The End of Yet Another Era

Well the great fun days of summer have ended, so this blog entitled "Junior Year" Really does need to end. I don't know what to call the new blog yet, but it'll be coming soon to my profile, so just explore around, and sooner or later you'll find it.

Maybe Not

At the beginning of this year there was a blog about how I was finally maybe over a serious liking of a certain girl back in Utah...the thing is...I'm not. My mom and I got to make the Mormon Pilgrimage this year back to Utah (like every other Mormon I know), and after escaping Delta, where the depression was so much so that I'm blocking memories of that place out of my mind, we made it back up to Logan where I had a total blast.
I didn't actually make it down to Brigham City until Monday, which was kinda sad, but which I think my sister is fairly grateful for. I spent most the day down there. When I got to her house she wasn't home from work yet, so me and her brother and sister had fun jumping on the tramp and playing Wii. She joined us on the Wii for a while and then we went out for bowling and Mini-Golf at the Family Fun Center in Brigham. We were meant to meet up with my cousins and my Uncle there, but they showed up an hour and fifteen minutes, late, so by that point we had decided to go to Wal-Mart (we were on limited budgets, and there is nothing worse than loitering around at a bowling alley). We had a lot of fun there hiding from her siblings and getting barked at by some crazy person (I'm not even kidding you while we were sneaking around, we looked up this aisle to check and see if her siblings had realized we had left, only to see a big chubby guy who started barking at us). Finally my uncle showed up, and we took the cousin that's near my age and headed to the park where we all played hide-and-go-seek (which isn't a very teenager-ish game, but which should be), and yeah there was just a lot of fun that week to be had. I dunno if you want to know all of the details. All I know is that I'm not over it anymore. I'm over being over it, if that makes sense.

The End is Near

So I just realized that this blog is called "Junior Year"... strangely enough my Junior Year actually came to an end about two months ago, but I've insisted on keeping this blog going. Unfortunately the fact that this blog is called "Junior Year" means one thing for the near future...ANOTHER blog...sad day. I've enjoyed this blog, and I will keep writing in it right up to the last day of summer, but my last year of high school is coming fast. Registration is tomorrow (as well as my flight to Utah), and then there's less than two weeks until school. It's been fun. I hope you've gotten to know me better over the past year, and I hope that you will keep reading in my upcoming blog (I don't have any idea what to call it). Stay safe, stay close to the Lord and our Heavenly Father, and have an awesome rest of the summer.
This is Zelos,
Thanks for reading.

Successful(ish) Missionary Week

Over the past year I've felt impressed on occasion (about three times so far) to dedicate a week to trying to live (somewhat) like a missionary. I don't go out and wear the shirt and tie, or really go door to door. I spend the week giving up my music and instead listening to church music, avoid the TV like the plague, and use the computer only when I'm doing something resourceful (this time I was a lot more lax than other times, because I did a lot of writing and e-mailing (because I'll be in Utah for the next week)). It's always a great experience, and I would recommend trying a missionary week at least once (yeah it's not the same thing as a mission, but it's still a good week, where you feel closer to Heavenly Father).
Well this week was an odd one. I started with a fast, and surprisingly, even though I was at home surrounded by food, it was the easiest fast I've ever done in my life (and the longest). Another difference between this week and past missionary weeks was the presence of actually missionaries living in my home...one of whom was going home that Thursday, and he got slightly (or more) trunky. Here's a study in human nature. When one person is trunky, all people around them get trunky. By Thursday I was ready to end missionary week early. I toughed it out though, and lasted to the end. By Sunday evening it was a bitter-sweet moment. I was ready to go back to normal life, but I was also really enjoying the spiritual high I had had all week long.
One great thing that came out of Missionary week was that when the missionaries heard that I was doing it they brought all sorts of EFY music and the Joseph Smith and Pioneer Tributes out, so that I could listen to them. Now I've got some church music that's mixed it's way into my other music. That's pretty exciting.

P-Day: Adventures in Scottsboro

Well in case you didn't know this, my family has been housing the missionaries from our ward for nearly five months now. It's been a great experience for me, because I've been kind of tired of being an only child, so having two 'older brothers' is always really fun.
Well we've gotten pretty tight (me and the current missionaries), so last P-day (Wednesday) with the Zone Leaders permission they asked me to take me to Scottsboro Unclaimed Baggage. One of the greatest parts about it was that we got to see Elder Butler again (he lived with us from the beginning and was transferred while I was in New York). It was a really fun drive down there (and it was the farthest I've driven from home, with the exception of Utah). We had a lot of fun on the way. And then we got to Unclaimed Baggage. Let me give you a warning here, that place is deadly dull. I don't understand why they wanted to go there, but we did. I spent most the time looking for a CD I would actually like to have, but to be honest, I think there's a reason all of those things went unclaimed. I wouldn't have claimed any of it, except for the electronics (iPods and such). Oh well now I know that it's not a place for me. It was really fun, just getting to spend some time out of the house and driving around with friends. True not a lot of high school students consider driving the missionaries around a lot of fun, but ti was a really great time.

