Happy Jellybean Day...

I am up early. Boo. :P

Gotta love how I'm posting JUST to say that, huh? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....

What I what to know is, who is banging around upstairs at 5-ish AM on a Monday morning? Hm...

Happy Kindergarten Day!

Today was long. Got back our AIDS test in Health, I got a 6! Haha. Yay for awkward class subjects? Oy. French was torture. Double English would have sucked majorly if I hadn't been multi-tasking and passing notes with Parker. That was fun. Steffy and I are all good again (thank goodness!), and ate lunch outside, which was probably the best part of the day. Got home, and after awhile mom and the Eliasons showed up. We went to dinner. Came back here. I talked to Mike on iChat, which was super fun. and tomorrow I am getting up to talk to someone on skype. Yay for not so much sleep! Ha. ha. hahahahahahahahaha....

Happy Birthday to Johnna. I sent her a happy birthday text this morning. I am the slowest 16 year old texter in the world. Go me. 

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh.....

oops, I forgot to celebrate look-a-like day!

Today. I went to church, but there was no sunday school for the youth because most of the youths were on the youth retreat. Nathan and I did not go on the youth retreat because we were off saving the world from the evil schemes of the mad scientist Dr. Mejakableh, who was planning to rid the world of oranges. So this morning I talked to Johnna for like, an hour, instead of sunday school. But I'm not complaining at all. 

Then after church, we went out to lunch at some greek place. Went home, was there about ten minutes, then drove over and picked up Parker before going to Boone's house. We were the first ones there, actually. And then I got muddy walking across Boone's yard which is more like a field, because I was in my bare feet and the baby bunnies were across the field and I wanted to see them. Heh, squishy... Anyways. We ended up having the whole thing outside, because it was so nice out today. 60's, at least! Played Signs, which was fun although kinda difficult because people were being TOO subtle... And then had worship. And then I gave the speak/talk/share, and I was very nervous but I think it went ok. :] "Joy is the freedom of knowing that we are completely secure and that the Lord will provide everything that we need and the strength to face any challenge." was basically the thing. Yeah. 

Then we ate; Boone's mom made us pasta and chocolate cake. :] It was tasty. Then people started leaving after awhile, but we played Park Bench (or hammock, rather), which was SO MUCH FUN. 

Ok, Park Bench is an improv sort of game in which one person is sitting on a bench (or in this case, hammock) and another person sits down and tries to make them so uncomfortable that the first person leaves. Now, the first person has to act as if they were a normal person sitting on a park bench and a stranger comes up and starts doing whatever. It gets pretty funny. "What, you wouldn't leave the park bench if somebody randomly came and started picking your nose?" Ha. 

Then I got dropped off by Parker (Parker's mom was driving, actually) And I was pretty proud of myself, because I directed them all the way to my house without getting lost once!!!

Yes, that IS a big accomplishment for me. :P Boo.

Eliason's are coming tomorrow I think. That's exciting, but I really hope it does not cause me to miss dance class!

Goodnight. Sleep tight. And I hope I do not have violent or disturbing dreams again tonight, about being eaten by the Green Goblin and possessed by Gollum. Oh my.

-Riss

Holy large-amount-of-money-for-very-little-work, Batman!

Hmm... I writing this after midnight my time, but I'm wondering if I remembered to switch the time on my blog settings. Because if I did, this post will be under April 20th, which will bother me because it's about April 19th, aka Garlic day, aka Angie Carroccio's birthday! OMG HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGIE I LOVE YOU!

Ok. So. Today. (Yesterday, technically, but who gives a darn?)
Slept in. Worked on the speak/talk/share I'm doing for Swell tomorrow, which I am both nervous and excited about. Then here at 6, mom and dad and I left so dad and mom could go to a dinner party and I could baby-sit the kids of a couple who just moved here from Texas two weeks ago and were also going to the dinner party. Two girls, Caroline (8) and Victoria (3), from 7ish to whenever. (Whenever ended up being around 11:30, actually...) Victoria had already gone to bed, and so I played Go Fish and coloured with Caroline for an hour until 8, and which point she climbed in bed and I told her a story, which actually ended being a very condensed version of The Princess Bride. Heh. :] Then I went downstairs and attempted to think of group discussion questions for Swell. Texted with Stef. Victoria woke up to go potty. Stef called and we talked for about 10 minutes before Victoria woke up again, lonely for her mom. I went up and sung her back to sleep. Called Stef back and we talked for awhile more. Read my book, buffed my nails. Was slightly bored. Got home ten past today. Yeeeeaah that's my day.

My mind comes up with straaaaaaange things.

This really didn't make sense, even for a dream.

It was like we were preparing for attack. Ok, so there were three sections in our force, although there's no logical reason to be split up that way: It was the older fighters, led by Nathan and my brother- And some of that group were REALLY old, like three of them were in their 80s and I kept telling Nathan to make sure they didn't get hurt. Why were they there in the first place? Not a clue. Then there were the younger fighters, mostly freshmen and middle schoolers, led by Beth and Boone's little brother Jackson. And then there was my force, which was led by me and only had a couple people there because the rest of them, led by Parker, were the advance guard and where holding them off while we got ready. (?) 

Well, then the enemy came. And if you've ever read the Redwall series by Brain Jacques, it was kinda like that. That is, the enemy was composed of giant rodent-type things- Rats, weasels, ferrets, stoats, etc. Thus, I didn't feel as bad when we were fighting about, um, spearing them with my rather gigantic arrows from my immensely large bow?

The battleground was shaped kinda funny: It was three rooms, but pretty openly connected, and the enemy was coming at us from three sides (I guess that means that Parker and the rest of my command failed). So it was about me and five people covering one entrance, (Although that wasn't TOO bad for being outnumbered about 6:1, because Katie Henry and I had long bows and could snipe 'em before they got too far), about 10 people in Nathan's force, not including the three 80 year olds, with about 3:1 odds, and then Beth and Jackson's force, which were holding their own (2:1 odds, not their favor) but kinda freaking out because the enemy was pretty scary looking. But it was ok, because Beth is more scary than giant rats when she has a battle ax. Oh wow. So we were fighting, and that was exciting, to say the least. I'd try and spear them close-ish range with my spear, but it was super dull for some reason so it was hard to pierce their hide, which was SUPER annoying! Then I'd have to duck back around a pillar to avoid the arrows they were shooting at me, then I'd shoot some of my own. This went on for awhile, and during this time James, Savannah, Ryan Ruckle, Lee and her little sister Danny, Ron Weasley, Robin boy wonder, Brandon, Bridget, Eric Moodie, and Stef all died. I was very put-out. 

No clue how that ended, actually. Wow. Oh, and my brother gets to 'Melee mode' reeeeaaallly quickly. I'm very glad he was on OUR side. Holy Majoly. Can you say, 'Berserker'?!

Then, rowing with somebody, don't remember who, through the streets of a sunken town... Going inside and it was like, haunted and scary. And a HUGE way-tall (6 and a half feet maybe, or 7) grinning skeleton came out of this door and asked me to dance. He spoke French. And we were by some stairs, so I stood on a higher stair so our heights could be more even. (Oh joy!)

