Friday and thats good.

Dear Jeff Peterson,

When you first started working as a GoodKnight at my father’s office I couldn’t stand you. As of the last few days however, I have really grown to enjoy your personality and would like to apologize for any hostility that you might have been subjected to on my account. I plan on enjoying working with you for these next couple of months, and I hope nothing comes along that would hinder it. See you on Monday.

Respectfully,

Camille Ione Studer, B.O.A. Trainee

Dear Seth,

I haven’t seen you in like, three days or something. Hows life? Hows work? Hows school? Did you enjoy the latest issue of Brio? I certainly hope you did.

I honestly don’t know why I chose you as my subject, maybe we’ll move along.

You sister,

Camille

Dear Edward Jones,

You died about 30 years ago, but I’d like to thank you for creating such an amazing, honorable company. I pushed myself at work today and got THREE training modules done instead of the regular two. That’s pretty good Ted, considering Dad has been EXTREMELY busy because of this Simpson College Bond that is coming out on the 2^nd. The phones have been ringing off the hook, and Lisa and I barely have a minute to breath. Never the less, like I said I’m really trying to push my training. I hope to take my first unit test by Thursday or Friday of next week.

You were a good man Ted.

Sincerely,

Camille Studer

Dear Charlie,

So you’re the level 7 gymnast who helps out on my brothers team eh? And you’re also the dude who my sister Laura has a stupid crush on? Hmmm, I’m not so sure how I feel about you. I mean its not really YOU that’s the problem, but Laura is only 15 and a little emotionally unstable. I’m just saying.

Oh and also, could you please get a new coat? I’ve noticed that you wear this black leather number quite a bit, and its just on the verge of ‘Biker’. I’m just saying.

So will you be at the meet tomorrow? I assume you will, Laura is very excited because she is positive that you will be. Do you know how long this meet is going to last? The last one lasted five hours, and the one before that lasted nine, and I’ve got to be honest, its over kill for me. My brothers are adorable little gymnasts, but I can only handle so much.

Anyways, I’m still not sure how I feel about you. You’re what…17? 18? Do you have a career of any sort? You drive a nice car, I must give you credit for that. As Laura has mentioned, you’re pretty ‘buff’ shall we say, but you’re a gymnast, that’s excepted of you. So I’m not that impressed.

Anyways, you don’t know me, but I’ll most likely see you tomorrow. Good luck competing.

Suspiciously,

Camille Studer

Dear Mom,

Oh you want to know how my day went? Heres the low down. 6:00 up and getting prepared for work. 7:30 Putting my coat on and grabbing my green training file 5:pm coming home with Dad after an insane day at work 5:01pm Finding out the Fellers were at our house. 6:00pm Helping feed 11 kids and being chased around the house by 10 year old Kenny Feller while he yelled “Dang it, marry me!” over and over again behind me. 7:30pm Cleaning up the house after Fellers finally left 7:50 Started my laundry chores, folded all the towels, ironed all the clothes I had to 8:45pm Worked out on our new low impact exercise thing, I adore it! Its so great, its like jogging but it doesn’t have to be summer…oh man, this was great 9:30pm Finished my workout and hopped in the shower 9:45pm Got on the computer, and here I am now.

So that was my day Mum, that was my day. And tomorrow we get to spend all day at a gymnastics meet Mom! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Grrrr, and if only Erik didn’t want everyone there so badly….grrrr…

Tired Mummy, tired,

Cam

The first Dear

Authors Note: I realize that I am mimicking the ‘mock letter’ style of writing that my brother uses in his livejournal, but it was at his prompting that I do so. I said I admired the style, and he said that he would have no problem with me borrowing it for a while. So I shall, thank you Seth Studer.

I think I shall use my friend Matthew Glen Taylor as my first subject, but I plan on using many other subjects as well. So don’t be surprised if your name pops up every once in a while.

Dear Matt,

Today was my first day as a ‘B.O.A Trainee’. It wasn’t that different, but I did call and get myself enrolled in all my on-line courses. It looks like there’s going to be fifteen units, and within each unit an average of twelve modules that I’ll need to complete. Or something like that. Anyways, I must complete them within 6 months, but I’ll planning on doing it in two.

It was the busiest day I’ve ever seen up there though, and I’ve been working at Dad’s for over a year! It was insane Mr. Taylor, I never had a down moment. At one point I had three people holding, 4 people in the waiting room, and I was trying to print off labels for a bond that’s coming up and I just about lost it! BUT, all ended well. Anyways. It looks like this ‘Spending tons of time up at the office’ thing, is going to work out ‘okay’ for a while at least.

Nothing else went on that was too smashing today. About an hour ago I was doing round offs in the living room, with a mud mask from the Dead Sea on my face. That was pretty interesting.

I talked to Gail (My school advisor and Spanish teacher) at Spanish class (well obviously) yesterday. She gave me yet ANOTHER pile of crap for my senior year ‘Honors Projects’, and oi vey. I Just don’t want to deal with that right now.

