This is a public service announcement brought to you by the letter "S" and the number "21".

Volleyball season is now in full swing, therefore blogging has become virtually impossible. Weekdays are devoted to bench sitting and conditioning, and weekends are devoted to rest. When volleyball season dies down, blogging will resume at a more regular rate. Sorry for the inconvenience. Adios, Amigos!

The volleyball scrimmage was great. I had to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn to go to Dobson to sit on the bench for 75% of the games watching our team play. I guess our team was helped by the experience, I wouldn't know. There is one thing I'm gonna get out of volleyball though, and that is killer leg muscles. All that "boot camp" Coach Knott makes us do sure helps with those. In fact, all my muscles are sore. I guess that means they're getting stronger, I'm not sure. Well, My contacts are about to pop out because they've been in since 6:45 this morning. I'm gonna skidaddle. Tata!

Sleep is a many splendored thing. Is that how you spell splendored? Who knows. Anyway. Too bad I'm not going to get to sleep in for like 2 weeks. Man, that's the one thing I miss about summer. Even though most days I was getting up at 7:00 at Camp to wake other people up for showers, it was still better than this. I have to get up at like 6:45 tomorrow because we have to be at the High School at 7:30. We have a volleyball scrimmage at Surry Central. That is cruel and unusual punishment. And I'll probably be sitting on the bench most of the time. But I'm not complaining, because I'll just come home and take a nap. But it still isn't the same as sleeping in. Most of the time naps only make me more tired. I will miss my only day to sleep in, but there will be another one, hopefully soon. Well I'm gonna go savor the 8 hours of sleep I might get, ttfn!

Hello all! As has become the norm, I apologize for lack of postage. I will also take the chance to apologize for events such as this in the future. The apologies take so much out of the blog. The plug is pulled on the creative juices. So there you go. Alright. School is going good, thanks for asking! It seems as though it is second semester though. I feel like I have been at school for 4 months already. That is not so nice. I still don't know whether or not this semester will be hard. Spanish is going to be easy, they tell me. Ms. Ucinska, for those of you who do not already know, is Polish, and is fluent in Spanish as well as English. English is her 3rd language (at least) so it is quite fun. My spanish name is Cecilia. Represent Simon and Garfunkle baby! Honors Bio with Bodnar looks like it will be fun because he drops in random jokes in the middle. Its great. Comic relief. Then Honors Physics... boy I hope I'm never tired in that class because Mr. Belton's voice would put you right to sleep. He reminds me of the way the boys in my grade talk when they don't really want to be talking. Kind of slow and depressed and stuff. Honors U.S. History is going to be fine I think. No EOC, which is a big plus. So those are my classes. I have to go study for my quizzes, I have one in each class except Spanish. Perfect. Gotta jet! Tootles!

I got my braces off! Yay!!! I look so different, but yet so the same! While I was driving around today, I kept looking in the rearview mirror and smiling to see my teeth. Also, my tongue is worn out from licking my smooth teeth... woah that sounds disgusting, sorry about that. If I had the technology to put a picture of myself on here I would, to show all of you guys my new smile! I'm glad I got them just in time, too. School starts Wednesday, so its a good start. Well, I gotta go to bed, I'm trying to get in shape for school hours... tata!

I get my braces off tomorrow! Finally! I am nervous, though. The person that I am today, the person who has been in high school for two years has had braces. I have learned to play my oboe with braces. I have grown accustomed to how my face looks with braces. Now I won't have them anymore and that will be weird. But the good outweighs whatever the bad would be. Now I won't have to worry about wires poking my cheek or hooking into my tongue. (ow!). So I will post tomorrow on the results. Wish me luck!

I apologize for the lack of postage. As I have said before, it is hard to get back in the groove. Anyways, back to the subject at hand. Today I earned some things. I earned 12 dollars to watch The Simpsons with Matus and Anna Kriska, and I earned a sunburn from laying out at the Cross Creek Pool for 2 hours without sunscreen. Yep, I'm probably going to get skin cancer. I don't know why I didn't wear sunscreen, I guess I thought I was rebelling. I need to stop myself from doing that. Nothing good ever comes of it. What makes me mad is that I only got sunburn on the places that didn't see the sun at camp. That would be the places that my lifejacket (PFD) and shorts covered. The only place on my legs that got sunburn was the white where there used to be a shorts tan. And I now have a reverse lifejacket tan (I mean BURN). Alright, I'm off to lather my ailing skin with Aloe and then going to sleep. Goodnight!

