Back again!

This time I was in Wisconsin. xD

Anyway...apparently the U.S. Women's Gymnastics Team that won gold is now called the Fierce Five. Even better. xD

In other news...my forms for the semester program I'm attending arrived a few days ago. One of the questions asks, "What is your definition of a clean room?"

...

There is a reason why I often say that no one can look into my closet. I'm clinically OCD, but unfortunately my OCD tendencies DON'T extend to room cleaning.

Fortunately, there's one exception--when I have a roommate who isn't related to me. xD (Read: who's not my sister.)

Days until I leave: 24 O_O

THIS IS CRAZY. In 24 days, I will be going to live in another state for THREE WHOLE MONTHS. That's the longest I've ever been away from home without my family. I've really enjoyed my summer, but I'm looking forward to this program. It'll be a nice balance between classes and studying, free time, adventures (like camping and hiking and hot springs and museums and horseback riding and the like!), and work. ^_^

Sadly, I'll only have internet once a week, so if you guys want to talk to me, you'll have to be on Skype at a certain time every...Saturday, I think? I'll let you know.

Letters are also fine--I'll send you guys the address ^_^ Something tells me I'll be sending a LOT of mail. Fortunately, the program provides stamps! xD

In other news, I've started a new writing project. I know, I know...I'm already writing two novels, neither of which is very near completion. But I have a good feeling about this one. Here's a short excerpt, if you're interested:

They walked through the plain iron door, and Kat gasped. The place was beautiful. The floor was marble and covered in exquisitely ornate patterns and images. The Corinthian columns holding up the ceiling looked as though they had been brought straight from ancient Greece. A statue of a brave knight facing a dragon stood on a raised platform in the center of the room.
“That’s St. George,” her father told her, indicating the statue. Kat noticed that St. George was smiling benevolently as he raised his sword, and that the dragon looked ferocious and villainous, more so than any picture she had ever seen.
“What kind of dragon is that?” she asked curiously.
“Hm? Oh, that’s an English Captor Dragon. They died out a long time ago--as a matter of fact, the one in the sculpture? That was the last one.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes.” Her father grinned at her. “Hence why we have the sculpture of St. George here. It’s a great honor to rid the world forever of an entire breed of dragon.”


Hopefully I'll have a lot of this book finished by the time I leave. That is, if Pinterest doesn't eat me first. >_>

More to come later, probably.

That is all (for now). U_U

The Fab Five! ^_^

Testing, day one: COMPLETE.

It was surprisingly easy. The visiting master let us sit and rest a lot, which I very much appreciate. So far I haven't done the board breaking and whatnot, but all the hard stuff is tomorrow. v_v And tomorrow comes in less than an hour. So this probably won't be a very long post.

Anyway...what am I doing right now? I'm actually sitting on my living room floor, borrowing my sister's computer, and shouting with joy every time one of my favorite characters makes an appearance in From the Mouth of Elijah. I just bought it off of Amazon and I'm reading it with the Kindle Cloud Reader. I'm planning on purchasing a hard copy as well; I just didn't want to wait for shipping. v_v I'm very impatient. And the cost of my impatience was just $8, and I have an Amazon gift card (ironically given by the former principal of my old school, the one who drives the green Honda Accord, Jamie! xD)...so all is well! ^_^

Anyway (second "anyway"...) You might be wondering about the title of my post. I borrowed it from the U.S. Women's Gymnastics Team from this year's Olympics, a team of five fantastic athletes who are known as the "Fab Five". They...

(spoiler alert)...


(scroll down...)


.....won the team gold medal. I was so excited! ^_^

But anyway, at my karate studio, there are five of us testing for our second degree black belts. And the other day, I jokingly dubbed us the Fab Five. I told only my family, and my one friend. And voila, in the middle of the test today, the visiting master joked about us being the Fab Five.

Hence the post title. I love being on a sort of team with other people, cheering each other on and whatnot. It's so much fun!!!

Anyway...I really want to find out what happens in the book! =O I only bought it a bit ago, and after skipping the first chapter, which was the book preview that I read a LONG time ago, I continued on. I've read 42% total of the book now. v_v xD

So I'll post pictures and everything as soon as I can. Maybe I'll get my hands on some video, stick it on Youtube, and post it here. We'll see, I suppose!

Pray for all of us--the "Fab Five", as well as another person from our studio, who's testing for her third degree black belt! Tomorrow is going to be hard...

*yawn*

That is all. v_v

One. More. Day.

That's right. Tomorrow begins my test for second degree black belt.

What will this test consist of, you might ask? Well, that's a good question. And the answer is...

EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER LEARNED DURING MY KARATE TRAINING, AND THEN SOME.

I'll have to do some sparring, some board breaking, some running, and the many dreaded pushups and situps. v_v

I'm looking forward to the board breaking. Not so much the other stuff listed above. (Except the situps. Those are fine. xD)

Anyway...today I'm resting, because tomorrow begins the TORTURE. xD I pulled a muscle in my leg the other day, so I'm trying to let that heal, so I don't get hurt during the actual test.

Meanwhile, I'm reflecting on how fun it is to break boards.

As a matter of fact, I have a box full of boards in my closet, some broken, some not yet snapped in two. About five minutes ago, I wandered to the closet, pulled out a board, went to my dad's office, had him hold it, and broke it with an elbow strike.

Here's a picture. xD

Anyway...tomorrow I should be doing what's called a "three-station break". That means that I will have three groups of people (well, two groups and a set of cement blocks this time around) holding a total of four boards. I'll do two breaks of one board each, then one break of two boards placed on top of each other. It should be so much fun!!! ^_^ (I'll try to post a video tomorrow, if I can get one.)

So anyway...in other news, I'm spending my day watching the Olympics, and reading Echoes from the Edge and a book called "How Would You Move Mount Fuji?" (The latter is about the crazy questions job interviewers ask, puzzles and the like. It's quite interesting.) I had a dream last night that I'd just about finished writing my book...something which I'm afraid isn't true in real life. But that should be remedied soon!

*comes back to this post at 11:11 PM the next day* That is all. u_u