Well, not really. The 4th is tomorrow. Today's the 3rd.

Last night was IDT. We are already half-way done with IDT! It has flown by! Last night was fun.

Today has been boring. I woke up around 9:30 and just laid in bed until like 9:50. Haha. Yes, I know, I'm lazy. I got up, ate some cereal, went on the computer, helped my mom with groceries, ate lunch, went to the car dealership, and here I am. ://

I wish my summer wasn't so boring. It seems like I haven't really done anything that's fun. I'm not even going on vacation. This sucks.

Well, as the title of this post declares, I have returned! I know you missed me. Don't deny it *Cough*[KAT]*Cough*.

Anyways, this week has been...hectic. I will start by separately describing each of my days since last week until today.

Sunday (May 18):
Boring. Just sitting around anxious to get out of my house.

Monday (May 19):
School is incredibly long today. Well, that's how it feels. Sat around until about 7 and then I decide to start packing. Went to bed around 10.

Tuesday (May 20):
I had to get up rather early today as to get to school and then ride in the bus to the airport so we could be on time for our flight out of O'Hare. I woke up about 2:45 AM and I double checked to make sure I had all my stuff packed up and everything. Got dressed and went downstairs with all my luggage. The Skelley's [carpool] picked me up and took me to school. When we got to the school, we put all of our check-in bags in the van and called found our seats on the buses. We all sat down so we could make sure everyone had a place to sit and that everyone was there. I chose a window seat. The way the seats in the bus were set up was there was a middle aisle and 2 seats on either side of the aisle. Then they called us outside into the parking lot again so we could pray and we could be briefly be told what was going to happen once we made it to the airport. As we were filing out of the bus, I stood up and twisted so I could get into the bus aisle. I felt this sharp pain in my knee and I thought that I had hit my knee on something. Then I sat down and realized that I HAD DISLOCATED MY KNEE!!!! I started SCREAMING in pain. I screamed, "I DISLOCATED MY KNEE!!!! OH MY GOD!!! I DISLOCATED MY KNEE!!!" It took a few seconds before people started to realize that I was serious. Everyone was still on the bus waiting to get into the parking lot. It was so incredibly painful that I thought I was going to vomit. I started screaming, "I'M GOING TO THROW-UP!!!!!" I screamed this for the obvious reason that I didn't want to vomit on somebody. People quickly vacated the bus as I sat there. There were about 3 chaperones on the bus. They came over to me and they looked at my knee. It was obvious, even through my pant-leg, that me knee-cap was to the left and my bone was to the right. One of them called an ambulance and I pulled my phone out and told one of them to call my parents. SO many emotions were going through my head: Anger that I was most-likely going to miss the trip, Anxiety for the pain to stop, Fear that I had permanently damaged something, Fear that I would need surgery. All I could say was, "Oh My God." I meant it as in, "Oh My God, make it stop," and as in, "Oh My God, why me?!" The chaperones stood in front of me watching me. I could feel that my bones were out of place. My leg was cocked to the left in an angle that was obviously dislocated. I was grabbing the seat in front of me so hard that I would feel my fingers on the other side of the fabric. The chaperones said we should pray. So they prayed that no permanent damage would be done and that I would be healed. They said, "Amen" and about 5 seconds after that my knee popped back into place on it's own! It hurt a little going back in, but it was such a relief. The nausea had gone away and I laid my leg out flat across the aisle on the opposite seat. I just put my hood up over my eyes so I could concentrate. I gasped for air and waited for the ambulance to come. Once the EMT's had arrived they came onto the bus and examined my knee. It had been obvious that it had been located. Me knee didn't look like it had been dislocated. It was obvious because the look on my face of sheer agony. I stood up and limped over to the ambulance and they said I had one of 2 options. I could either go to the hospital, get it X-Rayed and confirm that it had been dislocated or I could go on the trip and risk the possibility of having to flown home the next morning because it could become black and blue and incredibly painful. I could also risk it dislocating AGAIN. My parents thought about it and decided to let me go, but I had to wear 2 ACE bandages the entire time. So I went on the trip! My dad drove me to the airport because the others had gone ahead so they wouldn't miss the flight. When we were boarding the plane, as I was sitting down my knee popped out and back in really fast. I hurt, but it was the only other time on the entire trip that it dislocated again. The flight to DC was pretty calm. About 1 hour and 20 minutes. I had a window seat with Alexis and Evan. I mostly just listened to my iPod and slept. When we landed we went to our coach bus. It was really nice. It had TVs and really comfortable seats. Our tour-guide was name Albert. We called him Al. Our bus driver was named Hill. He was pretty cool. We spent the rest of the day touring Gettysburg. It was interesting. For lunch, we stopped at an out-of-the-way restaurant complex. There was an old-fashioned buffet, a McDonald's, a KFC, and a Chinese Buffet. The Chinese buffet was the only place where there wasn't a huge line (Hmm...) so we ate there. The food was crap. I wonder why there wasn't a line. That night we ate at an Old Country Buffet (Another buffet!? GAH!!). It was also crap, but was full of people. I thought about saying to some couple there, "Leave! Why are you eating here?" I had to restrain myself from doing so. Then we visited the Jefferson Memorial at sunset. It was a great view of the Potomac River. We got back on the bus, went back to our hotel and just hung out for awhile.