NYC

Me and the twenty-five other people lucky enough to go on this trip met at Bob Jones at 5:00 in the morning. Painfully early for summer vacation, but for New York, sleep seems like an easy sacrifice. We all piled on the bus, and drove for Atlanta. It was a four hour drive, and crazily enough Emily and I (we sat next to each other) talked the entire way down there, just about anything and everything we could think of. We stopped once for a bathroom break, and that was about the extent of the bus trip. We got onto our plane no problem and took off. Two hours later (in which Laura and I talked the whole time (you can see that there's already a lack of sleep thing starting)) we landed in Newark, New Jersey. Excitement was extremely high as we found our luggage, met our tour guide and hopped onto the tour bus. We drove for about twenty minutes and then the city came into view. I was ecstatic to just be looking at it, let alone actually getting to spend a whole week there. We drove through the city, and everyone (including myself) was snapping pictures right and left of this building and that building (this was still in our 'we're in New York so we're gonna take a picture of EVERYTHING' phase). We pulled up in front of our hotel (Comfort Inn and Suites) got off the bus, took our luggage up to our rooms, 'freshened up,' met our roommates (I was rooming with Gray West, Teddy Wong, and Richard Smith), and decided sleeping situations. Gray and Richard shared one bed, and Teddy and I were supposed to share the other, but I chose to sleep on the floor instead. We left the hotel after half an hour and walked to Grand Central Station for dinner. They have a massive food court in the basement, which was where we ate that night. What really hit me there was how purposefully and fast those New Yorkers move. It was crazy. I almost stopped just to take in how fast they were moving, but I knew they would run me over if I did that, so I controlled the urge to do so and kept moving until I was out of the way. That night I had Indian food for dinner with a vitamin water, which was probably my favorite food of the trip (not my favorite meal though). Then we took some underground routes from Grand Central to the Gershwin Theatre where we watched Wicked. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good!!! If you ever get the chance to see it, take that chance. Even if I annoyed you with the soundtrack, the show is absolutely fantastic. Even Craft, who doesn't like musicals loved it. When the show was over our whole group made our way back to the hotel (which was just a few blocks away from Times' Square), and when we hit Times' Square we realized just how many people are in New York. We had to hold on to each other or get swept away. Finally the whole group ducked into a store on the side of the road and we decided to split up into smaller groups. Mrs. Davis was gonna take the kids who wanted to go with her to Hershey's and M&Ms worlds (two different stores just across the street from each other). Craft was taking his group to Central Park (he turned out not doing that, but stopping at a Pizza shop), and Mrs. Hughes (Emily's mom) took the rest of us back to the hotel. I went with her, and had time to read my scriptures and write in my journal before my roommates came in. I think they thought I was a little weird, but Gray West and Jim Law are best friends, so hopefully he understood slightly.
Day Two:
We got up pretty early so we could walk to an old Jewish Synagogue where they had a stage set up for our workshop. Our workshope was on audtions and he had people get up and read a script that was totally awful. I didn't really do it, because I didn't want to that much. The guy seemed kind of full of himself, because he was making it as an actor in New York City with 7 million other people trying to do the same thing. I'm not sure he got his numbers right, but whatever. After that our group headed out, and those of us who paid extra to see Mary Poppins went back to Times' Square and grabbed some lunch in a little pizza shop (it was some of the best tasting 'cheap' food in New York, we all had pizza at least twice). Then the Hughes (my third family) and I went searching for souveniers and then went and visited Toys 'R Us on Times' Square. That was the biggest, coolest toy store I have ever seen in my life. They had a FERRIS WHEEL inside of the building!!! Then they had the Empire State Building, The Statue of Liberty, and a lot of other cool things made out of legos upstairs, as well as about every type of cards imaginable!! Then we hurried over to the theatre that Mary Poppins was in. It was an amazing theatre. They had carved so many intricate little things into everything in the theatre. It was so cool. Then the show started, and it was GREAT. Not as good as Wicked, but it was so different from the movie that it kept you guessing the whole time as to what would happen next! They changed so many songs, got rid of the lame ones and put in some really fun ones. Then after that the Hughes and I went back to Time's Square to see M&M World and Hershey's World. M&M was cooler than the one in Orlando, but still kind of lame. Hershey's was a total let down. It was lamer that the M&M World in Orlando. But then our group met back up with Mrs. Davis and company at the Stardust Cafe. The food there was only decent, but the waitors were all starving wanna-be Broadway stars, so they performed and sang for us the entire time. They sang "Let's Hear it for the Boy" and "Sweet Home Alabama" on our request, and we danced and sang along the whole meal. Then after that we went to The Lion King, which was fairly well done, but mainly a techie show. All the technical stuff was FANTASTIC, but the acting and story were just like the movie. Oh well. Then I called home and found out that Elder Butler (probably my favorite missionary to live with us) had been transfered while I was in New York. I got to say goodbye to him on my cell phone, while I waited for our group to get together to go back to the hotel. We walked back again in small groups, and that night I had remembered to take my camrea out of the hotel (I forgot the first night), so I got some great shots of Times' Square at night. We got back to the hotel, and I had time yet again to read scriptures and write in my journal before going to sleep. The problem with our room was that Teddy snores more spurratic and louder than I ever thought possibe (and I've heard Jeff snore before). It was terrible, but thankfully I had my iPod, so I did get to sleep around midnight.