Spanish is still going well though, I enjoy learning a foreign language, no matter what it is. I’m still hoping to take Italian soon though.

Mom has already started talking about my graduation party Matt, can you believe it? She’s insane. I’m trying to pick a ‘theme’ though. I’m deciding between ‘mermaid style (Nautical, ish? Seashells, sand, starfish…candles, faux sea glass…you get the idea.)’, ‘Eastern Indian Chic’, or ‘An Art Deco’ thing of sorts, nothing really specific, but I know what I’d want. So yeah…I’m trying to decide. And its tough. But I do have some time, right?

Oh, and heres an update on some more plans for my future.

I still want a cat named Vito, but I’d also like one named Apollo. And both males. Males are really the way to go if you’re getting a cat.

And my children’s names are still going to be Harrison, Whitecliff, Drake Allen, Vincent, Claudia Ione, Sonja, and Katia. Um, well that’s the list anyways. I might have to choose from it.

Its time to end this letter, goodnight.

-Camille

Um....hi?

I hate it when I go a few days without blogging. I get in a rut and then I just keep putting it off. Luckily for you readers though, I’m blogging as we speak. Obviously. Here are a few things that have been frequenting my brain as of late.

-I suppose the most ‘important’ news would be my working full time at Dad’s office. It’s a long story, so I’ll try and break it down into points. a.)Dad has had one full time B.O.A (branch office assistant) and three on callers. Those being Genny, myself, and a woman named Deb (Deb was fantastic but do to circumstances that cannot be discussed here it is now impossible for her to continue helping us at the office. Lets just say her other employer doesn’t want her to work more hours at HIS office, but he doesn’t want her working for anyone else either. So barf and vomit on that control freak, but that’s the way it is.

b.) So Deb can’t come, and then theres Genny. Well Genny is almost useless…she can answer phones and send out birthday cards, but that’s about it. She is a really nice woman but she just doesn’t cut it when it comes to the ‘brains’ department. c.) Then there has been me in the past, and I’m a phenomenal on caller but that’s all I’ve been. d.)So Dad has been working his um, shall we say tush off to find another full time B.O.A, but to no avail. e.) So what was proposed? “What about having Camille go through all the training and have her work full time until I can find someone? It would probably only be for a few months, and she’d learn a lot.” f.) So that was the proposition that we went with. Result? g.) I’m going to be working a minimum of four days a week as an office assistant, dealing with the public, learning MUCH more about the stock market procedures, and completely a series of ‘training modules’ until I have my title. Perks? g.) A required raise (Can we say new laptop/college fund?) because of my new position, and pretty much a guaranteed job for my future (Once I’ve really got this down, I could go almost anywhere in the country and there would most likely be an IR looking for a B.O.A. So I guess you could say ‘Emergency back up job’ is one of the perks. And the cons? h.) I’ll be piling these hours on top of everything else I have to do. School, bead business, family responsibilities, a social life that I’m not too fond of anyways, and any other random crap that comes along.

So basically what this boils down to kids, is that I’m going to be VERY busy for the next couple of months, but I will also be learning a lot, improving my self discipline, and making lots of mullah. I’m not going to lie and say that the one that I’m most excited about isn’t the last one. Because it is. Hello Napoleon Bonaparte my new laptop! You will be mine, very, very soon.

What else is new and fun…

-Oh, one thing that I’ve been wanting to address is the fact that I HATE that the thumb isn’t considered (Or called) a finger. Apparently we all have four fingers and a thumb. That has ALWAYS bothered me. I’d hear “Now place the ring on the third finger of the left hand…” and I’d think to myself “Wait a second, your ring finger would have to be your second or your fourth, not your third, that’s impossible…’

But oh right, your thumb isn’t a damn finger.

-The boys and I built a Lego fortress earlier this week. Legos are simply THE best toy on earth, and I would be willing to argue with anyone on that statement. They’re fantastic. My children will have a book, and possibly a few other random toys…but they will have millions of Legos. So help me, they will.

-I really can’t stand Dennis Quade, but Kevin Costner is alright by me. For some reason I associate those two in my mind. BUT, the movies I associate those two actors with are as follows: Kevin Costner, ‘Robin Hood Prince of Thieves’(One of my all time favorite movies so please just accept the fact and don’t bother me about it.) and ‘J.F.K.’ For Dennis Quade, ‘Dragon Heart.’

I think I’ve said enough.

-Oh, we spent most of our day today at the boys gymnastics meet. They did well, but there was SO much more competition this time that they didn’t come home with quite as many medals as they did last time, but they still had fun.

One thing though, um, well once again I have to gripe. You know how they always play/preform the national anthem at sporting events? Well, I HATE it when there’s a vocalist. The thing is, the vocalist is hardly ever talented, and they ALWAYS drag it out. So your two options are usually a boring, straight forward, classic instrumental anthem that lasts just the right amount, or a massacred piece of something not very nice, that drags on and on, and all the while you’re thinking ‘Dear God when will this end? Screw patriotism or nationalism or whatever this is, my ears are being tortured…’

So what do you do? Get it over with and listen to a mediocre version? Or take the chance with humans hoping that you’re lucky and have gotten someone with talent.

