I have returned from my Spring Break hiatus and shall now update.

On Monday I went to the Lake (aka grandparents house) and attempted to work on a bridge I'm building as a physics project. I have to design it myself, and then built it out of the provided strips of wood, which are about 2.5mm square and about a half meter long each. I measure angles, cut small strips with razor blades, and then glue together with super glue. Easy, right? I certainly thought so. However, after about five minutes after looking at my plans, and then the wood, and then the plans again, I realized I'd have to completely go back to the drawing board. I've since redrawn the plan about five times, until I figured out that the graph paper was not the same size as the wood strips, as I had been told. I have now thrown the plan out.

On Tuesday I helped a friend prepare for her wedding, which is in August. I am a bridesmaid, and so I was taken around to the chapel, etc, to help with ideas and generally catch up. Later that evening I drove back to Springfield from Branson and saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which was very good (Donnie Darko fans will adore it) except for the fact that Jim Carrey's character is pretty much exactly like a certain someone else (aka the guy who gave me psychotic emotional problems) so I was a little freaked out. He had the same mannerisms, looks, habits, tendancies, attitudes, and everything. Seriously creepy.

On Wednesday I got fitted for my bridesmaid's dress, which is actually cute and can be worn again. Yay.

On Thursday I left for (dun dun dunnn) the Camping Trip. Lets just say that three days of rain and extreme malnurishment followed. It wasn't pretty. Some of the sights were nice; I got to hike, boulder, and climb up a waterfall, but it rained almost the whole time and the water was on boil order. My aunt got hellishly sick from it. When I finally returned the following Saturday night, I was rather sick myself, but thankfully recovered by Sunday morning. Perhaps details will surface here later, but right now I'm still a little traumatized.

Sunday I took Nana (sort of adopted grandmother person) to lunch, then brought her back to my house where she insisted on doing laundry and dishes all afternoon. I think I would have had to physically harm her to tear her away from the clothes basket. I love Nana.

And that was Spring Break. Any questions? There are fun stories about the camping trip, as long as you weren't on it.

On why life as a writer never (truly) sucks, recently posted on Michael's blog:

As writers, life can never be bad for us. For normal people, good things are good, and bad things are bad. When bad things happen, they generally just suck, and there's no getting around it. Sure, the bad things might make them a stronger, smarter person, but there's no immediate concrete evidence of that. As writers, we are truly blessed, for when we are happy we rejoice in life, but when going through hardship we also find consolation in the fact that we'll gain so much more insight into things like disappointment, failure, and loss. As writers, we can celebrate 'misfortunes' as new material to draw from.

I hope that doesn't sound callus or shallow, because that's not how I intend it to be. For me, this realization just gives me lots of hope and joy through pain. Pain is not something to fear, mediocrity is.

So for the past couple of months I've experienced failure quite a bit more than I'm used to, including yesterday when I got 2's on both my ensemble and my solo at music festival. However, all of this failure is now overshadowed by a rather large victory-- I made Writer's Hall of Fame!!! Woo-hoo! I really, really wanted this award, and after all the failure I've experienced recently, I really wasn't expecting to get it. I'm happy now. Very very happy. I don't suck at everything!!!

Also, had some more intense dreams last night that will hopefully be useful in novels. In one part of the dream, various classmates showed up as various animals. Not in costume, literally animals. It was the same person, they just happened to be a horse, or an elephant. Wouldn't let me ride them though. Wankers.

I'm learning to crochet, and so far I've almost completed a purse of my own invented pattern (read: folded-over square). Hopefully soon I'll be able to make cute little hats and even tops... all out of yarn. An incredible thing, crochet is. I've also found that when you crochet in public, you get lots of interesting reactions. For instance, in my physics class there are these guys who always sit and argue about who's better: MU or KU. It pretty much drives me crazy, and the other day I just had to interject with "You know who I'm a big fan of? 'Who the Hell Cares'!". However, while I was crocheting, one of the Highly Annoying Sport Fans asked if I was knitting, and before I could respond, the other Highly Annoying Sport Fan jumped in with "No, she's crocheting. Knitting is with two sticks, crocheting is with one stick with a hook. Duh.". At this, most of the class turned to give him quizzical (and slightly wary) looks.

Also, the (male) student teacher in Choir this quarter noticed me working and became immediately excited, saying that he "crochets like the wind!" and proceeded to show me a new stitch.

Once again, crocheting brings out the hidden things in people you'd never know about...

