Rudolph the Red Nose Blondie...

Ahhh... I have been enjoying the last few days in sunny south Florida, where the water is warm, and handsome young men are plentiful. xD Of course, they show up with their size 2, bleached blonde girlfriends, so I end up by myself and making the most of it. I have never known the feeling of being so wonderfully alone - until 2008. It's remarkable.

But anyways. I stray from the actual point of this post. My vacation.

We left on Monday afternoon, or late Monday evening, after the shredded tire in Dallas, which chewed up 2.5 hours by itself. The rest of the 22 hour drive was uneventful - if you don't count screaming in the car while watching Jaws at 10 PM. Not a good flick to watch when you're going to the beach soon. xD We arrived at my grandparents house late on Tuesday. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking and eating. There was little of the latter cause we were all so busy flapping our gums.

Wednesday we went to the beach. It was the first day of La Sunburn. Over 6 hours in the sun, and I thought I couldn't soak enough into my skin, but evidently I did... I didn't want to leave, but my family practically dragged me out. Oh well. It was fun anyway. We went to a pizza joint afterwards. It was nice.

Thursday was our "girls day." Meaning that the boys went fishing and the girls went shopping. I got a good armload of stuff; upperbody garments that would better suit my aching sunburn, a couple of flicks, a necklace, and a wallet. I made off well. :)

Friday was SeaWorld, but that is an entire post in and of itself, so I'll save that for next time. :) But I'll give you a couple hints... imagine very cute guys, no water, more sunburning, with lots of pictures and you have the general idea. =P But I'll definitely expand on that later.

Until then, I'll be whistling Rudolph while rubbing in layers of Aloe Vera. xD

P.S. coming soon... a CD review on Lecrae's album "After the Music Stops". I have been waiting for this CD for forever, and purchased it via Amazon a couple days ago. I'll be able to listen to it when I get back to TX. It's a Christain rap album. I'm so excited!

Q: What do you get...

... when you mix: A really hot guy + poetry + an old friend's death?
A: Lots of tears.

So a few weeks ago I showed you all my poem, The Revenge of Jane. I submitted it into the Cowboy Poetry contest held yearly at the library, and won first place for the fourth consecutive time. Being a winner, I was asked to read it aloud at the Western festival they always host. M'kay, whatever. I'll read then leave.

But of course, the sensitive, emotional, and totally embarrassing side of me just HAD to show that day.

You see... just a couple weekends ago, my old friend Jennifer died in a car wreck. She was 18, and I had danced with her for over 6 years. An 18 wheeler basically drove through one side of the car, and Jennifer, being the only one NOT wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the vehicle, and was the only one who died. Jennifer was... well, she was the definition for awesome. (She wore high-top converse shoes to the prom. She's like, my hero for that.) And now she's gone...

Just a few months before THAT, another person died in a car wreck. His name was Shane. I remember Shane. I only met him once, but once was enough. It was at a Cowboy Poetry contest where we both entered, and my poem won over his - and it shouldn't have. We talked for a long while after the contest about our poems. He was very kind, polite, and obviously a charming cowboy gentleman. I'll never forget him. And THIS particular contest that I entered with The Revenge was dedicated to Shane. And a bit of my poem was written for him.

So here I was, clutching my already depressing poem and thinking about the sad stories of my friends, and I get to the contest and realize that they've already read my poem out loud since I wasn't there in time.

I tried not to, but I cried.

And of course, the poor librarians felt bad, and just HAD to make me read my poem after the adult division was over.

And woe of woes... when I stood up in the front to read my poem, already red-eyed and shaking, THERE in the front was Chris, one of the hottest and most unavailable guys in Dirtville. All i can remember thinking at that point was "Oh shoot."

And from there, I sobbed. Each verse came out choked back with tears. Each word, each line and paragraph was a battle between myself and my voice to say it in English. When I paused, I realized that the entire room was dead silent. A pin could have dropped and deafened us all. How embarrassing. I did my best to cover up and finish my poem with what dignity I had left, and the room erupted with applause. I was humiliated and shuffled away as fast as I could without blindly running into the sound equipment.

And naturally, Chris came up and talked to me. Shoot. He was very nice, and sensitive to my tears. He said that I almost made him cry along with me. Great. And then he said it was a terrific poem and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Omgsh... Can I hug you?

I left as soon as I could - which was after I gave an autographed copy of my poem to a woman who said it was "the best poem she had heard in her life." O.O Yeahhhhh... I swear that was one of the most embarrassing days I have ever experienced.

R.I.P. Jennifer and Shane... You are dearly missed.

Forget this!

Bah, I'm not going to let some retarde- I mean, sorry Mom... - uh, stupid teenagers get in my way of what I enjoy. If y'all don't like what I have to say, you don't have to read it. Go somewhere else and have a nice life.

ANYways.

I got my hair cut yesterday. w00t w00t. I know. So here are some Before and After pictures (As promised to lovely Jess. xD)

Here I was a couple days ago:


I know, "blah" right? Well, here's the NEW ME!



.... that one's kinda "blah" too, isn't it? Well, it's kinda cause I just woke up.



O.O

So yeah. Hope you like my 'do, cause I am certainly fond of it already. xD

And I'm back, full blast. So if you want to read my blog, and continue to leave me nasty comments, prepare to deal with The Beast.



But to all others, PEACE!!!

P.S. better pics in the future. lol! The Smileator was broken today... It'll be repaired, I promise. :)

PRAYER REQUEST

Last night, around 1:05 am, all three skylights in my house were smashed, due to softball-sized hail. Three windows were broken through, and possessions and floors were ruined by the sudden flash of rain pouring into the house.

One of those skylights was directly above my bed.

At 1:00, I awakened to the pounding above me, and all I could think was "The skylight is going to break, and I am going to die." I got out of bed and woke my sister, and met our brothers in the hallway right outside our bedrooms. The boys had a skylight in their room too. Within seconds, the skylights gave way and glass and water went everywhere, leaving us shaken in the hallway.

Both parents were called back from work, and nobody went to bed before 4:30-5 am. I would have stayed up, cleaning my bedroom, but my dad forced me to get some sleep.

This morning, it is our job upstairs to clear everything we own out of our bedrooms. Our insurance will cover the damage, thank God. The dude is coming out to inspect everything this morning, and my dad said that they'd have to pull the carpet off my bedroom floor. (Good side: I hate that carpet with a passion. It is the color of mud. Bad Side: I have a lot of crapola in my room that has to be cleared out, and I am sooooo not looking forward to it.)

Everyone is OK, and no one has stepped on glass - yet. Some pieces of the skylight are still in place, and are very fragile-looking. There's still a lot of glass on floors, and lots of work to be done.

Please pray that everyone will remain safe as we try and fix the damage, and that everything will be returned to normal very shortly. And THANK GOD I wasn't in my bed when the skylight broke, cause I can't thank Him enough.

Quick note...

My dog ran away last Friday night. I'm really worried about him. Please pray that he's ok, and will come home soon. I'm not doing so well at all... My poor baby. *sigh*