Day Three:
We woke up around six in the morning so we could be on the Early Morning Show (this was probably the biggest day, so hold tight). We hopped onto a Double-Decker tour bus around seven and took off. All of us started on the top deck of the bus, but then it started raining and the wind picked up, and only the Hughes, Heather Cerney, and I managed to tough it out. We were shivering and freezing, but when else would we get to ride a double-decker bust through New York for free? Never. The early morning show was kind of lame. It was like a news cast where they told us when to cheer and when to be quiet. As if we couldn't figure that out. Oh well, now I can say I was on TV, even if it was for a grand total of about five seconds, and no one I know saw me on...it was still really cool. Then the whole group walked down fifth avenue (which is the famous rich people shopping district) to the Rockefeller Center, to grab coffee (except for me, I was too poor to even try and get a hot chocolate). Then we walked to another actor workshop, and this one was in another really cool building. It was one of those older buildings kind of in disrepair, but not really, just a place where you'd expect an actor to reherse. This time we learned about improv, and it was much more fun. Then we met one of the actresses from In the Heights, which was the show we were going to see that night. She seemed nice, and she didn't seem as full of herself as the other guy. After that the Hughes and my plan was to go see the Manhattan Temple. We got really hungry on the way so we stopped at a street vendor, grabbed some food and went and ate in Central Park. Then we continued our walk and got to the Temple. Fun fact: Did you know that the Manhattan Temple doesn't take up the entire building. They have a visitors' desk, and then the Temple doors and then the reception desk. The cool thing was that the "Holliness to the Lord" thing is above the temple doors INSIDE of the actual building. I was searching and searching the outside and couldn't find it, so I asked the guy at the Visitors desk and he pointed to above the doors. We got to go into the temple to the reception desk. The other cool things were the fact that when you walk through the doors to the temple all the noise of down town just fade away, even though your in down town, and then there were the stain glass windows of Joseph Smith's first vision, that were absolutely beautiful. I wanted to go in for baptisms, but I didn't have a recommend and the Hughes aren't even members, so that didn't work. But the really cool thing was that they were willing to go see the temple with me, even though they aren't members. Then we decided to walk back to Central Park. On the way we saw the funniest sign. It said "Caution Blind Persons Crossing." How do the blind people know that that's where they're supposed to cross there wasn't any brail on the sign...but there it was. Then we walked through some of Central Park. It was really cool, because you know you're in New York City in Central Park, but you aren't in the city. You're surrounded by it, but in Central Park the air is clean, and everything is so peaceful and green. It was crazy. We kept looking for the bridge from Enchanted, but we never found it. Oh well, there were some other neat bridges. Then we walked back down fifth street again and stopped in at Tiffany's and FAO Shwartz. Then we stopped in St. Patricks Cathedral, where it was a really pretty building, but there wasn't the same spirit that was at the temple. I hope the Hughes felt that. Then we headed back to the hotel because we were so worn out by this time. We grabbed some dinner at a pizza shop across the street from our hotel and then went into our hotel to crash until that night's show. In the Heights was probably my least favoirte show, but it was still cool, because it was Broadway. Then we went back to our hotel, and Gray West and I ended up staying up until 2 in the morning discussing religion. It was really good. He's not getting baptized anytime soon, but it was still a really good discussion.

