2 more weeks

Yeah, thats right, (less than) to more weeks until summer is over. which sucks, seeing as most kids get into september and we go in at we get in during the beginning of august. Been trying to cram everything we (as in, the group) can into these last few weeks, things like going to a lake, another bonfire, and heading to Skateworld (the local skating ring which may or may not be still arround as none of us have been for at least 4 or 5 years), along with the usual movies, uptown, pool, etc etc. All in all I guess I'm not too upset about school starting back up- I've had a really, really good summer (between hanging out with my logan and joseph, the group, or just andrea), and I am kind of excited about freshman year. because, lets face it, the school I was in kind of sucked. It as the same school, same 35-40 people every year, for nine years between kindergarden and 8th grade. you kind of get sick of the same thing year after year, and I'm just ready to see some few faces, do some new things, and altogether get out of that pit.

Still, i've had a great time with the group this summer, and I don't want to "drift away" from them, especially andrea, in high school. Kind of worried about that, but I guess we'll just have to see how things turn out. My only regrets this summer is the lack of things I've done with my family, such as hiking with my dad, running with my mom, or any summer vacations. Hopefully that will change soon.

Now that the group is back in town we can finally get things going again (as opposed to the last two weeks). Last Tuesday there was a gas leak in town- nothing major, but they evacuated uptown, which is where andrea lives. Logan, Andrea and I generally just hanged out at my house all day, which was really fun, but altogether not that eventful. Went with most of the group to a local(ish) entertainment complex called Bo's down the mountain on friday- had a really, really great time :) We were there from 1 to around 10:30- I have no idea how we managed to keep ourselves entertained that long, but I'm sure it had something to do with the four or five games of laser tag, multiple trips to the arcade, two bowling games, a game of put-put (which involved me sprinting down the highway to retrieve a runaway golfball and almost getting hit by 2 or 3 cars), and going across the street to CC's for dinner. best part of the day was seeing Andrea so happy- she was in a smiley, bubbly, giggly mood that was good to see after so many days uptown seeign her shy and quiet. that above anything else made my day :) And yes, when it came to doing another game of laser tag with the guys or playing DDR with Andrea, I stuck with andrea without a second thought. Aren't I a good boyfriend? :P

Last two days involved pool on sunday and uptown yesterday. Nothing too eventful, except one of the aforementioned girls still being a pain in the relationship between andrea and I, but neither of us are taking that crap anymore. Just hanged out today, like usual, with a good book and a glass of orange juice on the back deck wasting the day away. not too bad if I may say so myself :)

Pretty much going to give up on ascension. I just can't write anymore, not with everything going on....ah well, I may pick it back up later. But until then I'm having too much fun otherwise :)

Mudbound

Well, my days have been packed this summer, which is mostly why I haven't been posting much. A few interesting things have been happening in the past weeks outside of the usual (uptown, movies, pool, etc) with friends, but I haven't really been writing much to be honest. figures, but oh well.

Well, good news is that the problems I was having between Andrea and I are pretty much over. I've been talking to her a lot, and we've both agreed to be better in our relationship...and from what I've seen so far, there has definitively been an improvement. I am worried about how we'll be able to see each other in high school though...we may or may not have the classes that we share in the same semester, but I am hoping that we'll at least have lunch hour together. High School Orientation is the 5th of August (New School!), and we get to find out which classes we have, how to get there, etc. i'll probably make a bad first impression off my teacher's from the start, but thats become the norm for me. If we don't have any classes (including lunch) with each other, I'm just going to have to put forward a real effort to see her afterschool and on weekends. Still...there is only around 300 kids in the freshman grade, so its possible that we could have a few classes together.

