Chicago.

Last Saturday I went to Chicago with my German class.

I love the beeeean! I took some better pictures with my film SLR.

We ate wiener schnitzel at the German market!

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My hawt Chicago-shopping outfit.

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It started to rain like nobody's business. Beautiful!

The market.

Angel. :3

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I ended up having a really great time. Not that I thought I wouldn't. I just love the city soo much. The fact that it started pouring rain was a big plus, minus the fact that it was freezing. And when I came home the boyfriend came over, so... Yeah!

g h o s t i e

Chriskindl Markt!

Guess where my German class is going next week?
Chicago.
Guess why we're going to Chicago?
Chriskindl Markt.
W00!

I'm really excited for this. I love Chicago, I'm going with some good friends, it's an authentic German Christmas market, and I can get Christmas prezzies! (Ugh, I need to find more money.)
Ich liebe Deutsch! ...Well, I really don't like the class anymore (*laugh* It's because of the pace mostly. My best friend is taking German IIA as an independant study, and she loves being able to work at her own pace). But I can still speak German, and I'm extremely proud of the fact! And I really really really can't wait to go to Chicago...! Sorry! I'm excited!
I'll take pictures! This will be my second time going to Chicago.

I just found this really cool story: [link]. Basically a group of teenagers climbed to the top of an abandoned skyscraper in Chicago and sat on the ledge. The pictures are breathtaking. This is something I'd really like to do now (soo badly).
This entire blog is really fascinating, actually. I recommend checking it out.

So excited for the city. :)
g h o s t i e

 

ohlala ☆彡

Little Shop of Horrors.

"Shing-a-ling, what a creepy thing to be happening...♪"

I have been very busy lately!
My school is putting on Little Shop of Horrors. It's so exciting! The Boyfriend is playing Mushnik (laughs). I love it because he has to wear a mustache and a fat suit!

 

And I'm on the crew~! A stage ninja, as I call it! I wear all black, move swiftly and silently across the stage, making objects disappear (and appear)! It's actually an incredibly fun job. I play an important part in the show, and I get to hang out backstage during those few songs where I have nothing to do! I've taken a ton of pictures.

 

Dan puppets Audrey II (the plant).

 

Josh (fellow stage ninja) feeling Mushnik's tummy.

 

And, of course, I get to hang out in the green room, where all the fun happens! Last night a bunch of the stage crew gathered in there and played around with the spare props (laugh). And a few days ago The Boyfriend Rick Rolled Shapley (a friend)! It was hilarious, I've never seen anyone do that in real life before.

Ian: Logan, get Shapley! Tell him there's something cool in the closet! *hides in the closet*
Logan: *comes back with Shapley*
Shapley: *opens up closet door* Wha-
Ian: "NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP, NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN--"
Shapley: "NOO!"
I have the video up on Facebook. XD

Messing around in the green room before the opening show.

 

Paula and me, waiting on set for the show to start.

I'm wearing Dan's hat here, I think it looks quite good on me. :P

We had a preview show for the school on Wednesday, opening night was last night, there's a show tonight, and two more shows tomorrow! Then we're done! :( I don't want it to be over, though.... I am definitely signing up for Les Miserables, which happens to be the next show the drama club's putting on. :D

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Running Up That Hill.

Let's see.... Soothing music, Arnold Palmer, something decent in my stomach for the first time today, tablet at hand.... I think I'm ready.

My apologies for not posting. How many times am I going to say that?

Life has been amazing lately. Ups and downs, yadda yadda yadda. The trimester is already coming to a close.... This makes me very sad, I wish time wouldn't pass by so quickly. I'm trying to keep a grasp on it, but sometimes I get distracted and forget, then I turn back around and a week, or two, has already passed by. Maybe a month, even.
One thing I am looking forward to regarding the new trimester, though: a new lunch. I'm hoping I'll get the same lunch as my good friend Rachel, I'd love to be able to actually spend some time with her. I want lunch with all of my friends, of course!

I've begun drawing more seriously once again. I took a break for a few months where I took pictures, but now I'm really going to try to do both. And if I can't, then I'm concentrating on the pencil!
The drawing above is a preview of something I've just started working on.

"What is the matter with these people, these people who won't stop fighting, won't stop hurting each other long enough to see that a body is a thing of beauty, is a miracle of rivers and oceans and islands and continents contained within itself?"

-All Rivers Flow to the Sea by Allison McGhee

I hate war.
I've begun, very slowly at first, but now faster and faster and faster, to see small changes within myself.... And I guess now those small changes are building up and changing me and making me a new person.... Not a different person, a new person. I guess I'm changing myself. I've noticed myself becoming a pacifist, accepting aspects of me that I was unable to accept before, I'm educating myself on religions.... And not just organized religions, but beliefs in general. I've found myself eating less than usual, but I'm also exercising. I've lost some weight, reading more, building new relationships.... I've become more tolerant, more open-minded.... Which also leads to more confusing, but I think I have most of it sorted out.
In other words, I'm growing up.
I never thought it would be quite so wonderful, so.... Freeing.

And if I only could,

Make a deal with God,

And get him to swap our places,

Be running up that road,

Be running up that hill...

g h o s t i e

Update

An update on my life. :)

My wisdom teeth were removed last Thursday :(
It was actually a really weird experience. It was early in the morning, and my dad took me. They made us watch this really old and boring 10-minute informational video on wisdom teeth and their removal. =.= Then they took us into another room where I had to swish with a disinfectant and sit down and they explained more things to us.

