Nearing the end of the blue spiral notebooks I used as journals in high school. This one starts in the middle of March 2011, near the end of my junior year, and a couple months before Youth Tour and SGYC '11. Editorial comments in brackets.
Thursday, 3-17-11
Hey,
Happy St. Patrick's Day. Headed to Westville later today. NCAA tournament starts today, that's always exciting. [There were games in Tulsa at the BOK.] If I can be sure of gas and hotel money, I'm to Dallas for X-Factor auditions. [HAHAHAHA....] Starting guitar lessons at Southern Cross next week. Josh is learning to play, me and Samara have been giving him tips. We got Swifty a new house yesterday. And a large section of guilt disappeared this week. I felt like I should apologize to Maddie for the way I left. She FB poked me, so I typed out an email. She understood.
Saturday, 3-26-11
Hey,
Dad turned 40 today. We went to the J.M. Davis Gun Museum and the Will Rogers Museum today, they were both neat. The pistols of Bonnie Parker, Jesse James and Pretty Boy Floyd, a Stradivarius violin, Nazi machine guns and helmets, World War I propaganda posters, a cartridge from Frank James' gun when he surrendered, and Will Rogers' typewriter were some of the things I saw today. Haven't done much school this week, but I did see most folks at archery Wednesday. Had my first real guitar lesson at Southern Corss yesterday, it went well. Jed's been having some health problems lately, that isn't really cool. I guess we're headed to Columbia [Missouri] for about a week soon. Sounds kind of like a nightmare. Maybe I'll get to see some people I know, though. Should know in two weeks or so if that essay was any good or not. Trevor got a rabbit from the Jacksons, he's calling it Nibbles. Rabbits can be kinda cute. Today went better than I thought it would, being six years since MiMi died. A lot of times I wish I could talk to her again. Ever since, I've never really had anybody I could talk things over with like that. Arizona was playing again tonight, they lost to UConn. They were playing Illinois when we heard the news. I guess I'll try to get some sleep, might write more, Idk.
Saturday, 4-23-11
Hey,
UConn beat Butler in a sloppy title game. [That was one of the worst basketball games I've ever seen. With a ton of great storylines, Butler getting to the title game in Indianapolis.] Wondered if Alli was watching. [Webkinz contact, huge fan of Huskies basketball.] The trip went pretty well, I suppose, except for Dad catching a staph infection. I've had to do a lot of babysitting this week. Haven't had any basketball to write about, so I took up Talons coverage for OKBlitz. They won tonight on a last-second field goal. I don't think I like family vacations much. They're somewhat overrated. Easter is tomorrow, doesn't feel like it. Pretty good storm right outside, lots of thunder and rain. Jamey Mullin gave us tickets to a Thunder game last month, it was AN AWESOME experience. That's where I'd like to be someday. It was such an incredible atmosphere. Take the energy of a Talons game, add HS-spirited fans, increased, and there you go. I'd like to help make that happen. Guitar lessons are going well. Dale is a good guy. Kind of like Coach Truesdell, or Dean. Oh, yes. Us homeschoolers were in an archery meet against Beggs, Schulter, Morris and Wilson. We did pretty well. Brenna and Denver each got third, Kyle took second, and Quinton won. I was firmly average. Oh, yeah. I'm headed to DC as part of East Central's delegation on the Youth Tour in June. I'm getting kinda excited about that.
Tuesday, 5-3-11
Hey,
School's gone okay, not nearly enough done, but it's going all right. Caleb & Trevor played w/Jonathan today, & Mom had a good visit with Trinnica. Dad's almost over his staph infection, the graduation's Saturday. Roy, Cody, Jessica, Kyle, Billy are all graduating. And thus, leaving for college in the fall. [Except for Cody joining the Army, none of them actually left the county for a while.] Just part of getting older, but slightly sad, just the same. Osama bin Laden was killed on Monday. Caleb's birthday is soon, he'll be ten. Hard to believe it's been ten years since he was born. Dewar nearly won a state championship in [slowpitch] softball today, that makes around twelve near-misses that I could have written about state championships. Maybe someday... Feeling kind of lonely & a bit lost. The drama program is Thursday, it'll be odd being in the audience. Of course, the script was horrendous in its brevity & shallowness, but still. Idol will be over in about three weeks. XFactor is in Dallas the week before my birthday. Guitar is going okay, me & Samara might team up for a duet for talent share at camp. We're thinking Carrie Underwood's "Temporary Home" for now. [DC Talk's "Supernatural" would have been so much cooler, but neither of us could play barre chords very well, so we nixed that.] Josh in in Florida for the Homeschool World Series.
