Long Overdue.

I must say, I'm pretty ashamed of my blogging these days. It's been weeks hasn't it? Sheesh.. What has gotten into me?

I will blame it on the ending of summer, that's my alibi and I'm sticking to it, haha. But really, I have been keeping myself quite busy. Rarely do I sleep in my own bed, solitude is becoming an occasion. Living it up is my ambition, and I've been refusing to let the remaining days of freedom just pass me by. During my absence I have gone a few hours away to Lake Champlain. Julie and her family brought me and we stayed with her cousins in the overhead story of their garage. It was a wonderful time :). When I'm with that group, I feel like a part of their family. I'm not just the awkward tag-a-long. I even got along great with the other 'non family', Will's friend Dustin, and his girlfriend Kelly. Us "kids" hung out talking about things, especially late in the evenings. Already we can tell that we're the next generation of "Sapperknackers", which I mentioned in my Fourth of July post, all of the ex and present hippies, who have kept close contact as the years pass them by. I know that several years from now, I'll be coming to their get togethers, and maybe hosting them, feeling more at home every time. It's nice being able to just talk with people about intelligent things. We decided that what we need to do is purchase our own island, away from the rest of the world, and just live on our own accord. I wish that was possible. Although I would miss blogging :(, that's the only downside, haha. But we discussed government conspiracies, the concept of marriage, religion, drugs, life, ect. We had some great conversations.

When we weren't being all philosophical, we played wii sports, hahaha, and pool in their basement. Julie's ferret waddled around, taking in the new enviornment. Another nice thing about the trip was the weather. It was actually warm enough to go swimming in the lake :). We swam out to their anchored , square dock. I would like living on a lake. So overall, I loved the visit, and now that I can drive, hopefully we can go up there again in the near future.

Also, another exciting outing was boating back at home with a teacher and her family. Nice people :). We walked around town, devoured some pizza, and got ourselves a little sun. On the boat Julie and I noticed that fetus cloud.. atleast we thought it oddly resembled a little baby. Another day was spent swimming at a different lake, but alas, no photographic evidence is available. Basically, we've gone lake-hopping this summer :).

One day we actually set out on a hike. That endeavor was shortlived, because it was a scorcher, and none of us ever go hiking. I felt like I could've continued onward, just because I've gotten used to long walks with my dog, but it was probably best we only went so far the first time. Next time though, we'll make some distance.

Julie at the end of the bridge we crossed the highway on :).

August is a month of birthdays for our family. Both my grandma and dad share ones only a day apart from eachother. Which is weird to think about, because my own mother gave birth to me a day after her fourthieth birthday. Huh. But anyways, we had little celebrations for each, including presents and cake. We're a simple family, it's nice. For my dad I bought two shirts and drew a card, and for my grandma I baked a cake, bought a card, and got her the latest edition to Jon Katz series she enjoys. He's a local author that writes about his dogs and his life on the farm. I think it was called "A Dog's Soul", or something of the like. I'll have to check his books out sometime.

Tom is finally nearing the completion of my bookcase :). It was my birthday present, but he's been building it in their greenhouse, so it's a little overwhelming trying to work on it in the summer heat, so I've cut him some slack. I came over the other day to watch him/help construct it, and I'm pretty impressed. Right now it's at the point where all the wood is cut and ready, complete with knotches for the shelves to slide into. All it needs is to be screwed/glued together, and it'll be good to go. Depending on how it looks, we might put a protective coat over it, but it's nice wood, so I don't think an actual paintjob will be necessary. I'm thinking of painting a mural as its backing, since it lacks one currently.. but I don't have much faith in my artistic skill. I was thinking of cutting a piece of plywood to the proper proportions, then painting a purplish sky, and orange sunset, a few dark, bare trees, and maybe some ravens randomly swooping. It looks fantastic in my head, but getting it to resemble any of the above is the challenge at hand. I mean it doesn't have to be perfection, seeing as alot of it will be obscured by my literature, but it'd still be nice to have a cool backing.

Just a walk in the park.

So fastforwarding to the present, I spent most of today with Jenna and Shayla. We harassed Jenna at work until she was released, then Shayla bought me Starbucks, which I swear I will repay her for, and we ate dinner at Panera's. It was nice sitting and talking with them, I hadn't seen either of them in quite awhile, so we had some catching up to do. Jenna had to get going afterwards, but I drove Shayla and myself to the local park to kill some time. And that we did, via photoshoot :P.


My failed attempt to be a tree :P, and the beautiful Shayla.