The next morning we were planning on going to a Lynel Ricky concert early in the morning, but we slept through our alarms, because we had stayed up way too late the night before. Luckily only Craft was going with a group and Davis was sleeping in like the rest of us. We managed to get up to go with Davis to Chinatown and Little Italy. The cool thing about Chinatown is the fact that they are illegally selling fake name brand purses and jewelry. They have secret backrooms where the wall will open up, and you go in the back. One of the best was when we had to sprint through the whole store to get through the back wall before they closed it. Then we went to Little Italy for lunch, and then headed to Ground Zero. It was kind of lame, because we had a girl who couldn't pay for the tour because she spent all her money on knock off purses and a 1000 (yes one thousand) dollar bracelet from Tiffany's I don't understand it, but there you have it. Then we went back to the hotel and crashed until the dinner dance cruise around Manhattan Island and up close to the Statue of Liberty. It was the best way to spend our last night in the city. We got to see the beauty of the city from the river at night when it's all lit up, and then the Statue of Liberty up close and personal. It was all just amazing. I can't believe we were so lucky. Then after we got our fill of the beautiful sights we went back downstairs and danced for a while, until we docked again. Then we hopped the subway at midnight and got back to our hotel.

We woke up the next day ready to go home, but we had until 4:30 walking around the city. We grabbed a Jamba Juice for breakfast and wandered around finishing up last minute souvenier shopping. Then we stopped one last time in Times' Square for a break. Then we walked to Macy's, which was kind of a let down, but it had really cool wooden escalators. Then we rode the subway to Central Park where Emily and I street performed for a litte while (we sang) then we hopped the subway went back to the hotel, and got on our bus sped to the airport and were delayed until 10:00. We got back to Atlanta at midnight. And got home at 5 in the morning. And that was my encounter with NYC

My Family

This year my parents decided to celebrate my mom's fiftieth Birthday (yes, I know she doesn't look that old) with an Alaskan Cruise. My parents and I flew out the day after school officially let out (although I skipped the last two days). We met my brother and his wife that day in Seattle, and spent some time just seeing the city. It was really cool for me, because I was trying to get used to the big city atmosphere before my trip to NYC. We tried to drive into the city, and it was a mess, but once we finally got rid of the car and started walking everywhere, it was really fun. We only stayed there one night, and then we headed down to the dock to meet with our Cruise ship, and meet up with my sister, her husband, and my nephew. We finally got on bored the ship after a while and found our way to our staterooms. I got one to myself, because everyone else wanted to stay with their spouses for some strange reason. And then the cruise actually began.

And instead of telling every nitty gritty detail I'll throw that in my journal and just tell you the fun stories.

Fun story number 1:
One of my favorite things about this cruise was how popular I was because I hung out so much with my sister, her husband, and especially her baby. All the crew and the other guests all loved my nephew. One of the funny things was how often people would ask me if he was my baby. Kinda awkward, but that's just when you smile and say that he's my nephew and not my son.

Fun Story Number 2:
On the first day of a cruise you always have a drill where you learn what to do. Your fire alarm goes off then you grab your life jacket head on up to your muster station, then out on deck to where your life boat would be. Well one morning somewhere in the middle of the cruise I woke up late, got up and took a shower. Well it turns out that my water might have been a little warm, because when I got out of the shower the fire alarm was going off. I didn't realize that it was the steam, I actually thought the ship was going down, so I got dressed in record time, and was pulling out my life jacket when someone knocked on my door, and in came the room cleaning guy. He looked at me and realized that it must not have been me smoking, because I didn't look guilty at all, more like terrified, plus there was the life jacket in my hand. He unplugged my fire alarm and told me to make sure next time I didn't use as much warm water in my shower...boy did I feel stupid.

All in all it was a great trip. I spent most my time with my sister and her family, and it was definitely one of the greatest points. I love all my family, but my sister and I just get along probably best out of all of us siblings. The scenery and the weather were both amazing as well. Usually it's supposed to rain in Alaska (or snow), but it was sunny and around 70-80 degrees the whole trip. And Alaskan scenery is amazing.

Definitely a great experience.

Preview...yeah I'm a copier.

Okay, so I've been pretty busy lately, I got all my summer vacationing over in about the first three and a half weeks of summer, so now I just need to update everything. I know I'm gonna write at least one blog entry on each of the following events: Family vacation, Drama trip, and my 'brothers.' It'll take a while, but hopefully I'll finish all of it, before Youth Conference when I have to add more.

Just What My Life Needs...Irony.

Well I finally managed, to pull myself together and ask the amazing Eliza to go on a date with me. It was a great date, and we had a blast. Everything went fairly well, I won't say perfectly, because there were certain things that could have gone better (for example not having your best friends going to the same show as you and making faces at you throughout the entire date...), but it was really good. I felt really good about it that night when I went to sleep. The next morning I woke up, checked my e-mail, and got my first e-mail from the girl I thought I had gotten over in six months... how ridiculous is my life?
Strangely. I feel as though I'm getting over both girls at the same time. This year really has sucked in the romance area. I finally get over one girl to fall for two more, just in time to watch them meet the one they think their destined for. Then I spend so much time plucking up the courage to ask out Eliza, just in time to have finally started the slow decline of interest. Wow I really need to get timing down better...

