(fyi that subject is the start of a game from camp. quite fun. and really, not as dirrrty as it sounds.)

I seem to have acquired a lap dog of sorts at band. I don't know if lap dog is the right term, but he pretty much helps me without me even asking/needing it. Two examples from the last practice:
(1) I was holding my water bottle and it jumped out of my hands (magically) and I didn't bother picking it up - but he went about grabbing it and handing it back to me.
(2) I tossed said water bottle at my pipe case and it bounced right back out... he immediately pushed the chairs out of the way and picked it up for me and put it away.

I was quite entertained by his behavior. Perhaps I can use it to my advantage? Hmm.

I'm getting and MC2 (aka M-C-squared) solo pipe chanter! That's really awesome, fyi. I haven't had a new chanter since I got my pipes in 2002. So... I'm super pumped and hopefully I'll sound wayyy better with a new chanter. Hopefully.

That being said, I have to go to bed now because I have to get up at 5:30 and I want sleeeep. At least I'm not Larly and having to get up at 2am. Every day. All week.

(But at least she gets a vacation at the end of it. I just get two days and then back at the 5:30 wake up call all over again next week).

I can honestly say that I've studied about an hour so far since I got home from work (I got home at 5...)

But, hey. I can't retain all that info at once. Gotta break it up.

Too bad the GRE is in 2 days and I have yet to perfect anything. Shite.

( ah, well, there are always memes to do! )

Okay... I've successfully killed about 30 minutes. Back to studying we go.

one - 12 days until my GRE (or 11 depending on how you count.) I should probably study. Holy man, I'm screwing myself over.

two - at band practice on saturday I tasted blood in my mouth... I've realized I bite down on my bottom lip when I play, thus I now have an indent. Awesome.

three - mini gathering is on saturday and I still need to perfect my memorization of my tunes, let alone play them musically. Shite.

four - I freaking love Gossip Girl and for some reason Chuck/Blair kinda make me all teary-like.

five - I have written approximately 24,000 words of my story. Kind of stuck at the moment, but that's a far cry from 10 years to write the first chapter, eh?

six - I am the employee of the month at my work. Yay me. Ahaha, it's embarassing.

seven - I just rented "Aladdin" on iTunes and I'm watching it on my iPod. Slash going to bed, slash writing. Ah, I'm a dork.

Ahhh, Larly and I saw Twilight on Saturday and I'm still obsessing over it. Finally got my new debit card (old one had to be canceld because of $82 worth of charges that I didn't make), so I immediately bought the soundtrack on iTunes. Ah, I love it.

On a different note... very irrationally I emailed Shaunna on a whim yesterday and asked to get my flight back from Scotland changed for a week later than originally planned. It's only something like $20 more overall for the Scotland flight... but then now I have to figure out a cheap way to fly to France or Denmark or Greece or Germany and a cheap place to stay. And a place to keep my pipes for the extra week. Ack. Not thought out, obviously, and who knows if I'll actually be able to afford it... but once it's finalized I'm going to have to figure out where I want to go and how the hell I'm going to get the money for it.

Uh... oops. Stupid Liz. But, in all fairness, I dream of travelling. Kind of all the time. It's slightly obsessive.

Hot damn, I have the WEST-B on Saturday and I don't think I'm anywhere near ready enough. Ack.

Perhaps I should stop procrastinating on teh internetz and actually study.

I got a new job within three days of coming home from Orkila. Much better than last year, where it took me about 2 months to get a job. I started yesterday and it's definitely different but fun!

I'm a "Lead Teacher" for the "waddlers" at a child care center in Smokey Point. Pretty much what that means is I'm the head of a classroom of up to 10 or 14 (right now 10) 12 to 18-month olds. Crazy!!! I have another teacher in there, Marcie, who has been at Kids 'N Us (yep, that's the name of it) since June so she's showing me the ropes. She's awesome, and I think will be fun to work with. Technically I'm her boss but she definitely knows a lot more than I do right now (duh) so she's helping me get to know everything and everyone.

Today we had a full classroom - all 10 of our kids were there - but then two went home because they were sick (one had a 104 fever! zomfg that is scary.) and at one point we had two 18-month olds who are transitioning to the next classroom (the "pre-toddlers") come stay with us for awhile.

It's neat to see the stuff they learn on a daily basis... like, two of our kids learned how to say "more" and "please" today in sign language, and another one said "good nuggets" at lunch, which was adorable. Then one of the older kids that joined us for awhile asked for more "eez" (cheese) at snack and said "more" and "please" and then "thank you" in sign language to me. I think it's awesome.

Anyway... that's really all. I should be practicing right now, so off I go...