^Notice the creeper baby :P, I uploaded this one specifically for Natalie, hahaha.


So yes, I've been keeping myself busy, haha. Summer days are dwindling down and it's frightening. Class is already in session for alot of you. Yikes. My motto these days is just "Live it up", because I don't want to spend the few days remaining sitting around waiting for the boredom of school to fall upon me, haha. Okay, maybe I'm a bit dramatic. School isn't that bad. Senior year is definitely something worth looking forward to. Still, I can't help but to wish that this blissful season lingered a little bit longer.

Oh, and I decided to join soccer. I was pretty certain I'd end up doing it, and here I am, about to start the second week of practice tomorrow. It was rough getting myself accustomed to all of the running and stuff at first. I was definitely not in the prime physical shape I should have been, haha. But I think it will be a good season. I like just about, if not everyone on the team. Everyone pushes themselves, and encourages eachother. I have good feelings about it. Although, tomorrow might be less than a breeze, it's 1:05 and my practice begins at 7:30, haha. Oh man. I needed to update this though, I loathed how behind I was getting. Many things have been circling in my mind these days, I wish I had the time and ambition to write them all out. Eventually, haha. Just for now I needed to update you all on my little adventures, and prove that I'm in fact, still alive, and not in some vegetable state either. I'll save the philosophy for later.

Have a wonderful week everyone, I'll try my best to catch up with your posts.

Sincerely,

livia

PS. Natalie and Christina, I have not forgotten your prizes. Just give me time :).

:O

I'm so, so behind. It's terrible :(.
But I'm finally trying to catch myself up, I'll be posting a real entry soon. For now I'm just attempting to get up to date with everyone's blog, and I just wanted to let you guys know I didn't like vanish or something. Well I sort of did, but just temporarily :).

The days of summer are dwindling down, and I'm just trying to live them up to their full potential. I hope you're all enjoying your remainder of summer, or whizzing through the start of the school year.

♥ Olive

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

I may have stumbled upon quickie snacktime heaven, dears.
Toast a slice of bread of your preference, coat it(or slather as I do) in Nutella, and slice a banana, making thin little circles. Cover the toast in a layer of however many you can fit, and eat the rest plain, or however you fancy. But the toast, nutella, and banana slices are delicious, atleast in my mind. And incredibly simple/fast.

(Photo jacked from Google, I ate mine to fast to think to photograph :P)

Lately I've been thinking about the enviornment. So many things can be easily done to make things a little better for our planet. I've never been an expert on this stuff, but I'm trying to improve. I always save bottles for recycling purposes and I turn off appliances when I'm not using them. Another thing I think I'll begin doing is bring your own bag, basically carrying a reusable bag to the store rather than wasting more plastic. I save the bags I do get, and reuse them for garbage and such. But I can only re-use so many of them.
Also I've tried getting accustomed to taking cold(er) showers. It's easier after jogging or unloading multiple wagons of hay. I can't handle full on just cold, but I only turn the hot on alot less, so it's managable. It's pretty cold though :P. But so far the results are nice. My hair feels softer and shinier and I take alot less time in there, hahah. I'm guessing because a chilly shower isn't quite as theraputic as a hot one. I'm not sure if I can make that a regular thing, but I'm going to try, atleast while the weather's so nice.

Do you have any "green" methods you'd like to share? I'm just a n00b at it.


I regretfully do not have much else interesting to share. The past couple of days have been occupied with unloading hay, which I've griped about previously, so you all know the tortures of it :P. Callouses, callouses, callouses. Even if you wear gloves. Tomorrow sounds like the same old song and dance.


Enjoy the weekend, everyone.

♥

(jamming to: Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - Cake)

College Smollege :P

Well, whaddy'a know. I was halfway through this (was) lengthy post, and suddenly I hit the wrong button in my clumsy stupor, and the whole post is GONE. I wasn't connected to the internet when I was typing it either, so the undo didn't work. Just my luck ;P.

In any case I think I'll be a little lazier now and just kind of highlight some things, because it's getting late and I'm not feeling up to remember what all I said before. I think I rambled on too much in the first attempt anyways.