Really need to get my act together for running. Cross County starts about a week before school, but my mother won't go running with me at night at all and my friend Logan isn't running with me either. and its not like I can drive myself to any good running trails, and the hill that I live on is horrible for running anyways. *sigh*

On another note, one of my friends in going to be dating a girl who's...not the best girl in the world. As in, she seems really nice on the outside, but I've found out the hard way that she's not the best person in the world. Its not like I can tell my friend that though when he likes her so much...I guess he'll just have to figure out the hard way. *sigh number 2*

Two books I have to read for 105 english: Beloved and Mudbound. Mudbound it really good, but beloved it a lot harder...just sticking with mudbound for the moment. kind of worried about our english teacher though....both books are pretty racist, and seeing as I live in the south (the northern south at that, but the south) with plenty of rednecks, there is a probability that our teacher is racist. known a few teachers who have been like that, mostly because we're a mainly white county. still, it should be interesting to see what happens.

Thursday I went to this lake with two of my best friends, logan and joseph. Was a really fun day, I'll give you a rundown that you can skip over if you want.

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Well, once we got to the lake, logan and joseph immediately went for the zipline. I didn't want to go, so I ended up sitting around for an hour. when they got back, we went into the lake, did a LOT of swimming. we did this thing called The Blob. where on person is on one end of this inflatable thing, around 20 feet long, and the other person jumps on it from like 6 feet above from a diving bored kind of thing to try to knock them off. After that we went to the deep end, played King of the Hill on top of some floating pyramid thing with a bunch of other kids our age, then took turns trying to touch the bottom of the 14 feet deep end (none of us managed it). by that time we tried to catch the train, it was full, so we went around 2 to check out the paintball field.

by the time we got to the paintball field (it was a looong hike) it was like 2:30... we got all of our stuff on (masks, paintball guns) and joined the 3:00 game. the 5 of us were paired with the two best players "green shirt" and "red shirt" because we were "inexperienced." We ended up doing covering fire, flanking, dodge an roll...all that military stuff. the 5 of us took 3/4 or the people out (it was one hit elimination)...but we only had 500 "bullets", about enough for 3 rounds for all of us. most of us were out of bullets by the first round.
the second time, we were placed all by ourselves against the 7 other people...and ended up tying only because we couldn't take our red shirt and green shirt within 15 minutes...I was hiding behind a tree for most of it as two of them kept shooting nonstop at me, before logan and joseph came and literally pulled me out of there.
the third time was the last round, and it didn't matter how many times you got hit, you kept playing until you ran out of bullets. that was FUN, but brutal...I was locked in a fire match with both red shirt and green shirt the entire time, and I got clipped a couple of times because of it...pretty proud about holding out against both of them at once though. Logan and Joseph eventually got to where I was taking cover in a ditch, and the three of us managed to fight them all back.
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So, overall, the lake was a fantastic time. The past week has been more uneventful...everyone has been gone for the usual July vacations, and I only managed to get two things done this week with other people: watching The Lord of the Ring (the third one) at my house with Kim, Logan, and Andrea, and hanging out uptown with andrea from 12 to 5 on thursday, mostly just talking, but it went really well. one of the funnier moments (out of many, andrea is a really funny girl) took place where I was sitting on a bench with andrea in one of the more secluded parks in the town, and some random guy that neither of us knew just comes up and says "you should be glad you have such a great guy, he must be really sensitive to bring you down here" and then just left. it was realllllly weird, but really funny.

Well, 3 more weeks of summer left- gah! its going by so fast! Hopefully the next few weeks will bring along some good memories :) thinking about seeing either Despicale Me or Inseption at the movies with andrea tomorrow...which one do you guys suggest?

until next time

Comittment and Confusion

Okay...quick question: what is it with girls and being constantly confusing? especially when your in a relationship with one of them. Just think on that question for a bit as I explain my last few days starting...a week ago from this post.

Wednesday my girlfriend, Andrea, came back from the beach. Texted her for...5 hours? while she was driving back....I hate texting, but you know how it goes, and besides its always good talking to her. Went to see Knight and Day with her that night...good movie, its pretty funny and has some good action scenes, so its worth watching, made me laugh a few times here and there. Andrea was pretty quiet...she has always been kind of shy though, and I guess that she was tired from the ride back from the beach. Still, I was kind of worried about her anyways.