I have 10 days until I am officially done for the fall season at Orkila. And, in fact, done with Orkila forever. I somehow, magically had a turnaround in my life. Sort of a wakeup call, if you will. And in fact, it was from someone named Will. Will Nichols. Whom, have I mentioned recently, I love. I went to visit Western about 3 or 4 weeks ago and spent something like 2 or 3 hours in his tiny little room in Higginson (he's an RA there now) talking about piping, listing to piping music, watching Worlds videos online, and generally boring the crap out of his three friends and Brian. It was awesome. And then he planted the little seed of thought in my brain about getting back into piping.

Now, POOF!, I'm back in Triumph Street. Though I did pretty much beg. But I'm super pumped, slash super scared. I have to be able to afford a lot in order to do this, and I also have to show that I'm committed or else I'll most likely severely burn a bridge with the Hilders. But really, I'm incredibly excited more than anything and I'm willing to do whatever it takes (even get a super boring job, so long as it's not Target) as long as I get enough money to afford piping. And the band is planning on going to Scotland, and maybe some other far away contests... so that means I'll have to pay for loads of airfare (say, $2000 to $3000). Holy mother of God.

I also started working on the Bob Dunsire Memorial Amateur Invitational piping contest again, and it will hopefully be up and running by May of 2010. Long way off, I know, but I want it to be perfect and there's an incredible amount of work to do. Larly and Mum are helping, and I'm trying to get help from anywhere and everywhere in the piping world, and from the rest of my family (like my Grandpa and Aunt). Whew!

Tomorrow I think I get to spend the whole day at work picking apples. We're doing apple cider pressing on Saturday as an activity with our guests. Aren't you jealous of my job? I will miss Orkila for it's randomness (who makes cider for a living? ME!) but I can't wait to be in the real world, getting back to my real life. I've missed it.

In 24 hours and 30 minutes, I will be inside the Moore Theatre for my 4th Hanson concert. Yes, indeed. I cannot wait. And, at 3pm tomorrow I plan to be partaking in "The Walk" with Hanson, where they walk barefoot for a mile through the city that they are playing in to raise awareness/money for multiple causes in Africa (like poverty and HIV/AIDS).

In other news... the summer is officially over, and Fall OEE has been happening for a whole week so far. I was in the kitchen this past week, however, and they didn't need me today meaning I got to go home early and spend the whole day... on the computer. BUT - I did clean my car, like hella. It took me a good 2 or 3 hours.

( Remember the porch I mentioned falling through in July, the last time I posted? Well... )

This summer was pretty rad - so different than last summer, but great nonetheless. It sucked in that I didn't have my day off crew like I did last summer, but it was amazing in that I got to have the most prideful unit in camp and I became good friends with all the directors, whom I love.

I'm hoping that after OEE is done to either get a well-paying job here near Mum's house or to get a cruise ship job. One or the other. Pretty much, I'm planning on going back to school next fall for a teaching certificate, but until then I have to kill time. So that means I'll most likely be back at Orkila next summer, and until then I have to procrastinate. Which, of course, I'm quite good at. :)

On that note... I think I'm going to go find dinner. Or something to do. Or, well, who knows.

Updates from my life.

- A few days ago, I fell through a porch with a camper. True story - we were aware that the porch was rickety, so I was guarding the bad spot, when my camper Tosh went to step over it and we both went straight down. The boards didn't even break - it was simply that one of the support beams gave way. It was kinda scary, but mostly awesome. We were both perfectly fine - especially considering the fact that the porch was as tall as I am.

- Last week I was the U.D. for the BMX unit during "Freedom Sports Week". I fell in love with BMX, and when I'm back in civilization, I do believe I want to at least buy myself a BMX bike, if not get into racing.

- Being a U.D. is super fun, but I really do miss the whole having-a-cabin-of-campers-specifically-to-myself-thing. Though, it gives me an excuse (actually, more like a reason) to get to know all 40 kids in the unit. Though, so far this week I've only been able to get to know the boys in Baker. When I'm done with my day off later today I hope to get to know the girls.

- I emailed the lady in charge of the outdoor ed program at YMCA Camp Erdman in Honolulu... it sounds super awesome, and if I was able to do it I think it'd be fun.

- Other than that... I have no money, so that sucks.

This will possibly be my last post for awhile... training starts in approximately 15 minutes so I'm switching to summer mode - less internet and more people. I'm super excited - that means leaving the real world behind for the next 3 months or so and immersing myself in the time of my life (take 2). w00t.

In other news, my Mum and sister are mad at me, I have negative $90 in my bank account, and I owe my Mum about $800 for the plane tickets to Hawaii. Sweet.

But enough of that... now it's time to be happy and enjoy camp. Becasue, well, quite simply I heart camp.