Every time I step out of my small town bubble I'm slapped with the realization that it's a whole lot more competitive out in the "real world", if that's what you'd like to call it. Even in the high school stages. Where I am now, I feel like I'm in good shape. I score well in just about everything, take up my extracirriculars, and I have a basic idea of what I want to make of my life. But outside of Smalltown, New York, other kids my age, including many of you are well on their way down the college path already. Am I in any AP courses? No, our school doesn't offer them, and I never thought to seek out the community college in the summer, which I regret. Am I in good standings with my SATs and ACTs? Nope, I haven't even studied for them on my own time. I went to a few afterschool sessions, but it didn't do much because I couldn't make it every one. Now it's crunch time. I need those scorings to begin the whole application process. I also need to check into scholarship opportunities/financial aid. It's just so much.. And I feel like I kind of have to do it alone. My mom supports me, and would love to see me go off to a great college, but she never went, and doesn't know much about the whole process. She's a great help, taking me to visit the schools, but I know she'd rather not have to meddle with the pesky details. I don't blame her. So this week I visited both SUNY Geneseo and University of Rochester. Both of them had their own sets of advantages and bummers, I'll attempt to organize them as best I can.

Geneseo.

* The campus was beautiful, really nice architecture.

* The tourguide really seemed to love her school. She was energetic and loved her study abroad trip to Italy through Geneseo. She was the most talented person I've ever witnessed at walking backwards. Especially for an hour and a half long tour session.

* It had alot of resources. Rental electronics from ipods and cameras to laptops, free of charge. Library personel who are there to proofread/give opinions on your papers. Computer program that tells you which washers/dryers are free so you don't go down there to find them unavailable when you do your laundry. Buses that come along every 20 minutes to run you around town. Weekend bus to Rochester. Student tutors that are available til 10 in the evening.

* You're allowed to bring your car to campus no matter what year you are. But it costs money.

* Sense of security/trust. Faculty allow students to use equipment and resources pretty freely, whatever you need you can usually get your hands on. No real issues of safety.

*It received an award for campus dining, which is kind of rare.

* Opportunity to apply for the Writer's Hall, which a suite with fellow students with the same interests, where they can really focus on their passions.

* REQUIRED COURSES. That was a major "D:" for me. When I imagine college, I think of the freedom of choosing all of your courses of interest. I mean, it's probably fairly flexible, like for art you can opt for something like photography. But I don't know about math or sciences. Or what all they require anyways. But I don't like the idea of having to fill up my schedule with particular classes that don't necessarily prime me for my future career.

* Maybe it's a little too convenient. I mean, in theory all of those resources sound great. But I feel like I should be gaining independence at college, not expecting others to assist me all along the way. Feedback from professors is always wonderful, but I don't feel like I should have someone else read through my papers and help "make it better", I should be able to make it the best I can on my own. Plus some of those things would make it pretty easy for me to become lazy.

*There isn't much to well.. do. To be fair I never saw "downtown", but from where I was two miles off campus at my hotel, it wasn't too exciting. There was a Walmart, Subway,Wegmans, Sears, and a movie theater basically. It's definitely better than my town, but not quite the excitement I was hoping for after highschool.

University of Rochester.

* The whole reason I explored this University was because of a generous scholarship opportunity I received for the Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony award, which if I'm accepted, will take care of roughly $30,000 tuition. That's a nice sized portion.

* The area is teeming with life and vibrance. It's a great art and indie music scene, I'd love being close to that. Especially with all of the great musicians that come there.

*Both of the tour guides were teriffic. Funny guys, who offered what I felt to be honest insight of the college. They told us places to get free food, the cool places to study, and the places to head to when you want solitude and quiet when you're readings. Professors are helpful, and there are opportunities to get involved in projects, including published books. When students assist in the making of the research/text, they're given written credit in the book. The two guys seemed really "at home" when showing us around, they weren't "selling" us on the school like past students have, they were just chill and honest. You could tell they enjoyed it there though.

* The buildings here are great too, everyting is pretty visually appealing. Students really play a prominent role in the place, like one group chose how to renovate the social studying area, and it's wicked cool in there. Students also voice their opinions in The Campus Times, which one of the guides went through the trouble of scrounging up a personal copy for me :).

*Rochester is a brutally cold and snowy area, but all of the campus buildings are connected by tunnels, so you don't even have to trudge through the snow with all of your materials. I'm just not sure if the dorms are a part of this network, but regardless it's still cool.

*YOU CREATE YOUR CIRRICULUM. Such a relief to hear after Geneseo. Whatever you want to learn, you have the opportunity to. It doesn't even have to apply to your major, really. Like I of course want to be involved in Creative Writing and Journalism, but they told me it would be easy for me to also sign up for Political Science, Philosophy, Languages, whatever I wanted. I like the sound of that.

*Studying abroad is covered in your tuition costs. There really isn't any excuse not to go :). Plus they offer a wide range of places to see.

