day twenty three.

NEW BLOG POST.

(i'm so not funny)

day twenty two. POST NUMBA TWO.

WOW. Blogging is a little too fun for me to handle. I'm just having a blast. Somehow typing out stuff and putting it out there for other people to read feels so satisfying. Like someone out there is reading what I have to say, and it makes what I say feel meaningful. Not like any of it is horribly important, but it's still nice to have that idea that someone is listening.

So today was extremely strange. This summer, whether you're aware or not, I traveled to Poland with 14 other kids from my church and 2 fearless leaders. We went for 9 days to serve God and improve the lives of people there by painting, running camps, and making friends. We did a lot of other stuff too, but I feel like I probably blogged about that earlier. Go find said blog, then come back.

Anyways, Frank and Karen, our leaders, are good friends with some people who have a lot to do with the International Day of Peace. Well, apparently they were having some celebration of peace today and they wanted the Poland team to go. Here I am, thinking I'll be the cool kid who says "YUP I'M GOING" on the Facebook event, then everyone else will follow. Turns out no one else followed...so I was the only one who went. I was a bit concerned it would be awkward, but it was far from it.

We arrive at the venue, which was called the Banana Factory. It's a place for the community to come and enjoy art, theater, and the like. I've been told very little about this celebration that's going to proceed today, and I'm expecting to maybe talk for probably a minute about my trip. I get there and the lady running the whole thing starts calling me a panelist. Turns out I'm one of 3 kids who are sitting UP FRONT and giving speeches for the audience. The other two had some beautiful typed up works of art, and I've got nothing. Thank goodness Frank and Karen are amazing, and they had already planned out a fantastic PowerPoint. Needless to say, the two kids were tough acts to follow, but I did my best. We played the PowerPoint, Karen prompted me with some questions, and I tried to answer as honestly and naturally as I could. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I was mainly just caught off guard.

As if that wasn't enough stretching of the Heather for the day, I was then informed that the audience would be given time to ask the panelists questions. And of COURSE one was directed right at me. Again, I was fine, this was just the strangest situation that I've ever been in in my entire life. I am not used to public speaking, but somehow it worked out.

So the day was weird, the situation was strange, but it was good. I like Sundays.

day twenty two.

hey. i like lists. but not lists of things i HAVE to do. just lists.

25 Silly Things I've Done in My Life

1. walked around in a Hannah Montana wig.

2. attended 3 Jonas Brothers concerts.

3. learned how to play the ukulele.

4. sang a song about not doing drugs.

5. clipped my toenails in the car.

6. photo-documented my first trip to Sonic.

7. played checkers in a shopping center. avoided shopping.

8. purchased rainbow Converse.

9. worn said Converse outside of the home.

10. made my own cape.

11. know the name of Violet's voice-over in The Incredibles. her name's Sarah Vowell. she likes history.

12. giggled so much during class someone asked if I was high. the answer was hands-down, no. i'm straight-edge.

13. put stupid videos on Youtube.

14. started this blog.

15. somewhat kept up with this blog.

16. traveled to Nashville, Cedarville, and Lynchburg in just three days.

17. cried while eating pancakes.

18. gone to Chipotle 3 times in the span of 6 days.

19. watched all of the Harry Potter movies in one day.

20. eaten for 2 straight hours at 2 in the morning in a hotel room in Nashville.

21. sang a solo on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium and felt like a rock star.

22. worn my pj's from Friday night to Monday morning.

23. injested a "milkshake" that consisted of a solid cup of soft-serve, mixed up like a milkshake. it was gross.

24. obsessed over a life of fame. and then realized that was stupid.

25. just walking around and doing the stuff i do. i do very silly things.

day twenty one.

I was StumbleUpon-ing today, and came across a site that encourages you to write a list of 100 things. It can be a list about anything, and the idea is to help you tackle a situation or help you feel more at ease with your life. You can visit the website here.

Without further ado, my list.