Sorry for not posting, I can't get back in the habit. I've been driving around Mt. Airy like a person who drives a lot. It is crazy. But still, since I've had my license, I've only used 1/2 a tank of gas. Thats right, my Corolla gets some serious gas mileage. I'm pumped about that. (get it? gas... pumped...) So. Here is Emma's version of the news right now: Mt. Airy High School has gone under some serious changes. New teachers are everywhere and good old classics have abandoned us. Teachers such as Mr. Bretz, Mr. Dickson, and allegedly Mr. Bodnar have left the ranks of MAHS teachers. This year is gonna be different. Next item on our news agenda is that VH1 is coming out with another new series: I Love the 70's. To add to the greatness of I Love the 80's. I hope it's just as good. They have some of the same commentators, and I'm really looking forward to it. OK folks, that's all for now, adios!

Hello all. I am back from England. And I am running on lack of sleep. I have been up since 6:00 England time, which is 1:00 NC time. Now it is 8:20 PM which means I have been awake for... hmm... almost 20 hours. Woah. So I'm going to try to stay awake till 9:00 to get over jet lag. Alrighty, tata!

Hello everybody. Sorry for not posting yesterday. I wasn't quite in the mood. I am rather tired right now, probably from staying up so late watching big brother. It is a really boring show, but I like their accents. The main speaking guy who says the times and all that is Scottish. When he says "big brother" it sounds like "big brootha". And he says eight and AM funny. And the guy who won was from Scotland, and he had a funny accent too. The second place guy was from Ireland, and he had a sailor's mouth. They did a series of clips of him swearing, it was funny. Anyways, so this season was really boring. I didn't see that much of it, but what I saw wasn't interesting. They didn't really have conflicting personalities, so they were always just sitting around. The announcer would be like, "3:42, PM. The housemates have been sitting on the couches for 31 minutes". And then it would show a clip of them just sitting there. It was worthless. The good part was at the end when they showed a bunch of clips of the good parts of the show. So that's why I'm tired, I stayed up to watch that. I would take a nap, but the last two times I've done that, I haven't been able to get to sleep that night. And I always feel so tired after I wake up. It is a lose-lose situation. So I'll have some Coke and finish out the day. Alrighty then, bye bye now!

Today I went on an expedition with my aunt. We were determined to take pictures of funny road signs. There are some really funny ones that I have seen. Here are some examples: (these pictures are typical road sign pictures, like the one for pedestrian crossing in the states)
~a picture of a man holding the hand of a little girl and a sign below it that says: "no footpath for 1300 yards"
~a picture of a duck
~a picture of a girl holding the hand of, practically dragging, a smaller boy with a sign that says school, and another with the same picture that says playground
~a picture of an old man with a cane and an old woman following him and a sign that says either elderly people or disabled people
~a small sign that says "feeding the ducks attracts RATS" with a picture of a rat crossed out
~a small sign with a picture of a dog standing next to a pile of poop that says "clean it up"
~an exclaimation point with a sign under it that said "farmyard, tractors crossing" (I saw one somewhere else that said "caution lorries turning", lorries are 18 wheelers)
~and the finale, a sign that said: "Kill your speed" (they used to say speed kills, kill your speed).
It was fun times. Gotta love european road signs. Well, that's it for today. Cheers, mate!

News is different when you see it from a different country. I've been watching BBC news over here, and the perspective is totally different. First of all, the subjects are different, but that is to be expected. Like lately the big story has been on the death of David Kelly, a weapons inspector. It's been all over the place. But the story that made me think of the differences is this one about Saddam's two son's being killed. Over here, they are more skeptical, and they are wanting proof of it. I looked on msnbc and it was more certain and there were more details. It makes me wonder what the news was like during the war and all the stuff going on. Also, I've been hearing more about Tony Blair, but that is only natural. It will be a switch when I get back to American News. Well, that's about all I had to say, and sorry for not posting yesterday. Ta ta for now!

Why hello there! On the menu for today's blog will be an appetizer of random sillyness, a main dish of fun times, and a dessert of savory funnyness. A good, balanced 3 course meal. Actually, I shall tell you of today's events. First I woke up, then went back to sleep. That is the best part about summer and being in a foreign country. If all other excuses fail, I can chalk it up to jet lag. It is the greatest to wake up and realize you have like 2 more hours of sleep. I love it. Anyways, after breakfast and a shower we ventured out to a villiage called Cromer, where we viewed the Lifeboat. Quite impressive. Then we went to Blickley (not sure on the spelling) where we saw a really big mansion and ate in a pub. I love pubs. Except they are based really on alcohol, which I am not legally able to drink. After that we came back here and played rummikub for a while. Then we went to see my grandma's cousin's husband's grave. It seems like he is more closely related to us than that though. It's all just names. We also saw my grandma's aunt's grave (my grandma's cousin's mom's) along with it. While we were there we took a peek in the church where they were practicing bell ringing. Now this is not your typical Methodist Women's Handbells, but big church bells. Jill, Charlotte, and I got to ring them! The men were very impressed that we were from North Carolina. I think one man even asked if NC was in Virginia or vice versa. A rather small man assisted us with the ringing. He had to get on a box to be able to help with my rope. It was great. Then we heard them ring a song. That's something you don't normally do every day. Actually, it's something you probably will never do, come to think of it. So we had a lovely day agian. I finished Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy today (the second time I've read it) I need to read The Restaurant at the End of the Universe sometime soon. Those books are great fun. The question and answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything is, according to the mice,: Q: "How many roads must a man walk down" A: "42". Quite fun. Go have a read, it's great. Alright then, adios!