*Research is a large part of the school, students have access to many tools. Some of these include very old original documents, like those from Frederick Douglass. Students can actually view these with proper care. Mostly everyone receives work related experience through Rochester before they graduate.

* It's slightly easier to get into Rochester than it is Geneseo. It's still competitive, but not at the same frightening level. Also, it's a bit closer to home, although not by much, hahah.

*I was able to meet with an Admissions Counselor and have an interview, so the school could get to know me better as an individual. I found that to be unique.

* I was not able to see the dormitories. However, I assume they're just as unimpressive as every other one I've seen, haha. A dorm's a dorm.

* The area isn't as "safe" as smaller towns like Geneseo. It's a city, so crime exists. I'm not used to it, but I'm sure it's something that I'd be capable of getting accustomed to. You just need to be more aware of your surroundings.

Whichever I choose, including other schools, the distance is a little scary. I feel like all of my friends are going to stay in this town, and when I leave, I might lose a little bit of them.. Things might not ever be the same, I'm scared they'll all have wonderful times together after I leave, and once I return, I might not fit in with them quite the way I did before.. Sigh. :/.

I feel like I need a change of scenery though. I've lived here my entire life, I'm sick of these same roads, same stores. I've explored nearly every corner of the place. I'm not saying it's bad, but I would definitely like being somewhere new, digging the places and the people. Especially when it's an exciting city-esque setting. I don't really care to forefeit that.
The path ahead is a bit unclear, but I'll trudge my way through it one way or another.

Straight out of the

jar :)

"Awesome."

Hmm. What exactly am I doing, aside from looking rather awkward? I'll tell you the lovely story of how I ended up immobile on the shoulder of an Interstate Highway in the rain. Thus leading to the closest facial expression I can make to a frown, and having a picture candidly taken of me by Amanda.
Sunday morning we got ourselves around and I drove 45 minutes to get Amanda, Julie, and myself to the mall and surrounding places to shop. We wanted to check out back to school deals, and we made off quite well. I'll post pictures below. Everything was going well, nobody left empty handed. I found a new belt, and shoes :). Along with other "necessities", haha. We also ventured to Target, Petsmart, and Kohl's. Heading home was the issue. Everything was going fine until after I passed two exits on the highway, I noticed the car felt a little funny. Something was off with the steering wheel, it was pulling towards the left, which is not supposed to happen. I wasn't sure if I was going to fast, or being overly concerned, or what. But then a few moments later the whole car began to get shaky, this was undeniably strange. I said to my friends that this was not right, something was wrong with the car. They said it would be fine, most likely trying to make sure I kept calm and in control. But as I kept going I felt very uncomfortable and decided to switch to the closest lane, and signal over to get on the shoulder. Once at a stop I could see smoke raditating from the road, from my car, and I got out to see a flat front tire with a gaping hole. I got back inside of the vehicle, put on the flashers, and called the parents. Neither of them were too happy, especially since it happened on such a dangerous, busy road. Nevertheless they sent a friend of theirs who was already out in town to give me a hand. So after sitting in the car for 40 minutes or so, he came along and I helped him change my tire. That's when Amanda snapped the shot of me, hahah. So in the end all was well, I got us home safely and we hung out for the rest of the evening. I'm just glad the tire was the only thing that was damaged. I couldn't imagine getting into an accident if I had lost control or something.

I went to the tire shop this morning and discovered that a nail had been the devil's advocate, causing my leaky tire. Then I forked over $50 to cover half of the cost for a replacement one. My funds are quickly diminishing. I need a job, hahah. Golden Goal has been good to me, but there's only one week left of that, and that's after this 10 day gap of no activity at the park. Looking at my paychecks, I've determined there isn't a high likilhood that I will have broken $1000 in earnings this summer. Atleast it's been enjoyable, I like the people there.

Rockin' the leather vests in Target ;). No, we didn't actually buy them.

Some of my scores. Zebra tee - Zumiez, Dark wash super skinny jeans - PacSun, White camisole- Aeropostale, Lumberjack cardigan - Target, Purple + raspberry tees - Kohl's, Funky socks - Finish Line.

New belt, check. Zack has the same one haha. I always have this girly, "cutesy" style, sometimes I just need to add a little edge to it. Studs will do the trick. And yes, another pair of pseudo-converse ;). $17 at Rue21. I might need to jazz them up though.