It's Over

My Advanced Drama class performed 'The Island of Dr. Moreau' this past Friday. It's a disturbingly dark play that involves cannibalism, evolution, mad scientists, cussing like sailors, and heavy drinking. It wasn't the greatest play ever written, but it was fun to be on stage again. The weird thing is that this is my last Drama performance for an actual grade... I won't ever again take high school drama...it's kind of a sad thought. I've grown so used to being in the drama classroom or the auditorium every day of high school, that I'm not really sure how I'll handle next year. The stage over the year and a half of drama has become a sort of home to me. I can remember the first performance I had on the stage, I was so nervous, and yet so elated when the audience applauded for me. Then I took Intermediate Drama and the nervousness returned, because I had a lead and I didn't know my lines at all (the play was cast the week before the show). And yet the applause still gave me the elation a performance does. Then it was Footloose, where I performed four times in three days and every time we had a standing ovation, that was the best feeling ever. Now with the Island of Dr. Moreau my drama days are over. It's interesting, I'm not really sad, just surprised. On the other hand Choir is gonna be awesome next year!

Surprises

For my mom's Birthday this year, she turned fifty. She doesn't look that old, but she is. My sister wanted to do something special, so she decided to come out here from the other side of the country with her baby and her husband to surprise my mom. She told me, because she wanted to know when Footloose was. She managed to make it to Footloose and my Mom's Birthday. The best part was that my mom didn't expect a thing. When my sister showed up with my nephew, it was fun to see my mom actually be surprised about it. It was fun getting to spend a week and a half with my sister and her baby. We probably get along together better than any other sibling set in my family, so it was good to have time together. We really didn't do anything overly amazing, but we did have lots of fun together. I just wish that they would come back and surprise me for my seventeenth Birthday...but it really wouldn't be a surprise if I suggested it.

Cut Footloose Whoa-oh-oh

This year our high school musical was Footloose. I was fortunate to be a part of the cast, and had a great time being able to put on a show for the students and the public. It was great to perform with some old friends, and to make some new friends in the process of the show. There are lots of great memories from the show. One of the best parts about being a memeber of the adults chorus was you got to make up a character for your part. My character started out single, then in the Still Rockin' bar scene I eloped with another member of the adult chorus, who's husband had left her and her son (Bickle (Willard's friend)) to join a band. She married me to get back at her husband, and her son ran off and was adopted by Mama (as in Mama says). At the end we got a divorce, after we had Vance (genetically it was impossible for us to have him, but we don't really care). Then after that Vance and my wife left and I married Ethel McCormik (Ren's mom), and that was my character.
There are lots of Footloose stories, but I don't really have the time to share them all, just know when you're locked in a place from four to ten every night for three weeks fun things tend to happen.

Wicked

So after about two years of hoping and wishing to see the Broadway Musical Wicked, I finally achieved my goal last month. It was by far the most amazing thing I have ever seen!! Sets were amazing, costumes great, acting beyond anything I've ever seen, singing almost as good as Idina Menzel, plot SOOO good! I absolutely positively loved the show, and am so grateful that I got to see it. My goal is to take my whole family to see Wicked with me when I publish my first book (and depending on how well it sells I might take a hundred of my closest friends.)

Tribute

I still don't really believe that you're gone. I keep thinking that maybe if I had been there for you it wouldn't have happened, but it did. I want you to know that I love you and miss you, and I can't wait until the day I see you again. We were never really close, you and I, but our friendship meant the world to me. You were a friend, to me when I was young, I looked up to you and admired you from a distance. You always included me in those rare times we would get together, even though I wasn't as old, or as cool as the rest of your friends. You weren't perfect, but neither was I, and we both made mistakes that we shouldn't have made. I don't think I've seen you since I moved away, and that's what hurts the most now. I wish I had known you better, I wish I had made an effort to see you. I wish that this wouldn't have happened, but I know that I've got to be strong. I'll see you again when I return home. And there we'll be brothers together with the Lord.

