The Epic Spring Break

This was a crazy spring break. It was supposed to be a super catch up week for school work, but I allowed other things to get in the way. Don't get me wrong; I got some work done. I just didn't get %100 all caught up. This next going to be so good; I'm so excited to have these lessons done. Anyways, let me tell you of my springtime adventures.

3/21 (Monday)
I woke up at grandpa Seable's house. Dad left me there while I was talking to Ceana via cell phone in g-ma's back room. I guess he heard me mention that I wanted to stay for the night in some of the conversation and just decided to go. This morning I spent some good quiet time doing schoolwork on g-ma's laptop. I love being able to take school everywhere. Then again, I suppose I can never escape, can I?

I also got to spend some time with my cousins, of course. The Jarvis family decided to go to a local museum today, and I decided to tag along. As it turned out, the museum was closed, and so we went to the local pharmacy for 25 cent phosphates instead. I got some wonderful humble-time walking around in public wearing grandpa's oversized sweats and itchy sweater; it was fun playing hobo for the day. All the same, it was nice when dad dropped off my track clothing for the afternoon.

That's right; an athlete never rests, not even for spring break. There was a skeletal number of the team there today; most of them were off traveling. But we had practice just like any other day.

This evening for family night we got to watch The Secret on Netflix. Whoever thought up this idea made it sound really epic and intense and whatnot. A lady puts together a group of authors, psychologists, and visionaries and they explain the "law of attraction". In other words, they put the concepts of faith and hope into a fancy-smanshy-science-y documentary. It was very very interesting. As it turns out, you attract everything and everyone around you via thoughts, whether you realize it or not. You can have anything you want if you just focus on it and eliminate all negative thoughts concerning it. "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you..."

For example, if you hope that, "I don't want to be late", you are thinking negatively. You will most likely be late. Whereas is you think "I am on time" as you're waiting in that traffic line, your chances for being on time will dramatically increase only because you are thinking positively! It works, ask Einstein! Or Lincoln, or Beethoven, or Buddha, or Rockefeller... fun psych, indeed.

3/22 (Tuesday)
Today was meant to be another work day, only I got an employment opportunity by noon so I had to cut my quality school time short. The Harmons in our ward are killing, felling, and chopping up some trees on some property they just bought so they can have room on it for the new house they are building out in the woods. I got to come and help for ten bucks an hour. I think that their spot is nice, but it seems rather lonely. I guess no one will be bothering them out there, but I feel like when I'm looking for a place to live, I'm going to find a more social environment. I wonder if there is some way you can get a bomb permit that you could use to level ground and blow away trees on your property; that would save a lot of time for projects like this. I bet Brother Dauge has one or two we could use next time we eradicate trees.

3/23 (Wednesday)
I got a good bit of school done today + a special surprise. Tiernan H, a wonderful classmate of mine from Portland, happened to be down here for Ashland's Shakespeare Festival this week with her grandma. Allie, of course, had to plan a get together. So she called me up a couple of days before and badda bing= we got to spend the morning visiting, listening to music, and playing music at Allie's house. We even got to pester Jacob O on the phone, which led to some pretty interesting conversations. Tiernan is such a character.

This afternoon my father and I went to the cannery in Medford to get our family's food storage all re-stocked. I am so glad we did, but now my room is filled with boxes and cans. Where are we going to put all of this stuff?

3/24 (Thursday)
Today I finally finished the rough draft for the speech I have to do for next week for Government. Nothing else too exciting, other than track and piano lesson. Patience with self is a virtue.

3/25 (Friday) COMMANDO!
That's right, today I got to play commando. I'll tell you more about that in a minute.

This afternoon I got to go to the park to spend some time with the music group again. As it turned out, only the faithful Miranda and the diligent Jessie came. So we didn't have enough people for a band once again, but we got to play music and chat all the same. We'll get the whole group together one of these days, just you wait! After playing at the park for a bit we went to Miranda's house to hang out. While over there we played some pretty intense rounds of chess. As I was challenging Miranda's mom to a game of chess, I explained Education Week to her as an alternative to the now $400+ priced EFY. Both she and Miranda sounded excited about it; I hope she'll be able to come along with us this year!

Later that afternoon, Sister S was informed about a Commando game going on in town tonight. She was told that a group of LDS people decided to put it together, and that Miranda, Jessie, and I were invited. I had never heard of Commando before, but this is what I was told: You start at one point on foot, and then you have to get to another point without getting caught by other players looking for you in cars.