Well guess what? You don’t have any control so tough luck.

That’s what is bad about the national anthem.

Frustrated.

I was so frustrated today. I don’t know why. Maybe its cabin fever, maybe its feeling trapped in this town, maybe its being sick of all the junk we have to deal with, I don’t know. Maybe it was Spanish class and feeling like almost every other student came from distant planet. Maybe it’s the cold frozen world right now.

I hate the way it looks. Its hard, dead, grey, bitter, messy, ugly, frustrating.

Maybe its this house. Maybe it’s the fact that I might have to start working a lot more, on top of everything else. Maybe its just me. I feel useless today. I just want to scream. I mean I appear fine on the outside, but inside my head feels like it’s going to bust, like it needs to bust…I just want something to happen. This is driving me crazy. I want out.

Standing here
The old man said to me
"Long before these crowded streets
Here stood my dreaming tree"
Below it he would sit
For hours at a time
Now progress takes away
What forever took to find
Now he's falling hard
He feels the falling dark
How he longs to be
Beneath his dreaming tree
Conquered fear to climb
A moment froze in time
When the girl who first he kissed
Promised him she'd be his
Remembered mother's words
There beneath the tree
"No matter what the world
You'll always be my baby"
Mommy come quick
The dreaming tree has died
The air is growing thick
A fear he cannot hide
The dreaming tree has died

Oh have you no pity
This thing I do
I do not deny it
All through this smile
As crooked as danger
I do not deny
I know in my mind
I would leave you now
If I had the strength to
I would leave you up
To your own devices
Will you not talk
Can you take pity
I don't ask much
But won't you speak
Please

From the start
She knew she had it made
Easy up 'til then
For sure she'd make the grade
Adorers came in hordes
To lay down in her wake
She gave it all she had
But treasures slowly fade
Now she's falling hard
She feels the fall of dark
How did this fall apart
She drinks to fill it up
A smile of sweetest flowers
Wilted so and soured
Black tears stain the cheeks
That once were so admired
She thinks when she was small
There on her father's knee
How he had promised her
You'll always be my baby

Daddy come quick
The dreaming tree has died
I can't find my way home
There is no place to hide
The dreaming tree has died

Oh if I had the strength
Take me back
Save me please

Its so funny, I keep myself busy during the day, and try to push these feelings aside. But at night, the task becomes much harder.

This one is

spot on.

You Are 23 Years Old

23 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

These...

Colorado boys and their quizzes, I swear I could waste my entire day doing these.

You Are a Visionary Soul

You are a curious person, always in a state of awareness. Connected to all things spiritual, you are very connect to your soul. You are wise and bright: able to reason and be reasonable. Occasionally, you get quite depressed and have dark feelings. You have great vision and can be very insightful. In fact, you are often profound in a way that surprises yourself. Visionary souls like you can be the best type of friend. You are intuitive, understanding, sympathetic, and a good healer. Souls you are most compatible with: Old Soul and Peacemaker Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Morning eh?

Dad has done this thing for years when he gets up early, and then wakes me up too and tells me to go take my shower. He doesn’t get anyone else up, its just me and him. I think he just wants another person to get the hot water heater going. Hes a freak about that sort of thing, hot water, the temperature in the house…

So right now I’m up and Dad’s at work and everyone else is in bed. I can’t even start my chores until the other girls get up. Bah.

I tried to make it an early night last night, but I heard the phone ring at 10:30 and it was Chelsea. She did have something important to tell me, but the only took five minutes. Lets just say we were on the phone for two hours. She was at this conference thing, and needed someone to talk to about the things she was feeling, and while I was glad that she was calling me instead of Lincoln or Josh or something…I wanted to go to bed! Ha, but I’m a selfish girl.

It was fun I suppose. We got ranting about the state of the world, how we think politics are complete crap, and how we feel useless as far as changing anything. Ha ha, we have slightly different attitudes about it though. She would usually say something like this “Yeah whenever I hear about those poor people, I just want to love on them and take care of them! And I think about poor children, and how so many of them will never be cuddled because their parents are dead…” on and on and always sounding like an angel or something. I was a bit more brash. “Chelsea, this is the way its always been. So what if we’ve got it good in America, other nations don’t even THINK like we do, they don’t want our changes. They can’t even seem to comprehend them. Gah! But just the self centered nature in this country is about enough to make me vomit! We’ve got these people who have millions and millions of dollars, and instead of sending the money where it could be used so wonderfully, they buy ANOTER Mercedes. Gah, and don’t get me wrong, I could help out more too…I really could, we all could…its just…”

Rant, rant, rant, rant. Lots of ranting. Chelsea has hope with a touch of airheadness and unrealistic dreams, and I’ve got hope with a touch of cynicism, but an aching desire to do something. I don’t know what, its just hard sitting in this country happy and free, and not doing anything to help. What can I really do anyways? Theres things, I know. I know.