Then I ran away from it, fell into whirlpool, and drowned, even though Nathan tried to grab my hand and save me. 

The end. 

PS

The violence in my dreams lately kinda worries me. Not gonna lie. 

A pretty decent day

I stayed home from school today, for no outstandingly particular reason. Thanks mom! :D

Nothing super eventful happened, although I kinda was lonesome for my hugs and hellos from peeps. But then again, that's just how I am. Silly, clingy, affectionate to the extreme. 

Oh, and I've decided I like getting texts. And emails. And messages of pretty much any kind. 

It makes me feel looooved. *hinthint* 

:D

Ok, I couldn't resist. This is just TOO GOOD.

Blah, blah, blah...

As in, Happy Blah, blah, blah Day. Because that's what it is. (Yesterday, thursday, that is. Somehow blogging on the actual day stuff happens hasn't been working very well lately.) Ironically, that's pretty much how I felt today too. BLAH. This morning during advisory, we signed a welcome back thing for Stefan Thegeby, Andrew's brother. Stefan is in my grade (And going to be in my advisory when he comes back on wednesday) and hasn't been in school because of knee cancer. Since I hadn't met him before, I just wrote 'looking forward to meeting you' on his card. And I am. Even though, like his brother, he will give me a crick in my neck from looking up at him. 

Double PE first off in the morning is usually bad enough, but is made exponentially worse when:

• It is positively FROSTY out (5 degrees Celsius) and you are only wearing your shorts and tshirt gym uniform because you forgot your sweatshirt way up in your locker
  
• There is little to no chance of warming up because you are either a, standing in the outfield waiting for the ball that never comes, or b, sitting in the dugout that offers only protection from the sun, not the frigid wind
  
• You are playing softball, aka a sport that I have very little talent at and plenty of bad experiences with
  
• Your best friend on your team doesn't want to talk to you or even be around you
  

So basically it wasn't that fun. Also, a not-so-skilled pitcher + my lack of talent = 2 strikes, two balls, and a foul. In that order. Grr. 

The only somewhat nice thing was kinda learning something new- I was hugging Teresa because I was cold, right? And Tobias says, "You know that you actually get warmer when you're hugging someone of the opposite sex?" Since I was wearing my Free Hugs pin and Tobias is very much not a creepo, 

I said "Really?" 

and he said "Really." 

so I said "Well would you like a hug then?"

And he laughed and said "Yes, because I'm cold too!"

So that was that. And it really did work, even if it was kinda funny because Tobias is like, twice my size. Ha. 

Then Bio. We're doing Genetics right now, though we have a test next week on the Digestive system and a huge research paper due in a couple weeks. Mr. Van Hynegen (I am SO spelling that wrong) never gives us homework, I don't know why he's starting now! Urg. 

And apparently I can give hugs that score 10 out of 10 every time. Quinn says so. So every time I see him, I give him one. :] Yay for hugs.

Later I had my huge-like-a-dinosaur Health test on AIDS. It was pretty easy though, except for a couple super awkward questions. Actually, this whole unit was awkward, but anyways....  Actually, this next unit might be awkward too- First aid. The first lesson was pretty interesting, I gotta say. Urm. Yeah. ANYWAYS.

Here's a story that Quinn told me yesterday. :]

Woman Dies From Stingray’s Head Butt

  

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) – A woman sunbathing on a boat died after a stingray leaped from the water off the Florida Keys on Thursday and struck her, officials said.

“It’s just as freakish of an accident as I have heard,” said Jorge Pino of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “The chances of this occurring are so remote that most of us are completely astonished that this happened.”

March 20, 2008

BLARG

Wednesday:

I hate hate HATE nights like that! It's so STUPID! 

Every single hour was half awake, half 'sleep'. I see the clock read 1am, 2, am, 3 am, 4am, etc so much more often than the average person it isn't even funny....WHY? And on a double french day, too... Gah, this will not be fun. Not to mention that I have to find somebody to chill with after school until choir or else just stay at school, because I wouldn't have enough time at home to make the drive worth it. 

So basically I'm just super frustrated right now. 

 Felt super crappy most of the day, although during study hall (the one class in two weeks that I have with him) James and I listened to this comedian on his ipod and it was hilarious. "I think that they must have named Oranges before Carrots. What's this? Um, it's orange... Oranges! Ok, how about this? Ah, crap. Long and pointy?"

Then the teacher was like, "Stoop all zat giggeling ovar dere!" Which was pretty much impossible, of course. So that was fun, and then after religion I ran into Katie and ended up going home with her, which was so wonderful. AND WE WATCHED HOGAN'S HEROES WHILE EATING DINNER! OMG!

Then choir, which went well. Um, yup. Then home for a shower and studying before I crawled into bed for another night of poor sleep.

I wanna say it, oh, oh, but you're so far away....

Spring Choir Concert Rehearsal until 6 but didn't get picked up until 7. I think I'm getting a sore throat, which sucks. WHY do I always get sick before I have to sing? 

Things I dislike:

-Having fluffy, silly songs stuck in your head when you're in the mood for metal

-people not talking to you and kinda avoiding you without telling you WHY on earth they're mad at you

-not being able to tell people stuff

-having to ASK for hugs when you really need them

-crappy sleep and waking up every hour

-the last slice of pizza being cold

-being an 'only' child (here in Belgium I am, and it sucks!)

Ok, this kinda made me laugh. Just a bit. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ok wow....

Results of your
Bipolar Quiz

Based upon your responses to this bipolar disorder quiz, you appear to be suffering from moderate to severe symptoms associated with a bipolar disorder. People who have answered similarly to you typically qualify for a diagnosis of Bipolar I Disorder and have sought professional treatment for this disorder. (You may, however, still fit into the less serious diagnosis of Bipolar II Disorder.)  You should not take this as a diagnosis of any sort, or a recommendation for treatment. However, if would be advisable and likely beneficial for you to seek further diagnosis from a trained mental health professional soon to rule out a possible depressive disorder.

AIDS!

Uh, yeah. That's what I studied for almost two hours Saturday, go me... 

SO THE ROCK EXTRAVAGANZA.

(omg. awesome-sauce!)

It was pretty cool. AND I got to be in the lightbooth, pushing random buttons that made the lights flash pretty colours. :] You can bet I enjoyed that!

This has been a busy weekend; Newberger's on Friday night (And Saturday morning, if you want to get technical), Rock Extravaganza on Saturday night, and Swell on Sunday!

Swell was at Boone's house because of some miscommunication with place we were going to have it at, and can I just say that being at places like his house makes me hate living in the city ten times more than I already do? Chickens and rabbits, for goodness sakes! Anyways. I went home with Katie, and then we diddled around some, then went to Boone's house. A few things:

-There were too many people in that basement, which made it absolutely fun

-I really suck at being 'host'

-AAAGGGHHHH Screaming Viking!!!! *paddlepaddle*

-Talking to my mother on the phone doesn't actually work so well, especially in a noisy basement full of teenagers.... Wow. Hm. Yes.

-Went back to Katie's house, mom came to pick me up, and we stayed for another hour or so...