Book Review

Every Young Women's Battle is a book that even though it sounds kind of lame for a teenage guy to read, I'm not ashamed to admit that I've read it. It's a book I will recomend to teenage girls and boys who can handle a book so blunt on the topic of sexual purity. My friend Em. in Bible Study recommended that everyone in our group read both Every Young Women's Battle and Every Young Man's Battle. I finished Every Young Women's Battle over Spring Break, and it really was a life-changing book. My copy of Every Young Men's Battle arrived from e-bay yesterday and already I've gotten to chapter six.
Every Young Women's Battle was written by a pair of Christian authors, who have a lot of valid points (it's true that when they delve into the Bible they interpret some passages differently then I do, but all in all most points were right on par). I think a lot of those points although written to Young Women can apply to people of either gender and any age. I also think that even if the points didn't apply that much to Young Men, it's still a good idea for us to read it. We need to know that girls are tempted in some of the same ways we are, and we need to know what we can do to help lessen those temptations. If teenagers of both genders worked together to help each other avoid sexual temptation I'm pretty sure we'd have a much more sexually pure world.
All in all I would definately recomend going to your local bookstore and buying a copy of both Every Young Women's Battle and Every Young Man's Battle, unless you aren't comfortable with some in depth reading on all aspects of purity. In which case there's nothing wrong with you, and it seems that you don't really have a need to read the book, because you're doing great on your own.

More About Writing

I used to be so insecure about letting people read my writing. I felt like my writing was allowing people too deeply into my thoughts and pretty much my soul. I think that being in Drama has affected that insecurity, so that I'm not afraid to share my writing with the world. Now I love letting people read my writing. I've started to carry around a copy of my currently-being-worked-on-novel, and letting anyone who wants to read it, read it. I've gotten a lot of comments, a lot of helpful criticism, and A LOT of praise. I'm (for the most part) not showing it around to get praised, I really like comments, but praise is always nice.
I think one of the major reasons I've gotten so deeply into my writing again is because my friend Audrey recently one an essay contest and actually got paid for doing it. I'll admit I'm a little jealous, but mainly inspired. If someone my age can earn money for writing, why can't I? It is true that she's a very good writer, but I like to think that I'm not pathetic at writing.
My goal is to finish the rough draft of my novel if not by the end of this school year, by the beginning of next school year. My Junior Year does need at least that accomplishment, the completion of my first ever novel.

It's Happening

I have finally gotten serious about my writing. I haven't been this active as a writer since I was in seventh grade, trying to chug out my first ever novel (I think I still have the first four chapters of the worst ever written novel in existence). It's a good feeling, knowing that I'm back to writing. I've written two chapters in my novel recently as well as planned minor tweaks to the currently existing seven chapters. I've written a general history of what goes on before my novel, and I've written a political history of what leads up to it. I've started to create character portfolios that help with what's going on the novel. I've given my characters families, which adds a whole new level to the story. And best of all I've started a small sketch (that will not be in the novel) of a scene that will take place between Iolana and her father. I'm really excited to finish this book and start working on other books to begin and end the series that my novel takes place in the center of. I can finally see why J.R.R. Tolkien focused most of his books on Middle Earth. Once you've created a world that fascinates you as a writer as much as you hope it will fascinate your readers you don't ever want to give that world up. So keep your eyes open for a new best selling series that will come along in future years. It'll probably have been written by your's truly.

Stupid Me...

Well I don't have a Personal Progress to do, thank goodness for Young Men, and Duty to God doesn't have anything (as far as I know) that says you have to be all nice and complimentary for two weeks, so yeah, this blog might not be too nice.
I am totally smitten with one of the worst people for me. She pays attention to me at church. She'll talk with me and joke with me at Seminary or at church dances. The problem is the minute we get to school I don't exist to her. I can't stand inconsistent people. We'll pass in the halls, I'll wave, say her name, stare at her as she passes, and she ignores me. When she does notice me, it's more of an "Oh there's that kid from church again...I guess I should be nice." She treats me like I'm just a locker while we're at school. It's like she's afraid of messing with her reputation by even being friendly to me at school. At the musical she doesn't even talk to me, every other Mormon kid there will talk to me, but not her. She ignores me entirely. I hate it.
And yet I still can't get enough of my time with her. I never know what to say, so I always say the wrong thing. I'm always off guard, and I don't know how to act, or who to be. I love every moment of it. I want to be funny and charming around her, but things get tied up when I'm around her. It's a good and a bad feeling.
No matter what though, as David Archuletta once said. I know this crush ain't going away.

