The Struggle: The Novel of my Life

I swear my entire life is just one big struggle.
From being in the lunch line about to get my food when someone pulls the fire alarm and cuts lunch about 15 minutes short.
Or when people guess the punchlines of my jokes. That almost ruins my entire day, forreal.
From not being able to get my schedule switched until 4 weeks into the class and it not being the class I wanted in the first place.
From momentarily forgetting not to walk in socks on the stage and having to do 10 push ups.
To thinking taking a nap in the middle of the day might help me not be so tired, but then I wake up and I'm 498564392 times more tired than I was.
And losing my only good pair of reliable headphones out of nowhere and not being able to find them at all.
Living that unstoppable procrastinator life.
Walking home in the rain looking like a drowned cat.
When the bus driver "forgets about me" and bypasses my stop completely making me walk an extra 3 blocks without even apologizing.
Trying to dance in tap shoes and have the choreographer yell at me every two seconds.
Having Ms. Brady mad at me because I can't attend one day of rehearsal because of a funeral.
Not being able to see anything during concerts because #shortpeopleprobs
Having to deal with Ms. Orcutt constantly making fun of you and your friends and giving you zeros for no particular reason at all.
When Ms. Braman moved my seat allllll the way to the back of the class where I can't see ANYTHING written on the board or see anything she does at her desk, having KIRSTEN steal my spot and making me sad and stuff.
Having my mom read the first sentence of this blog post and then immediately asking you if you're suicidal. >.> *cough cough* MOM.

I know I have no reason to complain about anything if these are the worst things that happen to me on a daily basis, but when things like that happen, I do a little "smh" on the inside and move on with my day.
Delaney

Seeing the Positives

I would like to consider myself to be an optimistic person. I always want to see the good outweigh the bad, try to make something positive out of something bad. But sometimes, everything just goes wrong, and I just have a bad day, or week or month or however long
Such as this week. This week has sucked.
A lot.
Tuesday evening my great-grandmother died. She was 94. I don't know how other families are, but we were very close with her. Our family is tight knit as it is, and everything we did was centered around whether or not my great-grandma could come with us.
She was in a nursing home because she could no longer take care of herself in her own home. So everyday someone made the trip out to visit her, she couldn't remember a lot, not events or the days of the week, but she remembered us. She never forgot who anyone was.
In December we had her birthday party. We made her cake and had balloons all set up in the party room of the nursing home. And we celebrated for a while before she stopped and in confusion she asked whose birthday it was, she didn't know who she was supposed to get a gift for. And we all laughed and reminded her it was her birthday. Her 94th birthday.
And two weeks ago, we were up at my grandma's house watching the Superbowl, and we had busted her out of the home to come and watch it with us. We let her sit in the big soft chair and would periodically ask her if she needed anything. And she never did. She was never hungry, but we'd fix her a plate to eat anyways, and she'd never eat it. She only ever wanted tomato soup, if that.
That was two weeks ago.
One week ago she was in her room in the nursing home, as alive as she'd always been. But Sunday she got pneumonia and was taken to the hospital by ambulance in the middle of the night. Tuesday my mom left work during the day to go visit her, and she didn't come home until Wednesday. Kidney failure, evidently is what finally got her.
I mean, really, she was 94, and her immune system had had enough. It just quit on her.
And the funeral was today; my grandma has had everything planned out for awhile, the funeral home, the casket, the money, the service itself. It had been planned out already.
So it was smooth, no kinks, no obstacles. All of the family I never knew came, and we all celebrated her life.

It wasn't as horribly sad as I thought it would be. She was old, we knew it was coming, and we knew she wasn't happy. She didn't want to be in a nursing home, she needed a walker, and she had a lot of health problems. It wasn't the life she would have wanted to live.
So in a way, it's not so bad, she's in a better place now. Of course we'll miss her, but she's better off where she is now.
I try to look at it that way so I don't feel so sad about it. It's a very negative thing, but I suppose a positive thing came out of it.

Which is how I want to be able to see things. I've had a pretty crap week, with that, and a few other things sprinkled here and there that have made me mad or sad. And I've been in a pretty off mood for the last few days, but when I decided it didn't have to be all bad that she died, I instantly felt a little better. Seeing the positives makes me a happier person, because I try to see the little bit of good that came out of it.
And I'm not upset about anything very often, and it never lasts more than a few days, because frankly, I'm tired of being sad and complainy and self pitying.
So I'm going to stop.
Delaney

ELVIS!

