Camp, Here I Come

Tomorrow, I leave for camp. A summer camp. For a month. I attend Sanborn Western Camps and this will be my third year at High Trails, the girl's side of the camp.

It hasn't really yet dawned on me that I will be at camp for a month. I know that I am going, I know that I will be there tomorrow, I know that I will see my friends, but my mind seems to be unable to encompass the full idea of a month away from home at the moment. I beleive that I will fully realize just what I'm there for when I arrive at camp tomorrow morning and see my friends and watch my mom drive away in her Toyota Prius.

If you've ever been to camp, perhaps you will remember some of it. Maybe you remember your cabin or your tent. Maybe you remember your counselors, your favorite trees. Maybe you remember good things or bad things. Maybe you remember everything but it doesn't quite seem real. More like a lovely dream than a real thing. That's kind of how I feel. It's been so long since I last saw camp, now it seems more just like a worn memory that I console myself with. It will only really seem real again when I get out of that car tomorrow morning.

I call Sanborn just camp. Not Sanborn.... just, and only, camp. Everyone who knows me knows what I'm talking about, and to people who don't, I simply explain. Sanborn is the only sleep-away camp I've ever attended. Every single one of my cousins (all girls, may I note) except for the youngest, who is five, on my mom's side attends. My cousins from Los Angeles came in last night. My only other cousin on my mom's side lives in Colorado Springs, so she will drive. As will we. With my cousins.

I'm sorry if this seems like advertising, but Sanborn is an excellent camp. The camp has over 100 horses, tons of land, and you spend most of your time outside. Overnights occur often, and you have the freedom to choose what you want to do every single day. You sleep, eat, and live with up to ten girls and three counselors in one side of a cabin, all of which are named things like Ponderosa Pine and Silver Spruce. Your friends from camp come from all over the country, and sometimes even internationally. I'm having difficulties with not screaming out loud, I'm so excited!

I should go and finish packing. Farewell, you few people who read this blog. Farewell, and I shall be on again come August....

Farewell.

Musical INSTRUMENTS. yes, it's different than the last one

Between the ages of four and five, I began learning to play the piano from a beloved teacher name Becky (now a mother, thus no longer a teacher). My first lesson included banging on the old piano but singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star quite well. Or so I am told. Today, I continue to play the piano at the age of thirteen, more than nine years after my initial lesson. With a different teacher... Last summer, my dad started to teach me to play the guitar on his old acoustic guitar that was (and still is, as I found out today) missing the last string. :( Anyhow, as I walked home from my piano teacher's house today, I heard someone playing the guitar and singing a little song. I couldn't distinguish words. But that doesn't matter. As I continued down the street I started making up my own song in my head and then thinking about playing the guitar. Or learning how to play. I eventually found the guitar (in the basement- surprise!) and realized that I no longer remembered the minimal amount of chords I learned last year. Last year I remember proudly (but slowly...) playing Puff the Magic Dragon on the guitar with one missing string. How will I learn to play if it's missing a string? Must look into this...Perhaps I can purchase one guitar string. Hmm... This seems to be turning into an autobiography titled Harper's Musical Past. So, yes, I play the piano, dance, try to learn to play the guitar, and manage a fair GPA all at the same time. Yes, I could be crazy. But maybe we all are. I'll just leave it at that. Come back and read more!

Music

I LOVE Death Cab for Cutie. This is going to be a rather random post, just to let you know in advance. I'm going to see Death Cab on July 13 at Red Rocks ampitheatre and I am VERY excited. I also really like Coldplay and Muse. Coldplay seems a fairly popular band, but Muse, not so much. They are an English band, and I really like their music. One song, Hysteria, is one of my favorites at the moment. Along with Crooked Teeth by Death Cab for Cutie and Viva La Vida by Coldplay. I recently danced to the song Short Skirt/Long Jacket by Cake. That one is great too. I'm rambling. But all of these are great. Really.

I've never been to a concert. Well, like a rock concert. I've been to plenty classical music concerts. I'm rather nervous, but I'll be fine, I'm sure. I'm going with my friend and my mom to a Death Cab for Cutie concert... as mentioned above. If you've got any advice for me, please comment or write me. :)

There isn't really much else to talk about here. Music, as a media, is enormous, and I really could go on forever about it, but I'm figuring that will bore you to death, so I'll just leave it at this. Come back and read more!!!!

More on Dancing...

Every June, my dance teacher has a showcase in which all her students perform. Not that we perform anytime else... Anyhow, this years' showcase in June 13 (eek!). We don't have much time left, and I feel totally and completely unprepared. Oh, well. I hope that the next week will bring a bit more confidence my way.

