Life. Yep. That's pretty much it.

Hey, sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been completely occupied with music. I know it's a lame excuse, but it's true! So what I've basically been up to is watching movies, doing stupid things on the computer and watching Fuse. Panic At The Disco's video for That Green Gentleman came in at #1 on Fuse's #1 countdown viewers choice! Woot woot! I love those guys. <3

Today I entertained myself by putting a balloon down the garbage shoot. Well, up the garbage shoot to be more exact. [in case you don't know, in buildings everyone throws their garbage bags down a chute at the end of each hall which goes to one giant garbage bag in the basement which is eventually hauled to a dump.] That's right. I spent my free time taking one of the balloons my mom got for her birthday, sneaking down the hallway with it (I live in a 20 floor apartment building), stuffing it in the shoot and watching the tail of the ribbon float up. It was probably the stupidest and most useless thing I have ever done in my life. Then I die laughing when I think of the next person to through their garbage out on the 20th floor and see a floating happy birthday balloon! Or better yet, someone seeing it pass on the way up :D Lol sorry I'm bored! ;)

Other than cracking myself up in the hallway... alone... by putting balloons up garbage shoots, I've basically been vegetating and studying for the SHSAT (specialized high school admissions test). I could just take the HSAT which would probably be easier, but I really want to go to Bronx Science which is specialized. I have a huge, thick book for the Kaplan test prep course I'm taking in September. I also have a book I have to study before the course. A test prep prep book. What is this world coming to?!

Okay, I have to admit that that has been my life since I got back from N.C. Exciting, right? lol :P It's fun staying up after my mom goes to sleep, though. Oh guess what? My mom, after almost a year of sharing the same iTunes and seeing the titles of my songs, is suddenly bothered by the fact that a lot of the songs I buy are explicit. Oh my gosh! Some of those songs don't even have strong language or explicit topics! I Don't Love You is explicit for goodness sake! Now she's going to listen to all my songs. Great. Just great. I can see it now: "This song is about death!" "But ma, it's about overcoming death." "It's depressing! You're gonna be depressed and suicidal! You're so goth! I'm such a terrible mother!...bla bla...bla bla blabla bla.... bla bla..............." *shudder* Well, have fun living with parents that don't breath down your neck stalking you all the time! C u wen more exctin dings happen (isn't it sad how bored I am?).

Another Summer of Family (our annual badmitten competition!)

.individuality pulled to be one individual
heritage of one is heritage of all
hearts are hostage to the love of each other
and in the competition
and victory
and defeat
we love evermore
and ever closer.

"...genius only comes along in storms..."

.raindrops wash away my sinful thoughts
as wind empowers the trees with
leaning terror
grass sways to the minor-key melody
of the sky
thunder reminds my heart why it beats
dark clouds shoo away life
or so it seems
as the trees seem to draw energy
and power from the center of the planet,
our indestructible symbols of power and superiority
tremble at the taste of true reign
and for a scene
in our eternal opera of demolition
our status falls,
our caricature of nature
falls
and we loose grip in what we know
to be ours
and we strain to see past this threat
in domination
but as it ends
we brush off,
stand tall,
and continue with our dictatorship of God
but as the coming of genius rolls by
and my heart regains its rhythm
I am forever humbled
by the power
of the rain.

To Be Nature's Best Friend (again)

.seeing, speaking again
awakening from the deep sleep I was in
to fall only
to God's arms
and experience the beauty of his imagination
to breathe the essence of historical heritage
to see things of once fear and repulse
grow close
a bond strengthened by the unlucky years
of me
to be at peace with God's work
to befriend what to which we are
truly inferior
life's rules and answers
and perilous imperfections
that were,
are,
will be,
play out before us
and we surpass them evermore
and we demolish them evermore
to enter this tyranny of hell
as I in the world's answer
and wait.

Quick Note

Can't chat for long, just wanted to say hi and bye cause I'm leaving for North Carolina tomorrow morning. If you see posts on my other blog, they're scheduled. I'll see you all in two weeks!

"O Canada, our home and native land. True patriot love..."

I'm back! Wow, Canada was amazing! Really gorgeous. But before I start rambling on, I need to start from the beginning.

On Sunday (June 29) the selected 41 kids from our Cantare group took a bus to Newark Airport. When we got there I was like "Yay! Gerard Way was born in this city!" but I didn't say it out loud because I knew my friends would roll their eyes and dismiss everything I said after that, assuming it would relate to MCR. :D So we took a plane to Seattle, Washington and then took a bus to Vancouver. I spent the whole time vegetating while listening to Pretty. Odd. The hotel in Vancouver was nice. We were staying in a terrible part of town, though because all there was was liquor stores, "adult video" shops and tattoo places. On my birthday my dad took me to an awesome rock shop where I bought some MCR, Evanescence and Nightwish T-shirts. When we were able to shop, we took a boat ride to a cute little island where we window shopped. The sailor was flirting with our assistant conductor, Sophia so we nicknamed her Lophia (his name was Lowen). <3>

On Tuesday, we left for Powell River. We took a bus to a ferry, the ferry to an island, the bus to the end of the island, then took another ferry to another island and then took a bus to our hotel. This hotel was very small and unreliable when it came to hot water. But we had so much fun. We rehearsed everyday and we did a concert where we met the other choirs. We saw them around rehearsals, at lunch, and basically anytime we were around the competition building. There was the Seattle Children's Choir, Crystal Children's Choir, South African Youth Choir, Kotori Choir, Ragazzi Boys Choir, [an Estonian choir whom I don't know the name of], Phoenix Girl's Choir, Island's Chamber Choir, and the Columbia Children's Choir.

We had an amazing experience. One rehearsal we found a snake in the alto section, so we nicknamed the alto's, "The Snakes". Our conductor, Elizabeth, drilled us around the clock. We were terrible and it seemed we would never win. The Contemporary Category was horrendous, but we did really well in the Children's Category. I was part of the sextet echo choir in the Folk and Cultural Category, but I think I did well. We learned so much from watching the other choirs and becoming friends with them. We played a game called Run Run Baby which spread like wild fire and soon every choir (at least under the age 20) knew how to play, and it brought us so much closer together. We laughed and talked and ate and sang together so much, we didn't even feel like we came from different states and countries.

We ended up not winning first our second place in any category, which was disappointing only because we had the hardest music. But the South African choir was amazing and so were the Estonians. We were best friends with the Kotori Choir who were mostly five years old and from Japan. There were GREAT. They won first in Children's. We made so many friends from so many choirs, it was great.

I also got incredibly close to everyone in our choir and I learned so much from everyone. Anthony taught me how not to be scared during a solo and that will forever change my life. I learned from people and about people, but I can't list everything because this post has already been too long. But scenery isn't the only beautiful thing in Canada. There's so much your missing out on, I can't begin to describe. But we grew so close through this trip, it will change us forever.

. . .

P.s. I'd like to say hello to meh who is my second Mormon friend from our choir. I promised her I'd mention her, so here it is! She's a great friend and she's incredibly funny. "Mormon coffee in the morning!" (don't ask)