Insanity, honestly.

Guess what? I'm getting a car. A CAR! I'm not even 16 yet, and I'm getting a car. I cannot friggen believe it.

Guess what else? It's a screaming yellow 2005 Mustang V6.

I'M SERIOUS!

Yeah, dude. I know. Click here to read more about it.

I found out Monday night, but I didn't post about it because I wanted to be sure that my parents weren't just joking. Turns out they weren't, and I'm the happiest kid in the world right now.

I'm in serious shock, as I'm sure anyone would be in the same situation. The car is in Port Coquitlam right now, but it'll be in my driveway by next Friday. There'll be more pictures posted when it's at home, but this one picture will have to do for now.

P.S. My relatives are leaving tomorrow, so starting then, I'll have more time to post things.

P.P.S. Everything is in an upswing right now, so I'm very giddy about life. Don't mind me.

Also, happy belated birthday to my mom, who turned 45 years old yesterday. Love you, mom.

They're Coming...

Today, I have to go to the ferry terminal, yet again. Guess why? A whole wack of my relatives are coming. Brilliant.

My grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle and newest baby cousin Josh will be arriving at around 2:00PM today and they'll be staying for two weeks. Considering the fact that we usually only have three people living in our house (Mom, Dad and myself) this will be a major change for us, and we don't know what to expect. Instead of just the three of us, it'll be just the eight of us. Oh the joy. I have to share my room, which I've never had to do except for sleepovers.

Well, wish me luck everyone. Feel free to come over anytime and save me.

To make things worse, there is a lot of tension in the house right now. To give you some indication of how bad it is, my usually docile mother smashed a picture of me (frame and all) in the middle of the living room. The reason? She claimed that I wasn't helping enough with the house-cleaning. In truth, I was frantically cleaning my room, cleaning her bathroom, vacuuming the entire house, and talking to my father (who's in Port Alberni, and can't help with the cleaning) on the phone. I see no logic here. They're coming at 2:00, and it's not even noon yet! Honestly.

I'll try to post again soon, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to in the next week. Sorry!

How To Fall Into A Creek - For Dummies

I'm sure every one of you has fallen into (or at least jumped into) a creek or river at some point in your life, right? Well today, I'm writing this so that the next time you decide to go creek-jumping, you do it the easiest way possible, with the least amount of damage done.

I'll start with a description of what happened to me last night.

My friend Meghan and I were invited over to my other friend John's house. Originally, he was supposed to come to Meghan's house, but that didn't work out. Anyway, we arrived at around 7:00PM and John gave us a quick tour of the house and introduction to his dogs. Soon after, we decided to go outside (without shoes, might I add) and run around for a crazy few hours. During this time, we ran, raced each other and Jessie, explored the forest, walked on brambles, almost went to the firing range, and (perhaps best of all) swam in the creek.

The plan was to make our way across an army-style rope suspended over the 10ft. across creek. Easy, right? Not if you're wearing a skirt and are 5'6". Myself, being the girlie girl that I am, was wearing a skirt and absolutely refused to go the normal way (arms and legs swung over top of the rope), so instead, I was to do it monkey-bars style (just arms, no legs). To put it simply, I fell in.

So after I got out of the water, and my friends had finished laughing at me, we started walking back to the house. Halfway there (when we were level with the bridge across the creek), John whispered to me, "Let's throw her in". So, we attempted to drag Meghan to the bridge, but she wouldn't come quietly. Eventually, we all made it down to the bridge, but none of us wanted to jump from that height. Instead, we went down to the beaver dam area and waded in. John ended up pusing Meghan in while standing on a cinder block... yes you read right. John ended up jumping in too.

We all swam around for a bit (fully clothed) and then began to head back to the house. When we got there, we changed into some of John's clothes and tried to warm up. We were picked up a few minutes after that, so we had perfect timing.

So, there's the recollection of my evening. Now, on to the part where I tell you how not to fall into creeks, or at least do it tastefully.

To be honest, I really don't know how to fall while being classy, and I also have to go soon, so I'll just say this:

Stay away from creeks.

"The West Edmonton Mall Trip"

Okay, everyone else is doing it, so I thought "What the hell, I'll try it too".

This is my recollection of the events that happened during Friday, April 29th, 2005 until Sunday, May 1st, 2005.

(Dates in history that I will remember forever, undoubtedly). Just to warn you all, I've never, ever, ever kept a diary before. Never. So I'm pretty sure I'll be awful at keeping this thing updated. Ryan, I'm relying on you to remind me, hahah. Also, I'd like to dedicate this blog entry to Meghan Gartshore, who couldn't be there with us on the Edmonton trip. I hope this excruciatingly long description will explain it to you better, because I know that I did a pretty bad job in person, heh.

On the morning of Friday, April 29th, I woke up feeling extremely excited from the tips of my toes all the way up through my spine and into my brain. I'd been anticipating this day for weeks, and it was finally here. So, I got ready for school, and it turned out to be a very strange day. It was scheduled that our class was supposed to go on a field trip to Victoria General Hospital, and that we did. I have to say, it was one of the coolest field trips ever. Still, I couldn't get Edmonton off my mind, and even as we walked into the morgue, I had a gigantic smile on my face.

So anyway, after we got back from the hospital, my dad picked me up from school, and drove me home really quick so I could pack (for future reference, I'm big on procrastination). I packed everything I could think of, and then downsized because I had three backpack's full. By the time I was all set, it was 4:00PM, and we had to get to the ferry terminal really fast to make it in time for 4:30PM. We made it.

