Two in a row??

Second day in a row I've decided to post. Not bad. Second camp ground in a row with wireless. This wireless however is VERY fast. It probably helps that I am the only person on since it's like...almost 12. I took advantage of the bandwidth to upload a few of my videos to facebook which I can't do at home.

It's weird to me that I get super, high speed internet access out here, but I don't get cell service. Like what the hell. I can stream HD youtube videos in real time but I can't talk on the phone?

I got sick earlier in the trip and although I've mostly gotten better, I still have a runny nose. It didn't bother me that much until today I blew my nose so hard trying to clear some gunk out that I ruptured a blood vessel and had this massive nose bleed. At least it didn't get on my computer. I spill enough gunk on my computer already.

But... that's enough for tonight

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Now that that's done with...

I feel sort of bad for abandoning my blog. But I don't really. It had it's place in my life, and now it doesn't. I'm not even going to try and say I'll keep it up. But who knows. Maybe with my loads of free time in college I can blog again. I'm only being halfway facetious (props if you can catch the reference.) I'm sitting at the table in my RV at this tacky little camp ground in...somewhere in Utah. But it has wireless internet. I can not complain one little bit.

I'm pretty ready to come home even though I'm heading straight to running camp. I'm not sure what to except. I'm sort of thinking hazing since the coach didn't know about it. But the team is so chill I'd honestly be sort of shocked if that's how it turned out. I guess it'll be a chance to oush myself against the other guys.

We're heading to Durango, CO tomorrow which is one of my favorite places in the west. I'd say it's a good way to end my vacation. Durango is one of those towns you could just live in. Unfortunately however, I'm pretty set on the North. Where it's cold. Really cold. Not like the west doesn't get cold. But it's different.

Pretty excited about going off to college. But not really excited about leaving some friends behind.


* ;)

In no order except the first few, some of the people who've meant a lot to me or I've though highly of in high school and before.
Andy G, Aleina K, Alex B, Joy W, Parker W, Jessica Y, Camila D, Alex H, Brett the Boss, Greg P, Sybille B, Tyler M, Jake W, Anthony T, Jooyeon L, Abby K, Amanda J, Karl M, Ben R, Ben L, Elena K, Mark T, Matty M, Jack R,Ben H, Maria R, Keith T, Lizzy L, Andrew DS, Ryan W, Ryan W, Ryan S, Chad, Michael D, Melissa A, Will I, Julia S, Sara R, John W, Hillary C, Emma K, Ellen C, Buddy R, Patrick L, Phillip V, Rafiqa H, Scott B, Pam P, Justin G, Andrew K, Hannah M, Cooper F, Kevin F, Annie C, Brain G, Patrick M, Hayden P, Tilney B, Tim G, Wayson L, Maggie F, Bani, Nikki R, Jake S, Jeremy P, Bri R, Amanda R, Jessie C, Joseph R, Will T, Nevan H, Mark H, Jim N, Kirk M, Cara W, David M, JR S, Mark T, Ross B, David L, Katie L, Natasha S, Wes Y,
I probably forgot a few, but no one will catch this except maybe Aleina.

I Promise a Better Post Later

But it's been a busy day.

Dropped a 55.4 in the 400 today. Got me third in the showdown. Thank God I don't have to run the 4x4 at regionals. Let Keith and Wayson kill it.

Yeah.

Feeling better.

Trying Again!

I'm really going to try this time. Now that I have a laptop on my desk I really don't have an excuse to not blog.

I've gotten so frustrated with guitar recently that I rarely play. It's kind of sad. I still practice my classical guitar, but I don't even really feel like doing that. I don't know why but I guess I blame it on youtube. Everytime I get on there is some ridiculously good guy recommended to me and I always wish I could play like that and when I can't it frustrates me.

Track is going well, but I'm at the point where I want it to be over. My knees hurt, I'm tired all the time and I'm tired of workouts, but I still like being with the team.

Post.

It's been an interesting day. I got sunburned. That rarely happens.

I ran two really solid 800's and won my first race.

I played a failtastic show.

I don't know. It's been a weird day really. Not even interesting. Weird. And I'm probably just going to ramble, because I don't have anyone to talk to.

The show mainly sucked...welll. For many a reason. First of all.
-It was dark and they didn't have any lights. Um...ok.
-We were playing outside without a PA system. Fail.
-We hadn't played with Joseph since the talent show.
-We couldn't hear each other.
-We couldn't play.

It was pretty failin'

I don't know what else to say. Feeling a schism coming. Just saying. Take it back to the blues. Power Trio. I like playing bass about as much as I like guitar too.