Well, yeah. So the scholarship thing kind of sucks, but as for the black dust, it turns out that there wasn't really anything wrong with me that 5000 calories and a hot British guy in Venice couldn't fix. My pseudo-boyfriend Hannah (all the camaraderie, none of the making out!) took to out to dinner and a movie. Sort of. More like, me pick up Steak and Shake, she buy movie tickets, us watch hot British guy. The end. However, he did have a nice accent, and there was a chocolate shake involved, so I think I'm better now.

I should start calling Hannah "diet boyfriend", like Diet Dr. Pepper or something.... hmm..... but somehow, I don't think I'm losing any weight on the "diet boyfriend" plan. I should try the Subway diet. Wait, she works at Subway... creepy.

Excuse me. You can attribute that last paragraph to either a mental hiatus or neurological flatulence, whichever you prefer. I am better now. ::ahem::

The Talent Show was yesterday, and while everyone else said it sucked, I thought it was quite good. There were three bands and all of them rocked my face off, but especially Todd's, not just because he reads this but because they really were awesome. I sat next to Katelyn, and I think I scared her with all of my squealing, etc. There were too many boys with guitars in the room and my head almost exploded, but I think I've returned to normal now. The musician effect is only temporary, but quite debilitating I assure you. Actually, 3 out of 4 possible prom date candidates were on stage yesterday, and wouldn't you like to know who they are.... ::snicker::... heh.. probably not.

Besides the, er, rather attractive rock boys, Denver sang a Sinatra song. Yes, he sang a Sinatra song. I don't know why, but even if he can't really sing, he did look dashing in his tux. That's pretty much all I could say today when I saw him. "Nice tux." I know I should have been more supportive, but I don't lie. Eh.

From the Springfield News-Leader:

Local Girl Found Dead, Heart Replaced with Black Dust

Natalie James, 18, was found dead in her home at approximately 5:10 pm Tuesday afternoon when her mother returned home from work. She was found lying on the floor in a fetal position near the kitchen counter, clutching a piece of paper in one hand and a letter opener in the other. Authorities have confiscated the paper, but in a press release this afternoon it was revealed that the paper was in fact a letter from Drury college, informing Ms. James that she did not recieve the Trustee or Presidential scholarship, an award she had been working for since the age of 14. Authorities also stated that while an autopsy has been completed, the cause of death is still unclear. In the medical examiner's statement, it was discovered that Ms. James' heart was actually missing from her chest cavity at the time of death, as no external injuries of any kind existed at the scene. An unexplained smattering of unidentified black dust was found in the missing heart's place.

Went shopping with Hannah yesterday, and being the awesome bargain shopper that I am, I got 3 shirts, 2 skirts, 1 pair jeans, 1 pair shoes, 1 purse, and about 10 buttons for less than $80. I spit on you, Battlefield Mall.

We also saw Hildalgo, which was very cool. I love movies like that. Still no word from the trustee scholarship, those wankers....

Also, I thought this was fitting, considering, you know.


You are a Punk Boy Kiss! You met your cutie at that
concert last week... Instead of bringin home
some CDs and a shirt... you brought home him!


What kind of Hot Boy Kiss are you??
brought to you by Quizilla

Went out tonight (er, Friday night. I guess it's techinically Saturday night) and though my hearing may now be severely damaged, I can safely say it was worth it. Hannah and I went to an *awesome* concert at The Rockwell (sorta MOrawk sponsored) and all the bands were great. Elevator Division was the main act, and they were good, but the band I fell in love with tonight was Minutes Too Far. They have incredible energy, great music, and put on a phenomenal show. So what if their frontman is incredibly attractive? That's not why I like them....

::ahem::

Updates on stuff you probably don't care about: I got something like a $700 annual vocal scholarship for Drury, and a job at the new softball park. Still no word from the trustee scholarship, still no date to Prom. Because I'm sure you were all wondering, and I just couldn't bear to keep you in suspense any longer.

So apparently now one spoonful of ice cream will make me fat.

I'm a huge, unending blob.

Moms are stupid.

Word of the day: sisyphusian.

Found on Extended Cake Mix.

Saturday night was the last Victims of Telephone show and it rocked. Er, excuse me, *rawked*. I saw Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin for the first time, and as Todd promised, they were *amazing*. I love the cello and the keys, and the lead singer is rather attractive, if I do say so myself. But mostly they were just really, really good. Very clean.

The after party was fun too; I randomly saw a bunch of people I knew. That last sentence just rhymed, as though in its time, it was made to be a poem by crime.

Coming soon: MOrawk haiku

(just kidding, I wouldn't do that to any of you.)

(Hannah might)