Back to School

First off, sorry about my lack of posting- school has kept me very, very, VERY busy. To be honest, High School isn't all that bad- boring and frustrating, but I'm getting back into the usual hang of things as far as school is concerned. Well, as far as a breakdown on the last two weeks, here goes nothing...

School, in and of itself, pretty much sucks. I have no classes with any of my friends, I pretty much sit at lunch by myself (All my friends have 3rd or 4th lunch while I have 1st), and I have a buttload of homework every night. Band is boring as heck, Health is annoying, English is okay, and Technology is either fun or incredibly boring. I guess the best part of the day is at the end- I have Science with Andrea, and I sit right beside her, and that makes what would normally be a boring class the best part of the day. I have Cross Country every afternoon (more on XC later) with Logan and John, who are really fun to run with. Andrea has joined XC too, which is fantastic, as I can see her more :D but, im wondering how she is holding up....I dont know if she is having a really good time or if it makes her miserable :( But, I think its special that she joined Cross Country to be with me- and im not about to forget that.

Already finished one book in English, Of Mice and Men. Pretty good book, short...we had to do annotations or essay questions every night, which is annoying, but its not too bad. Mice and Men is incredibly sad at the end- I don't want to spoil it, but it was depressing :( English isn't that bad- I sit by this one girl, Kat, and she is pretty cool (and no, not nearly as amazing as andrea before you get any ideas.)

In Band we just do breathing exercises and scales the first hour and only actually play for like 45-30 minutes. Which sucks horribly. Our band director wants to have us join in with the marching band in football games and everything, but really, im already deciding to just quit softmore year. band just isn't fun anymore.

Health is on an alternating A/B schedule with band for 2nd period, but its incredibly annoying. Our teacher is like some woman who is in the army reserves, and she is mean....like, incredibly mean. One of my worst classes.

Lunch is....awful, for the most part. I sit with a group of people who I used to play basketball with, seeing as their the only people i know in that lunch (except for kim, who sits with me every other day- she has an A/B lunch plan), but they dont really pay attention to me. Worst part is that a kid who used to be one of my best friends, he is a softmore, sits in the same lunch, but since highschool came last year for him, he has just gotten more and more egotistical, mean, and generally a jack*** to me. His loss.

Fundamentals of Technology can again, either me really fun or really boring. On one hand, i dont know anyone there (except for one of Andrea's friends, but only slightly) and the teacher can't teach worth crap, but on the other hand most of the kids are pretty wild and fun, and if we are doing a project (which we do a LOT) they are generally interesting. so, depends on the day.

I love science...the teacher is pretty fun, doesn't teach us crap, but im happy because I get to sit with Andrea. Pretty much what I look forward to in the day.

Cross Country is amazing- I think I've found a sport that I really, really like and that just clicks, unlike basketball or soccer. Basketball I loved, but I just sucked at it...soccer wasn't allt hat fun for me after a while, though i guess i was good at it. XC is both fun and I'm pretty good at it, if I may say so myself. We practice 5 days a week, varying between low key days, like a medium run and exercise circuts, to things like tempo runs and hill workouts. I've been in two competitions so far- Clash of the Classes, a county race that is is basically just you vs other freshman boys, that kind of stuff. I got...7th or 8th in that race with a time of 13:35 for a 3k race. And I got a medal :D The other competition was this weekend- it was farther away, so we spent the night at a hotel friday night, which was a lot of fun :) there were 4 people in my room, and only 2 beds, so as usal frushman gets the floor, last shower, etc- but it was all good, they were pretty friendly to me :) hanged with andrea that night a bit- but I pretty much just crashed at 10:30 to get some rest for the race the next morning.

The race was a regional race, so, 13 or so schools divided into six races- championship, invite, and open, boys and girls for each. It was a 5k race- and it was TOUGH. the course was pretty hard- the vetrans from the previous years had named all the hills you came across previously, which were Horseshoe Hill, Seizure Hill, The Wall, and Hill Hill, in that order. yes, our vetrans are pretty crazy if your wondering ;) Horshoe hill wasn't bad- seizure was tough, but it had a nice downhill to gain back momentum after it. the wall was pretty much straight up, and just kept going- probably the hardest. Hill Hill is what one of the seniors called a "joke hill"...your about to reach the end, but no, before that you have to go through HILL HILL- its like a big slap in the face. its not bad, but since your almost dead by then, its TOUGH. Still, I ran the race without stopping, got 115th place out of 213 in the open race with a time of 23:32, which is pretty darn good if I may say so myself. Im hoping to break 22 or even 21 by the end of this season- maybe even 20, but thats really tough...5 minutes a kilometer, ugh! My school got 2nd place out of all 13, which is really good. Andrea looked like she was going to pass out after her race- I pretty much had to carry her to the shade so she could sit down afterwords. and yes, I am that good of a boyfriend ;) Both races were woth it- you should have seen us before the race! each race, teh guys all gather in a circle and start chanting "mudcats" (our team name) before ripping off our shirts, sprinting to the starting line, all while screaming at the top of our lungs. we are that intese lol :) but it really does help get out all the nervousness you have, plus it intimidates the other teams :) you try to not look scared when there are 50 some high school boys charging at you screaming like something out of braveheart! :D