Hmm

So Chad and Tim and Joseph and I are playing Viva La Vida for the talent show. It's going to be pretty cool. You should come see it.

It was really hot today...well not hot, but really warm bordering on hot. I don't like it. I'm glad I decided to wear shorts today instead of jeans. I would have been uphappy. I like a little warmth, but anything above 75 is pushing it for me. But I'll admit I did enjoy lunch today. EXCEPT FOR THE SOPHOMORES UNINVITED IN MY COURTYARD. Seriously. Underclassmen. Wait. You're taking my parking spaces AND NOW MY COURTYARD! Andy and I kind of want to kick the sophomores out that we definitely don't want out there...because it's a junior senior privilege. You can't go out without permission. Not your sophomore friend who eats out there, but an upperclassmen. I like the court yard undisturbed. That's why I miss winter really. The courtyard to Andy, Anthony, Keith, Michael and me.

and now I'm done bitching.

Keeping up the Habit

Winamp is great. I recommend it almost fully over itunes. I'm still pissed it deleted my artwork though...but the CD burner is excellent and the sound quality is leaps and bounds above iTunes. I love my sound quality like none other. I'm in the process of ripping the DRM encoding off of all of my songs. It's a pain in the ass. Grrr. Damn digital rights. I'm really angry that they asked me to buy all the songs AGAIN. I already bought them once, geeze.

Track was okay today. But when I got done with my "workout" there was mayo all over my lock. I was pretty pissed. It smelled foul.

Whoops. Forgot this was up.

Nostalgic?

It's been kind of...a guess nostalgic is the best way to describe today. I missed musical for the first time. I couldn't concentrate on the music as well today because I was watching the musical with a twinge of sadness. I was just thinking about Seussical, and then Oliver and finally Beauty and the Beast. I miss being part of the cast. Pit is more professional and...I guess more professional is just the way to describe it. I went into the changing room the last two days to feel like I was part of the cast again and it felt great until I left. Boxer runs were great. I really miss drama class too. It's weird because I've never missed these things before. Except Seussical. I'll always miss that a little. Meh.

I've been reading the copy of Once a Runner Loughran let me borrow during most of my free time today and it's made me really think about running too. I've been running a damn long time. It's been a dominant part of my high school life. And I really miss cross country. Track is cool, but it's not the same.

I don't miss high school it self at all. Just the good experiences I've had. If I go to JMU I'm going to really miss running. I really think Mary Washington is where I'll feel best. I still need to visit it to see if that's true. But I want to get back into acting and singing. I want to take composition and theory, I want to run.

Ughhh! I really miss...stuff right now. It's kind of a foreign feeling to me around high school. I've never really missed anything about high school. I missed camp a lot when I left, but it was different.

Hm.

I'm going to go play some guitar.

Emory and Henry

I'm a little confused. I got home from pit today and my mom told me to take a look at a letter from Emory and Henry on the table. The letter informed me that I had been accepted into their college and they were looking forward to seeing me on one of their prospective student days. I didn't even complete my app. I just checked it. It's still incomplete. Yet they sent me a letter saying it was complete. I guess it feels pretty good that I got into a school I didn't even finish applying to.

Pit was ok today. My fingers are legit bleeding though. It's a good thing I have a set of new strings cause mine are dead.

I really need to get off blogger and do my homework, but if senioritis hadn't kicked in a little while ago it sure has now. But I'm going to write my paper anyway.

Good Rehearsal.

Pit went well today for me. Like really well. I think having a drummer really helps. Or maybe all my practicing is just paying off finally. My hands are pretty sore though. Not even my finger tips, just my hands in general.

I don't know why, but I've never done well in early morning practices. My muscles and lungs just aren't awake yet. I died pretty hard this morning. When we started running, I could barely see anything because it was snowing so hard but when I came back the sun was in my eyes and all the snow plastered on me melted.

Anyway. I'm going to go read in bed now.

Now I'm

Exhausted. It took two days to do it. At least we have tomorrow off from pit. My leg is starting to really hurt me. I stood up to go get my meager snack during pit and I could barely walk until the muscle stretched out a bit. I really need to fix it somehow. It's only slowing me down a little bit at least. The only thing slowing me down is exhaustion.

Speaking of exhaustion. I'm going to go read it bed, or more likely hang out with Joy.

Good night.

First Really Long Day

It was stressful, but ok overall I guess. Track practice was pretty cool. 10 400's at like...around mile pace. I must not have stretched well enough or something because when I started lugging amps around for pit practice a muscle in my leg started really hurting. It feels like a pulled muscle and it's really swollen. I'm icing it though so it should be fine.

