly quite fast.
It all started when this one girl asked whether or not a girl could be a youth pastor, which brought as right on back to 1 Timothy 2:12, a verse I'd had Sunday School teachers dispute over in past years.
"Oh, well, women can cut their hair as short as they want it, but they can't lead in the church!"
Why would you disregard one verse and adamantly preach another?
Argh. Sorry. But it still bugs me.
Anyway, we sort of skirted past the "women leading the church" issue, when another girl asked if a gay man could be a pastor.
Her reasoning: He wasn't a woman, and God was all-loving and all-forgiving, so surely he could look past his gayness and let this man lead.
That's when all hell broke loose.
Some of the more opinionated people took charge in explaining (rather passionately) what the Bible said about homosexuality.
One of the not-so-sensitive (ahem) homeschoolers BERATED this girl for not knowing all that the Scripture said about this issue.
A few people (including myself) tried to speak up and got knocked out the way.
Some of the more neutral and quieter people got very uncomfortable and hid in the background, waiting for our hour to be over.
And then our leader decided to read a very long passage about not just homosexuality, but all sin, and how sinners would be dealt with if they did not repent.
You could see the girl getting madder and madder until she just stopped listening.
Then she left.
AAAAAAAAAGH of course this is the ONE issue I have trouble with, and I wanted to talk the girl personally, because, with my big ego, I was convinced I could get her to understand without being agressive and shoving Scripture down her throat.
But then some people accused me of being too soft and PC, and told me that we can't always spoonfeed people, and that they have to know the truth, and God's word will always be hard for some people to swallow.
And I don't disagree with Janine reading the Scripture. But after all that had been said already, a reading of the entire first chapter of Romans didn't seem like a good idea to me, and just made things worse.
And yeah, this is her issue. And yeah, Christians are pretty good at offending people and sometimes it's necessary if we're going to stand up for what we believe in.
But some of what was said was NOT necessary.
Gah.
So. That's fun. We're going to WSU, and hopefully won't get ticketed for not having snow tires.
It's just slush. I think we'll be okay.
But I'm pretty pumped. It's going to be freezing cold and my brother is going to be busy all weekend, but we get to eat out, so who needs him?
I just want school to start up again.
If only jazz band wasn't so early....

Tyler, you were wrong about those guys

RyRy is pretty gross.
Tony's nothing special.
Aaron's nice, though.
Why is he toasting me?
Ewwwww, you were right about Corey, though.
Other non-Tyler related junk:
Another rousing Sims session today. Finally, some Family Sims! They're always the most fun. And I'm thisclose to fulfilling Lilly's Lifetime Want, which I've never done before, so that's pretty thrilling.
WSU in...2 days!
SO PUMPED.
Yeah, I get to see my brother.
And the campus.
But I'm pretty excited about eating out.
And getting a new T-shirt.
Sorry, Nathan.
Do you know those people who accidentally type profanities (for example: missing the r in "T-shirt") and laugh hysterically, then show EVERYONE what they've done. "GUYS! Hey GUYS! Look what I typed! *giggle giggle*"
Um, yes. Hilarious.
Ew, my mom and I watched a really, really terrible remake of "Pride and Prejudice" that took place in Utah.
And I kept remembering all of Justin's Mormon jokes.
And I couldn't help but laugh.
I love how he's an out and proud Mormon...but knows more Mormon jokes than anyone else.
That tends to be the case, though, right?
"She Gets What She Wants" is hysterical. "Mean Girls" was lauded for being witty and "right on", but "She Gets What She Wants" is just as funny, if not funnier, since I hated "Mean Girls".
It's just less subtle. And very Texas.

Karma: Attractive people having ugly babies

But the babies shouldn't be punished for it.
Just their parents.
AAAAAAAGH I was playing with my Princess Diaries Sims and all the teens went to college.
They all looked pretty good for young adult sims, at least pretty normal.
Then Michael Moscovitz got out of the car.
He used to look like this. He's the only one not wearing glasses.

