It's 2:00 In The Morning!

If I were you I would be thinking, “Why is she writing a blog post at 2:00 in the morning?” Well the answer is very simple. No, nothing startling and life changing occurred tonight. No close relatives have died. My book has not been accepted for publication (how it would be accepted I don't know considering I haven't even finished the first chapter yet). The answer is three insignificant words that – put together – form a no more significant sentence. They are: I'm not tired.

There. Really, it's boring. Pathetic, really. I don't know why you're wasting time reading this. I mean that, I'm not just saying it because I'm trying to sound as cute as Sarah. Actually, I do know, it's because you love me enough to humor me. Thank you.

Why I'm not tired is hard to explain. It's hard because I'm not quite sure. Yeah, there are some things, like the two hour long nap I had this afternoon or Sam keeping me up until 10:00, but those things have happened before and I really have no idea why I can't sleep tonight.

I tried all the usual remedies. First, I decided I didn't care and thought about my book. (They were really interesting thoughts, by the way, but you won't be allowed to know them for a couple more years.) Next, I hummed Brahms' Lullaby to myself. That has always worked in the past. There is something completely irresistibly tiring about Brahms' Lullaby. It didn't do a thing.

By the time I gave up on Brahms, it was 12:07. I got up to turn off Sam's light and the ipod he was listening to and met Mom on the same errand. I told her of my predicament. She suggested math, but at the same time another thought crossed my mind: scriptures!

I mean, I was reading my scriptures when I fell asleep this afternoon! Why shouldn't it work tonight! (I don't normally fall asleep while reading my scriptures. I was tired and I was reading a rather uninteresting part of Leviticus.) I tried it. Unfortunately, I was reading in Ether and that was very interesting. I was still very much awake when I finished. On the positive side, it was really amazing to read my scriptures with absolutely no other interruptions. Nothing besides what I was reading even crossed my mind.

I finished reading at 12:40. So I decided to pack for my family reunion next week. Yeah, it may sound crazy but it was actually quite logical. We are supposed to pack tomorrow and it was really late but I weighed my options.

1) Lie in bed for another couple hours and spend tomorrow packing

or

2) Get up and pack so that I can have tomorrow free

I can't think of many people who would choose the first option. So I packed. It took a little less than an hour. I still wasn't tired when I finished so I cleaned my room. I'm still not tired. So now I am sitting here, drinking hot lemon, water and honey, while I write a blog post.

My goodness, that was excessively boring, wasn't it? But I will leave it, just because I'm like that. (I was about to post a meaningful, cool thought on Dreams that I have been planning for a while but I won't. This time it's not because I enjoy boring you out of your wits, it's because I'm really tired and I don't want to make that post about Dreams as... unique as the rest of this post has been.)

Girls' Camp Create Project

The first morning of Girls' Camp this year, we were told about how every person longs to create something. I totally agree. In fact, in my book's creation story it even says, "And the One grew restless for he longed for something to care for, as all beings must. So He created the world." Everyone wants to create, even two-year-olds who run around the house smashing everything. They're creating a nice, amusing mess, right?

They talked to us about this, we watched a video about it. Then they told us that the morning's activity would be our 'Create Projects'. Every girl would go to the station that they were most interested in (sculpting, cake decorating, painting, fruit bouquets, fashion design or photography) and make something. That evening they would be presented in the Art Gallery.

I did the photography. We went to the back yard of a family called the Olivers. Their yard is a photographer's heaven. I never knew that flowers like that could grow in the rough weather of Southern Alberta. They took us there and let us loose to take as many pictures as we wanted. We would put up two in the Art Gallery.

The two hours that we were there weren't sufficient. They felt like five minutes or a thousand years. Either way, I didn't want to go when we had to.

It took me forever to pick which two pictures to put up. Eventually, I turned the decision to someone else. We decided on these two:

Out of these two, I like this one better. For some reason it looked baby blue when it was printed out.

What are those things anyway? They look like raspberries or something, but they aren't.

Now that I look back, I wish I hadn't chosen the second picture. Oh, well. I did. Here are some of the other pictures, the good ones, that is:

The fountain

They had the most darling little bridge. I have a thing for bridges.

This picture was actually an accident. I was trying to take a picture of a fish, but my exposure was far too low.

Does anyone know what kind of flower this is? It looks almost like a daffodil... but I seriously doubt that it is.