-Came home to a lovely LONG email from a certain somebody... :] A nice way to end my weekend!

More later, I gotta get ready for school now... xP

Friiiiidays are super.

Super long, that is. But then, after school is done, maybe just super. :]

Ummmm I got really hyper. No idea WHY, seeing as I didn't sleep much again and was really tired all day. Ha, apparently it showed a bit during french class, because Alehandra is like, "Marissa, you okay?" and then people start volunteering to show me where the nurse's office is.... That was kinda funny. Everybody wanted to escape class today. And I had a viable excuse, but I didn't. Go me?

Yum. 8 brownies. I'm such a spazz-tard. 

And talkin' with peeps from church. Nathan and Ria Gathright really remind me of each other? Well, they're both pretty awesome, so yeah. :] Um. Listening to Motion City Soundtrack. IMing with my friend Marissa. :] Didn't do my sit-ups tonight yet. Grr. Homework tomzies will suck, because I dislike French rather much. Studying to health won't be as bad, even though AIDS is awkward....

"Singing songs from the balcony as the city crumbles
Under the powers of an evil-doctor-rocket-science-monster with capabilities to destroy the entire universe, yo"

-Capital H by Motion City Soundtrack

The Wednesday of dooooooom!

Not really. Although, with choir until 6 and Swell meeting until 7, it was pretty long. And would have been longer with the pancake breakfast, but it's not as if I have a ride for that. :P  Location location!

Erhm. 

As silly as I am, I JUST figured out this morning how to put music on my ipod without syncing it to that computer. Hello Marissa, it's called CLICK AND DRAG! I'm such a ditz sometimes, really. Hahaha.

Had a mild panic attack today for no apparent reason. Lunchtime was lonely. I found a daddy-long-legs and named it Fred Junior, because I'm Fred today. It's Name Yourself Day, you see, so of course I celebrated. Also, Steffy was Bob the Tomato, Parker was Laura the Carrot, and then- Ok, this is funny. I was wearing a tshirt with Oscar the Grouch on it, and so when I told Quinn what day it was, he's like, "Ok, I'll be Oscar!" But Abby wanted to be Oscar too, but in the end Quinn was Oscar, Nathan was the trashcan (?) and Abby was the little worm whose name escapes us.

Yep. 

...Ok, so I guess you just had to be there. Like the purple chocolate, which actually was pretty good. Hm. Grape-y.

-Weird things:

-Parker's fear of touching cottonballs

-The sound of rubbing your hand on jeans giving James the extreme Heebie-jeebies

-'That's what She said' jokes

-Doing softball in PE for the second time in my high school PE experience (I just KNOW I'm gonna get hit in the face at some point during this unit...)

-Rhinohornitis

-That I'm actually wearing eyeliner this week!? Gasp! *expression of shock and surprise*

- The colour Olive

-The way sharpies make your hair smell

Um, the end. Of the day. Ish. Mac n Cheese is awesome, and French class is not. End of entry.

Durrrrr...

is a fun noise to make. Durr. Um. Yeah. I'm listening to The Postal Service. I like it. I also like my facebook status right now.... 

'Marissa is laughing, crying, serene, freaking out, exciting, lonesome, loved.'

Grarrr. Wow, I'm sure making funny noises today! Hm. So, let's see:

Loads of French homework to do tonight. Maybe English... Mr. Savage really wants that paper. Weirdness. Anyways. A huge-oh long ginormous-like-a-dinosaur email that will take forever to write up because it's made of things hard to say.

Not being able to sleep because my mind won't rest. Conflicting feelings and mood swings. (I hate being a teenager sometimes! Can I just go back to third grade or something? Please?) And mom didn't do laundry, urg. that's not cool... I'm running out of tshirts...

Quinn's back, finally. :] I think I'll adopt him as my brother. And speaking of adoption, apparently Beth adopted me today. And then James came up and she's all "Hey look, I adopted Marissa!" And he's all, "No, I adopted her first!"

Hehe. I don't really care, because I get hugs out of it. Hugging is my favorite thing.

Oh, and Quinn brought Nathan back the awesomest shirt from Hot Topic... it has a hamburger, and says "Hold on, I'm on my Hamburger Phone." LOL @ Juno... Awesome-sauce.... yah. OK.

"Can someone please radio for help/'Cause I think I'm allergic to myself" 

(The One Thing I Have Left by Hawk Nelson)

I played MASH with Parker. Here's his story:

Once upon a time, Parker married Katie. They got married in the sewers in Portugal, him in a kelly green tux and her in a turquoise dress. They honeymooned in Paraguay, then settled down in an apartment in Siberia, where he drove their jetski to his job as a talk show host, and she to her job as a treasure hunter. They had 3 kids (one boy and two girls) named Indigo, Violet, and Katya, and they all ate pasta all the time, even their pet reindeer. Parker enjoyed rock climbing as his hobby, and Katie did carpentry. They went on vacation every year to their next door neighbor's house, and Parker died from a messed-up AIDS vaccine. The end.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I love that game. 

Sunday: Home at last!

We got in at one o'clock this morning, and it was all I could do to walk up the stairs and topple into bed, fully dressed and everything. But then I woke up again at two, because I had to take off my scarf in case it choked me in my sleep. Ah, middle-of-the-night logic.

Those last two hours in the car were rather painful, I admit. Asleep, then jolted into half-wakefulness by the GPS jabbering our position... I'm just glad I didn't have to drive! Poor dad. 

Today we all slept in. Like a lot. It was wonderful.

I'll write more later, at the end of the day-ish. AND I'm going to upload those photos as soon as I can... Yay. 

I miss Austria/Germany already. I'm pretty sure German owns French in the face.

"Our first hors-d'ourves is smoked eel with raspberry vinaigrette..." What on earth is mom watching? And why can't I spell worth beans? 

Later:

I went to a all-Well worship service (The Well is a church, the one that Swell is based out of) with others of the Swell leadership team (wow that sounds official) and it was pretty cool, even though driving either way was somewhat stressful. On the way there, mom kept yelling at the GPS because it was wonky, and we got slightly lost, but then we got there and it was good. I think I like the Well better than Christian Center. Worship was good, and... yeah. It was a nice night. And I met a couple people and one of them was trying to guess my age and she guessed that I was 17 or 18 or 19! Mwahaha. That helps make up for Kyle thinking I was ten. Really. 

Anyways. The way back... I don't even want to talk about, except to say that I hate being a bother, and I hate being perfectly awful with directions.

Oh, and here's a funny story: I was lying on my stomach on my bed, and was moving my arm so I could rest my head on my hand, and I felt this sudden pain in my elbow, like I had rubbed up against something sharp. So I went looking for this piece of sharp whatever, running my hand over my sheets, and I felt another pain in my arm, so I looked and lo and behold! My arm had a cut on it because there was a piece of random glass on my bed! So I went into the bathroom to wash this cut off because it was bleeding, right? When I look down and see these two bloody drips on my PJ pants. So I'm like, oh ok. That's just great. I took them off and washed them out, and went to put them back on when I noticed another smear of blood on my leg! By this point I'm wondering where all this blood is coming from, because the cut on my arm isn't bleeding that badly... Then I brushed my hair out of my face and noticed in the mirror as I did that there was a large bloody spot on my elbow, which I had completely forgotten about hurting at all.