Last weekend we went to our annual Elvis Tribute Artist show at the Temple Theatre.
Some people probably think that's weird, but we've been going for so long I don't even question it.
"Do you want to go to Elvis this year?"
"Of course I do. That's not even a question."
Basically it's a contest. All of these people dressed like Elvis compete in a singing competition, and there are multiple days where they compete against one another. And then the final day the winner is announced and they sing for us. :3
And this year they had the first year winner, last year's winner and this year's winner sing for us and at the end they all sang together.
It was super mega ultra awesome like it is every year. :)
And during intermission my aunt took a picture of my favorite Elvis and I, like we do every year. He wasn't singing this year, but he was still there all dressed up looking fancy.

They're so fancy all dressed up. :)

And now I have to wait A WHOLE 'NOTHER YEAR. D:
Delaney

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired

I happen to be one of those lucky people that have a very tolerable immune system, and I rarely ever get sick.
The Swine flu a couple of years ago?
Pshh, never came close to me.
Colds?
Never caught one.
Flu outbreak this year?
My immune system is my own vaccine.

UNTIL NOW.
I seem to have caught something. It started about the middle of last week, my entire body hurt, I was walking around and I would randomly get dizzy, and I couldn't focus, and I could be holding something and just drop it. Good thing it was a half day, I stayed after for play practice for awhile, and then went home. I fell into my bed and slept for 4 hours and woke up with a head ache.
I took a shower and packed a bag for Kirsten's house and ate some food. We had a really good time at Kirsten's, watching youtube videos and playing Apples to Apples.
And in the morning I still felt like death, my head hurt, and I was all dizzy and warm. So her mother took my temperature and I had dat 101.2 fever. So my mom picked me up and I ended up spending the day drifting in and out of sleep on the couch watching Full House.
But the next morning, I felt the same, but now my lips were all swollen. And as the day progressed they erupted into blisters all across my bottom lip and it slowly spread to my chin, and it hurts to open my mouth and talk and eat. D:
And then the doctor said it was "highly contagious" and prescribed me stuff and told me anything I've touched in the last couple of days should be considered "contaminated", and any chap stick I've been using has to be thrown away. :(
Oh and I also can't go to school until Thursday, and I'm going insane. I can't just miss all this school and sit at home not going out in public because I'm highly contagious.

I'm never sick, so when I am, I still think I can do all these things I can do when I'm not sick, like jump around and go see movies and tap dance at play practice. Being sick is literally the worst and most inconvenient thing to ever exist. And I'm tired of staying in the house, sleeping, watching TV, going on the computer, taking medicine, and trying to eat.
I think I'd even rather be at school right now. :/ Someone come help me.
Delaney

In Which Substitutes Are in That Awkward Position Between No Career and Babysitter

What runs through the mind of a substitute teacher?  What compels them to think they will actually get somewhere by teaching?  Why are they so stubborn  (Yeah, sure, we're totally wrong.  It's not like we've been in this class for half a year now...)  Let's take a trip through some of the many insufferable traits of those in this profession.

First, there is that one sub who is always late.  Like laaaaate.  We don't care that you live in Perry.   We don't care that there are trains by your house.  Get up earlier then, or just don't take the job.  Because a 20 minute wait is ridiculous.  And then when you spend the rest of the hour going on about your children... well it's no wonder you hardly get work anymore.

And then there is the sub who sticks directly to what's written.
"Well, it doesn't say in here that you can do that, so no.  Next time tell your teacher to put it in."
"But this is band class. -_- We're supposed to play."
"Sorry, not written down."
I'm not joking.   She wouldn't let us play.  She flipped when people came into the class with instruments. WHAT DO YOU THINK WE DO, HOLD HANDS, SING SONGS ALL HOUR AND TALK ABOUT OUR PROBLEMS?!?!?!
She then proceeded to call role, using only first names.
"Okay, Zach?"
"Which Zach?" (from approximately 10 people)
"You know who you are."
No.  No they don't.  Nor does anyone else in the class who shares a name with someone.  That's what last names are for.

And worst of all are those who actually attempt to teach.  Like, we both know no one's going to listen to you.  Just give use the sheet and leave us alone.  It doesn't help then the sub thinks they know the subject, because then there's no hope.

So please, if you ever decide that the life of a substitute is for you, avoid these paths.  Or watch your life turn to hell.
Emma

I Measure My Life in Anecdotes

I realized the other day that my life is just a big jumble of silly anecdotes. Little funny stories I always seem to remember.
From the neighbors we used to have that didn't speak English and played salsa at 3 in the morning.
Or the first time we camped in my backyard and Cassandra and I peed outside because we were too lazy to go all the way back to the house. :P
Or at the Nevershoutnever concert and this drunk lady was trying to fight us for some reason and then passed out behind us.
And when I chased Sam halfway down Michigan Avenue in a mini blizzard in my t-shirt.
And when Erica came to my house and we beat my brother up with foam swords and never REALLY got to the lunar eclipse, because I made her stop talking mid sentence so I could sleep. :P
Or the first time we made a cake at 2 in the morning at Hannah's house and threw a boom box off her porch and beat it with a sledgehammer.
Or sticking tater tots in my pocket in 8th grade making a grease stain on my pants. >.<
Even today, playing Lightning for a class competition at the pep rally. And someone threw the basketball at me and it hit me in the face.