Bah.

Oh, and I suppose my blog is sort of like that horse in ‘The Wizard of Oz’. The changing color one that is.

Too much.

Tonight is one of those nights, when I have a million and a half things going on inside my head, yet I have nothing to write. I want to write something because I don’t want it to appear that I have nothing going on inside my mind, because there is nothing further from the truth, but its so hard to choose one thing.

We went to church today, it was fine. I hadn’t been for weeks, just because of circumstances, it just didn’t work out. It was good I suppose, just fine. We did regular ‘Sunday’ things, lunch, a little shopping. I finally picked up my bible, I lost my old one a couple of months ago and ordered a new one last December. Its weird, but my favorite translation is NKJV. I just like the feel of it I guess, the tone. I mean it’s the bible for cripes sake. (Whatever that means.) It’s a slimline, NO center columns as far as reference goes (I hate those.) red lettering, burgundy leather, dnd with my name on it, so its harder to lose. So yes, its nice to have one again. I don’t have to lug around my big study bible.

I watched ‘Saving Private Ryan’ while I did my chores tonight. Hmmm, is was hard to watch. I don’t know what to say, it was emotionally hard. I mean I’m sure it is for everyone…I dunno…yeah its too late to go there.

I think I’ll just go to bed now. I went to bed at a reasonable time last night, and it felt great to have a ‘substantial’ amount of rest. I had REAL energy today. So maybe I’ll go read some ‘War and Peace’ and call it a night.

I hope all of you are safe and warm, and can feel some peace.

* * *

Pretty nothings.

Nothing too amazing went on today, just usual things.

Pretty words, these are.

My hopes are so high,
That your kiss might kill me,
So won't you kill me,
So I die happy.

My heart is yours to fill or burst,
To break or bury,
Or wear as jewelry,
Whichever you prefer.
~
For so long i thought i was asylum bound,
But just seeing you makes me think twice.
And being with you here makes me sane,
I fear i'll go crazy if you leave my side.
~
Man it takes a silly girl to lie about the dreams she has,
Lord it takes a lonely one to wish that she had never dreamt at all.
Oh look now, there you go with hope again,
Oh, you're so sure I'll be leaving in the end...

Treating me like I'm already gone,
But I'm not, I will stay where you are always.
I will stay, I will stay, I will stay...
~

*whew

Wow, these last few days have been SO insane…I am WIPED. Heres a little sample of my schedule.

*Yesterday morning I was awaken by Mom yelling up the stairs at me. She said that All three of my Dad’s secretaries had called and they couldn’t make it in, so could I be at work in 20 minutes? Um…okay…

So I worked until 2, and then I had to dash home, pack for a sleepover, pick up Laura at work, took her home, and headed off for CR at 2:20. I had an appointment at my oral surgeon at 3:00, and that’s exactly when I got there.

After that, I got back on the interstate and started my journey to Chelsea’s house. She lives an hour and fifteen minutes away. She had called the day before and said that she wanted to see me just once more before she goes back to college, so could I please drive to her place and spend the night? Um, okay…

So I got there and actually had a pretty good time. Her brothers Sam (17) and Andrew (AKA ‘Stink’) (16) are the best guys ever. But they’re really not guys, they’re little brothers, and that’s what makes them so great I think. We all just chill, the four of us can get going and madness abounds! Wow, we have SUCH a good time. I love the Yoder family. Anyways, later on our friend Josh Smith (Generic name eh?) showed up, and that was fun too I guess. Yeah. Josh left, we goofed off some more, and then we went to bed. Chelsea and I stayed up until three talking.

Oops.

Chelsea gave me MORE Christmas gifts too, sheesh! I gave her a bunch of stuff, and she gave me a nice gift as well, but apparently she thought it wasn’t enough. So I showed up and she had a gold purse from the gap filled with little things waiting for me. Sheesh. That girl.

*I woke up this morning, said goodbye to Chelsea and the boys, and started for home. It was so, cold. Like I said a couple of days ago, we’ve had ice storms, blizzards, and now fridged temperatures. It was -11 when I got into the car this morning. I started it up and by the time I got both hands on the wheel they were BURNING with cold. This is insane.

It was a nice drive though, once the car warmed up. The sun was coming up, I had good music to listen to, and a nice long drive. It was grand.

The reason I had to be home so early though, was not so grand. Do you remember that evil café I used to work at? Well, Laura worked there this week, the owner is on a cruise and asked if Laura could come back for just the week, and she said okay. I never would have said okay. And then Laura got in a bind. Apparently, this kid named Matt who was supposed to work today called in and said he couldn’t make it, so Laura asked if I could fill in. I only did it because Laura would have been running the whole place practically alone, it was just her and Kelly scheduled…oh man though, what a time. I DETEST that café. I got back in there and all the memories FLOODED back, ugggg. Okay so heres what happened today.