This picture was runner up for being in the art gallery instead of the 'raspberry' picture. But it looked too much like the first one, so I decided against it.

I love this one. It is so dramatic.

Sarah really loves this one. I'm not sure why. I like it, but it really isn't my favourite.

I love the way that this one looks like it's out in the mountains somewhere, instead of just a pile of rocks in a yard.

I can't decide which of these two well ones is my favourite. I love them both with all my heart. They are my favourite pictures ever! They look straight out of a fairytale. Maybe I should put them in one...

That is all! Those are my favourite pictures I took at the Create Project! I'll be posting pictures of the Girls' Camp Hike as soon as I can. (Along with a lengthy description of what the hike was like.)

I Have CONTACTS!!!

You may be a little surprised by this statement. I was talking to someone today and told them, “I got contacts this morning!” They were quite surprised, they hadn't ever seen me wearing glasses. Well, there's a simple explanation for that: I'm too vain to wear glasses, so I don't.

I love my contacts. I am one of those lucky people who can't even feel them. (Not that that is an entirely good thing, because a contact could fall out and I wouldn't notice.) I have trouble getting the contacts in and out, though. I'm scared to put a mascara brush near my eye, it is far worse to stick a contact straight in it.

The doctor made sure that I would never put my contacts in anything other than my contact solution by telling me exactly what would happen if I put them in various other solutions. I have them listed here:

Water – Water is the least harmful substance he told me about. Yes, there is some bacteria in water that could be harmful to my eyes, but it is far more likely that it will mess with the contacts so that they are no longer the right prescription.

Sarah's Hard-Contact Solution – Sarah could get away with rinsing her contacts in my solution. But if I put my contacts in her's, they will be coated in a sticky gum-like substance. If I try to get that out of my eye, it will probably take some of my cornea with it.

Saliva – Ew. Just ew. That is disgusting. I would never put my contacts in my saliva! But, apparently, some people might say, “Oh, it's fine! It works just as well.” That is true. However, it is also true that if I have even a tiny scratch in my eye, bacteria from my mouth could enter into my eye and turn my eye into a great ball of painful pus within 24 hours. That would likely result in a glass eye. Lovely.

As you may imagine, I don't really plan on putting my contacts in any of those substances.

It is so wonderful to be able to see without glasses on! Besides my vanity, there are some practical reasons I don't like glasses. They hurt the sides of my head, they get dark spots on the sides of my nose and they make it look like I'm looking out at the world through a little brown box.

It is so weird to be able to see through contacts! I have never been able to stand five feet back from a mirror and see what I look like without glasses. I keep turning around to find myself facing a mirror and think, “Wow! I had no idea I look like that!”

I should probably go now. Mom and I spent the whole day in Lethbridge and Sarah injured herself while she was babysitting so house is in shambles and I should help Mom clean.

I love my contacts. Goodbye.

It's A Computer Screen! It's A Web Page! It's My Blog!

You have found my blog! Congratulations! Now that I have created this, if you care what I'm doing, you can follow this blog and find out, and if you don't, you don't even have to read this! Yay!

I decided to start this blog for a few reasons. They are:

An Aspiring Photographer Needs An Audience – Have you ever tried to find out what people think of your pictures when no one has seen them? And Facebook really doesn't work as well as I'd like when it comes to pictures. And then there's the fact that I commonly go searching through my friends' blogs for pretty landscape pictures and I want repay the favor by letting others search through my blog and steal the pictures that they like.

Writers Need Blogs – Blogs satisfy our sadistic tendencies and unique eccentricity. You see, if I have a blog, I can drop random little peeks into what I'm writing. Things like, “I heard Taylor Swift's Invisible today. It fits so perfectly for one of my characters.” And then I can laugh while I imagine you trying to figure out which character it works for and if she ever gets the guy. (Not that you'd care yet, considering I haven't given you anything of my current draft.)

I Have Many Friends – Okay, so maybe that isn't exactly true. But I have friends all over the continent! I can't keep all of them up to date with everything that is going on in my life. That is another reason I don't use Facebook as often as some do. You can't tell the whole story; it's only allowed to be 420 characters. Blog postings, however, can be as long as necessary.

Blogs Are Awesome - I mean, just look at this beautiful thing! I love to read blogs! If you have time and things to say, why not have a blog of your own?

That, my friends, is why I now have a blog. I hope you enjoy it! (And if you don't, I won't even know!)