My Summer is So Separated.

Hey y'all. 

Ummm....I didn't post. 

I suppose I could blame the movie/sleepover party I went to on Friday, but Saturday I had no excuse. 

I feel like a sucky person now. 

I just...totally, honest-to-goodness cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-fly straight-out forgot. 

So this week, my older brother Timothy went with a dozen others from our parish to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. They were one of four groups from the US to go, and they've been gone for a week tomorrow. 

They went on a mission trip to build a school, I think, and Tim managed to make it onto the Brazilian news. He has to go out of the country to make it onto the news. Go figure. 

But anyway, he loves it there, and even though my mom had a dream he got bitten by a giant tarantula smack-dab in the middle of his forehead, that actually DIDN'T really happen, and he's totally fine and loving every minute of Brazil. 

And the week before Tim left, my brother Josh ALSO left for Boy Scout camp (hiking in the Rockies. 8O), and he's been gone for two weeks. Only three days left until he's back, though, so yay! I've missed him a lot. :3

After Tim gets back the first week of August, I leave the next week for a camp in South Texas. It's a leadership camp my friends have gone to and it's supposed to be really amazing. ^-^

Our family is so split up this summer, though. Like you guys know, my parents left for two weeks on vacation, and my oldest brother, Paul moved into an apartment last month, plus now Josh and Tim are gone too. And soon...so will I. 

Plus, a lot of my friends are going off to camps lately too. Two of my friends left this morning, and two of my friends were gone a couple weeks ago, and one of my friends is gone for two weeks starting just after my brother Tim gets back. 

All in all, it's been kind of a separated summer.  

So I guess you could say I have a lot on my mind. That could be my excuse for why I didn't post. 

I guess it's still pretty lame, as most excuses are, but it's all I got. 

Anyways, this is basically just an update on my life, but I really enjoyed writing about laughter and happiness and optimism last week. That was pretty sweet. 

If you like that as well as (or better than) just talking about myself and being all vain and arrogant (sort of) give me a holler in the comments. I'd love to hear from you! ^-^

I hope you guys are a having a FUNtastic summer, and I wish you an amazing day, night, afternoon, dusk, dawn or whatsoever it happens to be where and when you are in time and space, and I'll see you next week! 

Love and peace and ALL the zen! ✌

Keep Calm and Endeavor On, 

~Adalyn

Thoughts on Us.

In midst of my crazy summer schedule, various thoughts of camps and trips within the next two weeks, buying new clothes, worrying/being excited about birthdays, trying to pen 20,000 words for Camp NaNoWriMo, and ranting about how angry I am when they use different actors and actresses for the sequel of a movie I enjoyed ((BATMAN)), I realized that today, (shocker), is Friday. 

And...I felt the need to stop, take a deep, calming, relaxing breath, and a long, hot shower, and write something about the mysteries of the universe and why we all love them so much. 

This is gonna be totally random, but since I've been running around like [insert un-scarring analogy here, since I couldn't think of one], I decided that doing a little theorizing might do some wonders for my poor, addled brain. 

In but a moment, I will write out several subject neatly on a peice of notebook paper, cut them apart, fold them evenly, and place them, one by one, in this hat. 

I will then commence wearing said hat as I turn your thoughts to the workings of us humans or the universe or something amazingly spectacularifying like that. 

Prepare to be dumbfounded by my intelligence. 

I will now do the whole subject-paper-hat whatsyamadoohicky. 

Here is my list:

Yes, I spelled "business" with a "y" the first time. It's summer, and I'm in NaNoMode. Gimme a break. 

Here are my little bits of paper inside my wonderfully summery hat, which isn't nearly as colorful on the inside as it is on the outside. Bummer, right? 

And now, to CHOOSE!!! 8|

That says laughter, kiddies. Let's get theorizing! :D

Soooo...laughter. 

'Tis a strange thing, most definitely. 

Who could have ever thought of it if it wasn't already just a natural thing to do? Even the smallest babies can laugh. Even children have a sense of humor. 

