I've got a lot to say....

...So be warned that this might, just might, be a long post.
We're going to start with a song.

That was composed and played by a friend of mine. Good job. :)


Alright. On to the news. There's quite a lot, like I said before, so go grab that popcorn, a glass of water, a tissue maybe, and be ready.
I don't know how many people read my sister, Veela,'s blog. Those of you who DO, probably have heard about Astro. I, myself, haven't blogged about him. For those of you who DON'T, here's the info.He died.While we were in NY.
I was just sitting there, on the couch, and I turned on my phone. It had been off, because it was almost dead. So I turn it on. And there's around four text messages from my mom. Almost all of them say to call her. I'm curious as to what is going on. So I call her. previously, she had said that Astro was having difficulties. He was having bowel problems, and he was having trouble moving. So I ask, how's Astro. And she sounds all funny. Like she's not crying, but could. "Astro's dead." Of course, I think you can probably imagine my reaction. "What? He's... He's... Astro's dead?" Because it all seems like a joke. Like it isn't really happening. Astro doesn't just... they don't just die. Not while we're on vacation. It's always been this huge long process for me. With Cicily it was a process of a couple of months. Of her slowly losing her will to live. Before she died of cancer. With Bilbo it was around a year and a half. A year and a half of slow torture. For both him, and us. And Astro, it was just... poof. Like when we got him. We just adopted him and brought him home. No deliberating. Just... it was done. That's what this was like. So I brought out the phone, and I told Val. And she... She just cried. And cried and cried. And we all did. And cousins weren't particularly helpful... Okay, Evvi hugged us, and whatshisface said sorry. But then came the questions.
"Why is your dog lost?""They said you lost him.""I hope you find him again." (That one just about broke my heart. Yes. I hope I find him too. I hope I find him too."
So, moral of this story? Astro's dead.

I'm sure you don't know this about my parents: they love life. That's why they got pets. That's why they had us (nice to know that the reason you were born was the same reason your parents got dogs. JK!!) so it wasn't a huge shock when they started talking about getting a new dog, oh, a week after he died. I was still pretty upset, I think understandably. When Bilbo died I was sad- still am sad. And when Astro died, I was just as sad. So I wanted to wait. And then we went to GS camp. And it seemed longer there, then it actually was. So when we went to get a dog, I thought I'd be ready. It had been around three weeks. I was okay. I wasn't utterly thrilled about it- heck, I would probably have waited. But Carmen was lonely. My parents were excited about getting a new dog, as were my siblings. No matter how many times I said to them "I don't think I'm ready", It wouldn't have mattered. We were getting a dog, gosh darn it! And get a dog we did. We went to the same shelter we got Carmen and Astro from. Oh, that place brings back memories. I kept seeing the cage where Astro was, and thinking "oh no. don't cry." (I cried anyway. once on the way there, and once or twice while I was in the shelter). I was very sad.
There were two dogs we were looking at. One was named "Leo" and one was named "Tommy". Leo was a mix (I think), and Tommy was a German Shepherd mix (though we don't know what he's mixed with). My dad has a thing for German shepherds, ever since he had Heidi the wonder dog when he was 4. So, guess who we ended up adopting?!

If you guessed Leo, you're WRONG. :P So we have a very tall, very thin, very long, German Shepherd named Fritz. (I came up with the name. And then I somehow managed to convince everyone else. :P ) He's a sweetie. But I miss Astro.
That up there is Astro.

But it's, I think, better now. So, yes. That was my adventure with dogs, this and last month.

And that up there is Fritz.

