Lilly'sday- (Grandest Adventure)

Hello again, my friends :D I hope you have had a wonderful past few weeks, and i am delighted to talk to your gorgeous faces once again :D This weeks topic is our grandest adventure. So take a seat, get cozy, and prepare yourself for a little story (dont worry its a picture book). I would say that i have gone on MANY adventures, ranging from making fairy houses in my back yard (always have always will) or little trips to the park to my biggest adventure yet, The one i am currently living (but more on that later). The adventure story I have decided to tell you on this muggy July night, actually happened exactly a year ago! 

Summers for me are usually extremely uneventful. I hang out with a friend or two, go to a summer camp [Where i am now a Volunteer (GO TR!)] for a few weeks, and basically try to find ways to entertain myself the other 72 days of summer. Last summer (and this one but sadly i wasnt able to go) I was invited to go with my friends the Snyders (Virginia, who comes up frequently on this blog including yesterdays post) on their annual trip to Idaho for three weeks. 

That Trip would not only be the longest time i had ever been away from my parents, but also be the farthest i had ever driven across the county. That trip was basically 21 days of exploring the mid-west (a part of the country i had never seen) and having new experiences. Without a doubt i would say those where the best three weeks of my life so far. Although there where rough times (everyone being so tired of being in the car we could hardly function, for example), every single day was an adventure, filled with new experiences and challenges. I made so many memories that i hope to never forget. ^.^ That adventure not only helped mold me into the person i am today, it also ignited the desire in my heart for adventure even more! (If it was even possible) 

I think I should add a few photos here because i honestly dont think words could do it proper justice. 

(Seeee Fairy house! I told you!)

I was wrong.... they didnt do it justice, those are just some my favorites out of hundreds. 

Adventure, to me at least, is just doing something (sometimes hard things)  and putting a spin on it that only you can! Even simple everyday tasks like going to the store, or going outside, they can be adventures if you make them! To some people, maybe what i mean... isn't the exact definition of adventure. But the feeling of adventure, to me, is being open minded and letting good things happen. 

In two days I leave for the biggest adventure of my life. I dont know what is going to happen or who i am going to meet. What i do know is where i am headed and how to get there. And after that i just have to keep an open mind and do my best to MAKE it an adventure! Its not like it isnt scary, the unknown is always scary, but that certainly shouldn't stop me from something that potentially could be the best thing that has ever happened to me. ^.^

Love you all see you in a week, where i will be writing from a new home, in a new state :D  

Also sorry for having so many speaks 0.0

-Lilly

  

Adventure Post of Adventure-ness (2 AM Edition!)

Disclaimer: My fabulous cousins are in from South Africa on their annual trek to the United States and as such this is going to be a relatively short post, as I'm rather busy and will continue to be during the next week or so.

Disclaimer Number 2: 

It is 2 AM. I am sleepy. This will be rambly.

Moving on.

My grandest adventure, hm?

To be honest, “adventure” seems a pretentious word to use, to me. It implies a journey, feelings of new discovery and resulting insights into the world around us. It has connotations of that sense of prickly danger on one's skin and pleasantly anxious tightening in the chest as you charge forward on a beautiful and perilous undertaking toward New Things and the Beautiful Unknown, standing atop a mountain or navigating the U.S. in an unreliable vehicle with (hopefully) slightly more reliable friends that never fail to make you laugh.

Frankly, from my personal experience, this is extremely hard to come by, especially at the young age people who use the word typically are. It's more of a word that tumblr addicts use to put a name on this teenage ideal they wish they had the energy to go out and pursue (but instead paste with pretty fonts over nature-y backgrounds with a sense of brooding, yearning angst). So I don't like to use the term in everyday conversation.

But, persnicketies aside, the closest I've come to experiencing this sort of sensation is when I was a kid and everything beyond my backyard kind of buzzed with that electric, magically fun sense of immediate peril. Especially at my friend Cat's house, when we would venture into her woods when her parents were away and climb up into this enormously tall tree stand, sitting and overlooking the Lands Surrounding with an air of throned Narnian queens. She, her cousin (and mutual friend) Virginia and I would pretend we could control elements in the wickedly kick-butt manner of Last Airbender characters and were sort of heroes in this make believe world we had between the Tree Stand and the Creak. The Creak was a muddy trickle of an ordeal that served as the line beyond which Magical Things were probable to occur. Arachnia is the name we came up with for this realm. (Apparently, add -nia to any moderately cool-sounding prefix and BAM. Alternate fantasy world, done.)