Hello! I just came up here to post to take a break from listening to my sisters' game of scrabble. "Is 'quoz' a word?" can get old sometimes. Anyways. I was going to post on how delightfully random The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy is but Grannie told me to post about something nice, like what I did today. So here it is.

We went to the beach, where I stuck my foot in the North Sea. (My grandpa said to stick my foot in the north sea so I could tell people that while I was in England I sat around with my poppa watching golf all day and stuck my foot in the north sea). Jill and Charlotte decided to swim, while I laid out on the beach fully clothed, getting rather hot. It was life boat day down at the shore, which is where Her Majesty's Coastguard's demonstrated their life-saving abilities. It was quite funny, because the first thing I saw of it was a lot of teen agers dressed in these silly outfits hanging off of a boat that had a couple middle-aged people in silly outfits. Then somebody on a surfboard (obviously a part of their team) set off a flare. You would think that they would speed away to "save" this person, but no. They waited until the flare was completely done with to go save the person. It was really funny. Then, as we were leaving the beach, they were taking the kids out on the boat and dropping them off the back of the boat so they too could be "saved". Up by the road, Jill, Charlotte, and I saw the coastguard doing some more demonstrations. They were giving instructions on how to answer the questions effectively when calling "999", the equivalent of "911".

Next, Jill, Charlotte, and I went putt-putt golfing. It was really fun. I was trying to play while holding a beach towel, a pair of binoculars, my copy of The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, the scorecard, and a mini pencil. An almost impossible feat, but I managed to beat Charlotte. After our game, we played on the see saw in a park on our way home. See saw's are the best piece of playground equipment besides the swing. It is not as fun if you're the heavier one, though. Ah, to be young again.

When we got home, and after lunch, we went raspberry and strawberry picking. We were picking and eating, and eating some more. The trick is to eat before you pay. The good strawberries were few and far between, but the good ones were soooooooo good. The raspberries were easier to pick because you don't have to bend down as much. I love eating fresh picked fruit.

So that was my day. We had dinner, where Grannie and her cousin Sally (my 1st cousin twice removed or something) discussed their childhoods. You know, how they had to hike 40 miles to and from school everyday, naked in the snow, uphill both ways. And we started having discussions on how to properly pronounce words (raspberries as composed to rosbrys). Now I am going to watch a program on Elephants. I can hear their cries from the TV right now. Fun times!!!

Golf is a funny game. I've been thinking about it all day, since I have been watching the British Open. I wonder who thought of it? Seriously. You hit a ball with a stick in an attempt to make the ball go a really long way. Then you move it around a bit trying to hit it into this tiny hole. The hole is really infinitesimal compared to the size of the other stuff around the hole. I wonder what it was like back in the old days when people were making up all of this stuff. Did they think that it would someday become a huge spectacle? It seems that nowadays everything that can be invented has been invented. But maybe it's always seemed that way, until someone invented something and it was really great. Maybe someone is inventing something right now that people won't be able to live without in 50 years. I guess I just don't have the mind of an inventor. Going back to sports, if you think about it, all sports are kind of weird. Well, not track or swimming, because people just do that kind of naturally to get from point A to point B. But something like basketball must have seemed so random to people "out of the loop".

Woah... I just lost my train of thought. That's probably because of this weird ticking sound in the office right now. It's really annoying. Sorry about that folks. Or maybe just folk. I'm not exactly sure. Anyways- tata!

