Today was a pretty long day. I had trouble sleeping last night, (which isn't really new) and then I had to get up early. So, here's the readers digest version of my day: Got up too early, rushed around, late for church, grandparents showed up, looked at grandparents cruise pictures, stood around for socially acceptable amount of time, politely excused self, drove home, changed clothes, passed out on couch, ate crispix, went back to church, stay long time, fill up gas in car, come home, draw in sketchbook, watch music videos, eat bacon bits, get online, pepper has eaten a plastic piece of a ball, and VOILA! Here I am. Wait, that was the short version? Apparently I'm kinda chatty today. And some of those descriptions were a little too basic to the point of cavemangirl vocabulary.

So, on to the actual point of this entry. This very nice guy I met, haha actually that kind of makes me laugh. It sounds like something shady. Whenever I start a story with, "this very nice guy I met" it usually takes a really bizarre turn and leaves everyone confused. But for real this time, he is nice, and this story doesn't end with him drinking barbeque sauce in the kitchen. Ahem. That's a fun story too though. Right, where was I? Anyway so Number1Hypocrite, also known as Michael passed on this survey to me. The first link is his blog, and the second is his music, which is REALLY good by the way. Especially the chamber music stuff.

And now, I will fill out the survey! This entry is going to be SO long. Haha. But I don't care, cause it's my blog. And what are you gonna do about it? So right, the survey. I have to show you the 5 links, and  move them up one spot and add my link. Then I write 5 things I miss about my childhood. And after that I pass it on to 5 more people. (That's alot of fives, right?) And ya'll, they passed me the music baton survey on DA, and nobody that I picked actually answered it. So basically, music baton DIED. Because of me. I still haven't recovered. Don't let that happen again. It makes me sad. Sad makes me pout. With sad puppy eyes. Sadness.

You see how that works? I'm on the list now! Okay. Now 5 things I miss from my childhood, and apparently I have to explain them too. Cause I guess otherwise you'd get confused. More so than you already are.

    When I was a little girl, we lived next door to my grandparents. My grandfather was really into beekeeping, so out in the woods he had all these beehives and everything. Everytime he would rob the hives (Haha that sounds so sinister. I love it), he would give us honey. So for most of my childhood I associated him with big mason jars full of honey, with the actual honeycomb chunks still inside. It was amazing stuff too, so much better than the honey you get from stores. Although, that could've just been because I was little and I thought he was unbelievably cool for bringing us honey. A large part of my childhood diet consisted of honey sandwiches because of this.  And because I was a picky, rotten little brat who didn't like vegetables. Oh wait, I still am. Hehe. Anyway, my grandfather passed away when I was about 14, but I will never forget beehives and honey sandwiches, that serve as reminders of the wonderful person he was.

    After moving from the aforementioned house, we lived in this place with a huge backyard. The backyard actually led into a softball field, which led into woods. There was a lake back there, which technically was more of a swamp. I was often convinced that some sort of loch ness creature would come tromping out of it at any minute. But being a little kid and living next to woods, is really alot of fun. Because we didn't put alot of thought into things like the millions of snakes that probably lived around that lake and crazy hobos and bloodsucking ticks. So my brothers and I would have all of our friends over and we'd all wander around in the woods and play in the stream and throw things/people into the lake. And when you're little, that's like the best time you can have on a summer afternoon. As I got older, I found even more fun uses for the woods. Shutup gutterminds, not like that. This girl I didn't like at all used to follow me home alot... much like a crazed puppy. So since I had to put up with her, I'd suggest that we go for a walk in the woods. And then I would pretend to get lost. And I would lead her over to where I knew this guy lived who repaired guns, and you could hear him testing them, and I'd convince her we were tresspassing and... okay, enough of my evilness, you get the general idea, lol. And really, it's not my fault that she fell for that... REPEATEDLY.

    Haha yes that's what I said, boys. When I was little, relationships were SO easy. All you had to do to get yourself a boyfriend was rip a page out of your notebook, write "do you like me... check yes, no, or maybe" and hand it to him. Next thing you know, he's your squaredance partner in gym class and life is good. You never had to worry about any of the grown up relationship stuff. If you broke up with a boy you could be back together by lunchtime, and around about recess you could have replaced him entirely. That's what I call speed dating. And if all went well one of your other friends would perform a pretend wedding and you'd have yourself a husband for at least a week.

    The church I used to go to used to have bonfires all the time in the summer. We'd spend the whole afternoon running around playing baseball, volleyball, frisbee, and other random games while we ate excessive amounts of junkfood and waited for it to get dark. Then we'd have a huge bonfire and roast marshmallows and chase eachother around and catch lightning bugs (fireflies). I never really thought about how much fun I had at those until just now when I was trying to make this list. I won't forget those either, I still have a nice scar on my knee from tripping over a soccerball in the parking lot. As you can tell, I've always been coordinated and graceful, lol.

    This one is not to say that I don't have dreams now. I just miss the feeling you have when you're little that absolutely anything is possible. When you're 7, you have no problem announcing to the world that you're going to become an astronaut or a liontamer. It seems perfectly logical in your mind at that point, and you see no reason why you couldn't do anything you could imagine. We get older, we become more realistic and grounded and scarred, and it takes it's toll. Somehow you lose that spark that made you think you could do anything as long as you could dream it up. And you didn't think of things in terms of success or financial well being or practicality. If you wanted to be an astronaunt AND a liontamer at the same time, then it seemed reasonable. It's really kind of courageous when you think about it. Jumping up in front of all of your friends and throwing out dream that seems completely unrealistic without a single flinching moment of doubt. We should hold on to a little bit more of that. And no, I never wanted to be an astronaunt OR a liontamer. I think I wanted to be a vet. In the spirit of that attitude, I'll go ahead and say it... someday I'm going to be a graphic designer AND a photographer, AND own my own business. When I grow up, lol.

Okay, so now's the part where I finally shutup and pass this on to five more unsuspecting people. Ready? Too bad! Here goes! In no particular order..