So yeah. Childhood. That was when everything felt like an adventure by its traditional definition, places and things being innately new and mysterious and interesting, and that was wonderful. I think it's important to not lose touch with that side of ourselves, even as we grow, and perhaps even one day quit yearning for this unattainable perfect summer journey full of whimsy and ridiculously witty dialogue with the helpless desire that we do. Because unless you are a John Green character, it probably isn't going to happen the way we envision it.

Don't color me pessimistic, though. It doesn't mean you won't have good times, because you will (you'll have some great ones too, if you're lucky). It doesn't mean you won't exchange witty dialogue from occasion to occasion, or laugh so hard you fall over at something devastatingly hysterical a friend says. But it does mean that we all should appreciate these things when they happen because they usually won't be lumped together in one great big fabulous and oft-romanticized summer stew.

If one learns to see an adventure in everything they experience then life suddenly becomes a lot more interesting. Let's all stop brooding and do something today.

Talk to you all next week, hopefully in a more coherent and eloquent manner.

Elizabeth

What is an adventure?

We're back. 

Baby got back. 

Back in black. 

Back to Bedlam. 

Baby back ribs. 

Back in the USSR. 

More back than the Backstreet Boys. 

We're back. 

Take this all with a grain of salt though, because the topic for this week is not exactly something I am proficient in. It's a topic about our grandest adventures. 

#IDon'tUsuallyGoOnALotOfThem

Had this been a topic three months ago, I don't think I would have even posted. Maybe I would have thought if something, but I don't think it would have been anything other than a stream of pretentious consciousness.  (See, aren't you glad I didn't continue with alliteration?)

I think that before I started thinking about adventure from a more…zoomed out perspective, I'd have said "No!"  Or something similar, then excusing myself for a lack of "adventure."

That doesn't really cut it. 

I mean, if you take your lens of life (Dear Lord help me, I sound like a self-help book.) and zoom it back in, you'll focus on things that are a little bit smaller, and in a lot of cases, this is a good thing. 

I think I was originally going to make this post about my trip to Kansas, but I'm already doing a series of posts about that over on my personal blog, attemptingadventure.tumblr.com 

So that sort of rules that option out, even though it was probably my biggest adventure to date.  

But then, there's also little adventures. 

One time last summer I went to the skate park with some friends and I would consider that an adventure, because of the little adventures it contained. 

Another "adventure" is when my friends and I would go up in the woods behind where we had our homeschool co-op and take the ladders and chairs that used to sit up there. (The woods back there have long since been cleared, but I bet the ladder and chairs are where we left them, nearly 10 years ago!) 

I think what I am trying to say, is that adventure is what you make of it, and that typing this could possibly be my biggest adventure, because I have no way of knowing where it's going to lead me. 

Thanks for reading and making this blog awesome. 

See you next week!

-Ranger

we'll be back on july 1st

-Ranger :3

My Day. 6/16/13

Hello, thoughts from people!

This week I don't think you're going to see much from us, as Nate, Elizabeth and I will be chillin' like villains in Kansas, for the One Year Adventure Novel Summer Workshop.

If you're wondering, this is the first time I have actually met them IRL, so needless to say, I am extremely excited about this, as well as being nervous. 

I'm writing this while sitting in the car, with about 8 hours of the trip remaining.    

The last time I took a car trip this long was in 2009 when I was 11, so I am not accustomed to this at all. And my legs are longer. And they hurt. 

So, to relieve my boredom and to take my mind off of the fact that my neck hurts because I thought I could carry 5 packed bags at one time, I will be logging this journey every so often here, for you to read, since I've nothing better to do. 

Yay. 

9:00am-ish  

We're leaving Nashville! 

10:00am 

Okay, so we're now in Kentucky, and will be entering Missouri soon.     Back in Tennessee, our styrofoam plates flew out of the truck, as they weren't tied down. 

That was funny and scary and depressing, as we had been on the road for less than eight minutes.

10:17am.  We've been on the road for about an hour, and not much has happened.  A kayak almost flew off of the car in front of us, and now it's behind us, so should it fly off, I will miss that potentially life changing experience.  

There's also been a lot of Wheat, Silage (The corn used to feed cattle and such.), and horses.    

It's also flattened out a lot.   In Nashville, where I live (Well, just outside of it.) we have a lot of hills, and I've really only ever been to Alabama, Mississippi, Southern KY, and Indiana, so I'm not used to a different landscape.  