For every situation or event in my life, I have a story that's weird, out of the ordinary or just funny. Whether it's something embarrassing I did, or something completely insane my friends and I did, most of the stories bring back that nostalgic feeling and usually a couple of giggles. Sometimes a few "I remember that!" 's or smh moments.
That's how the timeline in my head goes, from one stupid story to the next. :D
Delaney

And in that moment I swear, I was Edgar Allan Poe

There's a story we were assigned to read over winter break for American Lit. It was called "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe.

So of course, I completely forgot about it until the weekend before school started. After I got through the first paragraph I sped right through it. It was such a weird story, but I liked it, even though I couldn't see any of it's relevance to anything whatsoever. 

Basically it's about this man and his wife that own tons of animals, but the cat is the husband's absolute favorite. He comes home drunk and in rage, he gouges out the cat's eye. So of course in the morning the cat is frightened of him. And as time passes, the cat continues to be frightened of the husband. 

Upset and guilty, he kills the cat to put it out of its misery. And the same night, his house burns down and the cat is burned into the wall. 

Coincidence? 

I THINK NOT. 

He finds another cat that looks almost identical to his old one, but with a white patch on it's chest. The cat takes immediate liking to him. He says the more fond of him the cat grows, the more he loathes it. And finally he hates the cat so much when his wife and him descend into the basement for something, the cat nearly trips him, so he takes an ax and makes to kill the cat. 

But the wife stops him. 

So he kills her. 

She's dead, the cat's gone. He walls her body up in a chimney space in the basement. When the police look for her body, he has to show off and tap the wall. 

The cat SCREAMS from inside the wall, and the police tear the wall down and discover her body, and the husband is killed. It turns out he had walled the cat up with the body. 

And this is the part that pertains to me. 

For the last couple of weeks, when I come home my cat feels the need to follow me EVERYWHERE. 

She'll lay on top of me while I'm reading, or jump in my lap when I'm eating. Or she'll run ahead of me and sit on the computer chair in the hallway and wait for me to move her so I can sit down. And she waits outside my bedroom door for me to come out to follow me somewhere else. She weaves in and out of my legs and sleep next to me if I'm watching TV in the living room. 

Basically, whatever I do she's there. O.O

And it's been going on for the longest, and I'm fairly certain I'm going to go insane. I've already started to get annoyed and shove her off chairs when she sits next to me. 

If she doesn't chill out with her following me all over the place, I will go Black Cat up in here. I will put her in the wall. Haha, not really, but I don't know what she wants from me. D:

At first I didn't understand how you could hate something that loves you so much. But I understand, I understanddddd.

Delaney 

In other news, I have a problem with telling jokes. I literally cannot stop. 

I find them so much funnier than any normal person should. 

I'm writing this because he told me to and I was out of ideas so this happened.