Pit was weird. I got rearranged so I had to learn to listen to different people. I'm used to listening to David for the off beats, but he's on the other side of the pit now. I pretty much didn't talk. I looked pretty miserable, but I was fine. Just tired. I am really tired.

Not much else to say.

I'm on a Roll.

I'm probably going to supplement every post with a picture? K great.

Pit rehearsal today was...painful? My fingers are legit bleeding. I have huge chunks of skin actually missing from my fingers. I guess that's what almost 3 hours of straight playing an acoustic will do to your hands. I'm feeling a lot better about actually playing though. I get to use some huge, old school bass modeling amp. It's pretty nice, but I'm having trouble getting an actual good acoustic tone out of it.

Tomorrow is going to be fun... I think I'm just going to go to subway after practice for convenience. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze a shower in somewhere. I really don't want to take one in the locker room though...our track team is rather...well. Yeah. So I don't know!

I guess I'll go to pit all sweaty : )

Three in a Row

I just discovered today that Paul Reed Smith discontinued the Classic 22 this year in exchange for the "sunburst 22." Psh. What the hell. That's MY guitar. Although the Suburst 22 is pretty. They also started making amps again. Very nice amps with a hefty price tag. Grrr. Acoustic guitars as well. Very nice acoustic guitars with another hefty price tag. Humph!

I've had the weekend almost completely off which is nice. I had districts on Saturday and a financial talk that ruined most of my weekend. I spent pretty much all of today reading. There's some Latin reading I feel like I was supposed to do, which I'm probably going to try to do in a few minutes. It was nice in early high school when I could remember everything I had to do without writing it down. Now if it's not written down, I'm not going to remember it until someone asks for it.

This coming week is going to be...well, stressful. It's not like being in musical where I was only on stage half of the time. I'm always playing now. I really don't know how I'm going to get any homework done if I'm spending 14 hours at school. That leaves 10 hours at home, some of which need to be spent sleeping.

Well I stopped writing. So I'm going to go read some Latin.

Wow, look... a post!

Tomorrow is Indoor districts. This is the first time I've ever been nervous going into districts and it annoys me. Unless I run 2 drop dead races, or at the very least, run a killer mile PR, my indoor season is done. That makes me angry. I'm faster than at least 2 of the people that are going to continue onto states. But maybe it will be a good thing for me to get a break for a while. With all of the musical rehearsals coming up I'd be in trouble if I was still doing track. Run till 5:30, pit from 6-10. Haha. No. But we shall see. I'm going to try and hang on Chris and then just gut it to the end. Maybe I can't beat him, but I might be able to run the region time, even on that crap track.

And now for something completely different.

Today, for the first time ever. I got an A on one of Fielding's papers. I was ecstatic. Even though I didn't really show it which made her think I blew it off and talked to me after class saying I should be proud of my work. I like knowing that if I actually turn the internet and music off, sit down, and give myself forty five minutes I can write a pretty solid essay.


I think I'm actually going to go back to blogging again. haha. no. Really this time. But we'll see.

Is anyone interested in buying a Peavey Valveking 212 with what were new tubes a few months ago? I really...need a new, small amp for college.

Yeah, I'm going to go drink some water, read some Lord of the Rings and go to bed early.

I Should

start blogging again now that I'll have some time with XC over. I just finished my AP paper and I don't really feel like going to bed yet. When I was doing my other English stuff I was idly watching National Treasure: Book of Secrets. That's actually not a bad movie.

So, I just replaced all of the cheap plastic pieces on my guitar with tusq ones. I'm really pleased with the new sounds it can make. Still doesn't sound like a Martin or anything. But for 200 +20 for the nut and saddle, it's a wonderful guitar.

I'll start small.

Decisions.

I think I'm going to run indoor track this year. (flame shield up)
I don't know. I feel like it'll be more fun, I'll be more successful, and I'll be with my actual best friends like Andy and Anthony and Keith. Musical would be cool. I'd get a fancy award for doing 5 harrisonburg plays, but I don't really give a damn about awards anymore. I'm still not entirely sure, but I'm getting closer and closer to deciding indoor every day. I'm going to try out for musical regardless of what I choose. Maybe I'll get a really good role, but most likely not. The peak of my acting career has been YCTC 2008 Hamlet, and I know for a fact Hello Dolly will not top that. Why not just do indoor?
I just can't help feeling bad. Mr. Swartz has put a lot of faith in me, and I've been a strong member of the program since 9th grade. If I end up doing indoor, I'll probably try to help in some way by building or whatever. Meh. Still feel bad.
When I really think about it, where are my best memories from high school? Seussical. XC 2005, XC 2006, Outdoor 06, XC 2007, Outdoor o7, Beauty and the Beast maybe, Outdoor 08, XC 2008. I'm not much of a musical theatre person. In high school I'm more of a runner than anything. I guess I first started thinking about this stuff in AP English when we had to draw that thing that kind of represented us. I was trying hard to decide between running shoes, and a guitar.