This year I am doing seven dances per show or maybe six. There are two shows. That's a lot of dancing in one afternoon, in case you didn't know. That means that I will be dancing for about, oh, 45 minutes in total that afternoon, if all the dances were three minutes long. But I know for a fact that at least one of them is six minutes long. So make that almost an hour. Plus rushing around for costume changes and make-up and hair emergencies and helping other people change... All in all, it's very hectic. I don't suggest that you put yourself into something like that if you don't know what you're doing. Actually, please don't.

I said I was doing seven dances, but it's actually only six. Ballet, Jazz, Hip-hop, Modern, Pointe, and a trio that I choreographed with my friends. Now that I look back, this all seems a bit like bragging. Hope you don't mind. Please let me know if you do. I'm fairly certain that's possible on this thing... On with the show. Fun! Hopefully I will not collapse before I manage to get to the car to go home. Hopefully.

Here I go rambling again. Hope you had fun reading this.... post thing. Yeah. Come back and read more! Thanks.

General Introduction Stuff

As you can most likely tell from my only other post on this empty blog, I am a student. Yes. I am. And I'm only in 7th grade. The reason I created this thing was so that I may perhaps learn to write better. However, my sarcasm and ability to write as I talk seems to come through too much. Let me know what you think... Anyway...

A few basic things about myself: As mentioned previously, I am in 7th grade... wait, no 8th grade now I suppose, at Denver Center for International Studies. I take Italian. How many dancing 8th grade girls can say that? Not many, I can assure you. Some people might call me a nerd, but I'm okay with that. Yes, I get straight A's and all that crud. Next year I'll be taking geometry instead of 8th grade algebra- took that this year. I dance at DCD (Dance Conservatory of Denver) and take ballet, hip-hop, jazz, pointe, and modern. I guess pointe kind of falls into the ballet category though. Oh well.

You see, my life is pretty basic. Not very interesting. At the moment I don't have a boyfriend and highly doubt that'll happen for a while. That's okay though. My day-to-day life is really dull, so don't expect exciting stories all the time. I generally hang out with my friends, dance, play piano, and,um... during the school year do homework. That's about it. Oh, and I text a lot. Mainly just one of my friends though. How lame. Let me tell you that my social life is about as bad as it can possibly get. Seriously. I do nothing and feel so boring. Maybe if someone ever reads this post they can let me know what they think I should do. At the moment, however, only I know that this thing exists. Perhaps I should tell Anna... Perhaps.

I like to make up stories. Really weird, sometimes bad stories, but I like to write fictional stories. In fact, I'm working on one that I started yesterday, but I can't post it because it is on my computer upstairs and that ancient thing doesn't work at all if it is connected to the internet. There goes my dream of having something published, no matter how many people read it. Maybe. Who knows? Maybe I'll become a famous writer one day and the entire world will know my name. Like J.K. Rowling. She's cool, but sometimes I wonder what goes on in her head to write something like Harry Potter. I don't really want to become a weirdo hermit writer lady that everyone looks at funny. But maybe that has to happen before a writer is famous. I'm rambling. I do that a lot.

I should post this, it's getting a bit lengthy, and if someone reads this they might not come back and read it again because it's so long. So if you read this, please come back and read more. Thanks, friend. Thanks.

Star Trek and Life Without School

First post here! Congrats to myself. Not much to say at the moment...

To begin with, I just saw Star Trek for the second time. Second time with my family, may I note. Not that I've seen it with anyone else. Great movie. It seems to have all possible elements of a movie- humor, romance, seriousness(if that's even a word), fighting, thrill, and many others that I cannot think of at the moment. I love recalling the funny parts. If you haven't seen it, I strongly suggest you do. According to my parents, it's similar to the old show, which I like. If you make something new out of something old, you have to put in things that remind you of the old one. If that makes sense.

Now for my second topic... School's out! Finally! It just doesn't seem as sweet as it should though. And I don't feel like it's summer yet. Not really. Like when you're sick and you wake up but you don't remember that you're sick and try to get out of bed. It's like I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. From the little communication I have had with my friends, it seems they are bored and unsure of what to do with themselves. After months of being told what to do with nearly every second of my day, I am lost! I wish that someone could give me a sort of "leg up" and help me come up with things to do. Maybe it will be better when tennis starts and I get into a sort of routine. And camp, in July, will give me structure for the rest of the summer. So now all I have to do is wait.

I should also maybe go to bed... It's getting a bit late, even though I don't have to get up tomorrow. Might as well post this and head upstairs. Here I go.