Tomorrow!

Sam's coming to Calgary for a lot of days starting tomorrow and I'm very excited! This is the longest I've gone with no Sam since before camp!

<-- This is Sam's only time ever participating in a theme dinner at camp. We have our fake smiles on.

Front?

Nope... I'm BACK!

I had a sweet time in BC/Washington/Montana, but it's nice to be back in Calgary. I was also in Idaho, but I was driving through the skinny part, and the speed limit was 75mph (about 120k/hr), so it didn't last long.

Ashley: 0; Chairlift: 1.

So I get off the chairlift and turn to go down the other side of the mountain.

WHACK!

Smoked in the head by the next chair coming up. It hurt, but whatever, right? I was OK. Finished the run, it was still hurting, so I took off my toque.

"Hey Cooper, is my head bleeding?"
"Uh, yeah."

We got a good laugh out of that and then I called it a day so I could go back down to the chalet and brag about my bleeding head (it was already 4:30 anyways).

Can you tell what shirt I'm wearing in that picture? It makes the story even funnier.

Ahhh Yeah!

The temperature hit 60F (15C) yesterday! I was in my shorts and t-shirt and my family was all like, "dude, it's not that warm out." Well, that's what my brother said. My mom doesn't use the word 'dude.'

I now have somewhat of a plan for the rest of the week, but I'll tell you all about it as it happens.

Oh, and I didn't get a car yesterday, so I'm inheriting my mom's old Durango for now. I'd tell you more about that, but it's not really an interesting story at all.

I'm at my mom's house in Maple Falls! I thought there'd be tons of snow up here, but the ground is completely bare. But it's also green and beautiful and I'm lovin' it.

The ski retreat up at Mt. Seymour was CRAZY. 85 people is A LOT of people to live in that building for a weekend. But it was so SWEET to hang with so many people who I love. I keep thinking of how much better it was than last year, but I think it's mostly because last year I got a killer headache and slept through most of the thing. And my car died last year.

Anyways, I'm looking to buy a car today, maybe hang out in Seattle/Nooksack/Vancouver a bit tomorrow and maybe the next day, and drive back to Calgary on Wednesday or Thursday. I think I'll go via Missoula, Montana so I can stop in and say hello to Jessica. Maybe I'll add Erin in Twin Falls, Idaho if I'm feeling really ambitious. We'll see what happens.

That's all for now... Later, friends!

I didn't have my listening ears on.

When my alarm went off this morning the first thing they said on the radio was something about service interruptions at Whitehorn Station. This would usually mean nothing to me, but that's where I have to get off the train to take the bus to the airport tonight. (Yeah, I'll be wandering around the NE by myself at night... sweet.) But I wasn't listening to what they were saying because I don't listen very well in the morning. Hopefully it wasn't relevant to my situation.

Yesterday at Bible study I was talking with a girl. Andrea is her name. I like talking to Andrea. Andrea's sweet.

It was all very normal until, in the middle of the conversation she randomly said to me, "I just can't believe how much you remind me of Pam from The Office." Then the guys on the other side of the counter were all like, "Oh my word! You're right!"

Then they gawked and discussed it right in front of me and concluded it all by telling me that I need to find my 'Jim'. And also that I need to go take the Facebook quiz to find out which Office character I am the most like.

Haha. Oh, brother.

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In other news, I am currently packing for tomorrow's plane ride as if I'm going on a 11 hour road trip. That's because, if all goes according to plan, I'll have a car to drive home at the end of next week. If not... well, I haven't thought that through yet.

I've never put so much effort into considering what to pack for a trip. I even looked at the weather forecast and, also, I let people know that I'm coming before I even get there. I'm just growing up so fast.

Hanna!

That's where I went this weekend. I've been telling a lot of people that Hanna is in Montana because I think it would be funny for a place to be called Hanna, Montana. But, in reality, it is a small town about 2 hours NE of Calgary, in Alberta.

