Last Days at Kootenai Camp

I've been here in CDA, Idaho since June 17th to work at Kootenai Kid's Camp at the Club at Black Rock. I've worked at the kids camp for the past two years and it is always so much fun! My last two days at camp were definitely the most memorable. Friday I worked from 8-5 and it was Lake Day! So, at some point when camp opened we would take the kids to the lake and they could jump on the floating trampoline. Well, camp opens at 9am and there were no kids until 11, so we almost had to close camp until Kids Night Out that night. Thankfully, the Senske's and their friend showed up, along with the Mylettes. So, we had 5 kids and that was enough to go to the beach after lunch! Dimitri and I took the kids in the Black Rock van and blasted some tunes on the way. We arrived at the beach around 1:00 and immediately jumped in the water and swam out to the trampoline. As everyone climbed up the ladders kids were already being thrown off by each other and Dimitri. Thankfully, I lasted about 10 minutes before I got thrown off as well. Basically, the next 4 hours were filled with being picked up, thrown off, head shoved under water and pulling kids back up onto the trampoline. It was a pretty fantastic day!

The Summer Set

I've been in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho for the entire summer and it's been awesome. I can't wait to write all about it when I have decent Internet service!

Play?

Lets go play!
I am so ready to go to Silverwood it's insane.
Record some movies? Yeah.
Play.

My Man, Peter Pan

So, as I was sitting downstairs in the Gorton house, flipping through channels and trying to decide if I really wanted to break down and watch some late afternoon reality TV show, I stumbled upon Hook. You know the one, with Robin Williams? Now, Hook is one of my all time favorite movies and I watch it whenever it's available. I have always been in love with Peter Pan, as it is one of my favorite children's stories and Disney movies and I was reminded of my very own encounter with Peter Pan in Disneyland.
I went on a trip to Disneyland this year with my choir and it was insanely fun. Honestly, the only reason I wanted to go so badly was because I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Peter Pan. I've been to Disneyland about 7 times and I had NEVER once seen Peter Pan. Every time I go I walk around Fantasyland several times hoping to see my favorite character with the idea that he'll sweep me off my feet and carry me off to Neverland with him. Throughout this trip I kept telling everyone how I was really going to meet Peter Pan this time and we were going to fall madly in love and he'd propose on the spot.
Well, our last day in Disneyland and my friends, Jen, Rachel and I were walking out of Fantasyland and about to go meet our choir director for some lunch. Jen had this feeling that we just HAD to go over on the side of the castle by the moat and sit. She just kept saying that she had a feeling. Well, Rachel and I were lagging a bit behind, but suddenly Jen is screaming, "Hali! It's Peter Pan! It's Peter Pan!"
So, there I am freaking out and running as fast as I can because my dream is about to come true. I round the corner, and there he is. The most beautiful version of Peter Pan I had ever seen. Sleeping Beauty was about 15 feet away and every kid wanted to go see her, so Peter's line wasn't very long. I waited patiently in line for about a minute when I finally got to go up to him.
Peter out his arm around my shoulder and I just smiled insanely big. I think he thought this was funny, because he kept smiling at me too.
"Peter Pan, you're my absolute favorite character!" I gushed brightly.
"Well that's good." Peter replied. I smiled even harder, I didn't even know that was possible.
"Peter, may I ask you a question?"
"Sure!"
"Ummm, may I be your Wendy?"
"Well, I already have a Wendy," he said matter of factly. The smile on my face drooped a little.
"Oh," I said, sadly.
"But what's your name?" He asked me, hopefully.
"Hali." I said, trying to brighten up.
"Well, you can be my Hali if you want."
"Oh Peter, I'd LOVE to be your Hali!" I smiled like a little girl on Christmas. Peter Pan had just made my trip to Disneyland. He was absolutely gorgeous and I wish I'd known his real name, but he took my hand anyway and we walked into Fantasyland a ways before he had to leave. My favorite trip to Disneyland was made absolutely perfect because I got to meet Peter Pan. I hope everyone looks forward to seeing one of our pictures together as our Save The Date!

Back in the Swing of Things

Well, I realize it has been an extremely long time since I've written, but I blame that on my procrastination and lack of energy. Anyway, here it is the month of June, and it still feels like October (weather-wise).  I am back in the good ol' CDA and super happy being with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins. Cannot even begin to describe how much more relaxed I am being away from my parents for a few months.
I start official work on Thursday at the Kootenai Kid's Camp, which I am pretty excited for. I really just wanna see the kids I've missed so much throughout the year. Hopefully I'll have some more interesting stories coming up soon, I just had the urge to write a bit and decided to get back to the blog.
Also, I guess this is super exciting, I finally graduated! I got to spend the night before I left graduating/hanging out with my best friend, Amelia. I miss her so much already! But the good thing is that I've finally gotten to hang out with my friend, Megan and it's been a whole year since I've seen her!!
Alright, I'll try to save some more things to say until next time.