Think about laughing, really think about the action, the science behind it, what it might look like to an alien who's never ever even thought of the concept of laughter or amusement. 

I'm sure an alien, looking on from his invisible ship, safely behind his über-safe, lazer-proof glass and hidden by a cloaking device...I'm sure he would be thouroughly weirded out by a room full of people, doubled over with some spasmodic episode and a strange liquid leaking from their eyes. 

Laughter is an action of the diaphragm, which is why you can get hiccups sometimes from laughing so hard. Hiccups are when your diaphragm decides to be a torture device and make you make embarrassing noises until people think you're dying. 

((The best thing ever is when you have the hiccups, and you try to sing something sort of fast-paced. Because then you're cracking up and hiccuping and singing and it's just the best feeling in the world. ^-^))

But seriously, when you get the hiccups, and you have that strange feeling in your stomach, your diaphragm is moving. Nothing to flip about. 

But WHY do we laugh, is my question. Because I'm just an inquisitive person like that. Why is it that even babies, newborns barely even introduced to our big, green, beautiful world, even they know that when something is funny, you laugh?

Isn't it just the most adorable thing when little babies laugh? My piano teacher's little girl is about five months old, and she's just the cutest baby on the earth. When she laughs, she gets this little sparkle in her eye, and she has this cute smile, and her laugh just...oh, babies just make me SOOOO happy! 

Sorry. ANYWHAZE!

Laughter is programmed into us. It's something we've always done, and something we always will do. Everyone has a sense of humor, and I guess that's because God knew we'd need the outlook and the ability to laugh things off. Embarrassments, problems, grief. 

They say laughter is the best medicine, and I think they're right. Nothing makes me happier after all the tears of sadness are shed then when one of my good friends takes me to a funny movie, or offers me a book they thoroughly enjoyed, or just sits and talks with me and makes me laugh because I just love being with them. 

I genuinely love to laugh, because I like being happy. I figure there's no use being sad all the time because life isn't about the sadness. 

Sure, sad things may happen, and they do, to all if us. But just remember you can't have the light without darkness to compare it to. If you're in a room covered in LED lights, painted white, then bringing in one candle isn't going to do anything. 

But if you're in a dark room, empty of everything, and you bring in a candle, it can be the start of something amazing. All the darkness in the world can't stand up to even one candle. 

And also, even when it's night, all you gotta do is remember that on the other side of the world, someone, right here, right now, is enjoying the sunshine, and when the time for their brightness has passed, it will move to you. 

It's never dark everywhere. There's always light if you're determined and hopeful enough to look for it. 

So keep laughing, because it's not worth it to be sad. If babies can laugh, so can you, because you can obviously read and navigate the Internet. You're big enough to laugh. 

I hope you're having a funtastic summer, as cheesy as that is. Maybe I've made you laugh. Maybe I've made you think. Maybe you're an alien and you're just discovering the human race. 

We're kind of a gloomy bunch right now, but I've kept my candle alight. I hope it spreads to each and every one of you wonderful, beautiful, amazingly perfect and perfectly amazing people, and together, we can banish the darkness with our glowing, shining, burning light of hope. 

I believe in this world. I believe in us. And no matter what problems you're facing, no matter how dark it seems and how hard it's getting to try and push through, I promise you, there's someone in the world who's gone through that. And there's someone in the world who's made it out of that as a better person. And there's someone in the world who's encouraging you. And there's someone in the the world who loves you. 

Promise me you'll never forget that. 

I leave you with a quote now, from Catherine of Siena, which really helps inspire me when I'm tempted to fake myself, cheat myself on what I'm feeling and who I am. 

"Be yourself, and you will set the world ablaze." 

Together, we can spread the light. Even if you only touch one person, that's one person more than you touched before. Wouldn't changing someone's heart for the better be worth all the pain and struggle and tribulation? I think so. 

Help me light the candles of everyone around the world, across the nations. Let's not cross the lines of race and color and religion and gender and opinions, but erase them.  Lines, straight or crooked, don't do anything in a world that is round. 