The blood doesn't bother me, thankfully, but I do wish that mom would get cool bandaids with like, power rangers on them or something instead of boring clear ones... Ha.

Saturday, April 5th (Pictures to be added later)

Saturday 

Last night at Newberger's I was about the last person to leave 'cause I was hanging out, but we got into quite a conversation about nightmares and dreams that we had all had. I've remembered my dreams from the last couple nights, and boy were they weird... Like night before last, I dreamt I was in school or something but everybody was leaving. And there was something important (I don't know what) in Sam Johnson's locker so I asked Josh Gross to help me open it, but we didn't find what we were looking for and so that was very bad. Then we went outside and we were two of five people left, and these things that were kinda like opaque gargoyles were coming because it was the end of the world, and only Josh, Jenessa Andrea, Savannah Quie, Nathan Gathright and I were left, so it was up to us to save the day. (I guess.) It was weird. Nathan and Jenessa had these awesome broadswords and Savannah had a bladed staff, and they were all kicking butt in a freaking amazing sort of way, covering each other's backs, but Jenessa somehow got separated and was fighting a bunch of them over by the pond. (?) Then she fell and I couldn't see her anymore, so I ran over there with my two Legolas-style swords to help her. Josh was behind me with his broadsword, but they got him from behind and he went down and disappeared. That was kinda a bummer, and I'm like "Oh crap, he died!" (Holy deadly violence Batman!) So then Nathan and Savannah were still back-to-back, kicking butt in a pwnsome way, but they were further away and a pink-ish glowy gargoyle was coming after me. (I think I  might watch too much Scifi, just maybe? LOL) Then I was running and I tripped and the thing threw this pink cloud that was kinda in the shape of a pack of hounds, baying and howling, which ate me so I died. And then I fell onto a cobblestone town square, and I felt bad for dying and leaving Nathan and Savannah and Jenessa (If she was still alive) to save the world by themselves! But then I saw Josh and ran and gave him a hug, because remember of course I saw him die, and that would make you glad to see about anybody! And there was a lightning storm coming and my body was somehow crackling electricity so Josh yelled out "Is there an elemental around here?" because we didn't know what to do. This random person who was kinda grumpy and muttering about stupid people who didn't know what to do when there was a storm sat me down and the person and I sort of sat cross-legged and closed our eyes while the storm passed over, so even though the lightning hit us and surged through us it was ok. The storm passed and the person got up, but I didn't and Josh was like, "What's wrong with her?" And the person said very matter-of-factly, "Well, she might have not gone into deep enough kal-nor-eem, so..." *shrug*

And then I woke up. I hope that amused you somewhat; Well, I thought it was amusing, in an ironic sort of way. Dying not so much. But the fighting with the swords and stuff part was super cool! 

Then last night I dreamed I missed two days of school because of a giant plant monster, so then when I finally got to school (In Mr. Brown's class, oddly enough) I had a bunch of work to make up. So I walked into Mr. Brown's room and somebody's stuff was in my seat so I raised my hand to ask Mr. Brown if I should move it, and he called on me but then I saw that there was an open seat by Laura, so I said "Nevermind." and was going to move but then Mr. Brown made me move up front where he always moves Caleb Bak to, and I was mad because I wanted to sit by Laura and it wasn't my fault Michelle Mann was talking to me! Later I got on the subway and Mr. Brown was driving it, and Stephanie and Micah Fritz were sitting there talking. At the last second before the doors closed, Parker and James got on, and Parker said Hi and I said hi to both of them, but James kinda just ignored me, which was weird. Parker said shame on me for missing two days of school, and that wasn't fair so I said "I didn't want to miss two days and school!" So they tried to either guess why I had missed, or cheer me up, I don't remember which. And Parker drew a picture in my agenda but Stef got mad at him because I had to fit in all this homework on the same page...

My brain is strange.

Today we got up and packed then waited around for ages before leaving. We drove to a castle in Germany, the castle that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was filmed at I think. Maybe. Partially. I don't know. It was in Bavaria. We saw paragliders too, and I was jealous because paragliding is FUN. Mom said "Hey, look, it's me up there is the sky!" I found that very funny.

Anyways. Monica and I became siamese twins for the day, which was fun, and I saw the same exact pair of suspenders that Josh Gross wore for Nerd Day during Homecoming this year. Dad let me get a cool sweatshirt too. :] We toured the castle and it was spiffy, although not the coolest castle ever. I still like Warwick Castle in England better. And when we walked into the king's closet, you know what my first thought was? "Not as big as Aunt Joni's!" Hahaha. Um... we drove for another two hours or so, and I slept because I couldn't read without getting carsick. We stopped for dinner at 7ish, and saw a map. We were right next to Stuttgart, and dad said we were about five hours away from home. So that's good to know, or rather it will be good to know this summer. So now we're driving through Germany through slightly icky weather, and I'm kinda peeved because the computer's battery is dying.

Friday, April 4th (Pictures to come)

Genthers left this morning, but not before I managed to get into a minor snowball fight with Kyle. He scored a couple on my face, but the last snowball thrown was mine. And it totally hit him in the eye. What literally happened: I said "See, I told you I'm an awful throw." then *THWAP* Hahahahahahahahahaha.... It was satisfying, to say the least. But anyways.

Skiing today- mum and dad and I were ready before everybody else, so we got to Venet before everybody else. Mum and I were really tired though.... No motivation/gumption to ski whatsoever. So we started on the blue run, numba 5, and we were pretty much the first ones on it, which was amazing. The snow was perfect, there was no wind, and the sun was beginning to shine... A great day for skiing. It was a bit chilly today though, and I had my knee braces constricting my circulation so my toes were really cold all day. Ick. Anyways. I did go and conquer number 6, the red slope that we got stuck on yesterday, although I did fall once. It was the only time I fell this whole trip though, and it was half on purpose- Honestly, it was. I was going too fast and wanted to stop so I went into the snowbank. Hehe, it was a nice fall. I got snow up my nose, too, and that was quite an experience! Lawlz.

Um. Let's see. 

Went on another red slope.

Got called an idiot by this random kid- When I asked why, he said it was because I'm a girl. I really hope it's the whole cooties thing and that he doesn't grow up to be a chauvinistic prig.

Went down #5 a bunch of times, listening to my ipod (and singing along, of course... "All you need is love!") The view from #5 entirely makes up for its lack of steepness.

Snowboarders definitely spend more time on their knees or rear than on their board.

My camera died right away in the morning. *le sob*

I really miss the 'race down+roleplay up'  system I have (or had) with Stefan (And Braden when he was there)

My knees hurt.

Every time I see David, he says "Hey Marissa, where's your ski pole- Oh, sorry, I forgot." It was funny maybe the first couple times, but definitely not the fifty-sixth time. Thank you.

After we got back, I had a snack and headed to the sauna. After my 20 minutes in there were up, I jumped in the snowbank, which was really fun. Then I was a little chilly, so I went back in the sauna. :] And then back in the snow. And then up to shower and get dressed, because it was almost time for dinner. Since it's the last night, there's a potluck with everybody. Mmm. Food is GOOD. I think I like it too much! Ha. 