Saturday, 5-7-11
Hey,
The program went better than expected. It was below average, even for this group. However, Annette, me & Mr. Noland are possibly going to campaign to do a (serious) musical called GodSpell. It's about these hippies in the 70's who reenact the Gospel on a deserted baseball diamond. [This would have been so awesome. Alas, it never happened...] Guitar went pretty good Friday, Dale gave me a Sara Evans song to work on. [It was "Never Alone", because I needed practice with barre chords. There's a lot of Bm's in that one.] Went to the graduation of Billy, Cody, Jessica, Roy, Quinton, Kyle & Michael Vogt today. It was good, but kinda scary that we're near this point of our lives. My class next year will be Alton, Nate, Phil, Rachel, Kaitlyn & me. [And at GBC, Sam and Marie.] What's been happening w/friends? Kyle got a job offer, doing illustrations for a kid's book. Brenna's cat Twilight ran away, and Mariah & Phil are together now. That seemed like a 50-50 match to me. Either it'll go all Alton-JB, or it'll end within a month. [It was more like six weeks.] We'll see. Mr. Cox is starting a lesson group on homosexuality tomorrow, that might be good. [It was an incredibly awkward series for everyone involved; and we were all extremely grateful when it ended.] Dad still isn't completely well yet. Baseball ended(thank goodness).
Friday, 5-20-11
Hey,
Amy's birthday was Monday. Valerie put an announcement in the Free Lance, that was cool. Courtney went over to Lani's, she had a good time, I think. The Nolands had a cookout last night, that was fun. I felt kinda depressed and irritated most of today, Idk why. The trip is in three weeks, my birthday's next Sunday. Is acting a form of lying? An elaborate pretendence set up to avoid facing reality? Does that apply to fiction, too? Is that why we need it, because it's lying, and so therefore cane be sinful, and due to our sinful nature we enjoy it? Or is it a mangled attempt to duplicate God's creation? Can God use this imagining for good purposes? Well, yes. Both the stories I'm working on seem meaningless.
Harry & Louise came to visit last Friday, & we had a good time. Then as they were leaving, they gave me a box, left over from Trish's yard sale. In it I found a card signed by nearly all the Lankfords, & even Doc and Lavonna signed it. They also got together a collection for my trip, it added up to $200. That really made me feel loved, like I felt right after the fire. Overwhelmed with the sheer amount of kindness & love poured out. I also had to buy a suit on Tuesday. Dad helped a lot. The salesman was balding and had an accent, reminded me of Hercule Poirot. It was an interesting experience. I've wanted to fire my guitar into the wall sometimes, but I suppose that's part of becoming really good at it. OKBlitz took a Talons story I sent them last week. I don't feel ready to be 18. Or a senior. I want to go live life, but I'm scared. And when you can't pick them up, that doesn't exactly inspire courage to ask girls out. What have I changed into? I have some idea of who I changed from - a shy, obnoxious kid with plans much bigger than his abilities - but who, what, am I now?
Friday, 6-10-11
Hey,
We started the trip today! Left the house around 10 am, got to OKC about 12. The banquet went well, the YLC interview wasn't so bad, Lorene McGhee won. We'll leave for Baltimore tomorrow, hung out after dinner with a bunch of cool people, lost ping-pong (twice) to a guy named Ashton Davis. [We kept accidentally hitting a bald guy in the head. He thought it was hilarious.] My roommate is Trent Swann, we're boys group J. The East Central ppl seem cool, haven't seen much of Tre McPherson, but Christian Pak, David Crosslin, Bailey Golihare and Bailey Ross seem cool. Can't wait! Jennifer seems like Mrs. Boyer.