Another thing, I ventured around with Shayla and Jenna Saturday night. Sadly, no pictures were taken. I don't know what we were thinking :P. But we ate and conversed at Panera's, then walked around the lake village until her uncle was out of his gig. I left Shayla with him and drove Jenna and myself back home. This store, The Silvermine, had really neat afghan blankets. Shayla bought herself and a friend one for her birthday. I'm contemplating going back and getting one for myself, haha.

Well, tomorrow morning I am off to visit colleges with my mom, Amanda, and Julie. We'll be staying at a hotel overnight, and I might get a chance to post. If not, I'll catch everyone all up to date later. I hope my poor car makes it just fine for this journey, haha. We were going to take my mom's car, but coincidentally the air conditioning/defrosting unit quit working, so now mine is the only good option. Wish us luck ;).

Straight from thejar :)

Night Owl

Going to sleep at a decent hour is pretty much impossible for me lately. I just stay awake so late, not even feeling tired, haha. I guess that's a normal characteristic of summer, but it sure did kick in late. I kind of prefer going to bed earlier, and waking up earlier. Next week I'll make a point to wake up bright and early :).

It's pretty scenic around here, sometimes. Lately I've been helping Tom work on our farm, delivering bags of oats from the field, way back to the shed. It has to be over a mile each way. The first time we had to load the bags up onto the fourwheeler and make multiple trips. Today was a bit easier though, my dad let Tom use our farm truck to haul the bags because there was so many of them. He had a bit of trouble figuring out how to drive standard :P, but nevertheless we survived. I liked just sitting in there with him, feet up on the dash, lost in the scenery.

Something I really value about our friendship is that I just speak when I'm with him, like I completely spill out my mind. I'm surprised he doesn't have my cranium juice stained on his sleeves, hahah. I just gush everything, say how pretty it is outside, talk about human nature, about what I want out of life. Never does it occur to me, "Nah, don't say that, you'll sound stupid." I just ramble on and on.

I've had this ongoing thing "Nerdfest 09", we've called it, where my friends Zack and Derek have been opening my eyes to the wonders of Lord Of The Rings. Epic, epic, epic. We watched the first two in Derek's mom's basement, the ultimate "nerd dwelling", while devouring pizza pockets and orange soda. Also, I went with them to see Harry Potter yet again :). That was over the last couple of weeks, but yesterday evening since Zack's at boyscout camp, Derek came over to Tom's to show us the final movie. I thoroughly enjoyed them all. Now I must read the books, and Harry Potter. Once that was finished at 1:00am, we didn't quite know what to do with ourselves, so Derek offered to take us to Walmart so he could stock up on soda, hahah. So off we went, in the wee hours of the morning to a nearly deserted supercenter. I believe there were more employees than customers lurking about. Anyways, that was fun. Nerdfest isn't even close to over, so I'll keep you all updated with the activities that occur.

I went shopping today. Only to the Pacsun outlet, but I made off with two pairs of jeans, including the pair pictured, and the jacket. I was dissatisfied with the prices.. but oh well. The jeans were kind of a steal, $20 a piece, but I splurged on the jacket. $60 >:/, what was I thinking?! However, I do love teal, I just couldn't resist it.
Amanda and I plan to do more back to school shopping in the near future. Probably nothing major thanks to my income and the ridiculous prices of things. But I know I need new shoes, a new belt, and definitely a few nice shirts. I'm hoping to hit up Forever 21 for some deals, and I hope I can find a cool belt at Zumiez. My favorite one ever is no longer sold, which saddens me :(. The one I had broke because I wore it so much, hahah. Ughh.

Oh, and I now loathe Verizon. Apparently, even though I have to fork over $60/month for my internet access, I am halfway through my data useage allowance. It was my understanding when I purchased this junk, that so long as I wasn't constantly connected, or some hardcore gamer, I needn't worry about going over. I've had this laptop for what, a little over two weeks? I have a little over one week left until my next billing period. What I don't understand is how I can be charged such an outrageous price for such LIMITED access. People who have regular broadband through their cable providers don't have to worry about disconnecting every time they aren't touching their computer. And that only costs roughly $20 a month. I do use this fairly often, especially since I let my friends online when I'm over, since their internet is gone. But even so, for the cost, the service really does not match up. When I offhandedly mentioned to the associate today that it was a small allowance for the high price, he disagreed with me, hahah! "No, not really. If you learn to disconnect more often it's really more than enough." Well thank you, I'm glad you know your stuff. So now I need to make sure I'm not using my internet too often, and keep track of my useage. Honestly, I think this is garbage. Okay, /end rant.

