oh, hai dere.

I highly doubt that anyone is here anymore, and I don't blame you guys. I also don't blame you if it annoyed you that I said "I don't blame [insert pronoun here]," because I have been saying that way too much lately.

So what have I been doing lately? Oh, you know. Smart things. Running 40 miles a week. Reading "War and Peace." Typical Amy stuff.

If that made you giggle, then you know me. What have I really been doing? Slacking on running. Not doing anything smart. Mostly, my nights have included watching the Olympics. I am obsessed with figure skating. I keep yelling at the tv almost as loudly as I yell when track meets are on. I am like legit in love with 19 year old Canadian skater Patrick Chan. For a recipe, take sunshine and beauty, mix well, and place on ice. This is what you get. And this. And this.

I visited Truman over the weekend, and I'm pretty sure no other college is going to stirke me as much as this one. There were boys sword fighting with foam swords in the snow. I met professors from the english and communications departments. There were good doughnuts. And the classrooms have rolly chairs. The rest of the weekend I basically spent deciding which dorm I want to live in. I need to stop this.

School is boring. Track starts in a week, which will just make everything worse. Perhaps the first twenty seconds of this will cheer me up. And if that doesn't work, I'll just watch this.

And there are just no words to describe this.

Oh, so I'm supposed to actually write regularly in here? Oops.

Oh, um, hi.

I've been lacking lately, haven't I? Can I give some lame excuses? Like how much cross country has completely taken over every aspect of my life? And how I spend so much time freaking out about school and racing that I basically have no time to do anything normal? Because I think those are some pretty good excuses.

But it's midnight on a Saturday (or I suppose a Sunday) and this is what I tend to do in this time-frame.

The leaves have finally started changing and this is one of those things that I am so completely amazed by that it just gets me every time. I spent most of my life thinking of "fall" as being that time in which the weather is in the 70's for like a week. No leaves changing colors. No cool temperatures. Just the promise of "winter," which, in my case, included temperatures in the 60's. This is my fourth autumn here, and it still surprises me just how vivid everything is. They sky's been dark these past few days and the bright trees against the dark background has been so freaking cool. It's like a storybook or something. And even when I'm upset or stressed out I can't help but appreciate this mysterious season.

Districts was today. I hate life. Congrats to Laura and Molly. My life sucks. I hate myself. The end.

It's late October, and that means that I'm basically in a frenzy and I've spent the past few weeks completely excited and now it's that time where I realize "Oh, shit, what the hell, Amy," and start to freak out. Because NaNoWriMo starts in a week. Seven days. That is so freaking soon. I'm not ready. I don't even have my computer (I finally took it into a repair place. Still not back yet). Although this year is different from the past two because I actually have a legit plot that I am very comfortable with. Why? Because I'm finishing the one I did last year. I'm going to add another 50k to that and then, hopefully, it will be done. It's just sitting there, waiting for me, with a measly 60,000 words and halfway through the story line. It looks so sad and lonely. Who could abandon that? I'm worried about what this will do to my grades and my social life. And sixth grade camp, which might just make the entire plan impossible. Damn it.

Now that you know more about my life than you probably care to, I'll stop.

school blah

I seriously forgot how annoying school is. Sitting in class after class after class is just not fun.

But some comments:

I was a bit skeptical about debate, mostly because I figured that there was no point in taking it, but I kind of like it now.

Math really isn't so bad. Yet.

I'm trying to be upbeat about Trieschmann. Sometimes she says something really funny and I feel like I'm the only person in the room that sees the humor in it, and sometimes she says just really awesome english teacher stuff. I kind of like her.

Mr. Anderson is freaking awesome. I love chemistry.

Chazen scares me a bit. But he doesn't yell at me, which is good. But that might only be because I don't think he knows my name.

Cross country has been supa awesome. I like the new girls and cheering for everyone yesterday made me realize how much I missed it.

I miss summer. So much.

summer

I kicked off my summer with a run in the rain, drops falling all around me and landing on the ground, along with all of the pressures of life.

A few days later, Caroline, Maggie, Molly, and I showed you guys what happens to squares around here.

We all surprised Hope for her 17th birthday, having to say goodbye as she and Megan went off to nerd camp.

Race for the Cure was the biggest crowd of people I have probably ever seen.

I went to camp and reconnected with my friends and performed in what was probably my last play. I climbed rock walls and walked tightropes and ziplined. I ate pie and huge amounts of ice cream and sat on the dock in the blazing sunlight. This was the last time we will ever be on the south side of the lake, and we all cried as we watched the final sunset over the water.