So this morning I was in the weirdest mood ever. I was running around the house in my pajamas half awake, feeling so lazy and boring. I wanted to DO something. It was nice outside, and I don't do anything productive anymore. I wanted to go take pictures, or walk on the river trail with Hannah, or go to the mall with someone I don't usually hang out with.
I wanted to do something I don't usually do. To get out of the house, to do anything.
I thought I was going to go insane if I didn't go do something.
So I went with my parent's to the storage unit to go through boxes for a garage sale, and I found there's a random drinking fountain just chilling there, and apparently it's been there for the longest, because my dad couldn't let it be thrown out, and I never knew it was there. And for some reason, I wanted to take it home, but we don't have enough room. :( So there it sits, collecting more dust.
But we ended up taking home more stuff than we brought back, like books and old computer games to go through.
Then we went to Impression 5 to pick my brother up from his Art of Leadership something or other. And I was still frantically trying to find something so I didn't have to go home and face my chemistry review worksheet and messy room.
We were about to leave when I asked if I could go over to my boyfrandsssss house. My parents were making me drive, so they couldn't really say no if I just decided to drive there. :P But they said I could, so I drove like .5 miles there, but I couldn't figure out how to park in the driveway so I just parked in this little parking lot thing, and walked a bit down the sidewalk to his house. And my parents creepily followed me; giving me signs and stuff to tell me they were watching me. And I almost ran into a squirrel.
So that happened. I knocked on the door, and apparently he didn't think I was already going to be there. So he wasn't prepared for me to just show up at his house like 10 minutes after he invited me over. So while he was vacuuming rugs or something I was sword fighting with his little brother.
That shouldn't have been as fun as it was. But I was weirdly happy to be doing something instead of being home at my house doing homework all day, even if it was using a wrapping paper roll and a light up circus sword thing.
Which later he sat on and the lights on it stopped working. He then complained about how we couldn't disco anymore and it was probably the cutest thing I'd ever heard.
Later their family came over for their Christmas. His uncle was DOING THE ABSOLUTE MOST. We were just chilling in Corey's room, not really doing anything, talking about random stuff, and his uncle kept looking in the mirror on his door at us, or sticking the circus sword in the doorway and waving it at us, or closing and opening the door over and over. I realized the sound of a door opening and closing over and over is probably the most annoying sound that ever existed.
I had to ask my mom if I could stay for dinner, because the plan was to originally leave at 6 o clock, but 6 o clock came and went, so I just stayed for dinner.
For the record, I liked the soup, it was quite good actually. All cute looking, in bread bowls. And his family tried to embarrass him by telling stories about him as a little kid. But I thought they were cute and funny, and he didn't really seem embarrassed.
But the whole time they were opening presents, his uncle was over there, good naturedly trying to make me look like a terrible person. And it was funny, but I felt kind of like it was okay to be there, even though I wasn't part of the family.
And they all looked so happy, they were smiling, (or fake smiling in Marshall's case) and laughing, and telling stories, and I liked sitting there, not really saying anything, but just watching them, because it was adorable. They that cute family. :3
But soon it was 8 o clock, and they were leaving. And then it was 8:15, and my mom texted me telling me she was outside. So I had to leave, and go home to face my messy room, my homework, my laundry and brother.
I'll have to deal with it tomorrow, but for now I can pretend it doesn't exist. ^.^
Delaney

Throwback Thursdayyyyyyyy

I was talking with my friend Hannah (www.thatskindagraph.blogspot.com) and she mentioned a youtube channel we did about two years ago, in the summer between 8th and 9th grade.
Basically, I would do a video on Monday and she would do her's on Wednesday. It worked for about two weeks, we had a few discussions about books and the like. But I forgot to do two videos, and because my summer was so busy I decided to put my videos on hold because I wouldn't be able to do them every week.
We had 5 subscribers.
When I stopped making my videos, Hannah stopped a bit after. But we uploaded random ones just because. We uploaded a few from the last day of school in 8th grade, really random ones of us  me being stupid. And I uploaded an Owl City song from the concert I went to that summer. And the first time we made a cake in the middle of the night at her house. And who could forget the time we threw a boombox off her porch into the sidewalk and beat it with a sledgehammer until it was just plastic and circuits?
I watched them all and got a wave of the nostalgic feeeeeeeeeels. That was a fun summer, and I want it backkkkkk.
/end nostalgic girl's blog post
Delaney

IT'S ALIVE!

I haven't posted on this blog in a year. :O Haha. 

I like the fact that I've had time to post on here if I wanted to, but haven't, because I'm so lazyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. :P Since swimming and marching band ended, I've had more time, but I haven't actually done the things I said I would when I had more time. I haven't read more books, I haven't made friendship bracelets, and I haven't written a blog post in a longgggg time. 

But today I took a break from watching the Twilight Zone marathon that comes on every New Year and always keeps me glued to the TV for two days, to clean up the blog, update some stuff, give it a new look, bring it back to life. 

Sorry to the followers, who are my family who have long forgotten I have a blog, or fake followers Alexis made me a long time ago, and the maybe 3 people that are actually my friends. I haven't posted in awhile. :P 

New Year's is probably the most appropriate time to begin writing on the blog again. Fresh start and stuff. So here is the obligatory post about how good my 2012 was and how I'm gonna make 2013 better. 

2012 was, like any other year. It moved too quickly, the months passing by before I had time to get anything done. In the summer I didn't change my calendar from June, so I could pretend it was still June all summer. It hung there, stuck on June, the same Peanuts comic representing the month, all summer. 

The winter and spring went by so fast, we were looking forward to the end of the school year, and we just tumbled through January, February, March, April, May, and school was out. 

The summer came and went, even though it was June for 3 months. I went to camp, came back, swam, went to band camp and I flew down the time hill that led me to the beginning of the school year again. 

Those months were so busy, I calculated my time in weeks, because I couldn't keep track of the days. Between swimming and football games, and trying to balance a social life and sleep at the same time, it was the middle of November before I could blink. 

And then I thought I had all this time because I wasn't doing anything anymore. But all of a sudden it was Thanksgiving Break, and then it was Winter Break. Then it was Christmas, and it went by so fast I didn't even see the Christmas spirit. 

