there ain't no place like home

This is what I've eaten today: 4 pieces of French toast, a chocolate milkshake, some leftover fries, and a piece of brownie cake. Oh, and some caramel fudge at 4:30 in the morning. I feel grrrrrrrrrreat. (That is a rhetorical device called sarcasm. I actually feel like crap. I am super tired and I have lost my voice, partially because of some virus and partially because of my non-stop screaming on roller coasters yesterday.)

But anyway, I'm home. I just got back from camp in Florida, which I attended with a group from my church. We drove about 24 hours through five states to get there. I got to check Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama off my lists of states I've been to (although I slept through both drives through the latter so not sure if that really counts). We went to the beach on Sunday and I got terrifically sunburned. Monday through Thursday was spent doing work -- my group was volunteering at a local Boys and Girls Club. Other groups were doing stuff like painting and yard work, so I felt pretty lucky to get to work with kids. In the evenings we'd gather back at camp for dinner and free time and things like dance parties. It's my second time doing this -- I went to one in my hometown two summers ago -- and I think I enjoyed myself more this time. I still get the quintessential "you seem pretty quiet" thing but at least this time I opened up a little more and had people to hang out with. That really makes all the difference.

All in all, it was a good week full of getting to know new people and trying new things. There were lots of random little moments that made it enjoyable: getting hugs from the kids, everybody dancing to "Call Me Maybe" on the bus, watching the sun set over the water, hiding from the rain in Honeydukes (it rained almost every single day we were there, not even joking, and it's raining right here now, too), waving glowsticks, stumbling into a rest stop in the middle of the night and seeing the numb/exhausted looks on everyone's faces, being told by a little girl that I "don't sound Texan" ("What do Texans sound like, then?" "Like they're from the country." "Well, I'm from the city." "I didn't know they had cities in Texas!"), watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Mean Girls, and, it has to be said, all that junk food.

I'm glad to be home, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a teeny bit sad to leave.

Friday (yesterday) was my favorite day because it was our "free day" so we went to Universal Studios a.k.a. home of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I took lots of pictures which I'll post at a later time.

In the mean time, here is a gratuitous picture of myself in front of the Hulk ride which I definitely did not ride but I sat in front of it waiting for other people to ride it twice so yeah.

I'm really tired so I'm going to go to bed. Tomorrow I am going to just watch TV all day and no one is going to stop me.

AMEN.

a toast to birthdays

Here's to being fifteen and really not knowing. Here's to staying up late listening to music and not caring if you're becoming nocturnal. Here's to all the things you never got to do and here's to all the things you did that you said you'd never do. Here's to great ideas at the eleventh hour. Here's to those awkward yet compulsively interesting conversations. Here's to all the words you crossed out and here's to all the ones that replaced them. Here's to all the quizzes you failed and all the ones you unexpectedly aced. Here's to all the things you wish you had said. Here's to feeling embarrassed and awkward and out of place. Here's to happy endings. Here's to cursing like a sailor when no one can hear you. Here's to high fives and fist bumps. Here's to all your insecurities - all your stupid, universal, exaggerated insecurities. Here's to all the books you read and all the places you wished you could be. Here's to all the times you wanted to scream at someone but kept your mouth shut. Here's to midnight IMs and drinking tea at six in the morning. Here's to standing off to the side, pretending to text as you look for your friends in the crowd. Here's to feeling independent - riding the bus alone and getting coffee and making decisions. Here's to eye contact that makes you want to explode. Here's to lists scribbled on the margins of chemistry notes, on sticky notes, on the back of hands. Here's to laughing so hard you fall on the ground. Here's to scoring a goal in your soccer game for the first time. Here's to all those weird dreams about people you've never met and people who don't exist. Here's to those leaps of faith that make your heart race. Here's to being the girl who perpetually stares out windows. Here's to making faces at people across the room, behind their back, in front of the photobooth. Here's to mental breakdowns and slowly concocting their remedies. Here's to finding new things to care about. Here's to those nights riding home when the air is brisk and cool and you stick your hand out the window just to take it all in. Here's to terrible singing to terrible songs. Here's to dirty jokes and awful puns and laughing at things that aren't even funny. Here's to sitting on your front porch, barefoot, watching the sunset. Here's to being nostalgic about a childhood that wasn't even that long ago. Here's to leap days and holidays and every day. Here's to throwing pity parties because you weren't invited to real parties. Here's to songs that know exactly how you feel. Here's to arguing about stupid things that seem so important at the time. Here's to all the pictures we took and all the pictures we would have taken if we'd remembered to change the batteries the night before. Here's to acting like you're five half the time and 85 the other half. Here's to all the junk food you ate - zebra cakes and milkshakes and cookie dough and everything else. Here's to perfecting the art of being an angsty teenager. Here's to when you realize it's 12:12 AM on a school night. Here's to all the time spent waiting, for things to start, for things to stop, for things to just be different. Here's to sitting in the front row of the theatre. Here's to all those hours spent in bed watching Netflix. Here's to depressing winters and depressing Tuesdays. Here's to learning how to drive. Here's to traveling to places for the first time. Here's to overly emotional journal entries. Here's to being both happy and sad. Here's to you.

Here's to sixteen.

madrid (spain p. 3)

Madrid looks just as beautiful at night. 

 We saw some people selling books on the street. Look, Harry Potter!

Park by the Prado!

Sorry this was such a scattered, wordless post. These are sort of the left over pictures. We were only in Madrid for about four days, though we were able to pack a lot into those four days. I really enjoyed Madrid and I don't know how else to describe it. 

Next up: Toledo!