It was a really great weekend! Sam took me on a tour of the town, so I acted touristy and made us get out of the car to take lots of pictures, even though it was REALLY cold, and there wasn't much to take pictures of. Oh well, I'm going to share a couple of them with you right now anyways.

This is where Sam comes when her phone rings in the middle of the night. I've heard that she is very good at backing the ambulance into this garage.

I tried really hard to get the "Welcome to Hanna" part of the sign into the picture, but it was too cold and windy so I gave up and we ran back to the car.


Then we tried to take a picture of ourselves with the town's giant goose. After several attempts, this is the one with the most of the goose in it (but unfortunately not much of Sam, who looks really cold). Then we ran back to the car again.


Hanna has a town office...


...and we got a $1 garlic press so that we could make supper. (It broke in the middle of pressing its 5th clove.)

Again, it was a really great weekend. Really. Haha, for how much I talk about missing Sam, I sure do get to see her quite a bit. But now I won't see her for two whole weeks! That's the most since June! Since June? Really? Whoa. (I just realized that right now!)

Also, I'm flying to Abbotsford on Thursday and kickin' around the Lower Mainland/Nooksack Valley/Seattle area for a week or so... it's gonna be sweet. Let's hang out!

2 nights 5 hours

That's how much sleep I've had. I'm not even staying up too late. I'm waking up at 3 with a tummy ache. It's not even excruciating or anything, just annoying enough to keep me awake. Yup. Been up for 4.25 hours already today, how 'bout you?

I'm thinking I will NOT be participating in the youth all-nighter on Friday.

On the upside, I am giving off the impression of being a morning person due to the fact that, on this sleep schedule, I don't see people until 5 hours after I wake up. I have also begun to genuinely enjoy watching The Weather Network and I have put a small dent into the huge stack of books sitting next to my bed.

Seriously?

Let me start off by saying that this post is in no way an invitation for you to prank call me.

Last night Sam found out that I don't have caller ID on my phone. I told her. I don't know what would ever make me think that was a smart thing for me to tell her, but I told her nonetheless.

Anyways, we were done talking and about half an hour later she prank called me. Sam kind of sucks at prank calls. She just yelled "BOO!" and then hung up. Then she called back like 30 seconds later to laugh at how "funny" she is.

BUT THEN... today, while I was "working" (mostly playing Wii), I got a phone call from some lady speaking in broken English asking for someone named... Akiko. Actually, I can't remember what name she said, but my second cousin's wife is Japanese and named Akiko, so I'll just go with that for now. I hope that doesn't make me culturally insensitive. I politely tried to explain to the confused lady that she had the wrong number.

I figured that, even though it did NOT sound like Sam, she must be the one behind this nonsense.

It was NAN prank calling me. As in, Sam's grandma. As in, Sam had her GRANDMA prank call me. Isn't that messed up?

Camp Not Luther

I volunteered at an SABC (Southern Alberta Bible Camp) retreat this past weekend. It's no Camp Luther, but it was pretty sweet.

I had two rooms full of pre-teen SABC veterans who figured that, since they had never seen me before, I must be a complete and total rookie. So, I walk into the room and they are all trying to sleep two to a bed so that they can all be in the same room. I shut that down fast, so they got all mad and glared at me a bit, then I made jokes about how dramatic they were being, and they couldn't help but laugh at how funny I am.

It was weird working at another camp. But it was also kind of fun to just be a lowly volunteer and have no responsibilities or anything expected of me at all. Even though some of the program drove me nuts (I wanted to fist fight whoever decided that it would be a good idea to have a talent show at a retreat) and I just wanted to fix it.

Anywho. I am exhausted. Is going to bed at 8:30 so wrong? Also, Sam is here tomorrow and I am going to go hang out with her whether she likes it or not. But maybe we will skip the sleepover this time around. (Last week I went for a sleepover when I had to work at 8 the next morning... on the opposite side of the city... BAD IDEA.)