And now it's 2013, and it won't be any different. It seems as though it's a new beginning and everyone has resolutions and ideas to make this year great. But we all know, no one keeps their resolutions, and we'll all write the wrong year on all of our papers for the first 3 months, and soon enough it will be exactly like 2012, the only difference is the number. 

Delaney

P.S. I mean, not to say your year can't be great if you want it to be. . .

That sounds a bit pessimistic, I'm sorry. :P Happy New Year, everybody. 

"And I'll Watch the Stars as They Collide"

Sorry, I've been away for awhile.
I was doing all the things. Like marching band, swimming, and the likes.

But everything has wound down and tapered off. Our final football game was a few weeks ago, and our final swim meet was yesterday and today.
It was all worth it in the end though.

MSBOA felt great, because I had walked up into the band room in April for drumline clinics not knowing how to read music whatsoever. I do a little bit, now. But I made it through an entire marching season carrying a bass drum on my shoulders. Marching through the rain. ALL. THE. RAIN. But it was really cool having it all put together for one last time, and getting straight ones.

CAAC's were AMAZING. Although I didn't qualify in any of the events I wanted to, I did drop substantial amounts of time in every single one of my races. 4 seconds in my 50 backstroke, 5 in my 100 backstroke, 4 seconds in my 100 freestyle, and 6 seconds in my 200. It was pretty legit. I got them next year for qualifying. :)

Now I have the winter off, and can find other random things to do.
Oh, and blog more.
Maybe.
Delaney
I'll come back more often.
Pinky promise.

This is a post about how my life is spiraling out of control quickly

OK SO SCHOOL HAS STARTED AND I WAS COMPLETELY UNPREPARED.
I mean I did jump into all honors in the 10th grade, not to mention throw in marching band, and swimming.
And the second week of school after a football game and 3 swim meets, you add morning practice everyday in addition to the afternoon practice for swimming, and then marching band practice for 4 hours on Wednesday.

WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO.
But basically I just wanted to talk about swimming because it's consuming my life, considering school goes by so fast because I have lunch after 5th hour and I'm just waiting for lunch all day.
So today at afternoon practice we did this thing called a threshold set. For any of you who don't know what a threshold set is, which I would assume a lot of you don't, because I only know of the people on my swim team that would want to swim, and would know what that is. But anyways. A threshold set is where they take your average time for a certain length of the pool. So for a 50 yard event at a cruising speed is about :44. So for 8, 50 yard lengths they want me to go faster than a :47 each time.
So today instead of 50's we did 100 yard lengths. WHICH I ABSOLUTELY HATE BECAUSE THEY ARE THE WORST LENGTH IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. They are that awkward pace between a sprint and cruising.
So we did 7 100 lengths, and my time was to be done with it and back at the 1:40. Not to mention 5 seconds before we start Chase walks in with this stupid McDonald meal and a pop, and has to time me, and I feel like he's judging me the entire time, chomping on them french fries, when he goes like a 1:03.
So I do 7 of them, and die every single 50. And I went a 1:41 ONCE.
Once I'm done with that, I'm out of breath and these goggles are hurting my head too much, and I get this horrible headache. And then we work on flip turns, and I literally got punched in the face by someone's hand, knocking open the cut on the bridge of my nose from a previous accident of the same nature. And I have to go behind everybody in my lane because I'm the slowest. Then we split into random groups to work on different strokes together, and of course everything I do is wrong, so the coach is yelling 48959864593420 things at me that I'm doing wrong, and I'm already annoyed and my head hurts and I'm tired, and the last thing I want is to be yelled at about swimming.
And coach wouldn't listen to me when I told him I wasn't going to be there tomorrow afternoon, so I guess I just won't tell him then, and he'll have to wonder why I'm not there.
None of you care, sorry, have a nice day.
Delaney

"And maybe if I talk long enough it'll make sense."

"Fahrenheit 451" quote because I'm awesome like that.
Actually no, it's my summer reading project and I procrastinated so long, I'm only on page 75. But it's ok. I probably won't get it done, you know with band camp around the corner, and I still don't know my music. . .
Wow.
I need to stop procrastinating.
Well this is probably going to be a long post because I haven't written in awhile, and there are those small things that I remember that I could make an entire blog post about, but then I forget them and they float away, and it's like I remembered that for a reason, but I forget because that's how I roll.
Well as everyone knows now, it was my birthday on Friday.
15. Years. Old.
Not so different from 14, right? Right.
Then why does it feel like my age makes me so much older, I don't feel any older than like, 9. I definitely don't act any older than 9. But the jump from 14 to 15 seems so huge.
Kind of like how I felt when I went from 1st grade to 2nd grade. I went from the little kids end of the school with the kindergartners to the big kids, the 5th graders across the hall, and we went from learning to make letters to multiplication and double digit subtraction problems.