A quote from last night, courtesy of Carolyn Newberger: "Ooo, can I get some altitude?"

Thursday, April 3rd (Pictures to come)

Today I had not intended to go skiing, but I ended up tagging along with Deanna and David. I had my knee braces today, and that was nice. Helpful, rather. I went down the blue run with David and Chris, which was nice enough except for having to stop and wait for them. Silly snowboarders, I sometimes wonder if they spend more time on their rear ends than on their boards! Honestly. We also spent a while wading through heavy thigh-deep snow. It wasn't that far, but we kept getting stuck and having to extricate ourselves. The rest of the run was good though. On the chairlift back up, ....

(I'm still a bit peeved with myself for this, you understand.)

...I dropped one of my ski-poles off the chairlift, and not on a run, either. I tried to go get it after lunch, but soon realized how absurd the notion was. Grrrr. After that hike downhill then steeply uphill through knee-deep snow, I decided to go with Evelyn, Deanna, and Deanna's mom Ms. Donna on an attempt at the red run that was next to the blue one. Here's a funny story! So, the red run and the blue run start together, split for a bit, then meet again before splitting for good until the chairlift. We made it to where they meet again (Which was miraculous on its own, because visibility was literally almost none) and started down this slope. Well, we hadn't gone far at all when we encountered a bit of difficulty- The snow was fresh, and up to our knees, greatly impeding our progress. We continued onwards in the optimistic belief that it would get better just a bit further down... But it didn't. We all got stuck several times, and Ms. Donna lost one of her skis for about 15 minutes. We finally, after about 25 minutes, got down this short but moderately steep hill, and saw (As well as we could, with the still awful visibility... did I mention that it was SNOWING as well as FOGGY?) that it didn't seem to get better further on, or if it was we couldn't see, and the next part of the hill was up-ish, and the snow was thigh-deep and still falling... so we started up the hill. And it took us almost an hour. Of torture. For the third time that day! And, to make us all feel SO much better, as soon as we were on the top of that slope (Where the red meets the blue), the big ol' snowplow thingy came to make the hill ski-able. OMG. We were about fit to be tied! Laughing, of course, at ourselves, and VERY glad no one we knew was skiing past. Ha. So by that time it was 3:20, and the lifts close at 4ish, so we decided to go down the blue because we didn't know how long the red was and we really didn't want to get stuck. So we did that. Took the lift up again. Took the gondola-thing down the mountain again. Drove back to the apartments/lodge place. Ate goulash (mom and dad were still gone, they had gone to Innsbruck) then went over to the Newberger's and hung out for awhile until the 'rents got back, then we ate dinner. Washed dishes. And then reading, blogging, and bed. I'm plenty tired tonight!

Wednesday, April 2nd (Pictures to come)

Today is going to be a bit more of a low-key day. It's foggy on the mountain again, so I'm not going skiing - Is that perfectly awful of me, to not ski in the Alps every single day I have a chance to? - but I'm probably going hiking with a number of people this afternoon. And probably swimming and sauna-ing at some point. :] And that's a good day to me. 

You know, when I'm in Belgium... Life is definitely tolerable there, ok? I have friends, I feel decently settled down there, whatever. But here in Austria... I actually really like it here. And for some reason, I like the German language better than French. Why I have no clue, considering that I understand pretty much no German and I'm starting to get better at understanding French (Not speaking though!). 

I don't know. I guess I'm just saying I like what I have seen of Austria better than what I have seen of Belgium, and that if I was here, it might be easier to stay. I don't know.

Anyways. At 2ish, I went with Katie, her sister Emily, Kyle, and Mr. Foster to this rock-climbing place, which was fun, although any misconceptions I might have had of having much of any strength at all are gone, shattered since I've been here! Oy-vay. (Who was it a few weeks ago, who asked me after I said that who 'vay' was? I don't remember, but it was pretty funny.) Um. Yeah. I like rock-climbing a lot. We did that for two and half hours or so, then drove back and let me tell you, I headed straight for the sauna. And drank 4 bottles of water. Why do I do the sauna when I dislike the heat and getting sweaty? No clue! Well, by the time I had showered and stuff, it was 7pm and there was a BBQ that night, although unfortunately it was still um, sleeting. But let me tell you, the sausage thingys were de-lish! I could of eaten 3. And I almost did. (I had two and then mourned their being gone and eaten already) They were just so good! The funny thing is, they were wrapped in bacon, and I don't even LIKE bacon! Ick. But these were stupendous... Then I went up and hung out with Jessie, and that was fun. We sang along to disney songs while she worked on a video with all the pictures from this trip so far and I put in my two cents. :] Then we had fun in photobooth (You just gotta love that app!) that we were literally rolling around laughing. Good times. I stayed out too late though, it was midnight-ish before I got to bed. Et ja klar, mon padre was not tres happy. And yes, I just used four languages in one sentence. Because I'm just fly like that.

Yep. Oh, and Pretty. Odd. is pretty odd. Just thought you might like to know. ;]

Tuesday, April 1st (Pictures to come)

I sleep on the bed in the living room. This I would not mind, if only I was not such a light sleeper! I will never be able to sleep in on this vacation, because as soon as the coffee maker turns on, I wake up. Today we went skiing, and although it was just a bit foggy, the snow was good. I was going down a red run with Evelyn and Deanna, and was having a nice time, you know, just zigzagging back and forth down the run, right? My knees hurt a bit, but not too bad. OK, so they would hurt moderately badly by the end of the run, but the chairlift ride up was restful, so it was fine. Anyways, so I was zigzagging on this run, and I was just about to turn away from the edge when all of a sudden my left knee just gave out and buckled under me! Unfortunately, my momentum was still carrying me towards the edge and I couldn’t quite stop in time- I went over the edge and started tumbling. Thankfully, the hill wasn’t TOO steep, and had plenty of trees to stop me before I went too far. Hm. So, you remember when I wrote about that time when I was playing hockey and stopped the puck with my face? Well, this time, I stopped my rapid descent down the mountain with my face. Specifically my nose. Which kinda started bleeding. Like a lot? Yeah.

So Deanna stayed with me while Evelyn went for help, because I was kind of having trouble stopping the bleeding. That is, every time I tried holding my nose to hold the blood in so it could clot, it hurt so bad that I yelled in pain and had to let go. Although it wasn’t actually that long until the guy with the sled behind the snowmobile came, it seemed like forever, probably because I was cold and I hurt all over and my stupid nose wouldn’t stop bleeding (although it did slow down a bit)… Urg, it was really annoying.  The ride up was a bit bumpy, too, which made it all the more painful. Eventually we made it to the hospital/clinic place, where they thankfully gave me some drugs for the pain and told me my nose was broken. I won’t go into the messy details. The coldness had helped with the swelling, but it was warmish in the clinic so then it swelled up pretty impressively. I also have some cool bruises all over… Although you could not pay me enough to post a picture of my face right now, I might take a picture of my biggest bruise because it’s SO spiffy, it’s all purple and black! Haha.