You don't even want to know what he looks like now. Actually, I'd show you, but I don't have a current picture of him.
Speaking of babies, Tyler and I made one together. Her name is Captain and she has black hair, blue eyes, clodhopper feet, and is freakishly tall.
Tyler made her look disgusting.
Great. Our child is a clown.
Even though, seeing as we're cousins, she should have three heads and flippers, so I guess she doesn't look that bad.
Classes for next year! Paul and Kevin are taking English Lit with me, but Amanda is going full time at the college (lame) and Emma is dropping out of band.
So next year has some possible suckage.
Ugh, if any of my teachers mentions the WASL one more time, I'm going to walk out.
THE WASL IS A WASTE OF TIME.
THERE IS NO NEED TO PREPARE.

Itchy, drugged terriers need cream cheese.

We just got Tie back from Courtney and she is thoroughly miserable. Courtney took her to a park and Tie got fleas.
????
We've taken Tie to parks before and she's never gotten fleas.
So she's not acting like herself at all.
She mostly stays in her bed and when, she does get up, flinches and bites herself so much that she runs back to bed.
She still hasn't finished food from dinner.
And she didn't drink for hours, so when she finally did, she drank almost the whole bowl.
I'm really worried about her, but my mom gave her a cream cheese pill and some flower oil, so she said she'd be okay.
I hope.
:(

What Your Playing Cards Tell About Your Future

Right now you are focusing on friendships, relationships, and interpersonal connections. Your emotions are currently tied to a trusted woman in your life. She is just, and she has your best interests at heart. Your closest friend is someone you have a co-dependent relationship with. The two of you desperately need each other to survive. The near future will bring you a long term friendship, children you love, happy family relationships, and prosperity. Beware of a forced change. The circumstances of your life are about to become very different.

The Playing Card Test

Sure....
I had a drive at 11 AM today, but it was fun because it was around town, not just in the older part of town, which SUCKS because there are no stoplights or landmarks. Today, Ed had us drive to the mall, Dairy Queen (we didn't buy anything), and go around a roundabout.
Driver's Ed was sort of fun. Phoebe and I had to plan a road trip from Silverdale to WSU.
Which, funnily enough, is the route I took a couple days ago.
Too, too funny.
But the trip itself had to take at least 5 days, and we had to make 6 recreational stops.
So we went to the Space Needle (or the Space Noodle, in Jeff's words), the EMP, Mount Baker, Soap Lake, some other fantastic lake, and Nathan's best friend's family's house.
Which is where I stayed 2 days ago. Ha.
I'M GETTING MY BRACES OFF TOMORROW!!!!
Toffee for LIFE!
Yes, there will be a retainer, but WHO CARES?

I'd like a big slice of alone time with a side of hygiene, please.

After a LOOOOONG 6 hour drive in a rental car, we're all back from Pullman.
Not that that's a good thing.
Well, it is nice to be home and I'll be able to shower...
...but I sort of like it better there.
Not only is there no humidity (!!!!), but it's like a little WSU-village, where all the "villagers" worship the cougar.
We dropped Nathan off. He has a really cool dorm room, and no roommate, which is a plus, I guess.
I think it would be cool to have a roommate, though.
Because you wouldn't have to interact with anyone else, but you wouldn't be lonely.
Unless it was a lame roommate.
I miss Tie. :(
My hair is so greasy.
Ferdinand's is so delicious!!
Hurray for ice cream addictions.
Side note: How come whenever I'm stressed, no matter how trivial the reason, the last thing I think to do is pray?
And, of course, that's often the only thing that helps.
I have (had) good friends who in the past would just start praying and it seemed to help.
And it helps me.
But I'm not like them.
So the question is...
...what's wrong with me?

Wow, you're wrong.

You know how adults think they know what's going on with a group of teenagers and decide to lecture you about it, and you're sitting there, blinking stupidly, and you have NO idea what they're talking about. In other words, Sunday School was REALLY fun today. -_- I guess the majority of us don't really get into worship, and it's assumed that it's because we're in conflict with others.
I'm thinking it has to do with the worship team.
So that wasn't very fun. And they ended EARLY, so I had to wait in the cold for my brother.
On the bright side, we didn't have to sing!!!
I suppose that makes me a really horrible person.
The end of the year is coming so fast!!! We're already discussing ASB budget for next year (and possibly the next four years as well!!!), the end of the year awards assembly, sophomore classes, and FRESHMAN!!!
So now I'm worried about getting a date for a dance that's two months away. Brilliant.
I don't even have a dress.
Is it really sad that a junior high dance is more nerve-wracking than being in charge of several assemblies?
The Princess Diaries Sims: Helen had TWINS, which doesn't exactly follow the book AT ALL, but thankfully one of them was a boy, so I named him Rocky (of course). The other was Rose, because I remember Mr. Gianini wanting to name his daughter that.
The Greeks would want me to go to NYU.