Kelly had to run the bakery in the back, Laura cooked, and I was the only waitress for the whole bloody café. Just me, good lord! It was not good, not good at all, I fired my brain…I hate that place.

Anyways, so I was at work when…

*I get a call from Mom, and she said that once again, all of Dad’s secretaries crapped out on him and he was there alone, so could I be there at 2? GAH! So I ran home, changed, at worked at Dad’s until five.

I’m wiped guys. Wiped. Thank heaven for finally being home and still, sweatshirts, and tea. Oh, and sorry that my writing is shit.

Woohoo.

The good old color quiz again. Thanks bro.

Hmmm, it would appear that I have some serious issues...

Your Existing Situation

Having difficulty in making progress. Despite the attempt to conceal impulsiveness, her activities lead to problems and uncertainties, making her tense and irritable.

Your Stress Sources

An existing situation or relationship is unsatisfactory, but she feels unable to change it to bring about the sense of belonging which she needs. Unwilling to expose her vulnerability, she therefore continues to resist this state of affairs, but feels dependent on the attachment. This not only depresses her. but makes her irritable and impatient, producing considerable restlessness and the urge to get away from the situation, either actually or, at least, mentally. Ability to concentrate may suffer.

Your Restrained Characteristics

Very exacting in the standards she applies to her choice of a partner and seeking a rather unrealistic perfection in her sex life.

Conditions are such that she will not let herself become intimately involved without making mental reservations.

Your Desired Objective

Seeks the determination and elasticity of will necessary to establish herself and to make herself independent despite the difficulties of her situation. Wants to overcome opposition and achieve recognition.

Your Actual Problem

Anxiety and restless dissatisfaction, either with circumstances or with unfulfilled emotional requirements, have produced stress. She tries to escape from these by denying their existence, concealing her dissatisfaction behind a proud but illusory claim to self-sufficiency and independence.

Are birds filthy?

Camille Studer stands in front of her bedroom mirror. She needs to put her hair up, but how shall she do it? ‘Lets go Grecian today’ she thinks to herself ‘I haven’t gone Grecian since the day before my teeth were ripped out.’ Camille likes doing updos that mimic the feminine Grecian styles, its easy and the result is most acceptable. She begins twisting her dark locks and securing them to the back of her head when her younger sister Emily enters the room. Emily walks over to Camille’s window and stares at the tree below. She asks Camille a question…

“Do you think birds are filthy?”
“No, not really.”
“Well I think they are. Its like do they ever wash themselves?”
"Yeah.”
“How?”
“They flap around in water.”
“Oh yeah sure, like they all take turns at the ‘bird bath’ things.”
“Emily there are other pools of water they can use.”
“I guess.”
“Well I mean how dirty can they be anyways? They’re either in the air, and they can’t get dirty up there, or they’re standing on their feet. So really their feet would be the only problem, I think they’re feathers are pretty silky so most everything slides off.”
“That’s true.”
“Well I mean the little ones at least. I’m sure some big birds are filthy.”
“Well obviously.”
“Yeah.”

So I guess some birds are filthy.

THE END.

I feel like this song today. Don't ask why, because I don't know.

I'd rather see you dead, little girl than to be with another man.
You'd better keep your head, little girl, or I won't know where I am.
You'd better run for your life if you can, little girl,
hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man, that's the end, little girl

Well you know that I'm a wicked guy
and I was born with a jealous mind.
And I can't spend my whole life trying' just to make you toe the line.
You'd better run for your life if you can, little girl,
hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man, that's the end, little girl

Let this be a sermon, I mean everything I said.
Baby, I'm determined and I'd rather see you dead.
You'd better run for your life if you can, little girl,
hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man, that's the end, little girl

I'd rather see you dead, little girl than to be with another man.
You'd better keep your head, little girl, or I won't know where I am.
You'd better run for your life if you can, little girl,
hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man, that's the end, little girl

A Sunday Alone.

Camille Studer is sleeping tranquilly in her bed on a cold grey Sunday morning. It has been almost four days now since her wisdom teeth were tragically ripped from her jaws, and she is improving dramatically. Shes feeling very good this morning, sleeping well. Her alarm did go off at 3:30am so she was able to take her pain medicine on time and no have to worry about waking up to horrific pain. Oh yes she is feeling very good indeed. Laying on four down comforters and being covered by a cool quilt in a dim room is very nice. Rest, solitude ,healing, peace, and…

*FLICK* Her older brother Seth flips her bedroom lights on and shes blinded and confused. “Huh, wha? What…you…no go I am ugly…” Seth stands in the doorway. “Do you like my shirt?” he asks. Camille looks at his shirt, its blue and actually very stylish, something people would call ‘hip’ I believe. Mother has done well in selecting this one. “Yeah Seth…it’s a good shirt.” Camille says as she stares at him and thinks to herself ‘I wonder if Seth notices that I don’t have my glasses on and my eyes are almost completely shut, so how could I tell if it’s a good shirt or not?’. Their dialogue continues.