You can probably tell that I don't travel a lot.   I'd like to in the future though, if I could get over the incessant need to bring absolutely everything that I have owned ever.   

10:32am 

Parents are fighting about something related to Indiana.  Not sure what though. 

I have a lot to look forward too though, so I'm not going to let it bother me.   Besides, this happens every trip, with the usual angry swerving of the truck, and the throwing of maps.    I just turn up my music and write or something so I don't have to acknowledge that it's happening.    It doesn't make me mad or anything, because it shouldn't.  I just don't like thinking about anything remotely depressing while in the car, because for some reason it magnifies it.  

11:06am 

I just saw the water tower for Paducah Kentucky after taking a short nap.      I've been filming a bit out the window here and there, for car footage if I make a video about this trip. 

11:41am

We're leaving Paducah, and I got some pictures of the world's most adorable car on the face of the planet. I'm serious. It is.    

We've only been in Illinois for about 5 minutes and it's already what you'd expect. It's really flat and uneventful.    I mean, if we happen to find a convention of corrupt politicians, I might change my mind, but as it is right now, I don't think I will. Besides, we'll be in Missouri soon anyway.   

12:09pm

I think we're still in Illinois, but I could be wrong. 

We have an incredibly hard to endure audiobook playing. My brother seems to enjoy it though, which keeps him happy enough to be a tolerable little being. 

12:53pm 

We're only halfway through the Illinois leg of this trip.    So far we've seen a prison and some corn, which I guess is better than nothing.     My camera fell on my face when I fell asleep, and that didn't feel all that great, mostly because of the fact that I almost broke my microphone.  Hopefully I didn't screw up the audio levels or anything, because I don't have enough money for another one, and I can't get one for another few weeks anyway, meaning that the audio at this workshop would then be rather…tinny. 

1:53pm

It's an hour later, and in that time we entered and are now leaving Mt. Vernon Illinois.  While there we stopped off at the world's most ghetto Hardees, with a kitchen that had a film of nastiness that was at least two inches thick.  

Thankfully my gluten intolerance, and my old pal Celiac disease came in handy, subsequently preventing  me from partaking of their sad excuse for a food like substance. 

My dad just said we'd be in Illinois for another hour.    This is going to be a long hour. Plus it's raining.  I really hope nothing bad happens, because I don't think I'd forgive myself.  I'm already feeling guilty about dragging my family halfway across the country for this trip anyway, and that certainly would not help matters at all. 

3:12pm

I went to St. Louis. 

A city with a crime rate higher than Brian Jones at his swimming pool.  

It was nothing more than a pass through, so I had just thought that there might be a rough district or two giving me reason to believe that yes, it really DOES have a high crime rate. 

When we got close to the edges of the city, with the fame inflated arch in sight, I saw nothing more than run down industrial parks and a boarded up victorian home here and there.   

Nashville, (TN, not IL) has those too, and I think every remotely large city has that. 

Here though, they just got closer together. The more we drove the more depressing it got.

We hit the bridge into downtown, and most of even the biggest "nicest" buildings were covered in vines, and the city seemed dead. Huge, but dead.   I had always thought that Nashville was little more than a few honky tonks and some other tourist-y attractions, until I took a closer look, when I found out that it was a town that was bouncing back from its time as a bit of a slum

, in order to become something good, and fresh. 

In hopes of seeing this, I put on glasses as rosy as they could possibly be, but it didn't help. 

There were rows of old houses, and old warehouses that looked like they were made at the turn of the century. Potentially beautiful homes and former businesses now home to squatters and people who could care less about the endless cycle in which they live. 

It hurt to see it as miles passed and nothing changed. The rows of houses kept on, now becoming sparser, not from their construction, but because 2 out of 3 units had been burned out or torn down.   

Finally we passed over a small hill that gave way to little post WWII salt box houses as far as the eye could see. Some strips of them looking well kept, but most looking as if they hadn't been painted or even thought about as anything more than a roof in 40 years. 

Maybe my judgement is too harsh. Maybe it's because I don't know the people that caused this. Maybe if I did, I would have a different opinion, but I didn't get to stop, so all I have is the ability to take things at face value, and to use my better judgement. 

4:06pm

We're in traffic, of people from the surrounding factories getting off of work, and I can say that the surrounding towns outside of St. Louis aren't all that scenic.  

I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't a scenic trip. 

According to the GPS, we'll be pulling into Overland Park Kansas in about 3 hours. 

5:31pm

Still on the road.  .___. 