Saturday, 6-11-11
Hey,
In DC now, we had about an hour & a half wait, the trip was just under 3 hrs, pretty smooth. Saw the Lincoln Mem., that was really something. Met a lot of different ppl, among them Chrystal, Will, Brandi, Joseph, Tosh, Trent, Daniel, Ryan, Kim, Taylor & Tauri. We walked along the Baltimore Harbor, taken lots of pictures, this has been good for people-watching. Two old guys in the airport were talking about the weather[in North Carolina]. We went to the mall, the day wasn't so bad, but everyone was incredibly thirsty. Arlington & Smithsonian tomorrow, & dinner theater, there's be a Gay Pride parade...hopefully we can stay out of the way... :P MD has a TON of trees. We're supposed to cover 40 miles on foot this week. We're unofficially the Penguins(or Zebras). [Based on a comment by a lady in the OKC hotel, she said to her husband, "Look! They look like a bunch of penguins!" as we were getting ready to board the buses to the airport.]
Monday, 6-13-11, about Sunday, 6-12-11
Hey,
Toured Arlington Cemetery, that was really something. Didn't know what to think about the Changing of the Guard. Trent & Ryan got lost, we had to wait in the bus for half an hour[for them to find us]. So I talked to Lorene, which was cool. We went to the Smithsonian, ate at the McDonald's{in the Air & Space Museum] then toured the Natural & American History museums w/Will, Claire, Taylor & Chrystal. We saw First Lady dresses[Claire LOVED those], Kermit the Frog, the ruby slippers, the Hope Diamond, moon rock(which I touched), meteorites(also touched), strange art(OK kids in an art museum...that is a good idea!) & a gay parade - unintentionally.
PETA Lady - "Do you guys want some stickers?"
Chrystal - "No thanks, we're from Oklahoma."
Lady - "Oh. Well, there's nothing wrong with being from Oklahoma..."
Chrystal - "And besides, we're on our way to slaughter a cow." (Guffaws from us, out of earshot.)
We saw the flag of Fort McHenry, then we drove through a huge rain - which no one else seemed to care about - & saw a musical of Happy Days at a dinner theatre, which was cool. Good day, mostly. [I would love to go back. Also, we merrily jaywalked like crazy all day long.]
Monday, 6-13-11
Hey,
We went to the big hotel - the Hyatt - for Youth Day, we traded pins, rocked out to Alabama & Rodney Atkins, cheered for Lorene at the YLC presentation & fell asleep during the speeches. Last year's YLC National winner was horrible. The second guy was an ex-Senator impersonating at guy key to the founding of co-ops, he was good, and then there was this guy who was a 4-time Olympic medalist in wheelchair basketball. He was okay. We then traversed the Hard Rock Cafe, which was pretty cool, I got some guitar picks :-) Then we went to Madame Toussad's, which was all right. After that came the National Cathedral, which while impressive, radiated phoniness. We then took pictures of the White House, went to Union Station for dinner & Taco Bell(we like familiar things), had to race back to the bus after getting turned around[Tauri, Alicia and I were literally sprinting], then it was off to the Potomac for the boat cruise. The boat was cool, the water & sunset pretty, the Minnesotans had funny accents(Ham-MOX), the music wasn't my favorite, but it was neat. I danced some, which was fun. Then things got a little crazy, so us Oklahomans sat & watched. Very sweaty & smelly, but fun. No one knew why we went to the Kennedy Center, but there was a great view from its terrace. Oh, yeah. We all got together(OK, most of us) in the lobby to watch the game, & to almost everyone's satisfaction, the Mavs won by ten, thus keeping LeBron from another title. Now, it's the Thunder's turn. Wisconsin people are rude, TN & MI & OH & GA are cool. The trip is already halfway done. :-( At Arlington yesterday, we saw Robert E. Lee's house, his father-in-law was George Washington's nephew.