Well folks,
I hope everyone's had a good week :). Enjoy the weekend.
♥ Olive

Home Sweet Home

I can't help but to wonder about my whereabouts in the future, what my home will be like once I'm all "settled", if that even happens. No, the house pictured is not mine, I just thought it looked interesting :). I envision my life in spurts. I see senior year, rushing madly to fill out applications for college, pouring over yearbook ideas and designs, possibly holding down a job, whilst trying to enjoy my time with my friends. Then comes college. I see myself out in western New York, at some place like Rochester, Syracuse, or Geneseo. Of course this is subject to change, but that's my current game plan.
But here you see, is where the vision gets foggy. I cannot predict what college will be like, I hope I still see my friends alot, even if it means enduring many miles to reach their door. The less distance, the better. However, none of my closest friends have real solid ideas of where they want to go, what they want to be. I don't blame them, these are the toughest decisions we have to face so far, I just want them to go wherever's best for them. Amanda and Julie both want to go somewhere new, so there's a decent chance we'll be close, maybe. Amanda seems interested in the same colleges I am, but there's also an issue of where her boyfriend winds up. Julie's drawn to the south, but I don't know if she'll persue that. Jenna wants to go to a college in southern NY I believe.. Shayla's in that general area as well. And Tom, well he plans on staying around here. I respect that though, he has good reasons for it. Their house is fantastic, very old and big, but nicely renovated by their father. There's so much land around it, and the memories, plenty of them exist within those walls. If he keeps that house, that'd be wonderful, it'd fit him well.

Allowing my imagination to wander, forgetting the limitations of bank accounts, I'll give you a tour of my future home. First you must unlatch the iron gate which keeps my dogs inside. One's an English Mastiff, absolutely ginormous, while the other is a fluffy, stout Chow Chow, which I will take the liberty to color panda-esque as the person below has. The driveway is onyx, the blackest black, stretching a ways up from the road. Far enough to keep passing cars from disturbing my rest.

Approaching the house you'll notice it's teal with white shutters, pink trees are blossoming in the yard. Coming up the few short steps you'll turn the handle and find yourself inside my living room.The details within aren't quite figured out yet, but I'll tell you what I do know. The couches are plush, it's equipped with a bookcase and coffee table. Instead of a television, a large projector screen pulls down. The kitchen is large and contemporary. Glass paned cupboards line the walls above the marble countertop. The stainless steel fridge always holds fresh foods, and is covered in magnetized photos of people I love. There's a window in front of the sink overlooking the back yard. To give dinner a more personal feel, I'll skip out on the dining table and opt for a comfy booth against the side wall.


I imagine the colors different, maybe a solid royal purple, keeping the white drawers and cupboards, but adding a black and white checked tile floor. That's more my style. Somewhere down the hall will be the bathroom and laundry rooms. Heading back to the living room, to find my bedroom you'll venture up the spiral staircase to my loft right above. A carpeted hallway spread between my bedroom wall and the iron railing. Black and white photographs I've take over the years are scattered on the teal wall. On each end of the hallway is a window to keep things illuminated. My french bedroom doors will lay in the middle. Inside, plenty of windows will shine light in. I'll have a sizable armoire or closet, full of clothes I've acquired over the years. A small bathroom will be added on. I'll have a big, soft bed. Complete with all of the pillows and blankets I desire :). Also, I bet my little Persian cat will be curled up in here somewhere, looking angry as always, haha. I cannot get over how miserable they look, like grumpy old men. But I still think they're cute.

Another set of doors will lead to the terrace outside, located over the kitchen. I'll keep plants and my hottub out there. Back in my room will be another spiral staircase leading to the final room. This is my circular office. Inside will be a nice big desk, the perfect chair, and as many bookshelves and cases as I see fit. This is where I'll do most of my writing, undisturbed. Lined with windows, it'll be a pretty sight when lit in the evenings. It'll be small and quaint, but just the right enviornment.
So in all actuality, this probably won't be my house. It's just what comes to mind, but so many variables play a role in where you end up. I can only imagine myself having this sort of money if my writing is a success, and if I also go through with my ambition to open my own bookstore. Which could be in the town where this house of my mind exists. I feel like I would need something like that, my own business, to cause me to settle down permanently in an area I don't already know well. Dormitories and apartments are different, they're meant to be more temporary. But houses are somewhat of a commitment, or atleast it's a pain to switch to a new one. I think it'll be a long time before I settle down like this though, I want to travel. But the planning process is beginning in my head regardless. I guess that's just me.