I screamed like a little girl when I pre-ordered Harry Potter tickets, and then was completely overwhelmed by the amount of people there and the feeling of connection between as us we knew we were all nerds. Finally, finally, after four years of loving them together, I saw Harry and Ginny become a couple.

I saw Harry Potter two more times after that, one being a date with Laura and the other being in 3D.

I traced my name in the sky with a sparkler as smoke enveloped me and all I could see were the outlines of my friends' faces.

I went to the zoo, the loop, and the botanical gardens with Katherine, Carrie, and Beth. I liked the penguins.

I played on the playground with my sister and we giggled and felt like little kids again.

We played with puppets and had a fake food fight and made bracelets at Bryan's house.

I went on a walk with my parents along the river.

I rode, squished by you guys, in the backseat of Carrie's car as we sang to "I Gotta Feeling" and Maggie smacked Kyle for stealing shotgun.

I saw Twilight and laughed harder than I did the first time I saw it.

I got snow cones with Megan and Caroline and then played on the playground, riding the raccoon instead of the duck with crazy eyes.

I got in a stuffed animal fight with Katherine and Beth and we threw things at each other, making loud A Very Potter Musical references and laughing.

I went to the loop and ate ice cream with Carrie, Molly, Maggie, and Caroline.

I got attacked by an angry Carrie as she yelled at me and Megan for jumping on her bed and shouted that we will not be getting friendship bracelets. Molly was extremely hyper because of three Red Bulls.

I fell, laughing, down a soapy tarp, chasing after my friends as we all landed in the soaking grass at the bottom in a heap.


It was a good summer.

Wait... what?

I was watching tv and a commercial for an odd mop came on. And I watched because I find infomercials mildly interesting, and then he said something that made me quite confused.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr6qaG8RlUk
:31

What?

OH YES.

GUESS WHO'S SEEING HARRY POTTER AT THE MIDNIGHT RELEASE?

HELL.
YES.

Home Again

I'm glad to be home, but I have to say that I miss camp like crazy. I love you guys, but I miss it.

This year, I did the high ropes course for the first time (I went a few years ago but then this guy came running up yelling about wasps and spraying everywhere, and I hung around a little bit to see if the wasps would leave, and then I ran away because wasps freak me out) and it was so fucking cool.
Basically, there were a series of platforms sticking out of the ground and wires about them. To get between them, you had to walk on a log, on swings, on floating boxes, and on tightropes. You were suspended from the wires by a rope, but it was still kind of hard. I have horrible balance, but it was still so much fun. It's pretty high up, but I'm not sure how much. At the end, you zipline off. And on most ziplines you hold onto something or sit on something, but you just had your harness connected to the rope connected to the wire, so it was like free falling. Best thing ever; I was screaming and laughing and it was amazing.

We have this odd capture the flag type game on the lake, with two teams and flags on buoys. Everyone gets in a boat or a kayak or a hydrobike and takes off. I don't participate in this, as I find that I get pushed into playing enough capture the flag games at home, but I went out on a pontoon boat and watched. Naturally, there was a hell of a lot of cheating. The red team took their flag as they went to get the other team's flag. Boats were pushed over. People were swimming (totally not allowed), there was some violence. (All at a ymca camp... sigh. But the fact that it was so expected kind of allowed everyone to continue with the outrageous cheating. I found it funny.) Half of the boats tipped over, and there were some rescues. I saw a kid in a mini kayak, and the next time I looked up, the kid was gone and there was an adult trying to make a getaway (without paddles) in the same mini kayak. I don't know if he stole it or if the kid just wanted to get on a different boat, but it was still pretty funny.

These guys tipped twice. Another boat tried to help them, and they ended up tipping over themselves. A lady on the pontoon boat pulled out her camera and said, "If this isn't a photo moment, I don't know what is."

And after the capture the flag game, it was pie night. All afternoon, people made a billion pies and that night we did our best to eat absolutely all of them.


This is the first batch that they set out. Believe me, there were tons more.

One morning, I signed up for a canoe trip. Not gonna lie, I didn't realize that I was going to have to paddle. But after the surprise wore off, I realized that paddling is not that hard and I ended up having a lot of fun. The sun was just rising and the lake was perfectly still, reflecting the pink of the sky and the clouds. There were swans. There were lily pads and flowers on them. It was so pretty and quiet. Normally, you get that many people out on the lake and it's basically like the capture the flag game: someone's trying to push someone out, someone's making a race out of things, someone's yelling something about either the Michigan football team or the Ohio one. But it was so quiet and peaceful, and I was surprised.

It was a really, really good week, and I'm sad and I miss it, and I wanna go back.
But I'm happy to be home.