I Can't Sleep

I went to bed two hours ago. And then got up an hour a ago and cleaned the kitchen. Then I watched Blimey Cow videos.
And now I'm here. :D
My Hairspray Pandora radio is on, I have Dropbox open, and I'm going to...Oh look. Pinterest.

Hahahaha, look what I found.
Hmm...
Ya know when you want to write, and you can feel genius, but it's like it's right behind a wall of non-genius?? (eloquent, I know) That's the best way to describe it though.

Anyways. I'm gonna try at any rate.

TTFN!! :D

Girl Time

First, today is my cousin's 13th birthday!! Yay Crey!!

Second, all the boys are at Grandma and Grandpa's for their version of Grandma Camp. Ours version is cooler.
In retaliation, all the girls - Hollers, K-Belle, Lil, Jules, and me - are chilling at our house. We made cupcakes, danced a TON, watched Beauty and the Beast, talked about boys, listened to Disney music, colored... Sweet Jules is a bit overwhelmed by the craziness of her older cousins.
We've also encouraged nap time pretty much since we woke up.
She rejects that thought passionately.

Jules: *gets out a book* Lillian gets to read it first because she hasn't read it yet.
Lil: Should I read from the beginning?
Jules (in a very "duh" voice): Well, that's how it's supposed to go!

Last week was another CYT camp, this time for 5-12 year olds. Holly and I were assistants and Brosky and K-Belle were campers.
OMW, it was so fun. I wish I had more pictures, but I was busy most of the time. But it made me want to do HSM this fall so badly.
Which will be hard, for me at any rate. Highschool + CYT + chores + homework + TA shows = a stressed out and exhausted Addi.
Well, farewell Netflix and Pinterest. We've had good times this summer. Expect me back around November.

School starts in THREE WEEKS.
OMC WHERE THE HECK HAS SUMMER GONE??
I'm so depressed by this, guys.
In three weeks it'll be all Algebra, essays, uniforms, packed lunches, history, and getting up early.
And BFFs and rehearsals and planning teams for Wild Goose Chase and chapel and concert choir...
:D

Scrumptious Blog Award...

Fantastic word, scrumptious. It always reminds me of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, however.

Rules

 1) Once you are awarded, post about it on your blog and leave a link back to the person who awarded you 2) Answer all the questions on the tag 

3) Do not award anyone who has less than 100 followers (*coughI'mignoringthisrulecough*)

4) Come up with ten new questions 

5) Keep your questions clean and refrain from using vile language 

6) Tag 5 to 10 people

Linking this back to Miss Raewyn, at My Spare Oom.

1) What's your favorite wardrobe piece that you can't stop wearing? 

Ooh... that's so hard. Lately it's been my owl sweater (I got it Target in like October, and I've been wearing it again). And my Mary-Kay tinted lip balm!! I'm digging that stuff. 

2) Are you a coffee or tea girl?

Tea. Unless it's Starbucks. Then it's coffee.

3) What are the five best books you've read this year?

Gahhh... Unwind, Unwholly, both by Neal Shusterman. I don't know what else. Oh! Divergent, by Veronica Roth. Annnnd I can't decide what else.

4) Do you wear makeup during the summer or go natural? 

Depends on the day and what I'm doing. Usually I just wear lip stuff and mascara, unless I know I'm gonna be swimming or something, and I skip it all together. Also, when I'm feeling lazy.

5) What are three blogs you can't get enough of?

Gail Carson Levine's blog: http://gailcarsonlevine.blogspot.com

Raewyn'sblog:  http://wwwmyspareoom.blogspot.com/

There's another, but I have been sworn to secrecy...

6) If you have a smartphone, what style is your case? Functional and simple or bright and stylish? 

I have a smart phone, but I don't have a case.

If I did, I'd like this one:

Unfortunately, this case is for an iPhone. I have an Android.

7) Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Trek) or Richard Armitage (North and South, The Hobbit)?