But anyways, I spent the entire week trying to figure out where to go out to eat, and I couldn't decide. I wanted to go some place we don't usually go, but there weren't any places that had good food and we didn't go to very often. So then we were talking about maybe going out for breakfast instead, and I was thinking of places and I realized this place we live by that always has this line with people standing outside. It's a really small building, painted a fading turquoise color, and yellow that reminded me of the color of my old bedroom. It's called Golden Harvest.
So we decided, heck with it, we were gonna go. So we woke up earlyish. We got there and there was already a line, but we waited and sat in their chairs for a good 45 minutes, and the lady with the pink hair would call out the door "table for 4 tops!" because it's really small, and can only really seat 30 people. And we would go on the honor system and the people that were there first would go in. And so finally it came to us, we were the last people that were there when we got there. If that makes sense. And we went in, and it was by far the interesting place I went into.
It looks all cute, from the outside, maybe it was even normal in there. We couldn't really tell, it was like this mystery, "what does it look like in there?" we'd think every time she opened the door. There would be music, and you could see some sparkly things hanging from the ceiling, but it was darker in there than outside, so you couldn't really see a whole lot.
But we finally went in, and it was very small, and jam packed with people, people we hadn't even seen sitting outside. People squashed at tables, at the counter by the kitchen. And the walls were COVERED.
Covered in pictures, stickers, little knick knacks, TV trays, coloring book pages, signs, books, little trophies, masks, little glittery balls puff balls hanging from the ceiling. It was a clutter. A clutter that was overwhelming, but ok at the same time. Everything was so eccentric, from the people, to the clutter to the way the menu was, and how small everything was, and the rules on the door, the music they played (really REALLY loud dubstep) and the food. I got the "Cinnaswirl Strawberry and Cream French Toast." Which was so delicious, I can't stand it.
We were in there for awhile, eating our food, talking to the lady with the pink hair, and when we left we went into Staples smelling like breakfast. We got Wi-fi, finally. Happy Birthday to me, haha.
Then I spent the day hooking up the Wi-Fi and using it until Cassandra came over, BIKED over, mind you. And gave me some silly gifts. Including an alpaca magazine from some alpaca store thing she was at, some cute robot earrings, an Ugly Doll, the coolest card ever, a bird necklace and a friendship bracelet she made.
Then we drank Arizona's and walked to the lake by my house and listened to some 11 year olds yell at us to try to make "friends" because they thought they were so cool. And then some people we knew were there fishing and stuff. And after like 2 hours, we walked back. And then we jumped on the trampoline and then we ended up taking her home to get stuff to bring back to spend the night. Making up stories of what the kids that we saw sitting on the street surrounded by cop cars had done. Watching the Batman movie from 1989 that I had seen countless times when I was a kid because she had never seen it. Starting Batman Begins and then both falling asleep.
I found I share a birthday with Martha Stewart and Ryan Lochte, the USA Olympic swimmer.

But anyways, Band camp is next week, and I'm actually nervous. Because I can't play this drum, and I don't have the motivation to learn my music, and it's hard, because I can't even read music. And they move too fast at the sectionals, and we have to have all of our music memorized by band camp. LOL OK.