Help me spread love and encouragement and hope. Help me change the heart of someone who feels trapped, sunk unbelievably deep in the pit of despair. 

...Help me set the world ablaze. 

Keep Calm and Endeavor On, 

~Adalyn

NaNoWriMo, and Why I Am Late...Again.

I feel like I'm beginning to fall into a habit of this. 

Before i explain to you why I'm late this week, I also have an announcement to make. 

So, this month, I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo, which is a program exactly like the regular NaNoWriMo, except for the fact that it's in the summer. I'm writing a book and I'm really liking it, and it's been taking up a lot of my time. 

I wanted to do it in April or whenever the first one was, but I couldn't manage it because I was still in school and I had a bunch of other stuff to do to get ready for the hot summer months. 

But I'm doing it this month. It's super exciting and fun and if any of you are writers, I suggest you check it out. There's a children's/teen's website called The Young Writers' Program at ywp.nanowrimo.org , and there's another program for 13-113 that's just plain-ol' National Novel Writing Month at www.nanowrimo.org . And for summer there's www.campnanowrimo.org .

It's super fun and free and you can participate in it at any age. In YWP and Camp NaNo, you set your word count goal, which is the number of words you aim to write in 30 days, though in the "real" NaNoWriMo, the set goal is 50,000 words. 

It's not nearly as hard or daunting as you think, because if you write a certain amount of words a day, you reach your WCG in no time at all! 

Anyway, if you want to try it out, you can do novels, biographies, screenplays, scripts, poems, songs, or even sentences if you want! All that matters is that you write and have fun. Check it out. It's amazing. 

NOW! To the excuses for why I didn't post and my updates on the 4th! ^-^

In my defense, I did have a very impromptu-ly crazy Thursday/Friday. 

So, as you who live in the Land of the Free, also known as that fat lazy country with those unrefined savages, or The United States of America, know, Thursday just so happened to be Independence Day! It's been that way for, oh, about over two hundred years. 

The Fourth of July is kind of an important day for us rebellious, independent US of A citizens, and hence we do stupid things, like throw big parties with lots of meat and potato chips and yummy drinks. And set off big, explosive, colorful and sometimes terrifying tendrils of flame to show our excitement and joy over our freedom and liberty from other countries. 

The only drawback from these parties and fireworks is when you're sitting there watching the show, and your neighbor, who's joined you for the big, delicious celebratory party, accidentally puts the firework in upside-down. 

And so it explodes about 20 feet away from you, shocking and scaring everyone there, making you scream as you feel the shockwave and see the brilliant burst of color that has exploded all too close to you and your friends and family, and setting off the car alarm of your best friend's brand-spankin'-new bright white Toyota Tundra. 

It was an awesome and exciting experience, and since my boyfriend decided I needed to be comforted, and wrapped his arms around me, it was also sort of cute, too. 

After the party, two of my friends slept over, totally ruined half of my makeup doing blind makeovers, and stayed half of the next day, when I had to clean the house and help prepare food for a get-together we were having with some of our closest friends. 

They stayed until ten, and after a long argument between my friend Brianna and her mother, she was allowed to spend the night. And we watched Les Mis. And we wrote, since we're both aspiring authors. And then fell asleep. 

Yesterday was Saturday, and I don't really have an excuse for not posting, and I was even going to post, but in the morning I had to return canopies and chairs to my neighbors that they had let us borrow for the party, and then I was reading all afternoon. 

I finished my book at 1:30 am this morning, finally went to bed around 2am, and then woke up at 11:28 to discover my family gone to 10 o'clock mass.

So here I am, two days late after a crazy weekend, happy that I broke my record for how late I've slept in ever because I'm not nearly as tired as I have been for the past week. 

I guess a good night's sleep solved all my problems. Anyway, my mom and dad are taking my siblings and I on a surprise outing, so I guess I'll see you all next week. Though I probably won't post until Saturday, since I have a birthday party to attend. 

At least I let you know this week, right?

....Right? 

;)

Keep Calm and Endeavor On,

~Adalyn