Thursday...was interesting. I went uptown with a couple of friends, the same group as usual: Logan, Joseph, Stephen, Amelia, Kimmy, Sydney, Andrea, and Daniel, making a grand total of 9 of us (sometimes there is a bit more of us there, sometimes less.) You know, people ask me why I keep going uptown day after day, but in reality actually doing something with friends on an almost daily basis has really improved my summer over what it was last year. Anyways, my main problem is that there are two girls in particular that are, well, blocking me from interacting with Andrea. Normally its not a big deal, but they are constantly clinging to her and making it so that I can't get close to her at all. I mean, it shouldn't be a problem, but it bothers me a lot.

Nothing happened really Friday, but Saturday was fantastic. Went uptown to see the 4th of July parade (which, indecently, is on the 3rd) and town festival with Logan and Andrea, and had a blast doing so. Generally just hung out, enjoyed the festival to the fullest- and the parade was fantastic by the way. Went to Andrea's house afterwords, had a ton of fun there (and yes, I am still the champion of Guitar Hero, but both my girlfirend and her younger brother gave me a run for my money.) Andrea's family brought me to see the fireworks at the Country Club afterwords, and I met back up with Logan there too. The Firewoks were spectacular...what really made me happy though was that Andrea was in her rare moods where she's giggly, happy, and pretty silly...its good to see her like that, having fun that is. All around one of the best days of my summer, which is already the best summer of my life.

Sunday was the 4th, independence day...went to a party with most of my aforementioned friends, and I had fun for around half of the party. I did notice though that those two girls were constantly getting between Andrea and me again, and as much as I tried to get close to her they would constantly push me away from her...the few times I did manage to be with her she seemed rather distant. Things really started to go downhill when the person who was setting off the fireworks tipped over the mortar, and all the fireworks went off around 20 feet from the porch that we were on. A couple of my friends managed to get down there and pull the guy out but...well, I freaked out. completely froze. I feel really, really, really bad now, mostly because Andrea was right beside me and I didn't move to help her or protect her or anything, and she could have gotten really hurt. I don't know...I was just so scared, and I couldn't think straight. I don't think andrea minded at first... she was really scared too and she's the understanding type. but then one of those two girls pulled her aside once the fireworks stopped, and andrea didn't talk to me the rest of the night...i don't know what they said, but I think they made it so that andrea was hurt by something I did, probably freezing by the fireworks. I just felt really bad for the rest of the day, really alone, and I left with Logan early. I just couldn't handle it.

From Monday to Wednesday (today) my family had to leave for a family emergency and I lived with Logan (who lives only around a 10 minute walk away) for the week so that I could stay behind to take care of the pets and everything. Andrea said that she felt really, really bad for the previous night, but it still really, really hurt for her to ignore me like that...but I'm more mad at that one girl who is trying to get between us and who pretty much caused andrea to ignore me. It happened again yesterday...one of the two girls was being really stubborn uptown, and logan, kim and I just got fed up with it and left, we didn't want to deal with it anymore. The thing is...I fully expected andrea to follow, seeing as she was being annoyed by it to, but she didn't follow us at all. I don't know...I guess those two "friends" of hers are more important than me (even though she keeps saying that I'm the best thing thats ever happened to her) and well...It hurts, a lot. I mean, I know that she really, really likes me and wants to be around me, but those two girls are keeping us apart...I've tried to stop it, but I only succeeded in getting one of them really, really mad at me and probably will try harder to keep us apart. Andrea is just really, really shy around other people (not around me, she is really outgoing when its just the two of us) and I think that its less of her fault than the fault of the two girls that are getting between us. It just makes me so mad and I feel helpless with the number of ways I'm trying to get close to her that keep failing...really, I don't know what to do. Andrea is one of the most important people in my life, and both of us Like each other a ton...but if I don't do something about these two girls, than...i don't know what will happen. I don't want to loose Andrea, but I can't see a way for us to be together with those two girls getting in the way...I need help is what I'm trying to say.