At the terminal, I met up with most of the YoungLifers and we filled out some forms and after waiting for about half an hour, we were ready to board the 5:00PM ferry to Tsawassen. In general, the ferry ride was great. I started talking to a guy named John, who I didn't really know very well, but it turns out that we have so incredibly much in common (ie. same birthday, hair and eye color, shoes, European history, favorite movies, etc.), and now we're great friends. He tried to teach me how to hacky sack down below on the car deck, but I sucked no matter how many times I tried. I'll have to practice that, I guess.

We arrived at Tsawassen terminal at around 6:45PM and we had to get on the bus almost immediately. It was already waiting, so everything was fine. I ended up at the very back, sitting with John, right next to the bathroom (which kinda sucked, because as you'll later find out, a few people ended up puking). And so the real trip began.

In general, the bus ride was really fun, since we had lots to do and lots of time to do it. I brought along an essay that I was supposed to write, but I never got around to doing that (Sorry Mr. Roome. He was really mad at me today at school, when I was the only one that didn’t do it), and I also brought my Zen Touch and a bunch of books and clothes and money. We watched a few movies and then night rolled around. Ryan came to the back to sit with us for most of the night, and we took turns dozing off for a few minutes at a time. An estimation of how many times we changed positions: 60-70. This continued until someone got really sick and puked before he could reach the bathroom. He puked on Ryan's leg (which was hysterical, but not for Ryan, hahah), so Ryan had to go and clean it all off, and he ended up just sitting farther up.

So then, we kept on driving into the night, and I took some pictures, and talked with John, and attempted to read, and watched Ghostbusters and a bunch of other movies. That's just a very brief summary by the way. I don't want to bore you, yet I probably already am. Tough luck. Anyway, John and I prepared to "watch the sunset rise", and so it did. Shortly after that, we stopped in Hinton (Yay for my previous memories of Hinton that no one else on the trip had!) for breakfast. Most of the people ended up going to Smitty's, but not me. I hate waiting in line, or more accurately, waiting. It sucks. So instead of Smitty's or Tim Horton's, I went to McDonalds. Hardly anyone went there, so I figured it would be quiet. I was really disoriented from the lack of sleep by then, so I thought it would be best, hah.

So, after breakfast, we left again for Edmonton, and surprisingly, it didn't take very long at all from that point. We arrived, on schedule at 9:45AM on Saturday, April 30th at Gate 32. We gathered all of our things, headed into the mall, did a quick check on everyone, and then headed to the Waterpark, so that we could get our passes. Then we were finally let loose in the mall. At this point in reflecting, I feel kind of bad, because I practically sprinted off and didn't let anyone know where I was going, even though I promised that I'd stay with some people for most of the trip. Apologies to everyone, but I was over-excited and couldn't wait to see my two best friends, Manda and Sheldon (locals to Edmonton). Luckily, I found them almost immediately.

If I went into detail with what I did at the mall, it would take a few days at the very least. I'm just going to say that in a matter of 11 hours, I was a shopper, an extremely happy girl, a crocodile hunter, a British critic, an athlete (running up the down-escalator = exhilarating), thirsty for watermelon soda and "Bubble Tea", a photographer, a duck-logo enthusiast, determined to take a talking deer home with me, and completely obsessed with finding PJ pants. There is much more to the story, but I'll just leave it at there for right now.

By the end of the day (around 7:00PM), Sheldon, Manda, John and I decided to get some dinner, but Earls was way too full, so we decided to go upstairs to a lesser known restaurant, Cafe Europa. John ended up ditching, but we had fun anyway. After a very long, relaxing dinner, we continued on my search for PJ pants, and were finally successful 5 minutes before I had to leave. We bought them really quickly, but then realized that our locker was way at the other side of the mall, so we sprinted back to Bourbon Street (Sheldon got it all on camera) and then I sprinted back to gate 32 alone after hugging my two best friends goodbye. I suck at goodbyes, but this time, I didn't cry (for once, eh Manda?). So, if anyone was wondering why I was late for the bus, that's why.

The bus departed very soon after I got there, and I was sitting alone for a change. This was a plus, because by that point, I was dead tired and just needed to rest for a bit. They put in another movie quite quickly, but it was all in subtitles, and I was at the very back of the bus again. No way in hell that I was going to be able to read them, so I decided to just read a book. This didn't work at all because the movie was really, really loud. I tried to understand it without reading the subtitles, but that didn't work, so I just settled for drifting in and out of sleep for a few hours.

Soon, we stopped in a small town to stretch our legs, or buy some things. I got out to do both, and when I got back on, a guy named Jessie was sitting in my seat, sprawled out. Since my "seat" was actually three seats, it was fine, and I just sat down by the window. So for most of the night, Jessie and I talked about everything that we did at the mall and stuff like that. We became pretty good friends too, and he introduced me to James (who was actually sleeping at the time), Brad, Chewy and a bunch of other people that I didn't know too well before that. After another stop, I came back on the bus, and Jessie is gone, but John is in his place, sleeping. We stayed there 'til we got back to Tsawassen terminal and by then, it was obviously daytime. I'd guess it was about 10:45AM when we arrived in Tsawassen, which didn't leave us much time to doddle.

We boarded the 11:00AM ferry to Swartz Bay terminal in Sidney. The ferry ride back was very relaxed, mainly because everyone was tired. I ended up exploring the whole ferry and then reading for the remainder of the way. We said our last good-bye's and "see you Wednesday"'s on the ferry just before docking, and then got off and went our own ways.

To summarize: The trip was one of the best I've ever been on, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Thank you so much to YoungLife for welcoming me into the group so quickly, and especially to Ryan, who convinced me to come in the first place. You all rock, the group rocks, that trip rocked, the leaders rock, Manda & Sheldon rock, (EDIT: John's wicked suit rocks too).
Everything rocks my world at this very moment...

...............................

If you've actually finished reading this, you're incredible and I envy you. Thanks for listening.
Goodnight.