No More Big Blue

   The BP Oil spill, was it really that bad? To environmentalists, it could be the start of the end of the world, but that’s about the only group of people it’s offending. On April 20th, 2010, the BP Oil Company innocently drilled into the depths of the Gulf of Mexico for oil. As fate would have it, that day a pipe broke just off the coast, causing a disastrous explosion that killed 11 men working on the platform, and released about 530,000 barrels of oil from the oil well. While BP attempted to place a cap over the gushing wellhead, and while it stopped the leak for awhile, the cap somehow depleted and the government named it “effectively dead.” Oil continues to leak into the ocean and cause massive amounts of damage to marine and wildlife, as well as taking a toll on the Gulf’s fishing and tour industries. The waves still carry tons of oil out to sea. 

    Obviously, since BP cannot solve the problem that they brought upon themselves due to poor planning and human error, we Americans should take problems into our own hands. Using the government/taxpayers money we can strive together to simply drain the ocean. All of them, Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific. Just get rid of them all. This would obviously solve many more problems than it would create. Just think, more space for the divine race of human species, not to mention the new lack of natural disasters like tsunamis and the like.
    Draining the ocean would give humans more of an opportunity to spread our legs, to have more area to conquer and essentially give Manifest Destiny a whole new meaning. Since America was the country to drain the ocean, we would have first choice of all the best land. China and the UK may shortly follow suit.
    Of course all of the marine life would die, and there would be no more Whale Wars, due to the fact that they would be extinct. No need to save the polar bears, and environmentalists can give up the fight against saving weird, ugly creatures. There would be no more seafood, so no one would suffer from allergens or have to suffer that God-awful smell when it’s being cooked. Vegetarians would have to REALLY commit and only eat land-growing plants. Of course there would still be a few lakes here and there, so if people did throw a fit about not having seafood, a few Salmon hatcheries could be arranged.
    In the process of draining the ocean, millions of years of historical artifacts would be unearthed, or undrowned, if you will. Whole museums could be devoted to submarines or sunken pirate ships. Think of what Disney could do with these kinds of goodies. The Lost City of Atlantis could be discovered and used as a theme park, roller coasters and everything. That’s enough reason in itself to get rid of the huge bodies of salt water.
    There would need to be a few things considered, when people began moving out onto the ocean floor, extra caution needs to be taken when coming across reefs or crevasses. But, that’s what bridges are for, right? It would also be easier to get investigators down into the depths of the floor without hundreds of miles of ocean bursting their eardrums.
    Now, these are all wonderful things we could do with the ocean floor after it’s been drained, but there are some of us that would actually miss the big, deep blue sea. Songs have been written about the beauty of a sunset disappearing behind waves, and to see one of God’s most amazing creations taken out of our eco system would be nearly catastrophic. If oil companies like BP would stop drilling for oil in our oceans we’d all be much better off, especially those animals that have lost their homes and food sources due to the unfortunate accident of something so easily avoided like the oil spill.

New Year, New Beginnning

So, it's the New Year, everyone! Officially 1/1/11! How crazy is that? It seems like just a few months ago we were celebrating 2010, funny thing is I can't remember what I did on that night. Probably just sat at home doing nothing like I did this year. 

But this New Years' Eve was different. I called my best friend Jamie and told him that we should video chat when the clock struck midnight so we could bring in the New Year. Well, it ended up being Jamie, Tyler and myself connected to me by a laptop that we celebrated the beginning of 2011. I love talking to these guys, and I am so thrilled to be going to UO next year and getting to spend time with them. We're good friends now, but we have the chance to become besties. For that I am excited.

Taking a look back, 2010 was a pretty good year. I mean, it had it's ups and downs just like every year. Academically it was tougher than years past, relationships wise, it kinda sucked. Theater was wonderful in 2010, I was lucky enough to be cast as Sally in Charlie Brown, and I got a whole lot closer to one of my very good friends, Oliver Mayes. I got my first big job at the Black Rock Country Club working as a counselor/receptionist. I met wonderful, amazing people, some people that I wish I did not meet. But so it goes everywhere right? I met Megan in Coeur D' Alene, we're great pen pals now. She's someone that I hope to keep as a good friend for a very long time. 

All in all, looking at the people I met and the new things I got to do, 2010 was a great year. I want to make 2011 even better. 

Cheers