“So are you going to church Seth?”
“Yeah are you?”
“No.”
“Why? You should come.”
“I don’t have time, what time its it?”
“Its 7:50am, you’ve got 40 minutes, you should come.”
“No my face is still too puffy and I know I’ll fall asleep at church. I fell asleep last night at the movie.”
“Oh. But you like the shirt right?”
“Yes…oh! Oh I see, you’ve got your date today…ahh…that’s it.”
“Yeah, where should we go to eat?”
“I don’t know, are you wanting to go somewhere nice?”
“Yeah, something like Panera but not Panera.”
“Right, um, well and I don’t suppose you want to go to one of those chain dealies like Olive garden or red Lobster…those aren’t that classy.”
“Right, I was thinking Granite City.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“Yeah, and I don’t know what we’re going to do after that…”
“Are you going to take her to an IMAX?”
“Well, I’m going to offer it but I don’t think it’s a good idea, I really don’t want to do it. So I’m going to offer that, the art museum, and…bowling!”
“Ah that’s fun, which bowling alley are you going to? Theres this one I went to a couple of year ago, its really good, I don’t remember where it is…”
“Well theres this one off of Blairs Ferry that I’m thinking about.”
“Ah, I think mines on the south side.”
“Oh.”
“Yup.”
(Laura walks bye and gasps as she looks at Seth’s shirt.)
“Nice shirt Seth!!!”
“See Camille? She made a bigger deal of it then you did and I didn’t even show it to her!”
“Gosh I’m sorry but I wasn’t exactly awake when you asked…it’s a great shirt okay?”
“Okay, yeah I’m going to go talk to Mom now.”
“Okay. Have a good time with Lindsey today.”
“Okay.”

Seth shuts off Camille’s bedroom lights and walks out of the room. Camille closes her eyes and pulls her covers over her head.

THE END.

---

Well guys, hows it going? I’m on day four, and home alone. I just got out of the shower so I’m feeling good. The pain is still present, but tolerable. Yeah so I didn’t go to church today, obviously. The house is so quiet…its weird.

I noticed this morning that my siblings are getting really hot. Seth looked good today, with that new shirt and all clean and the like. I though his hair looked nice as well, kinda had that roman flair. Laura looked really hot today as well, she was waering this black turtleneck sweater I gave her, and black heels, and when she does her hair and makeup good, she looks very cute. Emily walked by me this morning and she ws wearing one of my sweatshirts and I’m like “Hey is that…” and shes like “Yes its yours I was going to ask but you weren’t around so can I wear it today?” So I said sure, ha. Emily got makeup for her 13^th birthday, in November, and I don’t know how I feel about her wearing it. Shes one of those girls, that really doesn’t need it. It looks overdone on her…hmm. Maybe I just need to teach her how to ‘Use it subtly’ again. Well and Erik and Nile are always too hot to handle, so that’s no surprise. Seriously, those boys…I am worried about their futures. Erik is this hunky manly man, who is sweet as a little kitten inside. Hes got pecs for crying out loud. Hes 8 and he has pecs. Nile, has a six pack and eyes that could kill a girl. THEY ARE HOT. Girls are evil, we’re going to have to beat those aggressive little monsters away from our boys…yeah okay.

We need to start planning.

*takes mental note*

Oh, and then theres Sophia. Shes a charming little fox. Big blue eyes, long curly blonde hair, a pug nose, and a temper like you cannot imagine.

*sigh*

Kids, I’ve got my work cut out for me. A house full of hot siblings, and a world full of evil predators to worry about. This is not good at all.

I went out for the first time in three days last night. We went and saw ‘A series of unfortunate events’ uptown. I’d already seen it, but I loved it so much that I had to go again. I went up in pajamas, and fell asleep for about 15 minutes, but otherwise it was really fun! This movie has to be one of my favorites of all time. The first time I saw it, I cried. Its got this whole ‘Siblings surviving an evil world with a somewhat cynical but at the same time hopeful’ thing going on, and its beautiful to me.

Whoa I should probably go lie down, the medicine just hit me again. Its like POW and that’s it. Okay so its been good, talk to you later.

Oh, and I am once again changing my template. Sorry, I just can't find one that I'm completely happy with yet!

Oh, and enjoy the pics, no make up, frizzed hair...but see if I give a damn. I don't.

My life kids, my life. 

A friend, a human friend! 

Ow.... 

This is where you will find me.... 

Can you see the gashes? 

Peace, again. 

I'm a purple Jabba. 

Ah, my window. 

We're on it! 

Would you like another puff? 

My lamp... 

Nice and puffy... 

Heres my life guys, in a few nutshells. Well, as of late.  