This is probably one of those posts that's like...what I've been trying to avoid. Whatever.

I Don't Feel Like...

doing my literary analysis quite yet. I actually just don't feel like finding a 150 word excerpt. I wouldn't mind doing it if I had one. She said to just google it, and I googled it, and I can't find it. I did all my homework though, so I get a 15 minute break because I say so. I'm actually practicing theory right now, so I'm technically doing homework.

SO.
Cross Country meet today. Started out flirting with first. DIED. Became 11th. Licked my wounds. Came back. Passed 2 people. Finished 8th with 9th 45 seconds behind me.

It was a lot more complex than that, and a lot less. I went out like I was used to going out in track, at a comfortably fast pace. Keith and I got stuck behind these three RE Lee guys who were going slow. I got annoyed and passed them and Keith followed. Chaos ensued. I stuck with that pack of Andy, Keith and Bani for the first mile, and then dropped off cause I couldn't breathe and I was exhausted from running a 5:37 first mile. Fastest first mile I've ever ran. I then proceeded to lick my wounds and run a 7:03 second mile. Not my best moment. Bair was yelling for me to race, and I was like no.....no race...can't breathe. That second mile was kind of weird. It didn't exist. Then I recovered a little bit, and started chasing down the people that had passed me. I got 1 of them right off. The other one took me about 1000 meters. I slowly worked up on him until he gave up and told me to pass him. I did and got an adrenaline rush. It was pretty awesome. Raced the whole last 600 meters and ran a 6 something mile. Don't feel like doing the math. Semi negative splits. Cool. Except my knee really aches right now.


Sorry for the wall of text.

I'm going to go do my english now.

Looks Like...

my blog has gone back to one of it's first uses. I'm currently in the middle of writing my essay for AP English. Except I'm taking a break from writing, to write some more. Hm.

Classes are going well for me. AP English is pretty cool.

AP music theory is awesome...but I never want to do any other homework, and the class is really stressful because I'm so far behind everyone else and I like...have to think out loud in front of everyone. I don't like being flat out wrong in front of people and then being made to work through my process until I find out what I did wrong and fix it. I mean, I'm glad he's doing that, I really am, but it makes me feel REALLY uncomfortable. Hell, maybe that's a good thing.

Physics so far is....boring. Mr. Jackson is cool. But all we've done is significant figures, and disprove one of Aristotle's ideas. I learned how to do this in like...well a long time ago just from having science teachers for parents and being interested in physics. I mean I was doing Lizzy's homework last year 8 weeks into the class without being in the class. Hmph. I just wish we could do harder stuff. But it seems like we won't for at least 8 weeks.

Gov is pretty cool. I mean. It's like being in a regular class it's so easy. There's almost no homework and what homework we do get is spelled out for us. Hm. Interesting stuff though. Current events, not government. I hate government.

XC is going okish. yeah okish.

mmk back to my paper.

Feeling Off.

Which is weird because I ran with Andy and Keith and Dan today for the warm up. Now it was only 20 minutes. But it was easy to keep pace with them. I think they were holding back. But we also dropped Bani and Andrew, so maybe not. Idk. Ultimate was pretty good today. Oh. Before that. I stepped on a rock funny and twisted my ankle. It's cool though. It aches a little right now, but it's really not that bad.

Everyone is leaving for college, and school starts on Monday. Fun. I'm pretty sad that Ben is leaving, because I sure as hell don't have anyone else to jam with. Most of my camp friends have left already. Jessica left, even though she's still here. Julia doesn't leave for a while though, so we're probably going to go see a show.

I'm now officially Mr. Healy and Mr. Moyer's assistant. That'll be a good block. School isn't going to be too bad this year really...unless I just don't click with music theory which is entirely possible, but unlikely. AP english is going to suck. But it happens. Hm. It's started to semi feel like fall these past two days at practice. I actually got a little chill down my back where the sweat had been running when we pushed into the woods. Then of course when we played Ultimate I thought I was going to have a heat stroke. I don't do heat. As you all know.

I'm kind of pissed off I don't want to play electric guitar anymore. I walk into my room, admire the PRS hanging out my wall, pick it up, sigh and put it down. I just can't play electric right now, it feels weird. I play acoustic all the time though. I'm also kind of pissed off I don't like running anymore. I just do it because I've always done it. This is probably going to be a good season for me. But still....I used to like going out on distance runs, and now I don't. I think I'm just tired of the area. Meh.

I'm hungry.