Wednesday (May 21):
Today was good. I was able to walk around without a problem. Very happy about that. We spent pretty much all of today walking around Arlington Cemetery. Did you know that it Arlington Cemetery is over 7,000 acres!!! HUGE!! Anyways, we toured General Lee's house. It was pretty cool. We heard the 21 gun salute. Those cannons are LOUD!!!! The first time they fired it, the girls I was with FREAKED. We were totally surprised. It was actually pretty funny. Haha. We then went up to JFK's eternal flame. Very peaceful. We went and saw the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was pretty cool. I was somewhat sad that even though there are a lot of people the in the summer because of tourism, in the winter time, the soldier is there all alone. That nobody comes to watch him. Almost as if nobody cares. It really creates a tug on my heart. I do not know why. Doing what the guards do requires a lot of self-discipline. We then took the metro to downtown Washington. We got on the train and got off. To actually leave the substation in downtown, you have to go up an escalator...the world's 4th largest escalator! Talk about random! Hahaha. It took about 2 minutes to get up the dang thing! When you look to the other escalator, it looks like you are going to straight up. After we got off that, we ate. There were a bunch of restaurants around the metro station, so me, Luis, Ryan M, Stepfan, and Joey L ate at Quizno's. There was actually COBB SALAD (to those who starred in or attended the play)!!! It was pretty yummy. Afterwords, we went to the crosswalk and sat down by a restaurant and chilled. There was a guy there that we took pictures of. It was pretty funny. We then went to the Iwo Jima Veterans Memorial. It was really neat. While we were there, we actually saw a survivor of Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima!!! He was so cool! His last name was Miller. I forgot his 1st name. Al said that in all 8 years of him leading tours all year long, he has never had anything like that happen. It was special. We left there and visited the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress. The Rotunda is HUGE! Al said that you could fit the entire Statue of Liberty in it! Then we went to the Washington National Cathedral. AL said you could fit the Statue of Liberty sideways in the main sanctuary and still have plenty of room left! It is really big (the Cathedral)!!! We left there and went to an Italian restaurant called Alfio's. I forget what I had was called. It was pretty good. After we ate, we went to Souvenir City (an actual store) where I bought a hat, a light-saber, and pins for each Presidential candidate. We went back to the hotel and went swimming, hung out and then hit the sack.

Thursday (May 22):
Today we got up bright and early and headed over to the FDR memorial. This memorial is right to the side of the reflecting pool and is divided up into 4 parts. One section for each of Roosevelt's terms. There were a lot of fountains in that. It was really nice. We then walked to the WWII Veterans memorial. As we were walking, we passed the WWI Veterans memorial. A huge disappointment. Nobody goes to it! I was like, "Come on!!! People still fought in that war!! We should respect them!" It was all stained and dirty. It looked like it was falling apart. I really wish I could do something about it. The WWII Veterans memorial, on the other hand, is fantastic! It is very big. Beautiful. After that, we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space. I've been there before, but there is a lot to see! We ate at the Air and Space and then walked over to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. That was cool, too. When we were done there, we went to the Holocaust Museum. That is the saddest, most heart-breaking museum you will ever go to. It is so incredibly horrible what the Nazi's did to the Jews. I was astounded at the lack of respect. There is a section named Daniel's Story. It is a walk-through of how a child name Daniel's life changed throughout the Holocaust. To make it look realistic, they had beds and things you could touch during the whole thing. There were benches that said, "Jews Only" on them. They had things like this out as to make it seem more real. There were other school there and the kids were SO DISRESPECTFUL!!! There were yelling and making jokes. They were so annoying that me and another girl turned around twice and screamed at them to shut-up or leave! The groups weren't chaperoned. My group was me, and 4 other girls. I was MAD. After that, we went to the Air Force Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. We went back to the hotel, swam for a little bit, hung out, and then lights out.

Friday (May 23):
Today we went to Mount Vernon, George Washington's final home. It was really cool to see all the old antiques from so long ago, and to see how our first President lived. The view of the Potomac River was spectacular! We ate there and then went to the International Spy Museum. On the way there, we passed Ford's Theatre. Too bad we didn't get to stop. It would have been interesting. The Spy museum was okay. It was somewhat interesting, although it wasn't like how I thought it would be. Oh well. Then we went to the White House for a picture stop. Pretty cool. You could see the guards on top of the House. There was a lot of people there. After that, went to another Smithsonian. It was another Air and Space museum. It is there because before it was built, they had a lot of extra planes and aircrafts in storage, and nobody could see them. So they decided to make a museum out of an old Hangar. It is cool! We then said our goodbyes to Washington, our hotel, Al, and Hill. We boarded our plane an came home. A good end to a good trip.

Saturday (May 24):
A pretty boring day. I was still tired from my trip. Didn't do much.

