Memories.

I will try to keep this post free of preaching, whining because I miss people, boys who have crushes on me, etc. That will hopefully be contained here.

I got back from another camp about two weeks ago, this time it was a mission camp over in Lookout Mountain, GA/Chattanooga, TN. It's really pretty, and in the Great Smoky Mountains. We visited old folks and played with underprivileged children. Somebody decided to put seven girls (including myself) in a dorm room (we were staying at a college) that was only intended for six people. Honestly, I think only two or three people should be in a dorm that size. It really was that small.

The camp itself and all the people were just marvelous. Not necessarily the building and actual college... [Note to self: a frequently used tactic of fancy private colleges to lure you in is making the outside and guest houses really nice, and making the majority of the dorms very outdated, moldy, extremely cramped, not exactly always sanitary, etc.]

Nevertheless, it's fun. We had a speaker guy named Chris Brooks who was really funny and everyone could always understand exactly what he meant... he also talked about everything from several different perspectives of people who believe different things. I'll stop with my camp stories now because they're probably boring/not making much sense...

And now... it's time for weird things people have written in my yearbooks! Some of these make no sense at all, just so you know...

"The Eccentric Banana! -Shivanjali! PS: Cows are coolio!" "IZZY! ILY! STALKER! ♥ Natalie" "ur so awesome and so is writing upside down! luv ya! Julia" "I am so happy I'm married 2 you AND 7 other people!!! Have an Awesome summer, Izzy. - Lizzie" "Izzy, have a fun soccer summer! - Sarah" "Naila! Burger King! Murder King! [and something else which is probably too inappropriate. XD]" "Andrew H. a.k.a Pablo M. [The story of that is he wasn't supposed to be on our bus, so on the bus, we called him Pablo so the bus driver wouldn't know he was Andrew. It worked, surprisingly.] "Izzy, web design was so much fun. I can't believe you like him‼ Enjoy next year without me, Brenna" "Hi Izzy. - Patriek. [He told me he spelled his name wrong because he was thinking about something with an e in it.... it's Patrick. Okay, then.]"

And my birthday is tomorrow. Yay. I really ought to stop typing so much.

♥ Izzy

We're not strange. At all.

I was away at camp. I met my best friend, Piper (yes, it was like kindergarten, where you know someone for a short period of time, and then you're best friends) I don't meet people that I connect with very quickly often. One of my best friends from elementary school, Maddie, was also there. It was like we last saw each other when school got out, but it was actually years without seeing her or talking to her. Maddie has a shade of red hair that I've never seen anyone else with, and you can recognize her in a large crowd. It's so pretty, though.

Speaking of hair: part of my hair is orangey-golden blonde. Sun-In. It sort of bleaches your hair. You probably shouldn't use that stuff unless you have completely blonde hair. You will most likely regret it unless you want (possibly) extremely strange looking orange/golden hair that you can't guess the color of before you use it. My hair looks unnaturally colored, but it doesn't look too strange.

About three weeks ago, right before I went to camp, they cut off two and a half inches of my hair because it looked weird because my hair was kinda burnt at the ends from flat-ironing it so much and there were some split ends. Yes, it surely did need to be trimmed, but two and a half inches? Really? Oh and I got half my hair cut off on Monday. It's only somewhat short, not really really short. If I hadn't had two and a half inches cut off, then my hairdresser said I could have donated my hair. Life can be ironic.

I went spelunking/caving while at camp and one of my good friends, Danielle, who really spaces out sometimes, did not catch me because she somehow 'forgot', and I fell five and a half or six feet in a cave in Middle-of-Nowhere, Virginia. So I fell more feet than I am tall. I, amazingly, didn't get hurt at all. That's definitely not the first time something like this has happened. I jumped out of a tree, from fifteen feet off the ground when I was ten. I measured it.

For "cabin time", in which you... spend time with your cabin, one day we went to the zipline one day, where you have a harness on, and you're connected to a rope and a cable, and basically you fly out of the woods into the lake. I am not necessarily a fan of that. Or really anything that involves falling into water from a high elevation. Anyways, it was dark and cold and icky for anything water-related that day. There was absolutely no chance that I was going on the zipline. When we were out there, it started pouring down rain, so I sat, in a ball, under a tree on a very, very steep hill. One of our counselors, who I really think could be a much better Hannah Montana than Miley Cyrus, (I mean that in a good way) said "What are you doing? You look like some sort of creepy creature." Thus I was known as a creepy creature for the rest of camp. It was hilarious. I guess you had to be there.