Never a dull moment in the life of me,
Delaney

Alpha Team Zooloo and our Adventures

I actually feel like Mystic Lake is one of my many homes. I really, really love it there. And this time I went back, I was going in with a different perspective, I was going in as someone with a counselor responsibility.
The first week, we were learning. I made so many new friends, and we bonded so much, we left practically brother and sister's. It was the best experience I could have ever expected to come from C.I.T's. We had the best people out of both L.I.T. groups last year. And we had absolutely no issues with each other, and that was just amazing.
Out overnight was so completely beautiful, I laughed so hard, I almost peed myself. And Andrew played his guitar, playing "Wagon Wheel", and "Banana Pancakes" as many times as we asked. And the reflections that made everyone serious enough to finally go to bed. And yelling "Pumpkin!" "Dill Pickle!" from the tents.
And when we stargazed, in the night, and woke up early in the morning to sing Christmas Carols to the boys in the other cabin. Crawling out of bed in the morning, and groggily tripping over roots and trees and bridges yelling "hole!" when we approached the part in the bridge without a board revealing a huge hole that went straight to the water. And when the boys would scare us with the glow in the dark mask in the night.
The chanting, at lunch and dinner, screaming for people to spin the wheel, get a lake, to see Andrew be a monkey, to see Rob drink hot sauce, Joe to get a salsa beard, Katie to get a bean beard, Shelby to get a weather report. High Ropes, climbing the wall, riding bikes and jumping a broken unstable bench and Cooper going over the handlebars every single time.
Then the Live-In week, where we actually were counselors. And all my campers, thought I was 18. And when we took our breaks outside on Bruno's chair. And when my camper Emily told me all about her zoo plan, and how she was going to have a parrot that would say "Help, I've been turned into a parrot." When we watched Walle because it was raining out, and I was awake for the first 15 minutes and then I fell asleep for the entire movie, until Shannon woke me up to critique me on how I was counseling. And the Cookie Raid, when we snuck in and stole a bunch of cookies, and they really believed we stole them from someone. And when we ate dinner at Ricky's, and saw his Bowling Alley carpet on the stairs. And ate the amazing food his wife cooked, and talked about how a ghost put a piece of toilet paper in the toilet in cabin 1/2 just to mess with Mariah.
When we screamed songs and yelled people's names out of our group to spin the wheel. We were no longer C.I.T.'s, we were Alpha Team Zooloo, so no one knew we weren't actual counselors. And Nicky and I had a deep life conversation out on the deck of our cabin wrapped in blankets and pillows with cake in to the night until Justin, Jess, Caitlin and Andi brought us forks and Sprite and we talked until we both dropped off to sleep. When we woke up it was early in the morning, and we finally came inside, only to have it thunderstorm overnight.
And that midnight ice-cream party that scared everyone. Running through the night, thinking he was so mad at us, only to find ice-cream, and half the staff in the basement of Spikehorn Lodge.
And that last night, with Evaluations, and we were all so scared, and Andrew and Shannon, were so chill while we waited for them to pick our names. And we were led up the stairs wondering what they were going to say, and they turned out not to be that bad. And then partying downstairs with Ezra, serenading us, telling us he was going to cry and miss us so much, when he couldn't even remember our names.
You guys were all so amazing, and I'm going to miss you all so much!!!!!
Hope you see ALLLLL of you next year, and congratulations to those who got called back! :D
Delaney

The Sea is Just a Wetter Version of the Sky

I head off to camp for two weeks in a few days. I will spend my days making bracelets and pretending to be a counselor. :)
But in the days before, I have been doing nothing at all. It has reached well over 90 degrees every day, so we drove up to Saginaw, and spent every day in her pool. Diving and sliding down the slide, or just floating around on inflatables. We busted my great-grandma out of the old folk's home and took her back to her house where her garden is, and picked some garlic and onions.
We watched fireworks from the roof of a shop. And it was amazing, I laid there, looking at the sky and watched the moon rise, and watched each explosion leave lights and streaks in the cloudless sky. I watched the glowsticks and light up sticks below me, and the boats lights reflecting off the river, and all the people laughing and clapping, and American Pie blasting from someone's speakers. I watched the reflection of the fireworks in people's glassy eyes, as they kept them glued on the sky.
Tomorrow, I go see The Amazing Spiderman for the second time. Sunday night I saw The Avenger's, and then at midnight I saw Spiderman.
Camp on Sunday! I probably won't blog between now and then. :) But I'll be around.
I'm away laughing, on a fast camel!
Delaney

"Why We Broke Up"

Making a blog post about this book because of ~ugh feels.

This book is written by Daniel  Handler.
AKA LEMONY SNICKET OK.
And I didn't figure that out until I was practically done with the book. -.-

But this book is basically about this girl that is obsessed with old movies and likes to go on adventures, and she's just amazing. And she falls for the co-captain of the basketball team. He's like a regular jock, and doesn't really understand her at first, but then he starts to like fall for her too, and she gets him to follow supposed movie stars with her, and buy her a pinhole camera, and go on adventures and get coffee in the early morning and make egg igloos, and it's just so cute. And they both really really like each other, and it's just asdfghjkl; because something he says makes her really upset, and he apologizes 26 times because that's how many days they've been together, and he said he would say he was sorry a million times, because he wants to be with her forever, and it was just so amazing.
Until they broke up.
And it was so incredibly sad.
BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT LEMONY SNICKET DOES. HE GETS YOUR HOPES UP FOR A HAPPY ENDING AND THEN HE CRUSHES YOUR SPIRITS.
I don't have to tell you how long I actually believed one of the Baudelaire parents were still alive.
Delaney

Crying

It's not something I even like doing. But it's what happens if my entire system gets overloaded with emotions. 

Only anger, frustration and sadness though. 

Especially when I get frustrated. When normal people get frustrated they get angry at themselves, and it's no big deal. But for me, I don't get angry, I get sad at myself, because I can't do something. And then I'll cry, and it makes everything so hard to do, because you're crying and feeling sorry for yourself. And it doesn't help the situation at all. It doesn't make the frustration go away, it makes it even worse. 

But it's not like I can stop, it's like when you get frustrated and you get angry, you can't just stop being angry, and for me, I just can't not cry. 