Hopefully the next week will be better.

The Boys of Summer

Can't figure if I like this summer or hate it. Well, On the good side, I've been together with my girlfriend for about a month now (which is pretty good, seeing as most kids break up after a week). She's been gone twice though- one time for a missionary trip, and now for the beach. But there is still half of the summer to go (and I HATE going back to school in August- ugh!). 4th of July (Independence Day) is coming up- you know what that means: Americans get drunk, are in the possession of firework, and end up burning a lot of stuff. And seeing that we live about 30 minutes from the Tennessee border, which has kinds of fireworks illegal to sell (though not to use) in almost every other state, it gets pretty...eventful. Going to a party with a couple of my friends after seeing the 4th of July Parade with Andrea in the afternoon- should be an eventful day.

Then again, Eventful pretty much describes almost every day in my summer. Going to the movies, bowling, heading uptown, swimming, work for 10 dollars and hour (which inevitably spend the next day), running to get in shape for Cross Country, or just hanging out with a good book- great, great summer. Nothing much to add, there has been a number of eventful incidents in the last month for example:

-Doing a competition with my friend to see who could text 100 words while swinging (harder than you think!)
-First date with a girl, ever...went pretty well
-Laughing at my friend when his cell phone went off in the middle of a movie
-Playing Cops and Robbers across the entire town
-Staying up until 1 or 2 each night to text my girlfriend or talk to her over facebook
-Singing at the top of my Lungs to the Entire Journey album with my friends
-Taking Hikes in the breathtaking beauty of the Appalachian Mountains
-Sitting on the back deck watching the sun set than staring up at the stars
-Going Mini-Golfing and failing miserably (56 on 18 holes!)
The list goes on and on.

But, with all the good things, you'd be surprised with all the drama I'm dealing with. Long story short, it seems like a lot of people are worried about a lot of things, and they go to me to talk about it. Not that I mind, but its so hard to when you don't know what to do or say. Ugh :/

Well, thats my update. I'll get another one out after the 4th!

Edit: sorry about not being able to get anything of Ascension up- I'm stuck on a part I'm writing at the moment and what I have written isn't all that good. Why does writing have to be so hard?

The Endless Weekend

Thats Summer for you: One, big, long, and seemingly endless weekend. A time to practice the few luxuries of freedom in life before the weekdays of school inevitably return.

Yeah, sorry about that, I'm still in writing mode. Believe it or not, I'm actually making progress with Ascension. Here's part of the opening that I've been working on all day: (constructive criticism is appreciated)

The sky was a burning red- a twisted testimony to the destruction that had plagued the very land under his feet in an age long past. Sila’threan it was called by his people: The Nightmare Land. It was a realm that was void of any form of Fae or Kai, an ashen waste where the tainting presence of the Void still lingered, enough to drive a being mad and into a feral state of existence. It was these lands that served as the forbidden grounds of his people, the one place where his nomadic race dared not tread. It was these lands that he called his home, and it was these lands that he had survived in a tortured existence for decades in hope of escaping the horrors of his past: horrors that he wanted to forget, but was forced to remember.
Scourge they called him; Bane, Destroyer, Exile. He had many names from all corners of the realm of Intai’sei, enough so that he had long forgotten his birth name. To the few that remembered his existence, he was known as Vaec, “The Forsaken One.” He had ceased to care: he was stripped, an empty, soulless husk, a Void. Yet it was this emptiness that gave him strength, allowing him to survive where all others could not. The only thing that kept him going was a simple, driving hatred against those who had wronged him all that time ago. It was this rage that kept him moving through every agonizing step in this hellish wasteland, every footfall shooting tendrils of pain through his very being. Rage was all he was now, Rage and Hatred, and one day, yes, one day, he would have retribution.
With agonizing effort he raised himself to his feet, the pain of the simple movement nearly forcing him back to his knees once more. Even in his empty state, the Void’s lingering presence still pained him, yet he had come to live with it: they were one and the same after all, and it was his emptiness that kept him alive where all other should fall. He raised his eyes to the sunrise that lay on the horizon, painting the overhanging clouds a blood-red hue. East was his goal, as it had been for year upon year. He knew not what drove him, yet some supernatural force kept moving his feet towards the blood-red sunrise that brought every agonizing day. And he obeyed, his rage, his hatred, and his pain driving him ever forward.