Otherwise...
I don't have too much to talk about. I felt like doing things differently blog-wise today, switch it up a little. The movie I was making with my friends is finished :). I couldn't upload clips because Dan deleted them whenever he put them on his computer, so I couldn't upload them to mine. That's not his fault though, he had to save memory and I never asked. We went out for icecream with the teachers again today, minus Sophia. It was pretty fun though, but there were so many of us, that it was kinda hard to keep up with conversation. Too many people speaking at once is no good for me, hahah.
I hope everyone's having a wonderful week,

♥ Olive :)

Hibernation

Oh, it was so necessary :).
I just spent the entire day up in my room, doing nothing of real importance. I didn't wake up until 11, then I was waiting to hear when Julie wanted me over. Rain was downpouring all afternoon, and nothing wound up happening with friends.
Instead I downloaded music, caught up with everyone's posts, and just basically vegged out. I don't think I've spent a single day of summer this way, until now. No work, no leaving for town or for a friend's house. I just hibernated like a little bear :).

Country Roots.
I've mentioned this before, but without much elaboration. I live in a small town as the farmer's daughter. I can recall being not much more than three feet high, navigating around the barn searching for kittens and jabbering on to calves in the nursery. I practiced to become a tight rope walker on the cement feed trough. Thankfully, never falling. Hmm.. maybe I should conjure up that old dream, eh? Kidding ;). Recently I've even discovered that I don't despise all country music. I loved it growing up, but then I deemed it stupid and uncool. Alot of it kind of sounds the same, and isn't too fantastic. There are plenty of songs in the genre that I cannot stand. But I'll admit there's a few songs I'm partial to, including "She's Everything" by Brad Paisley, and "Big Green Tractor" by Jason Aldean. When you live this kind of life, you can relate to the music :P. These are my roots, this is my life, for the time being.
Needless to say, I know how this whole system operates. Farmers have got to be in the running for the hardest workers there are. It varies from farm to farm, but for example my father wakes up around five o'clock in the morning to round up the cows from the pasture. Then he milks them in the parlor, releasing them to eat in the freestall barn, lets them out to wander in the field again, and cleans the barn. In the meantime, there are plenty of other chores to do, taking care of the calves, fixing machinery, (which always breaks down), tending to crops, and whatever else there is to do. It might seem like I'm exaggerating, but there is always something that needs to be done. Unless it's for a meal, I never see my dad inside of the house during the day. Around five in the evening, it's time to milk the cows again, so he rounds them up, takes a few hours to milk them himself, and sets them back out to graze.

So.. why does this matter so much? Because the income they make for the work they put out could constitute as a joke. Compensation is determined by hundredweight of milk. So, for every 100lbs of milk we produce, we make approximately $10-11. That might not seem bad, since cows produce a good amount of milk. However, if you compare this payment to the production costs and the revenue loss through taxes and taking out loans, it's pure insanity. Farmers are receiving the same prices that were in place back in the 1970's. But everything required to efficiently run and maintain the farm has risen to jaw dropping levels. Gas does not cost the same as it did in 1970. Neither does grain, fertilizer, veterinary bills, machinery, ect. The cost of living has escalated from that time, but the milk prices continue to be low. Sure, sometimes they fluctuate, and we get a glimmer of hope that we finally have a fair price, but it never fails to descend back into its slump, where it remains the majority of the time.

Something's got to give. Family operated farms are slowly becoming a thing of the past, with factory, industrialized producers are the only ones who have the financial means to stagger on.

I know that if we lost our farm, our entire livelihood would be drastically changed. Agriculture is who my Dad is, he's spent his whole life on this farm, which my Grandparents had before him. Both of my parents would be considered too elderly to really join the workforce. If they happened to land a job, it wouldn't be one truly capable of supporting them, helping me with college, and paying off our debts. The only option that sheds an ounce of hope is if the government takes action. That's how this is all regulated, anyways.

The federal government sets the prices, that's how it has been since the days of The Great Depression. The link I'm missing is how they can demand the taxes they do, understand the cost of production, and still set these pitiful prices with a straight face. These people, small scale farmers, are being cheated if you ask me. I've done research on this lately, but I still have plenty more to do. I think I might try to find a way to take action, on some level.

I apologize if this was boring to read, but I thought I should take a break from just rambling on about myself and talk about something more...crucial. Hahah :).


On a sadder note..