Like ever since I was little, I cry when I get frustrated. And it makes me feel stupid, and like everyone sees me as a little kid who can't control their temper or something. 

And when I feel stupid it frustrates me even more and I wish people would leave me alone, because I can't stop feeling stupid. 

It doesn't make things any better, because I can't see through my tears.
Delaney

/end rant of somesort

Teach Me How to Dougie

Hahahahahaha, I don't even know how to dougie.
And this isn't even going to be a post about how to dougie, so if you came here from Google looking for instructions on the ways of the Douglas...leave. I just mention the dougie because we all had to learn it for a thing we did at camp which is where you have to dance to a song with your whole cabin, and we chose to do The Lazy Song, so we could basically wing the whole thing, but we did learn how to dougie, so when he said "CLICK TO MTV SO THEY CAN TEACH ME HOW TO DOUGIE" We knew how to do it. So yeah, I learned how to do the "white girl with no swag whatsoever version of the dougie". I don't even know if that's how you spell it.
But I went to camp, again, for like the billionth time. It was fun, as usual, we went swimming, sang songs, watched counselors have to do weird things, like drink straight tabasco sauce, be a monkey in the cafeteria, and have catwalk wars in between the tables while we ate. We did a mini version of the rip cord, mock rock, the story of Bruno, High Ropes, horse back riding, dancing, making bracelets, four square. So many things, you were never ever bored. EVER.
Going to camp is one of those things, that I look forward too, but when I'm there, I'm like, WHEN DO I GET TO GO HOME. I miss doing home things, like the computer, having free time to read a book, and listen to music, because when you're at camp, you never get the opportunity to do those things. But then when I go home, I'm always like That was amazing, it was so fun, and incredible, and I'll never forget it, and now I'm really bored, I wanna go on the high ropes, or go to arts and crafts to get some string for bracelets or go swimming in the lake, or play gaga, or lemme go shoot some bows and arrows in the archery area for a sec.
You can't do that at home, so it's weird when you don't have the opportunity to do that anymore, and you miss the friends you made and the counselors you know, and it's like, welp, my life's over.
When I was leaving, I was like THE FEELS, I WILL MISS YOU ALL, and like hugged everybody, and stuff, and I was like this could be like your last year and stuff, because half of the cool people are only ever here for like a year and then they leave and it's like NO YOU GUYS HAVE TO STAY HERE FOR EVER AND EVER  YOU CAN'T GO AWAY AND HAVE A LIFE STAY. And I was like freaking out, because I would miss everyone, and then I was like, waittttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt, I will be back in two weeks. What the heck. Why am I telling everyone good-bye, I'll be back.

It's always easier to say good-bye when you know it's just a prelude to hello again. :)
Delaney

One of THOSE Summers

I've kind of always wanted one of those summers, where I can kind of just sit around and pretend like I'm doing things, but not actually doing things, yanno?
No, probably not, so I'll try to make some sense.
One of those daydreamy summers where I can actually sit around and read books that smell like dust and days I'll never see, and look at the stars through the polluted sky with my paper plate telescope that I made with sharpie markers and rubber bands. To cover my wrists in bracelets I made, or people made for me because we're friends now, or something like that. Or where I actually get tan, instead of sunburned, and to sleep on my trampoline with my cat. Something cool, something to actually talk about, something that changes my life so much, something that's just so remarkable that I'll never forget it.
Something worth remembering. Instead of being tossed around doing everything at once. If I could just sit there, and pretend I'm doing all these things, and actually have a lazy summer that everyone complains about, I could find so many things to do by myself if I just had like 2 weeks like that.

Something that would be so romantic and peaceful like, it would just be amazing.
Can I just have one of those summers?

Lol P.S. This song is like god smeared his face all over Adam Young and said, let this song be covered.

Delaney :P

The Best Summer Ever?

This summer is going to be much different than the rest.
I feel like I'm doing the same amount of things I do every year.
But usually, I feel crammed and rushed around and everywhere and not really there because I'm always doing something and I feel lost in all the moving and doing of the things.
But this year, I think I can handle it, I think I will have time to think about things and remember. Not forget in the midst of being everywhere.
I'll have time to read a book, talk to my friends. Think philosophical thoughts, drink slushies, sleep, things of the like.
But I'll also have time to the major things that take up my time, like learn how to play a bass drum in the marching band, go to camp and finally be eligible to become a counselor, I'll get my driver's permit.
I have a summer bucket list, like usual, but it consists of a bunch of random things I probably won't get the chance to do because I'll be do busy thinking about what it's really like to have one of those really cool looking hipster summers, with the sparklers and people laughing and having a good time, and smiling and whatnot, while I'm over here...blogging. So,
I will start that summer dreaming...
NOW.
Delaney