Tuesday, 6-14-11
Hey,
We spent the am @ Mount Vernon, which was all right, didn't much like the tour guides. [None of us did. Funny quote of the day, after an argument between Michael and Amanda F. over whether a cow was a heifer or a bull, Railey pronounces it a steer, he started pestering her, she snaps back, "Do you want to become a steer?!"] We went to the Newseum next, which was amazing. So much history & newsprint to read...so many things to see and do...I would have loved to spend all afternoon in there. We stopped by the Jefferson Memorial, which was my favorite mem. this trip. Joe's bus got stuck in traffic picking us up, & so Rodney's short bus took ppl to the park. Well, Joe's bus breaks down. So he calls somebody, who begins to bring another bus. It gets stuck in traffic. We start playing Ninja. [It's pouring rain, and we're on the side of the highway.] Joe begins moving our stuff into the replacement bus, which is stalled in the middle of an intersection. It starts raining, we keep playing Ninja. [Me, Maty, Agatha and Aubrey became collectively known as the Spider Monkeys after this episode.] Rodney comes back w/the short bus, half of us left(who have been waiting for an hour), Joe gets his stuff back loaded, when it cranks back up, long story short, we eventually made it to the park. First time Jennifer had ever had a bus break down on her, maybe the first time ever. Anyway, we all got to the park eventually, where we watched the Marines Sunset Parade. It was kind of boring, like somebody extended halftime to 75 minutes. And 34 planes(at least) flew overhead in an hour. Brandi lost her purse on the boat last night, & Lorene her camera, which caused great consternation & apprehension. We think they were taken to the Hyatt, so that eased things, kind of. Why are all the coolest people west of OKC? It's irritating. After the park & walking back a mile or so to the bus, we killed some time at the mall. Lorene, Danielle, Juliana, Amanda A. & Caleb all wanted to go to Bath & Body Works, so me, Tre & Charlie R. tagged along, I got Mom some cucumber-melon hand sanitizer. Then we posed for pics wearing dorky oversized sunglasses. We did a lot of picture-posing today. Charging my phone & camera battery, the latter ran out before 2:30. Drat. E.B. White was right when he said that hotel rooms are some of the world's loneliest places. Wondering how the gang back home is doing...having slight withdrawals from not having Facebook or my guitar.
12:47 am, Thursday, 6-16-11
Hey,
Today was our last full day. Bummer. :'/ We went to the capitol, where we were led(after an hour wait) on a tour conducted by a blonde Cornell student named Laurel working as an intern; she got lost every 10 min. & had to ask for directions. We saw the old(mid 1800's) Senate chamber, & stood in front of Will Rogers's and Sequoyah's statues, where John Quincy Adams's desk was, & in the space where all DC directions are reckoned from, as well as the very center of Wash., DC. David ripped his shorts, huge hole in the crotch. In the am. [That was hysterical. We still talk about it, actually...] Got suckered into buying stuff at this mall we went to, sped through the Holocaust museum, then waited for two hrs, the bus broke down again, we went to the Hyatt for the dinner dance. It was crazy, & I don't think anyone enjoyed it. I danced for 10 min, then took pix & played Ninja w/South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas & Kentucky. [Noticed at the time that it felt like Laurie Keller's Scrambled States of America. Also, a lot of us OKYTers played cards and silent football.] Very crowded & hot. We then had a wrapup party at our Embassy Suites hotel, ate pizza & talked for an hour. Kind of bittersweet. I'll miss these guys(and girls). Our toiliet clogged up, & Trent & Karis discovered they were cousins, which neither of them knew. Good conversations today. I've scratched them down elsewhere in here. By 10 pm we'll be home.... :S
Friday, 6-17-11, about Thursday, 6-16-11, 8:26 am
Hey,
Well, we're back home now. Talked to Congressmen & Senators(Uncle Tom was there) at the Congress building, then ate some food, jumped back onto the bus for Baltimore, then toured the Orioles Park at Camden Yards(gotta be the longest field name in baseball). [That was really awesome.] The airport was all right, we mostly all made it through bag weight & security easily enough. Our luggage got soaked due to a 109 min rain delay, we got to OKC about 10:30, then got home around 1:15, fell asleep near 2:00, woke up at 7:40. It was an awesome trip, but I hated to see it end. I'll miss the dorkiness of Brendan & Tosh, the duos of Kim/Taylor and Amanda F./Railey, Chrystal & Will's nuttiness, & the personalities of people like Brandi, Mikyla, Trent, Ravi, Aubrey, Lorene, Weston, Claire & Agatha. The ride home was interesting, lol. Tauri & Alicia were stupid-tired & cracking up at everything. A - "Have you ever....Have you ever...Have you ever, like, peed in a bottle?" T - "Yeah, once, when I was little." A - "Girls can do that?" Have to finish up taking pics & then check FB & work on pictures. Good times. :-D
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