So Jessie and I called our moms to ask for permission. Jessie's mom said no, but mine said yes. And so, at 9 that night, Miranda and I went out to join 40-50 teenagers in this exiting game, beginning at the Denny's on the other side of the town. The end of the commando course was the All Sports Park, right on the opposite side of town. It turned out that it was organized by an LDS kid, but he invited a majority of non-LDS kids. There was smoking and foul language galore. Even a couple of police men showed up, just to see what we were all up to waiting in the parking lot. They told us that Denny's was complaining about us being there, and so we all moved to a different parking lot: McDonalds. It took the leader of the group (I believe his name was Thomas) awhile to find enough kids who wanted to be the drivers and spotters for the drivers. The most memorable line I remember hearing him say was, "EVERYBODY SETTLE DOWN. You haven't done anything illegal. Yet." (You're not allowed to run through private property in the game, but I remember hearing Noah had other plans...)

Once we had everything ready someone shouted "go" and the pack dispersed in seconds. It was kind of fun just sprinting and sprinting through the cool night, running and jumping over walls, and actually using the stamina I've been accumulating in distance running for something new. I looked over my shoulder a bit after jumping off of a tall ledge onto parking lot, spotting Miranda. She looked like she had injured herself jumping off of the wall, so I just had to run back and see what was the matter. She rolled her ankle, and was not able to run for the rest of the night. And so we hobbled along for a few more minutes and were caught; I couldn't just leave her there. We were caught at an intersection still in the downtown area, on 5th street I believe. The driver that caught us (Jordan F) flashed his lights and honked the horn while his spotter Noah yelled at us out the window.We piled into the back, and zoom: their search continued. Jordan was driving way to fast in town that night, stopping and turning sharply and abruptly, looking for kids on the run in the night. We found a lot of hobos walking around in the dark. Miranda and I were considering dressing as hobos for this occasion to make avoiding spotters easier, but we ended up using dark clothing instead.

Jordan dropped us off at the All Sports Park, where we waited for the rest of the pack to get there or be captured and taken there. The leader and his small team of 3 made it there first without being caught, and the rest of them were either dragged in or ran into the center of the park victorious. While we were waiting for everyone to come along, we decided to scare people in the dark. We saw two silhouettes in the dark moving towards us from a long distance, so we hid behind a bush, waiting for them to come along. At the right moment, we yelled "RAR!!" and scared two young adult men riding bikes in the middle of the night. The first one freaked out, and then said the F word more than any other person I have ever heard in my life, then raised his hand, as if to strike, but turned out to be a high five. He complimented us for scaring them, then we tried to explain what we were doing out in the park in the middle of the night. Then the capped, foul mouthed man mentioned, just before he was about to leave again, that he would have punched me in the face if Miranda wasn't there. Someone must be watching out for me.

The second couple I scared (Miranda had to go sit down) was two of the commando players, Matt and Sarah. I yelled, he looked surprised, she screamed, ka-ching.

Sooner or later everyone showed up at around 10:15. Some of the drivers and runners were acting pretty rowdy and dangerous; I am so grateful that none of them got hurt riding on top of speeding cars in the park or throwing bananas (that's right, bananas.) at each other like knives.

They were going to have a second round past curfew, but Miranda and I decided to pass it up. She called her mom, she came, picked us up, and dropped me off at my house. I am SO grateful that we got out of that safely; my mom's prayers worked. I don't believe I will be playing commando with that group again. BUT, I think I'll have to use it in a more legal setting for group dates in the future.

When I got home, the kids were excited to show me a surprise. They showed me to the little girl's pink room, and there I found my desk, my bed, Henry's bed, my drawer, my guitar...

I'm so happy; I have a pink room! It's cozier than our family's storage room, that's for sure. The little girls had their beds moved to the classroom. I think I'll be able to work in hear more comfortably; I'm so grateful for such a thoughtful mom.

3/26 (Saturday)
Today I slept in; I fell ill. I felt too tired to do any school, but I was able to help a bit with the cleanup work the family was doing today.

Haley had her 16th birthday party today; that was fun. They did a Twilight trivia, which I knew all about; I read Nightlight, so I knew all of the right answers to the questions. There was food and cake and Haley's most favorite music. Ah, and Savannah F was able to make it there; I haven't seen her in months! It was so good to see her again; it brings such joy to my heart. I miss my seminary friends from town. Candice ("The cowgirl dancer from that talent show a few years ago?" "Oh yeah, that one!") was also there.

3/27 (Sunday)
I am feeling really tired today. But I'm going to just ignore that fact and pretend I'm totally energized this week. In sacrament meeting today Sister Black gave a really good talk about putting Christ first. She mentioned using the Attributes of Christ in the Preach My Gospel book for self improvement, which I remember doing last year. I think I'm going to try that again. The Christ like attribute of the week is Charity, I will be working on this one and studying it all week long and then record how my behavior improves. This is going to be so helpful for me. I love Sister Black!

Parker gave a really good lesson about forgiveness in Priesthood today.

That's pretty much it for this week; now remember the Secret! "I will be able to accomplish my set tasks in all of my responsibilities this week easily!"