Horrible Copier

I believe one of the major reasons to read other peoples' blogs (besides getting to know about them) is to get ideas from to emulate (rip away from their cold, dead hands and copy) in your own blog. One of the best ideas was to compliment people on a blog. Butter people up beyond belief, to get stuff like cookies and life savings from them (I know Audrey isn't doing it for that reason, but I can't tell you my own motivation. You just have to know me well enough to know whether or not I'm being serious or sarcastic about it.)
Anyways I thought I would start off on my complimentary blogs with talking about my dear friend Echo. She and I have had issues over the years, but she and I have been friends pretty much from day one. When I moved here she, Audrey and I were pretty much inseparable at church activities. Echo was less sarcastic and quieter than Audrey, but that was fine with me, I wasn't very much of a cynic back then, so I appreciated it. I think I annoyed her an awful lot though; I do admit that at thirteen I still suffered from the dreaded "Deacons' Disease." But even though I was annoying she stood by me at every church activities, and whenever she did something that she thought might have insulted me at all she apologized. Something I am of course terrible at doing. We of course have both changed since then, but she's still among my top friends. I value her opinion more than almost anyone else's, because she usually knows what's up.
We've had a lot of good memories over the years. We got our first swords together (wow that's nerdy). We went out to ice cream once and had a total blast making up stories about the people going in and out of stores (most of which involved a freeze ray). We also went trick-or-treating together in ninth grade, and had a total blast...even though I kind of sort of broke her sword. Sorry about that. We've had tons of other great memories over the years, and it's been great having a friend like Echo there for me. We also had our sixteenth party combined together. It was a lot of fun just planning the party, and we did have a good time even if it never actually turned out to be a dance.
One of her best qualities is that she's always encouraging. She pushes people to go and follow there dreams and to improve their talents. She's pushed me for years to get back on the piano bench and play. I'm still not convinced on that front, but I think in college I'll get back into piano, since I'll be living near my sister. Echo is also humble. She's an amazing musician, but she doesn't really brag about it. I'm sure if I were that talented, then I would be showing off every second I got, but Echo doesn't, it's really cool. She's very caring. She always notices when something is up, with anyone. She's even noticed when my Dad's been having an off day, and she made sure to stop and talk to him to see what was wrong. It's just the type of cool thing Echo would do.
So Echo, have a great day, and remember that your friends care about you.

It's not just me!!

So Therapy update:
We aren't really sure what we're going to do, about the new girl in therapy, but Em, John, Laura, and I are all fairly sure that we don't want her back at the next therapy. Let me stress that we aren't trying to be mean, we just want therapy back to the original Brian, Laura, John, Em, Kali, Alicia, and me (Zelos), it's better that way. We all conferred together when the new therapy girl wasn't around and the idea is that more than likely we might have to lose three members of therapy to lose awkwardness/annoyances now.
The awkwardness comes from a Brian/Laura development that hasn't really developed, but one wants it to, and the other doesn't. Other problems include the fact that the new girl has replaced all of us in Alicia's books, so we really have no one to hang out with that much. And the third member is of course the new girl in therapy. It's kind of sad that our therapy group might have to morph, but the fact is when four-five (I don't know Kali's stance on the situation) of the therapy group have issues with the new person, something has got to be done.
Anyways, I'm pretty sure you don't care, but it's pretty much the major thing that's bothering me, and since I don't have a vent time at therapy anymore, I'll just write it on my blog.

Therapy

So my Drama friends and i have begun an activity we like to call Therapy. It's where we get together and vent, dance, sing, eat, and play improv. games. The point of it is to get us to feel better, and to prove to ourselves that teenagers can have a good time without throwing in a totally unimaginative movie. It's fun, it's good, and the best thing ever is that it was exclusive. That sounds bad of me to say, but sometimes it's hard to be yourself in front of people you don't trust...
With that being said last Therapy (Friday) was an absolute disaster. Because one among our number obviously wasn't filled in on the whole "exclusive" part of therapy, so of course she invites another girl...another girl who quite frankly might have just destroyed therapy. When we had our vent session she took the entire time to vent her own problems, which by the way, she's vented to us everyday since the beginning of the semester, so of course we already knew about everything she vented, and had already given her our advice. With that none of the rest of us had any time to vent...which was why we had therapy in the first place, so EVERYONE could vent. Then the same girl made sure the focus was on her the entire time during therapy, and didn't let us give anyone else the attention.
Now she's talking about next therapy, and how we should watch a movie (which goes against therapy), and she'll probably start planning therapy sessions thus forcing herself into the eternal therapy circle. The worst part is that she practically invited herself to therapy, and now she is taking over.
I might need to form a new therapy group...that remains forever exclusive.

Quote Them

Here are SOME of my favorite people and quotes from today:

"I'm like Disney Land on Crack"
-Mrs. Davis

"Ewww...Twincest"
-Ivis

"If I were thirty years younger..."
-Mr. Parker

"I will cut you...son"
-Em

"Am I crazy or falling in love, is it real or just another crush?"
-David Archuletta

"Well actually we only missed you two days, the first day we didn't really care you were gone."
-Eliza (okay, so that one happened yesterday)

Adventures in P.E.