But oh wait, that's not all! I said we went to GS camp. So, I haven't posted about that, either, have I. Nope!
Sadly, I have almost no pictures. I didn't bring a camera, and the only pictures we have are of the flag ceremony at the very end of camp. (which, depending on my patience by then, and my frustration with blogger, I may or may not upload. :P you'll just have to wait and see. ☺)

So. Camp. Camp camp camp. What can *I* say about GS camp. Well. There was a lot of singing. We sang after every meal. There were, probably, a total of 10 songs. And we sang around 5 every time we sang.
This led to be a very repetitive, monotonous, and boring. But it is as it is, and I can't change it.
I was in artistic crafter (no, what, I'm a non-artistic crafter?) in Blue Jay. Yes, that's the stereotypical name for camp. Yes, I told my parents that when I found out where I was going to be. But by the end, it didn't seem *as* stereotypical. Oh, sure, it was, but it didn't *seem* to be. In artistic crafter, we, well, made crafts. I made a birdhouse (out of crappy wood with evil nails), a basket (which is, as yet, not finished), a wire tree (which is SO COOL). We made God's eyes (which are beautiful) and we went to see a glass blowing demonstration. Note: this is around the fifteenth time I've seen a glassblowing demonstration. I still love it. It was at this amazing little shop called Starved Rock Hot Glass which is run completely by one woman. It's amazing there! I loved it! :D Absolutely amazing.
Besides the crafty stuff, we also did a couple of nature-y things. We went canoeing (Which caused me to get a blister on my thumb which hasn't quite healed yet). We went creek walking (AMAZING- and totally inspiring for a story idea. XD ). It was quite a lot of fun. I was homesick a lot, and I got quite annoyed.
You want to know why?
okay.
Well, I'll tell you. I get REALLY annoyed by gossip. And by complaining. In my house, if there's something wrong, you DON'T COMPLAIN. You either deal with it, or you find some way to fix it. If you hate your science (totally seemingly unrelated subject) you either deal with it until you get new, or you tell my mom, and try to arrange something different. you do NOT talk behind her back about how horrible she is, how it's lame, or anything. (Well, you can complain about it, but you still try to figure something out. And not talking behind backs.) In my homeschool group, sure there's gossip. There's the regular celebrity gossip (did you hear about Selena Gomez?!) and there's good gossip. By good gossip, I mean things like "Did you hear, Lucien got a 5 on the AP." "Valerie's birthday is coming up, we should get a party for her!" "Shh, don't tell, but Vivian's mom actually loves her sketch of the flower." Things like that. Positive things. Things that don't hurt people. At the GS camp, it was a total opposite. Sure, we didn't get to do all the crafts. You know why? BECAUSE EVERYONE TOOK SO LONG TO GET READY! Val and I are used to getting up. We're used to following people's instructions. So when we were told that we had two minutes to be up and dressed and under the shelter, we hustled. Then there were other people, who DIDN'T. And they were the people who made sure we *didn't* get to do any crafts, and also the people complaining about it. I heard so much complaining. "The counselors are mean." "They're impatient." "This is ARTISTIC CRAFTER, and we haven't done any crafts!" "The counselors are horrible!" "Nora's so mean!" "Alexa keeps saying..." stuff like that. It irritated me. Besides the gossip, there were "best friends". Like, I didn't know WHY they were best friends. they were always gossiping about eachother, always being mean. They always complained about each other, always fighting. they never got along, and they were never talking to each other. There were around two or three sets of the "best frenemies". And it puzzled me.
But back to the gossip.
You ever hear of peer pressure? I'm sure you have. And I'm sure you've heard that it's hard to say no to it. So I, Angela, am proud to say that at GS camp, I didn't give into peer pressure. This is (if not exactly) what a conversation went between us. (Names are made up. except for mine.)