Sorry about the delay in posting, I just didn't have enough motivation to post yesterday. But now I do. So here's the story of our trip in London. We went on a train to Liverpool Street (not to be confused with the town Liverpool) in London. Then we took a taxi (cool!) to the RAF club (royal air force) where we stayed. After a small lunch of tuna sandwiches (care of my grandmother) Jill, Charlotte, Mom and I walked to the meeting place for our tour. We just so happened to pass the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. How cool is that? While on our tour we saw St. Paul's Cathedral, where the old lady feeds the birds, tuppence a bag, on Mary Poppins. I was bummed though because they were cleaning it and the steps were covered in scaffolding. Then we made our way to the Tower of London. On our way we learned that the clocktower that everyone thinks is big ben is really not named big ben. Big ben is the name of the bell inside. Anyways, we toured the Tower of London. It was great. We saw the crown jewels. I have never seen so many jewels and crowns! It was so extravagant! I don't even want to imagine how much they are worth. So that was fun, and tiring, and the end of our tour. Oh yeah, we went on this lousy boat ride on the river Thames (pronounced "tems"), but it was hardly worth mentioning. The next day in London we went shopping. Gee whiz is that place huge! I got two shirts and a purse, extremely minimal compared to what Jill bought. It was really great. Then that night we went and saw the musical Grease. Talk about funny! The people had British accents and were trying to have American accents. They would always slip, and it was funny watching the guy who played Danny, John Travolta's part, try and have that accent. It was great. The next day we went home on a train and that ended our trip to London. Oh, and we rode on double decker busses and went on the underground and rode in taxis a lot too. I had tons o' fun. ttfn!

Hello! I am back! Well, not really. I am in England as you read this, if you read this on the listed date or within 2 weeks of it. I am having tons of fun over here in a small town called Clare, where my grandparents live. Today was an interesting day. We went to a craft fair, almost like the autumn leaves festival, except the people weren't rednecks, they all had british accents, and it was held in the courtyard of an old church. While we were there, Jill, Charlotte and I got tired so we decided to sit on what we thought were nice wooden benches. Then a man came up and said: "These are coffee tables, not benches". We were slightly embarassed and decided to leave the fair. We went to a bridge and played pooh sticks. This is a game that Pooh Bear played with his hundred acre wood friends. You stand on one side of a bridge and drop a stick in the water. (you drop it so the current will take it under the bridge) Then you look on the other side of the bridge and see whose stick comes out first. It is really fun, you should try it sometime! I will warn you that it does not work with leaves, they take forever to fall, and sometimes they just stay in one place. After that, we went to a music festival. It was an experience to say the least. My sisters and I sat under a large tent on a blanket and played scrabble while we listened to the music. There were these teenagers in the tent who looked at us and laughed. I don't really pay attention to people who dress punky like they did. That seems to be the fashion these days in England. I really don't like it. I guess because they all have to wear uniforms to school, they decide to rebel when they get the chance. I'll stick to Old Navy, Gap, and Target. Wow. I haven't posted in a long while. It feels really good! I'll be back again on Tuesday or Wednesday! (I'm going to London for the Weekend)

I just saw Bruce Almighty. Highly reccomended by me. It was hillarious! Alas folks, this is the last blog before I go to camp. I would think of something witty to leave you guys with, but I can't. Remember: Time wounds all heels. R Ewe Blind? Good Bee Good Honey. Armagedon Outta Here. (those last three were from that old guy standing around on Bruce Almighty) Y'all are a flock of silly geese. Or a murder of silly crows.Or maybe a rook of silly ravens. (is that right? i'm not sure) or how bout a herd of silly cows. Ok, I can't think of any other group names of animals. Contemplate these names as you go throughout the summer. I know I won't, er, will! Alrighty then, Bye Bye now!

I have a question... why doesnt anybody make jokes about seahorses being slow? They are in the Guinness book of world records as the slowest moving animal. They go about 0.001 miles per hour when they try. That is pretty dang slow. You always year like the tortoise and the hare, like a tortoise is the slowest thing ever. Why don't they have, like, the seahorse and the stingray or something. That would be even more unbelievable because then that stingray would have to be nappin for a pretty long while for a seahorse to beat it. I bet even a snail could take a nap and wake up and beat the seahorse. Are the underwater snails as slow as the out of water ones? I just thought that was interesting. Oh yeah... and in little mermaid, don't they ride seahorses? Wouldn't it take them a while to get anywhere? I think Sebastian shows up in a "seahorse drawn carriage", and King Triton shows up carried by dolphins. Boy, Sebastian got gypped. Poor guy. He almost got eaten too. That guy has had it rough. That is a great scene in The Little Mermaid when the Chef finds Sebastian. I like that part. Yeah, that was definitely my favorite Disney movie as a kid. What made me think of all these sea creatures was a preview for "Finding Nemo". It looks hillarious. I hope I can go see it tomorrow night. It would put me in a good mood. Fun times.

Its summer and I have a cold. Gross. My body was really falling apart yesterday. I feel gross, hopefully I will get over it by Saturday, when I go to camp. Thats right folks, I will be leaving on Saturday and will not be back for 5 weeks. I know you'll miss me, but I will be having a barrel of fun over at Cheerio. Right now, though, I am going to drink some water and watch television 'till 7, when I am having friends over for a b-day party!!! See ya!