Next stop: Sky High!

I don't think I watched that movie at all last year. :O THAT'S WHY MY YEAR WAS SO BAD!
I think my next project will be Sky High Sims.
How positively freakish.
A lot of stuff has been happening, or not happening. Tests, and quizzes, and math labs, and whatnot.
Nathan came home from college. He'll be here for a week. We want burgers!! I read all his Rolling Stone magazines. Basically it's run by a bunch of "open-minded" pot-smoking music freaks. Kind of boring, and there was an entire article about a transvestite boy who WASN'T EVEN REAL!!!
Pop Tart filling can be kind of grainy, which is disgusting.
Lucky Charms and Cheerios.
Curse you, guitars.
AND Girl Scout cookies.
I really wanted those Girl Scout Cookies.

Blink 182 with Dad: not such a great idea

Yay, let's listen to the American Idol women stink up the stage.
Agh, duress, duress, sooo much duress! Not even sure why, but I'm pretty darn irritable.
Well, more so than usual.
I think I need to eat more.
It just so happens we're covering Stress in Health class. What a concept!
I scored 456 on the Stressed Out quiz (seeing as it had you list events from the past year), and Mrs. Lutz wanted to know why.
Well, I don't know, I get home at 4:30 every day after 2 hours of brutal practice where a cop made me pull myself across the gym floor, but before that, I'm bored out of my mind in several classes and have no idea what to do in the others.
I want to buy some Lucky Charms.
Going to NYU. Going to NYU, and no one can stop me.
But they don't exactly have financial aid.
Heh. I threatened to become a music major and my dad tried to be supportive. Lol.
Ouch, cheese.
Hate rubber bands.
Pizza's not bad.
Read a depressing book about suicide, sexual abuse, and cats. Why, Aimee, why?
I think I'm going to kill all my current Princess Diaries families and make new ones. Because I'm a little disatisfied with my current ones. And I want Perin to look more androgynous.
Pueblo: A Spanish word for a village or town
I'm thinking about getting one of Amby's SAT books. Only I don't want mine to be about vampires.

..::Periods and colons make good embellishments for poetry::..

So Nathan is leaving. So long, laptop. So long, Chess Titans and emulator games. So long, brother who looks like the guy from "Prison Break", only not black. Seriously, did you know that guy was mixed??? I didn't.
But I think college sounds pretty amazing. I mean, forget the fact that I have no idea what to do with my life, because everyone likes to shoot down the feeble ideas I do come up with. But it would be like high school, only YOU LIVE THERE! I'm sorry, but that sounds pretty fantastic. Actually, it's a lot less like high school because there's not as much social interaction and you have to listen to hour long lectures every single day, but there's school pride! And football! Not so much basketball, because college basketball is only fun on TV, but FOOTBALL!
I would sort of like to be on my own for a lil while, possibly forever, and escape this stupid rain and freezing temperatures, and take care of myself. But I'm sort of terrified of the dark sometimes, and I have no idea how to balance a checkbook, and I'm cool with a job as long it's at Starbucks, and does that pay for groceries??
So I guess I'm not living in the "real world" any time soon, because I've got a not so accurate view on all of it. Kind of knew that.
But don't you hate the people who give you the condescending smile and the freaking, "Don't grow up too fast?" It's like reverse psychology.
I just realized that whole monologue made absolutely no sense.
I did NOT get enough sleep last night.
But I watched "Gremlins" and part of "Small Soldiers", both pretty awful movies. Jay Mohr and Kirsten Dunst made me want to puke. And in "Gremlins", the Katey girl tells a stupid story about her dad died, and I am calling "Mythbusters", because I swear it's impossible.
So her dad climbed down the chimney in a Santa suit, his arms loaded with presents...and he slips and breaks his neck and dies. Um, right. Could you even fit down a chimney? Especially with all those presents??? And if you did slip, wouldn't you be more likely to hit your head or break a leg on the bottom. That's if you fit down the chimney.
La la la. Heh, my mom is buying me a chicken bake. I'm going to my grandma's. Life is all right. Sort of. Except for the fact that I'm not making ANY sense. And I suck at math.