things that ought to be mentioned - for realz this tiem

Observe: the condensed version of my summer so faaar.

OYAN Workshop of 2010 equals legendary win. The only thing wrong with it is that it should have been longer. Mr. and Mrs. S (see below) hosted the event, and did an awesome job of it. People were in costume, and I'd post a pic of the pirate gear I wore, but all the pics have my face in them. Perhaps I'll try to blur it out of one of them. Perhaps. Anyway, I was an elf pirate and was very sad to discover that you had to choose whether you were on the pirate team or the ninja team, and putting down 'I support the Alliance' didn't fly. Sniff. And since I was wearing pirate stuff, I had to put down pirate. There was a real-live ninja in attendance though:

So we listened to Mr. S talk for a while, then there was this awesome comedy improv team from Greenleaf who did about a bazillion hilarious theater games, and we all died laughing, and then afterward, some of us (Liese, Trucano, Brentalope and I) discovered this awesome little playground thing across the parking lot, so we hung out there for about an hour and were epic togethah. Then the next morning, we listened to Mr. S talk some more, and had to RUN through a torrential downpour over to the cafeteria for lunch, and got soaked to the marrow, and almost got washed away down the five-inch-deep river that used to be the sidewalk, and it was awesome. And we RAN the entire way, most of us in costume, with our shoes squelching wonderfully all the while. Then we ate food. Then we ran back, but it wasn't raining anymore so it wasn't near as much fun. Then we got into little groups (Extremely Wooly Mammoths ftw) and critiqued the first four pages of each other's adventure novels, which was awesome cuz I got to see what everyone else was writing about. Plus, Pippin and another girl from the Brighton class were in my group, which was even more awesome. Plus we had Mrs. S. Which out-awesome'd all other previous awesomenesses to boot. And then Sharpie's novel introduced me to steampunk, which over-out-awesome'd things all over again. Thank you, Sharps. So then we stuffed a bunch of people into my mom's minivan and caravan'd over to the nearest ice cream place, ordered in British accents, sat in a line on the sidewalk behind the building and took turns reading Snuffle's PUBLISHED! novel aloud. And got lotsa strange looks from the passers-by. It was hilarious. Then we went to the site of the first-ever OYAN class for the reunion, and there were so many potato chips I thought I was going to drown in them, and there were swordfights, and many pictures, and epic amounts of glompadge all around. And a juggling show. And the biggest, most complicated game of ninja you ever played. All in all, probably two of the most mythically awesome days of my entire life, or something like that. And then he took out his bazooka and - yeah, never mind. Next.

This picture is from the Taekwondo camp I worked earlier this summer, and those strange teenage boys are two of my co-workers, believe it or not, being extremely unproffessional and dancing/singing Party in the USA. Do you pity me? You should. I find this picture terribly amusing, by the way.

Before I had a chance to catch my breath after the OYAN awesomeness, I was shipped off to Hutchinson for Level Three of the Future Astronaut Training Program, also called FATP. And that was also epic, but since I don't have all the pics off my camera yet, there's just this shot of the actual for-real International Space Station Mission Control Center. We were there, baby. RIGHT THERE. It was flippin' awesome. More on this later, cuz there's a bunch of pics I wanna showya.

Off to Lady Arin's house in a few days, where the Internet is shaky at best, so I might not see you till Saturday. Dunno yet. SOEXCITED though... I don't get myself over there enough...

Commander Kip

Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.

Normal is overrated!