So yeah. My nose is broken and swollen, my face is rather scratched up and I’m all bruised, but hey! I’m alive, right? And you can ski with a broken nose… at least they didn’t tell me I couldn’t! I’ll probably be able to on Friday, when I’m not so sore. And plus it’s supposed to be really good weather on Friday! I’m looking forward to it. And hopefully the pain meds won’t run out before then. Hehe… Loopy-ness. Actually, just mischief. April Fools, yo. Hehehehehehe.... So, here. Tuesday for real:

 I wasn't planning on going skiing today because I was pretty sure I was gonna be super sore and the mountains were probably going to be covered in cloud and thus too foggy to ski with much success. Well, they were for the first half of the day, although apparently it cleared off nicely in the afternoon. 

Jessie, Monica, Jessie's mom, my mom, Madison's mom, and I hiked down the mountain to Imst. That was fun- We found a dollar store! Ok, so I suppose it'd be a euro store. I got stickers! And a pack of three pairs of stripey socks for 70 cents! Hehe. :] What can I say, I'm easily pleased. Go me. 

We had lunch not long after that, at a little cafe in town. I had goulash soup, which I must say isn't nearly as good as normal goulash, especially grandma's! But the hot chocolate was excellent. They served you hot milk and then you plop in a chocolate bar and stir! Fun fun. After that we went to an awesome shoe store. I like shoes. Especially converse shoes. Especially purple converse shoes that are like, 6 euro!!!!!! OMG. But dear mother would not let me get them. I am still very sad about this- They were the only pair of purple converse shoes in that store, and they just happened to fit me perfectly with a bit of room for better quality inserts! I think it was meant to be, but no. They are undoubtedly still sitting there, neglected and lonely. Ok, I'll try and be done now... *sigh*

As tiring as the hike down was, the hike UP the mountain was about a bajillion times worse. By the time we were a third of the way up, ...

(I said I would be honest in this blog, didn't I? Bother. Oh well.)

By the time we were a third of the way up, I was pretty much wanting to cry because my calves hurt so bad and I was so tired. It is a very good thing I am as stubborn as I am, or I might have given up...! Eventually, I developed a stratagem to take my mind off the tiredness. To start, I imagined my sister was at the top of the mountain, waiting for me to come up and get to her. When that no longer distracted me and I wanted to give up again, I imagined that Kaytlin and Mike were both up there, and had my favorite ice cream for me. And so, every time I felt like giving up, I added to this little fantasy. FINALLY we got to the top, although I only had added a few more people to my imagining at that point. So my stratagem was rather successful, although admittedly the fact that they weren't actually up there with ice cream, ready to say hello, was a bit of a downer! 

Mom and me and dad -because dad had just gotten back from skiing- all stretched out and grabbed a snack, which was wonderful. After reading for awhile, I worked on typing THIS all out, although I only had finished a day or so when it was time to leave for dinner. There was kind of a potluck-type Mexican Dinner at the Newberger's, and it was very nice. :] Good food - I just love Mexican food! - and better company. The way the serving worked, you just took a tortilla and made your way around the table. But you see, everything looked so good, so I just had try a bit of everything, and my tortilla ended up being way too full to shut! But I managed, and actually ate it without spilling on anything besides my fingers. This may surprise you, but guacamole, black refried beans, aztec chicken, beef, avocado, cheese, and something else unidentified but tasty all taste pretty good together. Then some of us teenagers got together and played a game that I don't know the name of, but is basically like a Silent Mafia. There's a killer, a sheriff, a doctor, and everybody else are innocent townspeople, or as I like to say, 'expendable crewmen'. Instead of there being a narrator or anything, the game just starts right away, everybody sitting in a circle facing each other... If the mafia/killer person winks at you, you discreetly flip over your card so it's face-up. The killer can also make an accomplice by sticking out their tongue. The doctor can 'bring out you back to life' by pursing their lips at you, then you flip your card back over. The sheriff/detective can't be killed, so be careful who you wink at... The game ends when the sheriff calls out the killer, or the killer kills everybody (except for the sheriff, of course). Usually the rounds go pretty quickly, but it's pretty fun I guess. ;] The first two times I was the killer, I had the awful bad luck of the first person I would try to kill being the sheriff! Twice that happened, most unfortunate. The third time, though... Ha, first I made Kyle an accomplice. He killed somebody or another, then got caught, but of course the game didn't end because the killer (me) was still at large. Then I made Katie an accomplice, and the same thing happened. And then I made Emily an accomplice, and the same thing happened again. By this time there were just three people left... And the sheriff accused the other person, who turned out to be the doctor. It didn't matter though, because at that point I had won! :D It was pretty awesome, with a dash of pwnsauce on the side.

Monday, March 31st (Pictures to come later)

We went skiing today. :] It's been awhile since I skied, although a couple of years ago I think I  could handle myself pretty well on the slope. Back in the day. I think it must have been... well, before I started real school, so four years ago? Yeah, something like that. Back then, Stefan and Braden and I would race down the slopes (We even each had our racing names, like The Torpedo or something....) and roleplay on the chairlifts. Ah, those were the days of Bugdom and sunshine, swapping stories over french fries and hot chocolate. Once a week we'd drive up to Wild Mountain, us homeschool kids, and we'd ski. :] Good times, good times. I really am blessed; How many girls can say not only do they have good close guy friends, but have had them for literally their entire lives? <3 

There wasn't really a bunny hill, for those who hadn't skied before. As in, Deanna, Evelyn, and Emily Genther, who had decided to skip ski school and just pick it up on their own, kinda got a crash course. The runs go, easiest to hardest, green-blue-red-white?-black. They started on either a red or a blue slope. Nobody really got seriously hurt- at least, at first. The slope we had all started on was a mini slope, go down from the top bunny hill length, take the t-bar up. (T-bar > rope tow, except if you're a snowboarder. LOL) So we decided to take this blue slope down, and we (Evelyn, Deanna, Alicia the oldest Foster sister, Jessie, Emily and her mom, and yours truly) hadn't gone very far.... Jessie stopped to take a picture of the view, and I pulled up right beside her. There was about a three and a half foot snowbank, then a pretty sheer drop down the mountain. Then Emily, who was above us on the run, realized she was heading towards the edge and was picking up more speed than she wanted to. Snowplow failed to stop her, so she sat down... She slid right along the top of the snowbank before (thankfully) coming back down it (as opposed to going over) and crashing into Jessie and me. Mostly me, actually. And then her mom crashed into the both of us. Mrs. Genther, who happens to be a nurse practitioner, decided that she didn't like the way Emily's finger wasn't moving, and so Jessie, Alicia and I, the more experienced (Aka faster) skiers, decided to ski down ahead as quick as we could so we could get back up to the top and get help, because obviously Emily couldn't ski the rest of the run. Evelyn and Deanna started after us, and then Jessie, Alicia and I decided that one of us three should stay behind and make sure that the new skiers didn't get into trouble. So I stayed behind. I let Deanna and Evelyn stay ahead of me so that if they got into trouble I could help, but Evelyn fell and Deanna didn't see because there was bend in the path, so she got ahead of us and we basically didn't see her again until the bottom of the hill! Anyways, then I went ahead and made a trail, we worked on staying in control, and it was cool. The first bit was the hardest, so after that it was pretty leisurely, although my knees started killing me, ugh. Stupid maltracking patellas! It took us probably an hour, but we finally got down to what we didn't know to be the lowest chairlift instead of the second lowest? I don't know. We came up the wrong stair, anyways, and the guy was telling us in German something how we weren't supposed to come all the way down to that chairlift... I don't know, he said something about not coming down that far. Actually his term was not 'driving' down that far, but we got the picture. (Wow, that was redundant, wasn't it! Oh well.)  Then we went back up to the top and ate. Sitting was good, and the view (of course) was even better.  Didn't wear my jacket again all day either, just a sweater. Um. Then... around four we went back down and went back to the lodge place here. I sauna'd with Emily, Emily, and Alicia. Emily Genther, by the way, is fine, but she probably tore a ligament, so she has a cast and can't ski, snowboard, sled, or swim this week. Pretty much awful that it had to happen on the first day! At least I happened to bring a sharpie, so we signed her cast. :]