Let's share another camp story. So our counselors were at a gas station when they had a night off during camp. Inside the store, there was a lady trying to steal a ham by hiding it under her shirt to look like she was pregnant. Very convincing. I have no idea why they have ham at a gas station... but okay... the ham fell out from under her shirt. Then she said "WHO FRU. DA HAM. AT ME." Sounds like something that should be on Saturday Night Live. (Actually, I think I remember this being a youtube video. I bet they were just pulling our leg.) And about SNL: some of the staff members decided to do these skits for us at one of our nightly assemblies in the gym, and I was one of the few people dying of laughter because not many other people had seen it/everyone was extremely confused. (Yes there are commercials, but it's worth waiting for.)





And I almost died today. I was seriously less than 50 feet from being struck by lightning. And I have other things to say. So if you aren't tired of my senseless, seemingly endless rambling, which to me, sounds highly improbable, then click here.

♥ Izzy

Taking disturbing to a new level. (And homicidal children!)

So.

Leaving for camp in mountains on Sunday for two weeks. Away from chaos. Maybe not. Most likely causing chaos in cabin, with three friends in there with me. We're probably going to be dancing when we're supposed to be sleeping, like a few years ago. Going spelunking (caving!) while at camp. Fun.

Watch me have an allergic reaction to something and then end up in the nurse's office again. They can never figure out what it is. I tell them that it's kind of normal while I'm at camp, and a few minutes later, I'm okay. Extremely weird. But I happen to be getting allergy tested, thankfully. After camp. Insane.

I just finished being a "volunteer" (funny, because it was involuntary) for a camp. Only half a day for five days, but it is really exhausting. I was with the rising first graders. Yes, they are so, so, adorable. When they try to hurt me, first I tell them to stop, and then I say "Okay, stop. Now. Or I will tell your mommy." They get so scared. However, all of the girls will not let go of me. Literally. I mean that. They're always fighting over piggyback rides, and holding my hand wherever we go. I don't mind it too much, because they don't injure me. And then the boys. Dylan won't let go of me either. Yesterday, he kept trying to kill me during the assembly thingy they have by trying to climb on my back. (WTF moment.) And he threw a water balloon, which they were not supposed to throw, at me after we played a game together. One minute he loves me, the next minute he tries to kill me, usually on accident. Fun, as you can imagine. Riley also tries to kill me and most other people in the class. He thinks it's funny, and no one else does. And then Hooker. Yes, there really is a kid named Hooker. He's the really spacey one. I think he might have severe ADD or something. Thankfully, Lilly Gray is his best friend and she always holds his hand and watches him so he doesn't get left anywhere. Cute.

Also, my cousin and I made a bunch of dumb videos today. He's 9. We tried to yesterday, but we ran out of time because he wanted to play guitar hero. I spiked up his hair, and he thought it was really cool looking, and then put foundation on his face so it wouldn't be so pink, cause it looks funny on our camera. Then I showed my aunt, who was watching Twilight, because he looked a lot like Edward Cullen, who disturbs me very much, by the by. [Yes, by the by. Oh how I love Alice In Wonderland and the Cheshire Cat.]

I am in the process of writing another [really long] letter to AFI. I ascribe them to saving my life. There was a time a few months ago when I had what I, and others, believed was chronic depression. I went to a psychologist, and even though she was really nice and tried everything she could, she just couldn't I almost killed myself. I mean I was really, really close to doing it. Then, I decided not to, because I thought of some AFI lyrics. I can't remember exactly what they were, but I believe it was something out of Now The World or God Called In Sick Today. Spontaneous miracle. After that, I started paying more attention to AFI lyrics, and realized that there could be deep meanings in some of the songs, for me, at least. Davey said "Lyrically I write what I feel and believe - nothing more, nothing less." I guess sometimes we feel the same way.

Most of my friends wonder how I'm so happy and optimistic when something bad happens. Anyways, I believe that I've become an optimist because of AFI's music. I love them, meaning being eternally grateful for saving your life, as much as you can love someone that you don't really know. Because without them, I would almost surely be dead/in a mental hospital. I mean that.

Sorry for another excessively long post.

Sometimes I'll be someone, somewhere, somehow,

♥ Izzy

[I make absolutely no sense at all. (Especially when I get nervous. Because then I'll do something like saying "Norway" instead of "drawing" or I'll just repeat things like "somewhere, somehow, something, someone, someway" etc, or start skipping words, or talking in Japanese, German, French, or even sometimes Russian. Haha, I can't speak much Russian, but Julie taught me some.) Or maybe I do. Sometimes. :)]