Well I’m sitting up in my room right now, on my bed, with about 25 pillows, and a tray with juice, sorbet, water, pain killers, and an empty bowl, which used to contain my favorite kind of soup from PANERA. Thanks Seth, you’re the BEST. He honestly is kids, hes letting me use his laptop right now, and one of his Seinfeld dvds is in my DVD player. Ahhh...aside from my mouth being in pain, and the fact that this medicine messes with me a little, I’m doing okay.

Seriously, my room is spotless...the shades are halfway open...ahhhh. Yes and these meds make me happy.
Okay so what was I going to say? Oh right, the surgery yesterday. So mom and I headed down to CR, um, at about a quarter to six, because of the storm. My surgery started about eight fifteen, and I was done about nine, it all went well I guess. The only problem was that they couldn’t get the IV to work, because I was so cold. So they bruised up my arm and hand a little, but they finally found a vein that would work. Um so yeah it all went good, all I remember was that I made some joke and then blinked and then they were like standing me up saying "Okay Camille you’re done." and I’ve got gauze in my mouth and I’m like "Huh, wha???" Ha, so it was okay for like ten minutes and then I started tasting the blood, yeah that wasn’t so hot.

So we get home and the kids are kinda freaked out, but Mum took really good care of me. She was really sweet. The pain was bad in the morning and early afternoon, but after that it go better. I’m just still tired and all of that, but everyone has been so sweet...I’m just not used to this. *laughs* I know its selfish, but I really like it, well the having people take care of me part. Okay I don’t really like it but right now its okay. But the meds just kicked in again so ask me again in about an hour and then I’ll tell you how I’m feeling.

Ha, so yeah. I guess the thing I hate the most is the talking thing, it hurts my jaw to open it a lot...so my teeth are kind of clenched...

Ha, wow I should probably go sleep don’t you think? Yeah probably.
Anyways kids, it went well and I think its going to be okay. And I’m just really happy that I’ll never have to do this again.

Really. Really happy.

I’m afraid.

My wisdom teeth are going to be cut out of my gums tomorrow. Most people would put it politely and say they’re going to be ‘removed’. That’s not the way I see it though. I think about being put under, and then a man is going to open my mouth REALLY wide, and take a sharp object, and cut into my gums…

…oh man, this is messing with me. I’m sure there will be lots of blood, we’re talking about the mouth here.

Alright I’ll admit, I am extremely paranoid when it comes to surgeries of the mouth, even just a regular tooth being removed freaks me out. I can handle it, but I HATE, HATE, HATE the feeling.

Okay breathe. Ha, so yes, my appointment is at 8:00am in Cedar Rapids, tomorrow. Okay I’ll be okay.

Okay I’ll talk about the snow. We haven’t had much snow at all this season, just a few dustings, but on new years day there was an ice storm, and then another the next day, and the next…

…we’ve had ice live we’ve never had before, its insanity. Then last night, it started snowing…and around midnight we had at least ten inches of snow. Its beautiful. It continued to snow lightly, pretty much all of today, it was very atmospheric.

Hehehehehehheheheheheheheh….okay yes we have snow, and its white and good and cold so we’re all going to be okay.

And so is my mouth.

Oh, Seth and I watched ‘All the President’s Men’ today. So I learned about the Watergate conspiracies…very interesting. So now that I’ve seen this and ‘JFK’, all I need to see is ‘Nixon’ and I’ll be good to go.

I don't know if I care enough to choose a title right now.

Theres one thing I really hate about living in this family.

What I hate, is the fact that even though my two younger sisters and I cause a FRACTION of the problems around here, we are ALWAYS the ones who get lectured about the changes that need to be made. The changes that WE need to make, the problems WE cause in this house.

Its simply amazing, it never fails to happen. The house gets a little out of control, and lets wrangle up the girls and yell at them. Good idea.

It happened again tonight. We’d had a pretty stressful day, everyone was home except for Seth and Dad, and we were trying to get back into the ‘schoolwork’ swing after the holidays. Mom told me the other day that she’d wanted to review some of my work so we could choose a time for me to begin my testing, and she said that she wanted to do it today, but we never got around to it. She started with the youngest kids, and then spent a couple of hours with Laura and Emily, and I sat by the fireplace reviewing and testing myself.

It really wasn’t any different then its always been before, but I’m the one whos supposed to be done in six months. I’m the one who is running out of time, and it is just getting a little annoying. But you know, Niles penmanship is much more important then making sure I have all my science and math done, oh to be sure.

I’m not trying to have a pity party here, so I’m sorry if it sounds like one.

Back to the point though, it had been a ‘tense’ day to say the least. Almost everyone was crabby, everyone was loud, everyone wanted the attention. And almost everything went wrong.