Dinner. Quelf-izzle with Monica, Katie, Jessie, Emily, David and I. Katie's rule card made her replace the word 'you' with 'me', and David kept catching her on it... David's rule card made him say "Hear me, for I have spoken" after every thing he said. Then we all got to mess with his hair, and he almost jumped off the balcony- Don't worry, we got a picture of him with a ponytail! Facebook, anybody? Hahahaha...

Oh, and I had Elephant Love Medley stuck in my head. All day. Go figure. 

Sunday, March 30th (Pictures to come!)

It is BEAUTIFUL. The weather is lovely today, and we woke up earlier so we could go rent our skis and stuff. Then we rode the tractor up the mountain, and I had Avenue Q stuck in my head again (still?) so I sang "It sucks to be me" all the way up the mountain. Because I pretty much know almost all of it. Especially Stephanie's part. 

"Why you all so happy?" "Because our lives suck!" "Your lives suck? HA! I come into this country for opportunity... Tried to work in Korean Deli, but I am Japanese! Then through hard work I earned two master's degrees in social work, so now I a therapist, but I have no clients.... And I have an unemployed fiancé, and we have lots of bills to pay! It suck to be me... It suck to be me... I say it sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka sucka SUCK to be me!"

Ha, ANYWAYS. Once on the mountain, we got right to it and started throwing snowballs at each other and sledding.  Katie unexpectedly stuffed snow down my back right off the bat, which I was not so happy about. My snow pants are the bib kind, so it's kinda hard to get the snow out once it gets in! We eventually teamed up though, to fight David. Did I mention how directionally challenged I am? I can't throw for beans, which is not the best problem to have during an intense snowball fight. One thing I DO have on my side though, is the fact that little you throw at me will faze me- After awhile, I just got fed up with not being able to hit him very much at all (Although later I DID manage to land a beautiful shot on the back of his head) so I went after him. He could throw as many snowballs as he wanted, I just kept coming and after a bit, I caught him, knocked him down, and gave him a good ol' facewash. And stuffed snow down his shirt. It was pretty awesome. 

Did I mention how warm it was? I was overheating in my tshirt, snowpants, and gloves. It was quite sunny. (Of course, it didn't help that I was running around... ha. But then again, I'm ALWAYS too warm!)

Not too long after we had lunch, we started down the mountain because we were all walking down. Or sledding, for those of us who had them. After awhile, walking was lame so I decided to find another way to get myself down. Thus, the butt-sliding began. 

I got rather wet, though. As a matter of fact, I got wetter than I ever have before while wearing snow-pants, and that is NOT an exaggeration! My feet squished with water every step I took - Thank goodness it was warm! - and later I wrung at least a cup of water out of my socks alone! The only part of me that wasn't wet was a small strip on the front of my legs. The reason I got so wet, I think, was not only because I was butt-sliding down the mountain, but because at one point I hit a muddy patch and started tumbling out of control -that is, unable to stop- and for awhile sliding headfirst, which was when I think the majority of the snow/mud got down my pants because of course I wasn't wearing a coat. The ice crystals scratched up my arms a bit too, and my hands were somewhat red and tender from trying to stop the tumbling. Ha! really, what's a little pain when you're having fun butt-sliding down the Alps? 

We got back and pretty much headed straight to the pool, which was kinda full of the chilluns. (The chilluns = my term for the younger kids) Katie and I kinda went all pwnsauce with the chicken fights (At least until the end, to be fair), and then Monica, Katie, Angelyn and I went in the Sauna and roleplayed for awhile. 

Something I don't understand is why many parents seem to be against roleplaying. I mean, I understand that some of it can go bad places, but if you don't go bad places (aka awkward sexual or super violent roleplaying) then all it is making up a story. It's a fun way to use imagination and creativity and practice your language skills. I know that roleplaying as often as I did in middle school really helped develop my writing skills. Again, I realize that like in all things, there must be moderation. Obviously if you're roleplaying all the time, like using it to avoid reality, then that probably isn't healthy. But once in awhile, a nice afternoon of story-telling? Nothing wrong with that! Ok, I'm done ranting, ha. No idea where that came from.

Oh. Anyways. I had dinner with the Fosters and Genthers (Kyle=16, Emily=14), it was chili and pretty good. Kyle discovered that I am not, as he thought, TEN, but only two months younger than him. I'm a little miffed. Did he seriously think I was ten years old? Please. 

We played Quelf again tonight. It was Katie, Monica, Kyle, Emily, somebody else who I don't remember (Maybe Angelyn?), and me. That was pretty interesting. One of the Roolz cards was universal, and it said that we all had to say 'izzle' at the end of every sentence for the whole game, or go back a space everytime we forgot-izzle. It got really old, really fast-izzle! Also, I had to act like a fiery little gnome whose cookies had just burnt-izzle. That was also for almost all of the game-izzle. Can you tell that having to remember to add 'izzle' to the end of everything or pay the penalty had an effect-izzle on me-izzle? I was thinking in 'izzle' for the rest of the night-izzle. It's rather annoying-izzle!

Saturday, March 29th (MASH stories added, Pictures to be added later)

We are currently on the road, driving to Imst, Austria! It's 10am, and I think we have a good seven hours to go still. But that's ok. I've got books, music, and POCKY. I'm pretty much set!

This morning I got up at about six, and was actually ready at the time mom said we were leaving. That was 6:45am. We actually LEFT at about ten after seven, drove to Foster's, and diddled around there for a good fifteen minutes before hitting the road.  So that puts us, including the five minutes we used stopping for gas, at a full forty-five minutes behind schedule. (But then again, who's counting?) I don't care much. We'll get there when we get there! It's a beautiful day, with some sunshine, nice green countryside to drive through, and- Hey, look! I see Ikea!