Benedict Cumberbatch. 

8) Do you like classical music?

Yep. I really like soundtracks, which I suppose aren't technically classical, but the similar style... The LotR, Pirate of the Caribbean and Harry Potter music blow me away every time I hear them. But yes, I like actual classical music too. 

9) Have you seen The Great Gatsby? If so, what did you think of it?

I haven't seen it, but I read the book earlier this year. I liked the book, and I want to see the movie.

10) What is your blog about? I'd love to check it out!

It's about my ramblings and life, I guess. 

My questions! :D

1) What is a book that has seriously affected you? Like, after you finished reading it you just had to take deep breaths because you realized you're not the same as when you started it?

2) Do you like change or routine?

3) What's your favorite city you've ever traveled to?

4) What's your favorite TV show?

5) Do you like Shakespeare?

6) Musicals or plays?

7) Early bird or nightowl?

8) What was one major (or minor) turning point in your life?

9) Who in your family do you get along with best? Who are you most like, whether you get along with them or not?

10) What's your favorite memory as a kid?

I'm passing this on to Miss Leolani *pokes you*. 

And anyone who wants to can too, I suppose, but not that many people follow me. :P 

Feel free to answer in the comments too!

One Year

It's been one year since I left India.
Whoa.
That was the shortest year ever, and at the same time it feels like forever ago that I left.
I miss it.
But on the other hand, I've had an epic year here.

Addi's Current Favs

Unwind
This. Freaking. Book. 

And the sequel, UnWholly. 

The next one doesn't come out until October. :(

But here's why I love it: 

It's deep. It's so incredibly deep. It deals with life and death and souls and God and love and I can't freaking get over it. This is one of those books that will haunt you. 

Almost all of the characters have at least one chapter from their perspective. Even the bad guys. So you see everyone's motives and thought process and vulnerabilities, which makes it about 50x more intense. Within the first three pages of the second book, I was already cheering for a new character. I think this might be my new favorite book. 

It is terrifying. In a really powerful way. 

I'm trying to put these feelings into words. 

It makes me want to scream, and cry, and smack some sense into certain characters, and kiss other ones, and I love it, I love it... 

*breathes deeply*

Here's the scariest part. 

The books are divided into parts. At the beginning of each part, the author quotes articles or parts from books. 

And most of them aren't made up. He legitimately cites real articles from the past few years that relate to the story and what's happening. Not only relate, but sometimes are about. 

Honestly, there few things scarier than finding out halfway through the book that it's not as fictional as you thought. He did his research. 

Here's basically what it comes down too: There was a war over abortion, and not only that, but schools shut down (not sure why). Teens weren't in school, and didn't have jobs, and almost toppled the government completely. 

Until someone came up with unwinding. It was a compromise for the ProLife and ProChoice people, and took care of the crazy teenagers. Kids between 13 and 18 could be unwound. Everyone in America knows about organ donors and transplants and stuff. Unwinding is a bigger scale version of that. I think they said 99.4% of the Unwind has to remain alive. 

The Unwinds - either problem kids, or tithes, or wards, or whatever - are taken to Harvest Camps, where their body is cut apart so other people can use the body parts. Hearts, lungs, arms, legs, even eyes. 

And they're alive. It's the most creepy thing I've heard of. Including the Hunger Games.
It's worse than the Hunger Games, first of all because they have little to no chance of winning/escaping, secondly because a lot more kids are affected by it instead of 24 teens a year. And because it's not a drawing. There's no odds.

Nope, the parents or guardians have to sign a paper that says they give permission for their kid to be unwound. It's sick. 

Here's why I liked it better than the Hunger Games (and y'all should know I love the Hunger Games. They're epic.)

Unwind is deeper, more profound, and deals with more issues. Not just humanity and love, but God, death, respect, betrayal, hate, revenge, lost innocence, regret, neglect, fear, hope, leadership...