If you remember the background to Ascension (the fae and kai thing?) you will know that every lifeform on the plane of existence that is known as Intai'sei is made of either the life energy of Fae or Kai (with the Insetti being sentient beings of Fae and the Kantras, Vaec's species, of Kai.) Vaec, or "him", was stripped of that energy years ago, yet didn't have the good fortune to die. For some reason, he survived, and became a barren husk of a being who's sole purpose lay in revenge on those who had wronged him in such a way. He was exiled to the Nightmare Lands, a wasteland that in tainted by a Void that was caused in a great clash between Fae and Kai ages past. This Void that is present in the Nightmare Lands feeds on Fae and Kai energy, which would lead to the death of any lifeform that stepped foot onto the realm's barren ground, but Vaec is spared from death due to having no life energy to be consumed. The Void still causes him unbearable pain as it attempts to feed on him, but as Vaec's life does not rely on Fae or Kai energy, it cannot kill him. So, how does it sound?

On to life. Lets see... girls (or, in this case, one girl), hanging uptown or at the movies with my friends every other day, running, or summer work (mowing the lawn, stacking wood, etc) is dominating every waking hour of my day, so I'm pretty dang busy. Since the Bonfire Saturday, I've had friends hang out at my house on Sunday, hanged out uptown on Tuesday, went to see a movie on Wednesday, experienced my first kinda-date on Friday, and went uptown on Saturday. So yeah, busy week, and my nights are no better, being wasted on Xbox, facebook, and texting (often at the same time). Haven't had much time to write, or update my blog, but I'll try to do my best this summer.

That's about it for this week. Haven't been arrested by the police or anything, so thats a plus, considering that it's summer. Oh, and as a last note, sweet child of mine by Guns and Roses, but this time in orchestra version, and without words. Its actually very pretty, believe it or not.

Its My Life

Music Video sucks, but the lyrics show exactly how my life is going right now- EPIC. This summer, only 2 days old, is already the best summer of my life.

Its my life- It's now or never.
I ain't gonna live forever,
I just wanna live while I'm alive

Friday was the first day of summer...got a call from one of my friends, Kim, telling to move my butt over to the pool ASAP. managed to get there with another one of my Friends, Logan, and after spending an hour hanging out at the pool (and yes, Logan and I were the only guys hanging out there- we are such players haha) 4 of the six of us decided to go grab some lunch as some tiny cook-out shack in the market courtyard. We later met back up with Andrea and Amelia, the other two girls who decided to stay at the pool a bit longer, and spent the rest of the day at the park. Played Tennis, Basketball, Volleyball, went to the Market, and generally just hanged out for 6 hours straight. Best Friday in recent memory.

Saturday night was equally as epic. 10 of my friends, along with my sister and two of her friends, had been planning a summer party at my house for a week or so. And dang, it didn't disappoint. Everyone got there at around 7 or so, and the party itself lasted until 11:30 or so. Highlights of the day include burning old homework in the firepit that I had been building for around a week, having Tyler catch a firework in the air while it was going off, tossing pop-its and soda bombs in some kind of free-for-all war, trying to snatch the beer cans while the parents weren't looking (and failing), playing rock band with 10 or so people switching off, getting high of helium balloons, playing capture the flag in the dark (with one of my friends and I using our shirts as flags), hiding under an old canoe during said capture the flag match, laughing our butts off as one of the guys and one of the girls went into the dark without a flashlight to "hide the flag" and laughing even harder when they started to stutter when denying that they did anything, playing truth-or-dare at around 10:30 or 11, and roasting marshmallows over an open fire.