Rest in Peace, Toby.
I can't even remember how long I had this cat :(, we rescued him from certain death in the barn during my childhood. He was a mischievous little kitten, playing far too close to the mechanical gutter cleaner, so we brought him in. There he became the typical housecat, lazing about, getting nice and plump :). He always had a character about him, like I kind of felt like he knew what was going on, but maybe I'm just crazy. Either way, I adored him. Awhile back we were forced to send him outside, because he was destroying furniture, but I think he wanted to be outside. He was thriving out there, becoming losing weight, without starving because we did leave out food for him. But the outdoors just gave him more room to roam, and he mingled with the barn cats. His coat was shinier, and he was still friendly when approached. Just the other week I was out on my hammock, and he came strolling by, rubbing his tail against my fingers, scratching his face on my knuckles. The cause of death we believe to be injuries from a car. My dad was him hunched over next to the road, looking miserable, but he didn't think much of it. Later that day, he found him outstretched, lifeless, by our woodshed door. A car might have knicked him, maybe causing internal bleeding, I'm not sure. Either way it was terrible news, and I shed some tears over it. I'm going to miss that cat :/.

Well,
I don't really want to end on such a depressing note, so here's a video from the fall of Amanda and me riding a rollercoaster at the local theme park.


I hope everyone's having a lovely week. I'm considering tonight's post as the second of August, even though it's techically Monday morning since it's past twelve. Oh well, I'll attempt to write again tomorrow anyway.

Olive

Hello, August.

Please stay awhile :).

It's almost unfathomable to me, that this is it. The last month of summer.
But then again, a month is thirty days. I guess that's enough time to live it up, isn't it? :)

We kind of abandoned Burlap, atleast temporarily. Mutually, we decided it was too difficult for us to produce a "serious" film. We're goofballs. So we immediately began filming "When Abandoned Toys Attack II". The first one I wasn't really involved in, but I'm in the sequel we're working on. I should put a few of the scenes we've done onto my laptop so you all can see :). I'll attempt that for a later post.

Last night I ventured around town with Jenna and Shayla. Of course this splendid little place is 45 minutes away from where we live, but it was well worth it. The streets were bustling with people, and since it was "Hat's off Music Festival" weekend, a band was always within earshot of us as we walked. Every time we go to this town, we always stop at the Natural Foods store and buy ourselves Rice Dreams for $.99.

The chocolate pie is my favorite :), Mmmm.

I think the only bad part of our outing was at Barnes & Nobles, and that's pretty unfortunate, because I love that place. When you're in a crowded situation, it's hard to notice every little thing going on. People are clumsy, people aren't always aware of their surroundings, especially when there's a million people swarming around them, rushing to wherever they're headed. I'm not easily annoyed by this, in public you're kind of on your own, to watch out for yourself. It's great when others are courteous and polite, but it doesn't always happen. I've held plenty of doors open without receiving a "thank you", I've been bumped around on accident, it happens. But it just shocked me when this lady confronted me five seconds after entering the store.

Apparently, my friend Shayla and I had cut in front of her while walking towards books. I don't even know how it happened, I didn't see her coming at all, until after she stopped to make a scene. Jenna had been following us, and cut too, and apologized, so the girl was like "THANK YOU. I'm glad someone has manners. Your friends just cut right in front of me." At this point I'm sure my eyes were as wide as saucers. "Jeez, wow, I'm sorry. I didn't realize I did that.." Then she cut me off, "You know, MOST people say excuse me, can't you see that I'm limping?!" She staggered towards us as she said that. "I just can't believe how rude you are. " And I uttered another nervous, but sincere "Sorry..", and she went on her way. I know she said more than that, but I don't want to end up twisting her words, because I don't remember exactly what else she ranted about.

I felt awful and embaressed. People had been watching the scene, and I had enough so I went back outside, deciding against looking at the books I had wanted to see. But talking to Jenna after, she saw it all and I guess it wasn't nearly as bad as the lady was making us think. I honestly hadn't seen her.. but in normal circumstances, people do cut eachother off. It happens to me all of the time, but I don't think twice about it, or dwell on it. I don't know, I felt bad, and I genuinely apologized. It just really annoyed me that afterwards, she was so rude herself. People need to calm down.

CONTEST WINNERS!

The lovely Christina over on How Strange; and the magnificent Natalie of a natalie moment. :). So now I must figure out prizes, I'll keep you two updated. But I'll need the contact info at some point. Email me at aivilo_relluf@yahoo.com.

A promise to self, and all of you of course; I will be posting atleast three times a week. Favorably more than that, but I won't push it ;). I'll try for daily as much as I can, but no less than 3x in 7 days. Hurrah :D.

♥ Olive