Today I worked for...8 hours maybe clearing trees from that last ice storm last Christmas- and yes, we are STILL cleaning up from that. anyways, I got about 60 bucks off that- enough to buy this new video game im looking forward to, a Halo game, which comes out the 14th. A certain, special somebodies birthday is the 26....need to save up from that, but what do you guys think would be a good present to get her? something special, but preferably under 50 bucks ;)

And thats the last two weeks. until next time!

The Last Day of Summer

Most beautiful song I've ever heard- When i listen to this song i see my whole life flash before my eyes, the good times and the bad times. It's just all there and yet even though this song gives me a melancholy feeling it also fills my soul with a yearning for the past. I just love this song but i do hate the last day of summer. i think we all do.

Well, this is it. the last day of summer. I guess the above song explains it the best- kind of a bittersweet ending. I mean, on one hand, I cant wait to start highschool- but on the other, as you well know, this summer has been the best ever. I dont really want to let it go. going to do what I did last year- a list of the highlights of my summer, along with things that I wish I did.

Highlights

- Last day of school, hanging out at Mellow Mushroom with what would later become 'The Group', and a great graduation to boot

- The Bonfire, giving one final goodbye to the school year and starting off summer with a bang

- Having andrea say "yes" to asking her out- btw, today marks 9 weeks together :)

- The countless times that "The Group" spent the day uptown during the summer

- The Third Of July- hanging out with andrea and logan at the uptown celebrations and watching the fireworks as the day came to a close

- Doe River Gorge with logan and joseph- hanging out at the lake, the zipline, 'the blob', and especially paintball. one of the best times I've spent with the guys

- Bo's with 'The Group' -laser tag, bowling, arcades, mini golf, and just a whole bunch of fun. one of the best days of the summer

- The times spent uptown with andrea or at the movies- every day with her was special, especially spending that last day (today) with her.

- Group Movie with the group- watched 'Inception' after going to CC's for dinner

- Hanging with Andrea for her brother's birthday all day

- Spending 3 days at logan's house, was pretty fun

- The number of times spent just hanging at logan's house of my house with joseph logan and me

- All Nighter with Marcus playing Xbox until around 4 or 5

- Spending the day with Andrea at Mount Mitchell, another one of the best days of the summer, she was just so happy, it was so good to see.

- the number of times I went running with Logan

- The Highlight of my Summer- not going to say it, its going to remain a mystery, but for people who know me I think they'd know by me not including it in this list

as far as disappointments go...

- not going on enough hikes or camping or anything with my dad. he's been really busy, so not his fault, but I'd like that anyways

- having marcus lave for maine for a month and him never coming with the rest of us to anything the rest of the summer

- the 4th of July. if you really want to know about it its in one of my previous posts

But other than that...nothing else.

The New School

I'd post pictures, but for security reasons I wont. Im going to WHS, which normally is a really crummy school, but we got a brand new school this year! its great, HUGE school, really nice facilities: 2 gyms, 3 floors/3 wings, great cafeteria (with a local pizza place catering pizzas every day, cofee (with flavour shots!), gadorade, soda machines, a full cafe line- its great), great football field (which is right next to the greenway, making cross country epic), baseball diamond, soccer field- everything. plus a ton of clubs and high school sports.

XC (cross country) already started about a week ago- its hard, but really fun, as one of my best friends (logan) is in it and a bunch a kids a know also. we run around 45 minutes non stop every day, one a number of the mountain trails along the greenway, then depending on the day will either do sprints, tempo runs, or workout circuits. so, really, really tiring. but its worth it- im getting in great shape between that and this summer's running. We have a lock-in at the school for XC, which is basically just and all nighter for all of us- should be a ton of fun! our fist XC "meet" (aka race- we practice every weekday with optional saturday morning practices) in in about two weeks, but we are one of the best teams in the state anyways. Im thinking we are running a 5k- should be interesting. Andrea may join cross country, but im not sure.

Anyways- wish me luck for the beginning of high school. going to be fun...I hope. I just hope that i'll be able to stay with andrea and the group throughout high school, but we'll see.

Until next time