Sunday (May 25):
We went to church, then to the airport to pick up Eric, and then we came home and had Kayde's birthday party. A lot of people showed up. It was a lot of fun. Although, there were a lot of gnats and bugs, which were somewhat irritating. Kayde got about $100. She was happy.

Today (May 26):
Today is HUMID! I woke up and I could feel the humidity. I hate humidity. Mom made breakfast/ It was Good! She made pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, and muffins. Very good. We went to the Memorial Day Parade. It was good. Not as long as the others. The humidity went down, and there was a nice breeze. It was cloudy, too. Even though the sun wasn't out, it wasn't blinding us, either. We came home and Mom and Dad took naps (and I started this post! Haha!). Jessica then came over with Curtis. They spent today at Starved Rock. They had fun. They also took pictures, so she showed us those. Then Grandpa Kirk came over. He left a few minutes ago. Now everyone is coming in. Eric and Curtis are looking at European coins. Kayde, Jessica, and Mom are in the kitchen chatting. Dad is outside doing something. Today has been pretty good. I'm going to go now. I hope you enjoyed this massively long post. Good bye!

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted! My life has been hectic lately. It is somewhat awkward to type because a few weeks ago I smashed my finger in a door and i had to cut off my fingernail yesterday, so now I just have this really sensitive, tender area where my nail used to be. I looks weird! Haha, figures. Well, I only have 14 days of school left!!! Actually, I am enrolled at CCS for 4 more weeks, but excluding weekends, Memorial Day, and my 4-day-trip to Washington D.C., I really only have 14 days. The last week of school will probably be pretty easy-going, too. I am finally going to graduate! My life has flown by. I remember like it was just yesterday when I transferred to CCS from St. Paul's for middle school. I felt sick to my stomach because I didn't know anybody except Sam. I have a lot of random memories from when I was a little kid, too, but I wish I had more. After we graduate, me and a bunch of friends from church and school are going to meet either at someone's house or the church and just look back at our lives and how far we've come. Just a time of introspection. I will enjoy it. I am so excited for D.C.! It is going to be so much fun! I also shadowed at East Aurora on Tuesday. It was cool. Sam and I shadowed a kid named Jorge. We skipped two classes, too! Too bad we only could stay for half of a day and then we had to go back to CCS. Almost everyone in my grade is failing Language Arts because my teacher assigns too much homework. Only the smartest kid in our class is getting a B. Everyone else had either a D or an F! I find it somewhat amusing. Thats is all for now! I'll try to post soon!

Hey. I'm at Joey Costello's house and it is like 3:48 in the morning and Joey is playing GH3, Nick is about to play, and Sam is just chilling. All night we have just been pretty much talking. We went to the Showplace 16 and saw The Superhero Movie. That is the gay-est movie in the world. Like, literally, gay. I would not recommend seeing it unless you are going to mess around in the theater the entire time. After the movie we went over to Jewel and bought some energy drinks and some muffins. Joey keeps having like black-outs and is almost high. It is pretty hilarious. Then we went back to Joey's house and pretty much talked the entire time. We went outside and took a short walk on the runway behind Joey's house and then we played with sparklers and made a video of it. We came back into the house and talked about what we would do in like a worst-case senario situation. It was pretty interesting and scary at the same time. Tomorrow we hope to go for a ride on Joey's golf cart, eat breakfast at IHOP, and go to downtown Naperville. I have about $30 left to spend on breakfast and lunch tomorrow, well, more like later on today because it is now almost 4 o'clock. That is pretty much all for now. We haven't been doing very much, but we are keeping ourselves entertained. I will post again either before I go to Grade Groups tonight or late-late-late tonight to tell you what we did downtown. That is all for now. Okay, Nick wants to get on the computer now. Bye.

Ok. Does anybody remember when Xanga was actually like...popular? Well, I do and I remember the great feeling I experienced when I was able to actually share what I felt about things and my personal views on life without the awkward silences and hard-feelings of a conversation. So, in order to be able to share with you the last quarter of my 8th grade year and possibly even some of my high school years, I decided to start a new one! Aren't you jealous?

So, today is the first official day of my spring break. I go to a private school, Calvary Christian, and we usually have spring break and days off on different days than the public schools around us. But that's okay, because most of my other friends have spring break this week. Yes, I know, it is very complicated. To reflect on the past weekend. Saturday was pretty boring. Didn't do very much. My sister got her driver's license last week so she and I went to the movies and saw Drillbit Taylor, which I might say, is a hilarious movie. After that we went out to Farm & Fleet, then to Panda Express to grab a bite to eat. When we were done with that, my dad had to go to Best Buy to buy some ink for his printer. So, we all went in and i just tinkered around with the gadgets there. On Sunday, we went to church, came home, napped, and pretty much just relaxed. My mom made a big Sunday dinner, and we talked to my Eric (my brother who, at the moment, is in Lithuania) on Skype.

So yeah. Not too exciting, not too boring. Tomorrow I hope to go to the movies again with some friends and then go to a friend's house. We hope to see the Superhero Movie. Ok. BBL.