100 Things I Love About My Life

1. Spending time with my fantastic friends.

2. Hanging out in parking lots at 10 o'clock at night.

3. Hitting up WaWa because World of Jenks isn't cutting it.

4. Crying while watching World of Jenks.

5. Listening to Justin Bieber.

6. Dreaming about going to the Justin Bieber concert on November 17th.

7. Wearing my Toms.

8. Pretending to be a Hipster.

9. Subscribing to catalogs like they're actual magazines.

10. Going to Chipotle.

11. Being recognized at Chipotle.

12. Having a Toy Story credit card.

13. Being able to play the ukulele.

14. Going to worship team practice.

15. Playing the piano.

16. Playing the piano like everyone in the world is dying to listen to me.

17. How Gravity by Sarah Bareilles just came on my Pandora.

18. Being able to spend an entire Saturday doing nothing.

19. Looking forward to Sundays.

20. Being genuinely excited to go to church.

21. HOW ELEMENT IS STARTING TOMORROW!!!!

22. Hanging out with my small group girls and being able to be 100% honest with them.

23. Not being scared of what other people will think of me.

24. Letting my crazy out, but still being able to listen to people like a normal human.

25. Romping around the Promenade with my best friend.

26. Writing my best friend's little sister notes.

27. Fawning over a boy we've met once with my best friend.

28. Meeting people who aren't really celebrities, but are in my own book.

29. Finding blogs online, reading them for three days, then moving on.

30. Becoming more and more okay with change every passing day.

31. Being inspired by people with so much less than I have, and yet they're completely satisfied.

32. Sketching. But I never do it. I like the idea of it.

33. Guessing what a commercial is going to be for before they show the logo.

34. Listening to Hannah Montana music and dancing in shady alleys.

35. Calming myself and listening to John Legend.

36. Creating a teen wall and priding myself on taking down my tween posters.

37. The idea of going to college.

38. Seeing my friends who have gone to college when they come back.

39. Receiving fantastic hugs.

40. Looking at the stars.

41. Funny jokes.

42. Being the one who tells the funny jokes.

43. Not caring about what anyone else thinks about me.

44. Being able to leave behind old friendships to make room for excellent new ones.

45. Spending nine days in Poland and wishing everyday that I could go back.

46. Dancing in the streets of Poland.

47. Wearing sunglasses and feeling like a celebrity.

48. The feeling of a great outfit.

49. Eating cake and drinking milk.

50. Feeling inspired and not needing to act upon said feeling.

51. Giving up on someone because they don't take confrontation. And being okay with it.

52. Landing a part in the school play and feeling victorious.

53. Learning how to deal with stress and moving on.

54. Not letting things get to me.

55. Building up a thick skin, but still being okay with crying during a sad movie.

56. Watching people vlog.

57. Feeling connected to said vloggers.

58. Playing music with other people.

59. Seeing other people enjoy said music.

60. Harmonica and ukulele duos on docks in the summer.

61. Being at the beach with the people I love most in life.

62. Looking forward to the two hours I get with these people all week long.

63. Driving a mini-van.

64. Being affectionately dubbed the "soccer mom."

65. Blasting rap in said van.

66. Playing chauffer to all of my friends and loving every second of it.

67. Laughing at people's stupid Facebook statuses.

68. Laughing at people's stupid spelling mistakes.

69. Laughing at people's stupidity in general, and then remembering I'm human too.

70. Going to school early just to sit in my van and read the Bible.

71. Drinking Carnation Instant Breakfast and feeling like I'm getting some sort of nutrition out of it.

72. Trying Indian food with Melissa and actually liking it.

73. Skipping out on Homecoming and going to see a Shakespeare play instead. With Melissa.

74. Being able to write blogs and have people follow them.

75. Being smart enough to not post the angst-y blogs that have been written.

76. Making mac and cheese.

77. Enjoying this newfound sense of calm in my life.

78. Watching tv in the man cave.

79. Finding out that my water bottle is covered in mold and not caring.

80. Eating lunch outside.

81. Making peanut butter and banana pizzas for lunch.

82. Editing dumb videos and shamelessly posting them on Youtube.

83. Writing mashups with my friends and singing like someone will actually watch them.

84. Hoping for the day when something amazing happens to me.

85. Knowing that something amazing probably won't happen to me, and not being the slightest bit hindered by that fact.

86. Receiving mix CDs.

87. Going to Perkins with my friends.

88. Eating pancakes.

89. Spending an hour at a music store and not buying anything.

90. Sitting on a median, sipping bubble tea, and thinking about life.

91. Living each day and knowing that it's just as important as the previous.

92. Believing that everything happens for a reason.

93. Having faith.

94. Knowing that the people I love most in the world love me back. And they're always there for me.

95. Spending time with people who actually make me feel good and cause me zero stress.

96. Being able to lay around Breanna's house all day and still have fun.

97. Making other people smile.

98. Laughing.

99. Using every moment I have to it's fullest potential.

100. Loving other people.

day twenty. (this blog was written eight days ago, but i'm posting it now)

While this blog has not retained itself to its original intentions at all, I do believe it’s gone in a positive direction. Needless to say, we’re not going to try and keep it along its beginning guidelines, but rather keep it as a place for me to just blog about life. Now that the elephant in the room has been cleared, I blog.