I remember the doctor putting on Oldies music and telling me to go to my happy place so the drugs work more quickly and I compared him to the dentist on Little Shop because he seemed like a guy that would start going crazy once alone with a patient and the two women loved my nails (cool decals) and one of the woman asked if I'd had an IV before and I said yes and they asked some questions about that, and I thought of my happy place (person?) but my mind was weird and I mostly just concentrated on the beeps that kept in time with my pulse because it was so cool and I wondered why the anesthesia was taking so long... My chest felt weird and it was slowly going down my body but it was mostly my chest and it felt so heavy and I could hear my heart beeps and one of the women was holding my hand and I squeezed it very hard and I accidentally bit out one of the mouth-open-clamps things the doctor put in and I think I was grasping the woman's finger and I couldn't even hear the music anymore...

Then I woke up, they moved me to the recovery room where my dad teased me about my chipmunk cheeks (I had gauze in there), but it was all so hazy because I had just woken up. I barely even remember seeing anything. I swear, I must have had my eyes closed. XD But I tried very hard to remember because Ian (the boyfriend) told me that he didn't even remember waking up, and I reallyreally had to stay conscious. I barely even remember the ride back. XDD I do remember getting out of the car, grabbing my bag, stumbling into the garage and up the stairs, and then I was flopping onto the couch and I must have taken my blanket out of my bag at one point because then I was asleep underneath it. My grandma brought out a pillow and made me sit up more because that's what I was supposed to do and my dad left to get my prescription, but I was barely conscious.
And yet, somehow, I managed to update my Facebook status from my phone.... *sigh* And I had done so much work to keep my mouth shut so I don't say anything weird while on anesthesia.

...Wow. That was weird. I was completely reliving that day while I wrote that. O.o My mom just walked in and told me to get the dogs food, and when I stood up, it was very... Whoa. Weird. I must be tired. XD

Anyway, my face has been so puffy lately. Everyone has taken the liberty of calling me a chipmunk! Especially my parents and Ian. (laughs) It was hurting soooo muuuuch earlier, especially today, but right now it feels pretty good! Thank god for painkillers
I hope the swelling goes down before school. :/

Thanks for sticking through this post, guys! (If you did.)

Love ya xx

g h o s t i e

My Home.

When I grow up, I am going to live in a big house. This house will be white or grey or blue or hot violet; the colour doesn't matter. It'll be located miles from a town, with only a few neighbours. I'll have a big open kitchen with old wood floors. My children will run through it with muddy bare feet and grass stains on their knees. They'll try to sneak some of what's cooking for dinner, but I'll shoo them out to go play in our open hilly backyard. They will run across this yard, the freshly mowed grass sticking to their feet, and into the woods in the back. They'll explore and hunt and adventure in these woods, playing in the river that runs through it, fishing during the summer. The woods will be miles upon miles long, so they can adventure for their entire childhood without ever experiencing the terrible feeling of the other side of the woods; it's never as magical as they imagined it would be.


My daughter will have her own room; my sons will share one. My husband and I will have our own cozy room at the end of the large hall upstairs, away from the other rooms. My daughter's room will change, from when she is a baby, a young girl, a teenager. In this room she will write in her diary, draw pretty pictures, dream of escapes, pretend not to be talking on the phone to a certain boy on school nights. She'll go through messy phases and neat phases. Her corkboard will be covered with pictures of those she loves, her windows wide open, inviting the summer night in to comfort her when she is not well. She'll do homework and have sleepovers and sneak cans of soda under her bed. This will be her sanctuary.
My boys will be close, or perhaps not. They'll fight and wrestle and create forts in their bedroom. The cat will insist on sleeping with them, even though they do mean things to it. When they're young, this is the place they will throw tantrums; when they're teenagers, perhaps they'll try sneaking in the occasional girl at night when they think they won't get caught. They'll get a television for Christmas and play video games on it, at least during the time they're allotted. Perhaps they will have shelves upon shelves of books... Maybe these shelves will grow with dust. Rock music blares in the afternoons, feet stomping and fingers caressing space with their air guitars. And when they grow older, the sound of guitar strings being plucked will travel down the stairs, throughout the house.

I am not sure if this is the fantasy of my adulthood, or the wish for my childhood. Perhaps is my childhood. Maybe it's my childrens' childhood... Or their childrens'. Maybe it was my parents' or a friend's. Perhaps this dream will never come true.... Or maybe it will. I guess only time can be certain.

Whatever the case, I will keep dreaming.

g h o s t i e

(Images from HouseBeautiful)

October.

I haven't been online much. Blogs, at least. My apologies... But I've been out living life. ^.^

Things have be changing, as things do. People come and go, school has its ups and downs, my emotions have no grasp on reality. I've been trying to practice my photography, and I managed to get a few really good shots. I've become closer to the people I love. Secrets have been shared, I've shown my true self to some very close friends. The reactions may not always be pleasant, but it's necessary. We all have to grow up sometime.

While I was in the middle of writing this, I raced upstairs, heavy on inspiration, and scribbled out a poem. It took me about ten minutes... I don't think I'll post it on here, I can be a bit conscious of my writing, unless somebody really wants to read it.

I'm surprised that September went by so quickly... I'm almost disappointed, but I'm looking forward to what this months has to offer. It'll be good, I know. Even if some of it seems horrible at the time, it'll be worth it in the end. It always is.

I don't know if this was a pointless post or if it somehow means something, but I'm glad I got it out there. I need to just write sometimes.

Cheers to Miss Kara Grace, whose sixteenth birthday is today! Luv ya soo much! <3

g h o s t i e