Ha, ok. Easily distracted. Sorry. ANYWAYS, I've almost finished reading a stupendous book- Guess. It's one of the greatest movies of all time... one that EVERYBODY should have seen, and should be able to quote and discuss in moderate detail... The only people who don't like it are people who haven't seen it... Yes, I AM talking about The Princess Bride! The abridged version, of course - Not even I want to read 77 pages about the Princess of Guilder packing and unpacking her hats! - But it is still very good, it's similar to the movie but expands a bit, giving the background of Fezzik, a more expanded version of Inigo's history, more on Buttercup in her younger years, etc. It's a super good book, and so I think I will start giving you awesome amazing Princess Bride quotes. Because I don't have my collection of Mr. Brown quotes with me. (Although of course I remember a number of them, including most of the ones where he calls Caleb Bak a dirtball or chump-skillet. What is a chump-skillet? No clue. Caleb Bak, apparently. I thought he was a poodle, but that's probably because I hang out with Josh Gross, and that's what Josh calls him.)

I took a nap- That is, I was just dropping off to sleep when we stopped at a rest-stop type of place for a bathroom break, etc. (The place was definitely on the lower-budget end of the rest-stops I have been to... Did I mention that there were no toilet seats?) At the rest-stop, there was also a sign pointing to Stuttgart. It was very exciting I think because I am probably going to go visit Christian there this summer. :] We got back on the road again, although this time I was in Foster's car. We listened to Adventures in Odyssey (AKA the soundtrack of my childhood) for awhile, and that was fun, although it was a bit farther in the series than I ever got- Eugene and Katrina were already married (When I last heard they were only betrothed, you see) so that was a bit strange. Eugene always introduces Katrina as 'his lovely wife'. EVERY TIME. The thing that bugged me the most though, was that they didn't have the same voice actor for her! It was so weird...

We played Xbox for awhile, a snowboarding game that I (of course!) was awful at. But I didn't lose many races because the power cord kept either unplugging or overheating! We gave up after awhile, fought over my book (Katie REALLY wanted to read it), then played MASH for almost the rest of the trip. It IS a time-consuming game, though. But oh, SO hilarious. Especially when you start getting creative. 

If you know what MASH is, you can skip this part. If you don't, here you go:

MASH stands for Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House, and is basically a game where there are a bunch of categories, and the person who is having it done for them picks two or three options in each category, and the person writing it all down picks two or one options. Then when it's all filled out, one thing in each category gets randomly selected by process of random elimination (That's the tedious part) and together the selections form a story. The categories include things like names of  guys (since this is a girly-ish game, ha) (funniest if you know them or know who they are), wedding dress colour, honeymoon location, number of kids.... You get the idea. (End explanation)

Here's an example of the stories we came up with, although I must warn you that besides being on a major Princess Bride kick, we started to get sillier and sillier....:

Story one:

Once upon a time, Katie and Quinn got married in a medieval castle in Fiji; She wore a beautiful dress of iceberg-blue and he a tux of black. They honeymooned in an underwater hotel before settling down in an apartment in India. Every weekday, Katie drove her motorcycle to her job as an anthropologist after dropping Quinn off at his job as a zookeeper, which is probably where they got their adorable fluffy pet wolf.  In spite of her Modelling side-jobs and his horseback-riding hobby, they managed to find time to vacation yearly in Missouri with their two kids, Edmund and Katara. They both loved Italian food, but eventually both died peacefully in an explosion. The End.

Story Two:

Once upon a time, Marissa and Inigo Montoya  got married in a tree in Iceland; Her dress was sky blue, his tux was black, and afterwards they drove off in their Oscar Weiner hot-dog Truck to their honeymoon in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Afterwards, they started living in a shack in Japan, where he worked as a photographer and she as an author, writing mainly about their pet dolphin. Her hobby was rock-climbing, and his was cooking, especially pasta. They had two children, Lee and Lianne, whom they took often on vacations to the Boundary Waters. Unfortunately, they were all killed by the R.O.U.S.'s, because everyone knows that only the main characters of the story can survive those kinds of things. The End.

Story Three:

Once upon a time, Katie, married the Dread Pirate Roberts in a motor-home in Nicaragua; She had a wonderful dress of burgundy, and him a tux of... Puce. They honeymooned in England, where they got their pet ferret and car, which was a purple Viper with yellow lightning stickers. They then went to live in a house in Kansas so that Katie could pursue her dream job of being a Pro Surfer and Wesley a lumberjack. They had three kids named Quinn, James, and Adrianna, who they took on vacations to  Liechtenstein and fed large amounts of lasagna. The Dread Pirate (Or lumberjack) Roberts crocheted in his spare time, while Katie took up weight training. But, much to the delight of their kids who were very tired of lasagna, Katie and the Dread Lumberjack Roberts angered the faeries and were never seen again. The End.

Story Four:

Once upon a time, Marissa and Rock Lee got married in a cave in Australia, her in a brown wedding dress and him in a squash tux. They rode into the sunset on a mustang and had a lovely honeymoon in Maine before buying a mansion in South Dakota where Rock Lee could fufill his dream of being a knitting goat-herder and Marissa a pilot and architect. They first had a pet skunk named Violent Violet, but then proceded to have 7 children, four boys and three girls, named Indigo, Cobalt, Grey, Red, Saffron, Burgundy, and Lavender, whom they could barely afford to take on vacation to the Rocky Mountains to eat seafood, because goat-herding is a very rewarding job in most ways except in monetary matters. They all froze to death in the second ice age, although they did last longer than most people because of their warm goat-hair coats. The End.

My first view of the Alps was very exciting... Not to mention I love snow! Katie does too, and she helpfully pointed out to me (quite often!) that there was snow on the ground. "Look, SNOW!" She would say, and tap me on the shoulder. This pretty much got old after the first couple minutes, but the snow and mountains were still beautifully exhilarating to behold.

Oh, so in Imst we stopped at Aldi to get food for dinner. That is, the parents went in to get food. Emily (the youngest Foster girl out of three) was reading or something, and Katie and I decided to have a snowball fight in the parking lot. So we did. And then these people pulled into a nearby parking space and started telling us something very emphatically in German. Unfortunately, neither Katie or I understand much German (I know seven words, I counted!) so we didn't really know what they were saying; I'm pretty sure it had something to do with telling us NOT to hit their car with snowballs though, since we were throwing snowballs in the vicinity and the woman was pointing at the car and... Well, yeah. I don't know, all I know is that they were very emphatic about it! Ha. 

The place that we are staying is pretty much awesome-sauce. It has a pool and sauna, 'go-kart track', ponies, goats (Stinky and annoying. I speak their language though. YES, I can too speak goat! I'm quite fluent.), a foosball table, all sorts of hiking trails, all sorts of friends from church staying here also, and of course a magnificently STUPENDOUS view! (I like the word stupendous. I've been saying it a lot this week.)

I played a game tonight that is completely amazing. It... well, it COMPLETELY eclipses Cranium, for starters. It's called Quelf, and... just WOW. It is SO much fun!  Like, one of the cards said I had to, for one minute, explain to the prisoners through song and dance why I, a prison guard with no lips, was tarred and feathered with my knees super-glued together. We got it on tape, too. Hahahaha... Another card (A 'Roolz' card) required Jessie to ask her foot for permission to speak and then say in a high-pitched voice "Permission granted!" before she said any phrase longer than three words. For the whole game. It was amazing.