I am one of those people who is naturally clumsy, uncoordinated, and slow, so naturally I find P.E. to be quite the drag. The first few weeks it was REALLY boring and painful, but lately I've actually begun to have fun. The coaches have finally laxed up on us students, so we're allowed to sit in the bleachers after a half an hour of exercise (I would feel guilty, but I do work-out nightly at home (that wasn't bragging, it was fact)). Now that that's happened I'm having some fun in the class.
One day my friend R.E.L was writing a note to our coach asking him if we could do something besides play basketball and volleyball, like maybe dodgeball (I'm actually not sure if she delivered it or not), but that's when I got the idea of how to have fun up in the bleachers. That day I dug out my notebook and started drawing random little scenes (they were stick figures, but it was still fun). A few days later I wrote a song dedicated to our LIFE PE class, which I will not publish, because it's really dumb, and a note to our coach (copying R.E.L's note, but making it more comic, and adding fun stick figure pictures).
Today was by far the best day though. I decided yesterday when one of my friends showed me notes from her boyfriend, to write her love notes to make her boyfriend jealous. It was pretty fun. R.E.L. and I hung out and thought of all sorts of cheesy things to write in the note including the favorite "My life without you, is like a chloroplast without sunlight." Then at the bottom R.E.L. drew a giant heart (she drew the heart, because I'm a guy, do you need anymore explanation), and I drew a picture of Em (the girl the love note was for) and me holding hands, then I colored the heart with my pink highlighter. It was amazing. After that we came up with about the cheesiest love poem ever, and the next block in Drama, I delivered to Em.
Tomorrow we get to work out of the health books, which means I need to charge my iPod, and think of something else to write. I'm actually thinking of starting an episode from the sitcom that's taking form in my head. We'll see how that works.

The New Year

I decided that I should finally update my blog, so here's what's up:
Well first off I managed to survive to the weekend of what must've been the longest week of my life ever. I started my second semester, and it's semester's like this that make me wonder why the heck I haven't dropped out of school and joined the military. I get to start my day off in Chemistry. This shouldn't be too bad, since last semester I started off my day with Physics, but it's not really that great. I learned to understand Physics and actually gain an appreciation for it last semester. I also made some amazing friends in that class. Next is P.E. I'll steal Lauren's description of the events in P.E., and then go into other views from my perspective. One day they pretty much made us run around and around the gym for about 20 minutes, then they made us do about 1000 sit-ups (note that the numbers might be just a little exaggerated). We were half expecting them to make us carry elephants across the gym the next day for upper-body work-outs. Then the whole other spectre is the locker room. I got so lost my first day in there, most locker rooms are simple you walk in the door and there are lockers, but this never happens at our school, oh no. You walk into the locker room and have about a thousand turns before you ever even find the lockers. I was one of the twenty (unexaggerated number) unfortunate people who thought that the further back you went in the locker room the less crowded it would be, that was a wrong assessment of the situation.
Okay so third block is Advanced Drama which isn't all that bad. I'm a little disappointed because I'm stuck in Drama with people who have sworn to hate me, and whom I have sworn to hate. But the class is so ginormous that really it doesn't matter because I can lose myself in the class. I'm also struggling with the class because my Intermediate Drama class became like a family last semester, and now I'm in drama with a whole bunch of strangers and people I don't get along with. Mrs. Davis and I are also having a lot of problems with each other this semester. For some reason this semester she's out to prove that she hates my guts, and for the first time I've actually thought of dropping the whole program because I can't stand her any more. I've actually prayed about whether or not I should be in the department, and I'm still not sure what my answer was, or if I've gotten an answer yet.
Okay so to end every single day I get to go to Honors Pre-Cal (I feel like an honor's student knowing I don't even know how to spell Calculus without a spell-check). The class is good and all, but I have about a bajillion math problems to do every day after school, and a quiz every other day.
After school activities have been so-so this semester as well. I missed Ren. Club this week, but I'll probably make it to the next meeting. And the Musical has been pushing itself in on my life. I am enjoying parts of rehearsals, although there have been some issues with it as well. I've discovered that I'm the outcast/forgotten Mormon in the musical. The other Mormons in the musical tend to ignore/forget me, but I don't mind. I have enough good friends in the musical that I don't care about the people who don't see what they're missing. The two Mormons that I really want to be friends with hang out with me most the time, so it's all good. Also the opening scene looks great, so hopefully we'll pull off this musical even better than they did last year's.
Okay, so for the happy parts of my life. I do have friends in every class, except for Chemistry, which I have people to talk to, so it's not lack of friends that's making the days drag by. I also finally have plans set up, and in motion to maybe start something that I want to be started, so hopefully that'll work out. Mostly I have some stuff to complain about, but I guess not too much.