I’m typing in our minivan, ride of champions, as we drive from Mansfield to the undisclosed location where I live. My sister sits to my left, quietly listening to B.O.B. and Hayley Williams sing about Airplanes. My brother is in front of me, keeping himself occupied by catching ‘em all. For the culturally inept, she’s listening to rap, and he’s playing Pokemon. My father drives our victory van while my mother naps. The dog is just a nuisance.

We had a decent week, if you can call it that. April, Mom and I arrived on Monday night, and we’re leaving on Friday night. Hardly five days. But anyways, we kept ourselves busy, that’s for sure. You know about CMOG, but I’ll tell you, that wasn’t the only thing we did this week. On Wednesday, we day tripped it to Rochester for a fun-filled day of, well, fun. First, we had to run Philip oriented errands what with doctor’s visits and college enrollment sessions. However, after that, it was whatever we wanted to do. So of course, we went to KFC. Note to self, don’t get corn on the cob at a fast food restaurant. It just doesn’t belong there. After a refueling session, we headed to the National Museum of Play, a place of wonderment and awesome. We hung out with Brother and Sister Bear in their hometown, frolicked with 800 butterflies, challenged our minds in a mansion full of riddles, learned how to tie a half-windsor tie, stood in front of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s house, tried on silly dress up clothes and promenaded around in them, and took hundreds of pictures while doing all of the above. We even became members of the museum, and for those of you who know my parents (meaning my mom, who IS my only reader), that means we had a LOT of fun. It also means that they have intentions to return, and our six free carousel rides has me very excited for the day I step foot in that museum again.

Thursday was significantly less exciting. We stayed in the cabin and went to Wal Mart twice. Woo. Dinner was phenomenal, though. April made kebabs from raw chicken and four whole peppers. The little girl knows her way around a grill, that’s for sure. We then had the neighbors over for s’mores. I overindulged and don’t regret it a bit, of course. Wismer mantra. But anyways, today we went to this beach/pond/lake/park combination with a concession stand. Take that for what you want, but it was pretty fun. I also tried to get a Buzz Lightyear SillyBand tan. I was somewhat successful. April made another delicious dinner, some sort of cheesy rice chicken concoction with broccoli and pre-buttered biscuits. Now that I have you all (and by all, I mean my mother) starving, go eat something. I’m out of laptop battery.

day nineteen.

Day One in the torture chamber. It’s actually not as bad as it sounds, I just like being melodramatic. We started off the day late, not eating breakfast until 10:30 or so. I myself woke up at 10, so we were just taking things a bit slower than necessary. After stuffing ourselves with eggy bread (some call it French toast), we all sat around and wondered what the day held in store for us. Finally some brave man made the decision to listen to my advice and we all got in the van. CMOG was where we spent our day. For those not familiar with the Mansfield area and its surrounding attractions, that stands for Corning Museum of Glass. It sounds hideously boring, I know, but shockingly, we went per my request. Philip was less than enthused, but everyone else hid their boredom for my own sake. I forced them to sit through 4 live glass shows, in which we watched several groups of people create their own glass items. Things included: dinosaur figurine based off of an 8-year-old’s drawing, large bowl which was then cracked and recycled and a dragon goblet which retails for approximately $400. All of the above were made in less than 30 minutes, yet sold like they were the last White Rhino on earth. After boring them all to a comatose state, we ventured into the CMOG Café where we munched on room temperature pizza, a loaded baked potato with cold broccoli and unmelted cheese, and surprisingly delicious chicken fingers and fries (Insert snarky comment on Americans and fried food here). We scavenged the souvenir shop for a cool t-shirt, found nothing, and went back to the car to leave. We drove to Wal-Mart. We walked into Wal-Mart. We shopped at Wal-Mart. We checked out at Wal-Mart. We got in the car and left Wal-Mart. We arrived home. I’m now sitting in the cabin, with no internet, disillusioning myself into believing I have some sort of wifi connection by using a computer. Alas, there’s nothing, and I’m writing to who some would call NO ONE. Thanks for reading, Mom.

SIDE NOTE: Direct quote from Martha, “I’ve got lots to do here! I’ve got coupons to cut…” Only in the mountains would cutting coupons create some strange form of stress.

day eighteen.

Gosh, I'm terribly sorry. I completely failed at keeping up with this. Unfortunately enough for this blog, I'm going away this week, next week, and halfway through the week after that.

I really don't think I can keep up with writing blogs everyday while I'm away, but I do promise to take pictures. I'll post some highlights on here. One a day? Does that sound good?

Crap. I'm compromising with the internet. Whatever.