When Erik wanted to play his favorite song on the piano (He plays it incessantly, but most of us just try to ignore it.) Laura yelled at him and told him to quit playing for just 10 minutes, so then Mom yelled at her and told her to let him play, and LAURA being the genius that she is, yelled some idiotic thing in rebuttal that just frustrated Mom more. When mom tried to get Sophia down for a nap, Emily and I couldn’t get Laura and the boys to shut up. When Sophia woke up from her nap she screamed her head off (we still don’t know why.) for about 15 minutes until I went into her room and talked to her. And when the girls and I were cleaning the kitchen after supper, we started joking around, and apparently it was ‘too loud and absolute nonsense’ even though it made perfect sense to the girls and I (Most people don’t understand us when we speak and its just the three of us. Apparently we know each other so well that we can leave out key subjects and phrases and it doesn’t effect us in the least.), so we got called in for a ‘talk’.

Its more like a ‘yell’. Mom yells, Dad lecturers, Laura mouths off (Thanks Laura!) and makes things worse, Emily gets depressed, I try and listen and keep my mouth shut, and speak when I have something that I feel is important to say…but tonight I just stared off into space.

I really didn’t care at the moment. I didn’t want to try harder to make things work around here, we always have these ‘talks’ and nothing ever changes. Its just so hard living with this many minds and bodies, especially when so many of them are young. I know I will try harder, I know we all will. That’s what we’ve been doing for the last few years now, we try, and we’ve stayed above water…but honestly I’m getting a little tired of treading water and holding life afloat.

We returned to the kitchen, I grabbed the mop and Emily headed over to the sink.

She started to cry.

It broke my heart to see that, I knew exactly how she was feeling. All three of us knew how the others were feeling, but we all deal with it in different ways. Laura gets frustrated, I try and think of what we can do to make things different…and Emily, she gets discouraged.

She started to fill the sink with soap and water, and I set the mop against the well. As I walked towards her she turned her head and her face looked so young, and all I could do was hug the girl. We hugged and she cried on me and I made little jokes about the whole thing until she started laughing.

Heres our plan. Since the parents don’t appreciate our humor when it gets a little crazy, we’ve decided to compare it to ‘being Jewish’. We can’t change our humor, nor do we want to, just as the Jews didn’t want to change their race. So Mom and Dad are the ‘Gestapo’ and every time we start getting crazy in their presence the first girl who notices will say “We’re getting a little Jewish.” And we’ll try to calm down until we’re alone again.

So that’s our plan. A little dramatic you might say, but that’s us. As long as we can make it through a couple more years I’m cool with it.

Sweet kisses at midnight, faces only though! Ha ha. 

Aw...precious! 

The crazy chicas. 

Marta and Camille 

Electric Lemonade. 

Spazoids with drinks. 

Hot chicas. 

Thats not my table...I think Josh took this picture, but thats what the room looked like. 

Before the party. 

Fuzzy. 

Happy New Year!

I had such a great time last night, I'm totally surprised.

I got to the formal around 8:15, and everybody was there and I saw Lincoln, Mel, Audrey, Seth Holts, and Samantha at a table so I went and sat with them. The place looked lovely, it was packed with confetti, balloons, candles, it was just really nice. Dinner was good too, it was just Olive Garden but it was better then what they usually do.

I hadn't seen Katie for a month, and all of a sudden I hear somebody say "Camille!" and there she was wearing a PINK dress with rhinestones! I have NEVER seen Katie wear a dress before, its just not something she does, but she looked great. It was so good to catch up with her, shes doing better. I love that girl.

Apparently they were going to watch 'Napoleon Dynamite' at 11, but my captors showed up right before then. Chelsea and Marta.

I took them around and introduced them to the people they didn't know, and then we left. It was So dead in CR, but I was happy about that! We didn't really want to go downtown to a really nice restaurant and spend a ton of money, and theres no way we could have even gotten into a bar if we wanted to, so we just went to an almost abandoned Chili’s and got drinks and cheesecake.

Our waiter was this guy named Chad, and he was obviously bored so we kept him busy asking for all sorts of stupid things.

Chelsea: "Chad can I get a bowl of marcino cherries for my drink?"

Marta: "Chad you know those towers in the middle of corn fields? Are those for cell phones or radio signals? Oh and could you bring Camille and I some lemons?

Camille: "Hey Chad could you take our picture?"

HA! It was quite the riot, we weren't really that annoying, just pretty relaxed and a little silly. We left him a thank you note on a napkin though with a big tip, so I think its all good with Chad.

Then we started back to my house and got into town almost exactly at midnight, so I pulled into Dad's parking lot and we danced around and yelled and kissed each other. Good fun times.

After that we came back to my house and hung out in my room...and then of course we had to eat some more so we went into the kitchen and brought a bunch of food to the table and lit candles and talked for three hours. We got DEEP at that late hour, ha ha ha. Reminiscing about the year, how we've changed, what we've learned...how we want to make next year better...

...it was good. Marta made us pick New Years Resolutions so I said that I'm going to try and say "No" more when people ask me to do things I really don't want to do. Its going to be tough, but healthy.

So it was a really great new year after all, and I have hopes and fears for the next year...but here it is. I guess I'm just going to have to dive in and give it my best.

Now I'm going to post pictures from the fun night.