Kate covers the stamp with soap and washes it off under the sink. "Gosh* they are so impatient."
Diana nods. "They should be more patient."
"I know! They're soooo harsh on us."
I sigh and finish drying my stamp. I notice that while I'm practically done with all of them, the girls have only done around one each. "You know that they're probably just all stressed out. They've been here for six weeks."
Kate looks very annoyed. "But they can still be more patient!"
Diana nods. "Yeah. Totally. They're so harsh. Even if they ARE stressed out, they could just work on being more patient, couldn't they? Like, Daisy, she's always snapping at us!"
Kate nods. "And no one even likes Squinss."
I bit my lip. I'm not going to say anything. nothing.
"Girls! We have to go!" Daisy calls over to us from the other side of the area.
"Yeah, coming!" Kate then turns back to slowly drying the stamps, and gossiping. "See? They're so impatient, it's stupid. And we haven't even done any crafts. They should have more crafts for us! We're artistic crafter, after all."
"Yeah, we haven' done, like, any!"
"I agree! this sucks! I signed up to do CRAFTS, not to be ordered around by impatient counselors!"
I love the counselors. Squinss is grouchy, but she can also be very nice, and she's helped us tie up our tent before. Daisy is amazing. Sleeping Beauty is beautiful, and hilarious! Stars... I don't know Stars very well, but I know that she's also funny. I love the crafts. Sure we haven't done a bunch, but you never know why that is.
"Yeah. Our parents paid for us to do crafts." Kate looks quite annoyed as she dries off another stamp. "My mom's like, throwing away her money on this!"
And that's it. I slam down the paper towel (well, if paper towels made a slamming noise when they hit a garbage can.) and take a deep breath of air. "You know what? I hate this."
They all look at me, as if I'm joining in their discussion. Which I'm so NOT.
"I hate this. It's all just gossip. The counselors are just stressed out. You would be grouchy if you were them, too! At my homeschool group, sure we have gossip. But it's good gossip, like 'hey, Lucien got a 5 on the AP! Yay him!' and 'Sabrina's birthday is coming up!' but it's not bad! I hate it when people talk bad about other people! It just makes me so angry."
"then you wouldn't like it at my school," Diana says, grinning at me. How can she be grinning?!
"No." I glare at her. "I wouldn't. I hate it at a lot of places, because of the gossip. It's horrible. I don't care if you want to gossip. Just don't do it around me. I don't want anything to do with that." I pick up the stamps and stomp quickly off to where Daisy is. I want to get there before Diana and Kate.

*She took his name in vain, and, I'm sorry, I don't do that.

Sorry. Just couldn't resist. :) I'm usually a go along girl. I'd usually just sit there. Not join in, but not say anything either. So I'm quite proud about my little outburst there. Surprisingly, I didn't hear one drop of gossip after! :D

So, that's what's been going on in my life. If you want the future, though, I'll tell you that, too. Week after next, I'm leaving for Wisconsin! The farm! *hugs farm* YAY!!! :D I'm kind of traveled out, but you know what? Going up to the farm isn't even like travel. I have my own room up there. It's all light purple and calming. I have my own bathroom. granted, my door doesn't exactly close correctly (or it might.. they fixed the house... I forget if it does or not, but it used to not.) but it's still my room. I have a dresser, my own bed, my lamp, my books, two windows, it's my own little room. I've been going to the farm since I was around... 4? So it's pretty much my second home. I will make sure to take a ton of pictures (going to be up there for 2 weeks) and post em! I'm also going to be critiquing around FOUR books. O.O one of them is written by the composer and piano player in the movie up there. IT'S SO LONG! But, yeah. four books. better finish typing up the critique for The Ruby Treasure and the Revelations of Cara Robina, empty out some binders, (a huge one for Aladdin's, lol), and get printing. O.O

on the subject of books, I'm going to be editing my book the second time, in a couple of weeks. I've gotten a bunch of fantabulous critiques from some friends (KBarkman and Isaac, I don't even think you're reading this, but if you are, THANK YOU A KAZILLION! XD ) and I'm going to revise my book again. When it's done, then I'm sending it to an editor I know. Then letting some other friends critique it, and then editing, and then, when I'm finally satisfied, I'm putting it to the huge test... O.o
If you guessed getting it published, you are wrong.
I'm going to let Veela read it. AHHHH!!!
And if *she* likes it, *then* I'm going to try to find some publishers. :D
Oh, and about the giant Veela test? I utterly trust my sister. If she says she doesn't think I'll like a book, I'm probably not going to. I've had people question this. They've recommended a book to me, and I said "Look, Valerie said she doesn't think I'll like it. I trust her judgment." And they were like "But... you trust your... *sister*?"
Answer:
YES I TRUST MY SISTER! WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? WHY WOULDN'T I TRUST MY SISTER? SHE'S ONE OF MY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY BEST FRIENDS. I'M NOT JUST GOING TO DISREGARD HER AND HER ADVICE BECAUSE SHE'S RELATED TO ME!
:D