6:16pm

Stopped off at a rest stop, and we had a nice leg stretching, bladder releasing session.  Sadly it was one of those rest stops filled with people that 

Also, if you run over a road worker in Missouri, it's only $10.000.00 but if you run over one in Illinois, it' $15.000.00

So if you need to run over a road worker in those two states, run over him/her in Missouri.  

We also keep passing this one Jeep that we think was at Bonnaroo, so if we stop again and see them, or see where they are from, I'll let you know.   

We saw them at the rest stop, but never got a chance to ask them anything. If I had remembered to, I would have, but I didn't, because that's how I roll. 

7:25pm

We passed the Jeep about an hour ago, and the tags on it said Florida, which kinda rules out Bonnaroo as a possibility for where they had been. 

Right now we have about 30 minutes to go before we get to our hotel. 

I can't wait to get out and walk around, and maybe explore the hotel a little bit, as well as have internet access. 

I guess that's when I'll post this, since I'm going to be busy all morning. 

So far everything has gone okay, and I am happy.      

I have to wonder if this is going to be the longest blog post I have ever made. Like, ever. 

7:49pm

We're in Independence Missouri, and if you've ever seen me play Oregon Trail, be it on Windows XP or on AppleSoft Basic, you'll know that driving through here is a very traumatizing experience for me. 

8:56pm

We're in Kansas!  We've made it here, and had a safe trip!   Currently off to explore the hotel!

FAREWELL!

-Ranger :3

Something that means so much to me.

There are so many things that mean a lot to me, but there are just a few things that I can never replace, and make me feel all warm inside. I'll go through the list: 1- A drawing from Sara: This is at the top of the list for a number of reasons. It was hand made, it includes the lyrics to our favorite song, and she gave it to me on the day that we had been together for 2 months. 2- My guitar: I just pour my emotions into the music. When Im happy I'll play something like Radioactive, by Imagine Dragons. And when I'm sad or angry I mostly play stuff by Disturbed, like Down With The Sickness or Asylum. 3- My bed: Any time I just want to be alone, I just shut my door and lay on my bed. That's all I got. Sorry my posts are so short, I just don't have enough time in my day to make a long post.

Life, The Door Of

I'm still unsure about this post, since [call me conceited] I like to think of my room as a little treasure cove of quirky washed-up artifacts of The Life Of Nate.  So, actually, choosing something was quite a challenge.  I was debating whether I should write something on the paper lantern I got in Belgium when I went to the Festival of Lights.  But, since I was seven then, I don't think I could do the story justice.  It's mostly just fuzzy images of a great bonfire full of dead Christmas trees and a plethora of pyromaniacs.  Or I could write about the little trinkets I have from all over the world, the statue my friends sent me from Turkey, the stuff my sister brought me from New Zealand and Belize, my bracelets from Africa and Haiti.  But most of these stories are short, or, to be honest, boring.  So I have decided to write about the favorite aspect of my bedroom.  That would be my closet door.  Which, to be fair, is not exactly 'one thing.'  I like to think of it as a mini-art gallery of The Life Of Nate.  Which is the reason I call it my Door Of Life.
I cannot rightly remember when I started the Door.  It started with a few pictures from my travels in Belgium and a picture of Medusa in gold pen my friend had drawn me [bless her].  It evolved from there, until it is what it is today - a mini reflection of me, and the people I love.  Basically, if you've ever given me anything remotely meaningful - a picture, card, token, etc - that can be stuck to a door, it's on my Door Of Life.  Poems my friends have written, quotes I love, pictures people have drawn me, post cards, photos, Doctor Who fanart.  A stamp with Audrey Hepburn on it my grandmother gave me.  The receipt I got when I purchased a print of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.  Business cards I've collected from various places.  Magazine clippings.  The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg preside at the top, a tribute to my favorite literary metaphor.
I think the reason I love my Door Of Life so much is because it serves as a statement of how I view life.  Life is a door, splattered with meaning and friendship and images all held together with some kind of earthly sticky tack.  But what's behind the actual Door Of Life is not my closet.  I think I find it beautiful how no two people really believe the same thing about what's beyond the Door (obviously, as a Christian, I believe it's Heaven), we all have ideas, hopes, and expectations for what we'll find there.  What we'll find behind the faded items that cover our souls.

A rather blurry image, I apologize, and it doesn't really do it justice, but I hope this gives you an idea.  Cheers!

So, yeah, that's me trying to be deep while talking about my closet door.  I realize it's probably not all that interesting to anyone, so I'm keeping it short. ;)

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

Ciao!

^(OvO)^