In the first book, a bunch of kids ask each other at what point a person has a soul. 

If you ask me, that's the whole point of the books. 

That turned into a serious rant. >_> Oops.

Lord of the Rings

Holly and I watched the Two Towers a couple days ago and we're hoping to watch Return of the King tonight. :D

Holly said Gollum was cute. >_> And she fell asleep during the Battle of Helm's Deep. Crazy child.
I love Lord of the Rings. :D If I ever met the Doctor, and I got a ride in the TARDIS, I would go back in time and meet C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. That'd be the most epic thing ever.
I love it. I love the story, I love the characters, I love the songs/poems that are in the books.
I can not wait until the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug comes out (yes, I watched the trailer. Like fifty times.)

Mumford and Sons
Current favorite music. I like White Blank Page best.

WOWZER.

Okay, I have a lot I need to write about. First, I'll try to sum up June, and then this past week.

JUNE:
~PE. That was actually pretty fun. I met some freshmen that are pretty fun, including my "Timothy", the girl I'm supposed to help learn the ropes of Trinity. So that was fun. And we went bowling and played mini golf and went swimming.

~Tulsa. All the cousins on my dad's side of the family went to our grandparent's house up there.  I came a day late because of aforesaid PE, and met them at the lake. We went swimming in the lake, and fishing (well, I didn't fish).  The next day we went to a nursing home and gave cards to people, which was nice. This is going to sound so mean and shallow, but that place kinda creeps me out... it smells weird, and old people are creepy until you start talking to them and stuff. Mac seemed to agree with me on that. Once we actually started talking to them they were really sweet.
We slept outside in a tent most of the time, and when Kaylen woke me up one morning, she was like "Oh, watch out for the spider behind you." I look around and there is a freaking huge spider like a foot from my face. Luckily I was still too tired to scream. The next night we slept inside, and I was reading when a spider crawled across my pillow. Like, right next to my face. It was small though. I killed it.

~Grandma Camp. Let's see. We went swimming like every day, and ate SO MUCH ice cream. We rode our bikes to DQ one day, which hurt more than it probably should have. My bum was sore for the next two days at least. We watched a lot of movies. We blew bubbles, which was super entertaining. We got glow sticks and we had this brilliant idea to cut one open and pour the glow-y stuff into the bubble solution.

That failed. We caught fireflies, put Mentos into Diet Coke, did blind makeovers (that was really fun). We watched probably 15 episodes of Say Yes to the Dress. We tried to do the melted crayon art that I'm sure you've seen pictures of... EPIC fail. We made cake balls that were hideously ugly, but they tasted good. We played Messy Twister with shaving cream that we colored with food coloring. Our hands and legs were pink and purple for a couple days... It was fun though. :D I think that sums up most of Grandma camp. We danced and sang and listened to music a lot too. 

LAST WEEK:

CYT camp!!! :D AND MADELYN WAS HERE!!!! (Madelyn's one of my friends from India. Although she's originally from here.) :DD And we spent the whole week together and it was great!! It hardly makes up for the past year of not seeing it each other, but it was awesome nonetheless. So we spent the week dancing and singing and hanging out. 'Twas awesome. :)
At the showcase, Abby, Lexi, and Josh showed up and surprised us. :D
That's the short version. :P

I. Am. So. Freaking. Tired.

Gaaaaah.
CYT camp this week, and I LOVE it, it's great, but that plus going straight to the library, I'm EXHAUSTED. This camp is dance emphasis, so I'm kicking and spinning and trying to memorize it all in a week and MY BRAIN HURTS.
OH OH OH. (lol I'm backwards Santa. Bahaha.)
Madelyn, one of my bffs from India, is here and taking the camp with me and it's really cool to have her here.
Seriously, my brain is in pain. I want to turn on my Imagine Dragons and LotR Pandora stations and curl up in a ball.
Like, forever.
So I'm going to bed.