I have ONE NERVE LEFT and YOU'RE GETTING ON IT!

Sevvies.

They drive me crazy.

They get all these weird ideas about what you're supposed to do when you get into junior high. Like dating.

Last year, I was in the girls' bathroom before school. There were two sevvies in there that were giggling and squealing. This was a long time ago, so this isn't word for word. But it was so funny I remembered more than I usually can. And I'm not exaggerating with the whole Valley Girl stuff. Their conversation went something like this:

"Oh Em Gee! You won't BELIEVE who just asked me out!"

"I bet I can guess his name; was it 'James'?"

"YES! How did you know??"

"Well, you've been flirting with him all week. How could he not ask you out after all that??"

"Oh Em Gee you are so right!! Anyway, we're going steady now."

"Oh Em Gee! Did he say that?"

"No, but we will be soon!"

"Oh Em Gee! So have you made out yet??"

"No, we are after school. We're meeting at James' locker."

I went to class just laughing because I couldn't believe how idiotic they both were. After school that SAME day, I was waiting outside for my mom to pick me up. I see the two girls surrounded by a posse of other sevvie girls. The girl from the bathroom was bawling. The rest of the girls were patting her back and giving her hugs and crying and and saying things like, "Don't worry; he'll see how much of an idiot he was to break up with you" and "You poor thing! You must feel terrible" or "I don't know how you'll be able to come to school tomorrow and face that jerk"...... etc, etc, etc......

Seriously, people?? Coming into junior high does NOT mean that you have to being going out with someone! Do they think they need to do that to keep up with the Smiths and the Joneses of the school? Why do they think the Joneses' standards and ideals are even worth keeping up with? Junior high romances are just silly and they never last anyway!! I mean, look at that! That lasted for ONE DAY. And then they broke up. Pathetic.

Who can even understand sevvies' mentalities? This is my theory on what MUST be going through everyone's heads:

5th grade and below - dating is a no-no and boys & girls still have cooties.
6th grade - minor crushes, but no dating. It's still just stupid.
7th grade - DATING DATING DATING. IT'S THE ONLY WAY YOU'LL FIT INTO JUNIOR HIGH. We both like each other, so now we're 'going steady'.... etc etc. Everyone pairs off and actually goes on dates OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL, like to the movies and stuff.
8th grade - Wow. We were idiots last year. And tiny idiots at that. No more dating outside of school, but a few people pair off and are 'going out', but only at school.
9th grade - WHY ON EARTH ARE THEY GOING OUT??? THEY'RE SUCH IDIOTS!!!! SERIOUSLY PEOPLE!! YOU ARE WAY TOO YOUNG TO BE PAIRING OFF!!! Very few 9th graders pair off anymore, but there are always the groups of friends that will hang out together. It isn't considered dating.
+10th grade - not sure yet. we'll see when we get there.

Don't get me wrong, I like dating. I think it's a wonderful opportunity to meet wonderful people. It has its place, just NOT in junior high!

Anyone agree? Disagree? Tell me what you think! (please! I like comments!)

Bottled Emotions....

Have you ever wished with all your heart that one moment could last a lifetime? Or that pure joy was an emotion you could keep saved in a bottle, to be opened whenever you needed to be cheered up? Or even that you had savored those moments and that joy just a little longer?

Regret is a powerful thing.

I can already tell on the night of our last performance for the Rhapsody Musical Revue that these are moments I will cherish for a lifetime. These are moments that I wish could be saved in a jar, and these are moments that I know I will wish I had treasured just a little more.

I have made some amazing friends in Rhapsody. I have discovered things about myself that I never would have dreamed of. Rhapsody is by far the highlight of my day. It's one class that 80 minutes can't be long enough. It has brought out the best (and sometimes scariest) parts in all of us.

Today is our last performance. After tonight we can say goodbye to Guys and Dolls, Grease, and Newsies. After months of exhausting and very long practices (many after school and even on Saturday), we have three nights to perform it all and show everyone what we can do. I think I'm going to cry. It's something I just don't want to stop.

Lessons Learned at The Ranch...

So this weekend, my family went up to our ranch to help my grandparents. We were working out in the pasture cutting the herd (separating the calves from their moms and sorting them - not actually cutting them, for you animal protection activist people....). It's a really tough job - My grandpa decides ahead of time which calves he wants to sell, and our job is to go and find them all. And that's AFTER getting them all in the pasture! (That part is actually pretty fun! I get to drive around on the 4-wheeler chasing the cows through the ginormous field :D)

My grandpa seems to have every cow memorized. I'm not just talking the different tag numbers. He remembers who the mom was, who the mom's mom was, when it was born, WHERE it was born, any health issues, and how each one looks. (That's pretty impressive when they're all solid black angus!) "...270 has a small head but good shoulders.... She's had really good health but her mom was the one that had that prolapse...." It's really quite scary how much stuff he can remember!

Anyway, the first part of the day went something like this: get up from our warm, comfortable beds at 7:30 am and get about ten to fifteen layers of clothes on: jeans, two or three pairs of wool socks, sweat shirt, another sweat shirt, puffy winter coat, scarf, wind breaker, thick leather gloves, another scarf, a beanie hat, jacket hood, chaps, cowboy boots, galoshes, etc etc etc.... You stagger outside under your 50 pounds of newly-gained weight into the below-freezing Wyoming air. Great way to wake up, isn't it?