Great, great day, especially seeing as (personal thing that my parents can skip if their reading as I've already told them to, no offense, really, not get too involve with my personal life) I was hanging out with the girl that I really, really like most of the day (which is more of a friends-with-benefits thing seeing as she's already dating some other guy, although I told her that I liked her a while back and she assumed as much a bit before that) and a bunch of my very best friends all at once.

So, in short, a great, great start to one of the best summers of my life.

Bittersweet Ending

This has been the first time that I've ever cried about leaving school. Never, not even in Kindergarten, did I ever cry. But, well...I don't know. The best word to describe it is bittersweet. But I'll go with the good stuff fist.

Today was the last day of school for the 8th grade (everyone else gets out tomorrow). The school day was just us hanging out, going tot he park, eating ice cream, and preparing for the graduation that would take place later on that day. Got back home, worked for around 2 hours with clearing out the fire pit for the bonfire I'm going to have Saturday as a kind of summer celebration, than had a shower and dressed up in some snazzy dress clothes before going to the graduation at our school at 6:00. After chatting up with some friends and girls (who looked amazing in their graduation dresses), I was required to lead the line of 8th graders to the auditorium stage (which I guess is a big honor- I dunno). After we got seated, all the teachers made these big long speeches about how great of a class we were (and I have to admit, we are an awesome class) before handing out medals to all of us for "such a great year". Then they started with the awards: you know, highest academic achiever, best singer, etc etc. I ended up with some long service award for both band a strings (a shiny nice medal to boot) and, most surprisingly of all, the athletic award. I mean, I'm pretty athletic, but no where near what some of the other people in the grade are. Moment of shock there...the rest were pretty predictable, with the exception of a few here and there (one of my friends got the geography award while the other got the...friendliest person award? best student? something like that. Proud of them both) The teachers started actually crying when they gave an award to honor a teacher who died a while back (the one which my second friend, Kimmy, got), which made me feel really, really bad. Then a couple of chorus kids started singing In My Life by the Beatles, and I almost choked up right then and there. two or three started crying in fact. it was really, really well done.

After that was the graduation party. They started playing the hour-long 8th grade video while we were eating on the projection board, which had video clips and pictures from kindergarten up to 8th grade. that was about it...my friend Andrea started crying, so did Kodie and Kylie. After given pretty long hugs to every girl in the 8th grade to say goodbye- another time when I almost chocked up when giving a few hugs with some girls that I knew that I would never see again (and I gave a few bro hugs here and there, I'll admit it).

After saying final farewells, 8 of my friends and I headed to the local pizza place, Mellow Mushroom, and pretty much just hanged for an hour or so. It was a really, really fun time...going to miss a lot of these people, even If I'm going to be hanging out with a most of them this summer anyhow. Thinking about asking one of the girls out this summer...not going to say her name as my parents sometimes read this, but I'm going to go for it later on.

So, yes. Bittersweet is the best word to describe the day. probably one of the best days I've had in a long, long time, but Its been really sad leaving all these good memories behind. After 9 or so years with most of these people (and a class of only 35 at the highest) we've grown into more of a family than a class...we were all friends there, and it is always hard to leave your friends behind. But anyhow, it was a very, very good way to kick off the summer. Going to the pool and heading uptown tomorrow to hang with a lot of my friends that I'm not yet ready to "let go of" yet. Also, I'm inviting 12 or so of my closest friends to a bon fire Saturday too...this is going to be a very, very good summer.



found this when i got home. that was it, I cried. The most un-manly thing that i could do, but it couldn't be helped. This is the song sung by the chorus at grad- to everyone in the 8th grade, I'm going to miss you all!