We get out to the garage where the trucks and "Buggies" (4-wheelers - not sure why my family calls them that) are parked, and my cousins go saddle up their horses. I throw one leg over the side of one buggy and nearly fly right over the top. Those galoshes get a lot of inertia built up when you swing them that hard.... If you've ever worn them, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't... Well, I can't say that you're missing out on anything....

We take our lumbering army of about 15 out to the cows in the field. We surround all sides of the herd and push them toward the pasture. (I'm going to give you a really quick lesson about cows, because you'll need this knowledge for the rest of my story.) The concept of herding cows is fairly easy: look at where you're standing in relation to the cow's shoulder. If you're ahead of the shoulder, it will turn away from you. If you're behind the shoulder, it'll move forward. Get right in front of him, and he'll (hopefully) stop. Pretty easy to remember, right? Of course it is!

So why do I keep messing up??

That's what I was asking myself almost all day yesterday. Grandpa would shout out the tag number of the calf he wanted, and we would scan the herd looking for it. When we did find it, we would call everyone over, cut as many cows out of the way as we could, and form a "fence" behind the cow. This is done by everyone spreading out evenly in a straight-ish line, covering all ground between the cow and his way to freedom. This way, if the cow decides he doesn't like the idea of being separated from his buddies and tries to make a break for it, we move in front of him as swiftly as we can under all our protective gear (is that how a quarter back feels? hmm....). The cow will usually stop when he sees you in front of him. (Unless it's like the particularly rebellious cow we did last, where he just bolts past you anyway, even if you're whacking him on top of the head with all of your heart, might, mind and strength!)


.....again, this is one of those posts that I'm still writing past midnight the night it's due.... I've reached the word count (exceeded it, actually), but I'm not done with my story.... Methinks (yes, that's a real word!) I'm going to have to finish this later..... like, tomorrow, when I've gotten a nap....... zzzzzzZZZZZZZ...... good night!

Self Esteem....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWNYndqFTR4&feature=response_watch

So this is something I saw a while ago, but I think it's awesome. I think every guy should be like this! (No, this is not a video about Edward. He's overrated and ugly. hahaha) But seriously, really cool clip. take a few seconds to check it out, and hopefully it will change how you look at people.

Two 'Wallflowers' and An Awkward Barrier....

Since my last post, I've been thinking a lot about silence, but not only along the 'cow' train of thought. So......... I'm dedicating this blog entry to my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Joelle :D I'll bet you anything that when she reads this she will start laughing, and probably get mad at me the next day at school, but oh well. She deserves this, so it's worth being killed for!

Joelle and I met under interesting circumstances in seventh grade. We were both shy little sevvies who didn't have anyone to talk to during lunch. We would both wait out in the commons, hoping the bell would put an end to our little bubble of embarrassing silence in the middle of all the commotion. We always saw each other in the same spot, but would never say anything. We would pace back and forth, both trying to come up with something to say without sounding like an idiot. (Which, in junior high, is very important, especially as a seventh grader.) After over a week of this, I plucked up the courage to introduce myself.

"I'm Drue."

....and that was it. Nothing else. We smiled at each other briefly, then went back to looking at the floor. The next day was the same way. An insanely long awkward silence, and then one question. This time I asked what her name was. (little secret here that you don't even know, Joelle: I knew what your name was before I asked you :D I could see it on your lunch box, but I needed a conversation starter. haha!) When she answered, I asked her what grade she was in. (Looking back on that as a ninth grader, I can see how lame that question was. We were amongst the shortest of people there, and nobody but a sevvie could POSSIBLY look as lost and confused and lonely as we did. But like I said before, I needed conversation!) So when she said she was in seventh grade, too, I was ecstatic! Because I was one of maybe five people from Kaysville Elementary, I didn't know anyone at Fairfield. I was so excited to learn that Joelle was my age.

After a couple of days of that same kind of conversation (silence, question, smile, silence, maybe one more question....) we started to branch off to different topics, such as classes and family and such. I'm not sure how long it took, but eventually we started getting whole conversations in. (WHOLE CONVERSATIONS! NOT JUST A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS SPREAD THROUGHOUT A WEEK!) Some how we got talking about birthdays. This is where it starts getting really weird: we have the same birthday. And I'm not talking a year apart. I mean we were born within hours of each other.

I think that's what really broke that awkward barrier. We would start giggling and talking with more enthusiasm. Aren't books wonderful? What books have you read? Have you read *insert book title here*? Aren't boys so annoying? How many boys are in your family?....... And we would go on and on.

I remember writing several journal entries around that time: I'm so glad I have Joelle to talk to.... She's exactly the kind of friend I've been wishing for.... I've been so lonely and now I have someone to sit with at lunch.... I found out today that Joelle and I have the same birthday! How crazy is that? I wonder what other similarities we'll find! Maybe we're really twins that were separated at birth. Well, except for the fact that we look NOTHING alike..... There were many entries like that. That sort of gives you an idea of how excited I was. Every day I would come home and tell my family what Joelle and I had talked about.

Jello, thank you for your friendship! :) Throughout french class, Yearbook, 8th grade english, girl's choir, and all of our after school adventures, your friendship has meant the world to me! I would never have gotten through school without you there to laugh through it all with me, especially 7th grade! Thank you for everything! May you find your Mr. Ferris and live your life to the fullest! ;)