Def. guy written- I think he wrote this when he was about fourteen. He's eighteen now, so this is a little embarrassing for him. Thank goodness he doesn't know my password! XD

  Well, as I haven't written in like, a month, I've decided to break my silence and tell you all about my Labor Day adventures up in Small Town USA. haha.

  I'm not sure if I told you that I got my permit this summer (yes, a permit at sixteen. I know, I know, my parents were kinda slow on the uptake there;)...) Which has DEFINETLY been a bit of an adventure. So if you ever come drving around "Bubble Bubble Burg" you'd better watch out! Lyssa's on the road and moving fast! haha.

  This summer has been crazy. I know I left it on kind of a depressing, selfish note with the last post and all, but really, my summer was AWESOME. While it lasted at least. I started junior year two weeks ago, and it's really been nose to the grindstone ever since. Thankfully, today I got off cuz of the holiday. Guess what IIIIII diiiiid????? HA! I drove over a HUNDRED and THIRTY miles along the highway! Not one way, lol, to and from, but still. I got three hours of driving over with and got to see a frikkin sweet ghost town while I was out and about as well! My mom took me. And actually, except for one incident where I didn't turn hard enough and ended up almost in a ditch, and one incident with a trucker trying to pass me, I did very well. Was rather proud of myself, actually. I want to do it again, driving's soooo much fun!  

  Well. In other (definetly less exciting) news, I got to see an Indian Pow-Wow in town on Saturday, which rocked. There were tourists everywhere, which didn't rock. Our town is built around a main highway through the Rocky Mountains, and people come in from all over for holdiays and weekends. Tell me... if it's called Tourist Season, why are we not allowed to shoot them? lol. Sorry. Some mountain humor for you there. Everyone up here think's it's hilarious.. you're missing out:).

  Anyway. Pow-Wow. There were all these dancers and people on the drums doing their chanting thing, and all these artists from the reservations. Oh, there was this one woman from the Apache tribe- she was drop-dead GORGEOUS. High cheekbones, proud nose, full lips, smooth black hair, and a itty-bitty waist. It was awesome. She was holding a baby on her lap, both dressed in full costume, and the baby was playing with this ornament at the end of her hair. A photographer lady I know got some amazing pictures that I wish I could show you. It was awesome. 

 Yesterday I went down into the big city for my Grandma's 80th birthday party. My mom stayed home with our dog, who doesn't do well on car trips and is kinda sick, so my boyfriend Jadon came along. Yeah, the whole trip was really quiet and generally not so awesome. Our family's very quiet and reserved. We talk about history and civil war battles and the latest article in Times magazine and my Gran's memories of her life growing up on a farm in Canada as we properly eat our (very good!) roast pork and mashed potatoes and salad on the good dishes. Then my uncle washes the dishes as my dad plays the piano and everyone else settles down to read in the living room.

  Jadon's family, however, is BIG and LOUD and just all together crazy- his uncles swap stories (one does engineer stuff for the army, the other's a policeman in San Diego, Cali), his five little brothers and sisters run all around the house, the women all bring out the casseroles and paper platesand get in each other's way in the kitchen- just a rollicking good time. So sitting with my family was definetly an experience. It is anyway. haha. We ate until we were fit to burst, then all slept in the car on the way back. Well. Excepting my dad, of course, who was driving. haha.

Sigh. Okay. It's kinda late. And as my father keeps (insistently) pointing out, I have school in the morning, and I need to go to sleep. YES, dad, I KNOW what time it is. lol

  I'll try and be better at keeping up, K? Have a great week, you guys!!

~Lyssa~

  Today is a beautiful day, but I'm not really enjoying it. All my friends have left me because they weren't willing to wait, so I'm alone in the house, listening to music and writing. I've decided that while I don't really like being left behind, today I'm in such a mood that I wouldn't have been able to enjoy myself anyway.

  We finished VBS yesterday, after five VERY long days. I did the sound board stuff, which was confusing and kinda hard because of everything we had to do to fix it after lightning struck the church and blew out most of the equipment last Sunday afternoon. (I know, crazy, huh?) But I made it through with nothing more than a repeat of VBS songs stuck never-endingly in my brain and a couple of sore muscles from helping the girls who were doing the motions to the songs every once in a while. So all in all, it wasn't too bad.

  Yesterday evening was amazing, though.. I went dancing with Jadon and Emily (who got back yesterday as well!) and had a ball (lol no pun intended). I learned how to samba and perfected my waltzing and cha-cha skills:). I love dancing with Jadon's dad, Mr. Torin, who was leading it. He's such an amazing dancer- I can just close my eyes and let myself be guided. As long as I keep to the rythym of the music, he can lead me in almost any step and I'll transition smoothly. I feel like such a princess when I'm dancing with him, and apparently I look amazing as well (or so says Jadon, but he's kinda biased, lol). I could dance forever... Oh my goodness. you have no idea how much I love it.  

  *sigh* I don't have much else to report. I may go for a run. I need to shake myself out of this mood...

~Lyssa~

I wrote this today. I'm not sure what the backstory is yet... but I like the girl character. Tell me what you think. It's a bit wierd.. but when is my writing normal? lol.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  He looked at me, a queer gleam in his eyes. “How old were you?”

  “I was eleven. He was fifteen.”

  Murphy sighed. “Jeez, I’m sorry, girl. We guys can be real idiots sometimes. What happened?”

   I looked him in the eye. “I learned to grow up. Murph, I don‘t entertain silly romantic ideals anymore. I’m not looking for love, or chemical soup, or whatever you want to call it. I live day to day. I take affection and boyfriends because it gives me at least some semblance of security and it‘s expected of me, not because I particularly enjoy it. I hook up and I break up. I‘m not what you would call an average sixteen year old.”

  “Then what are you?” He wasn’t making fun like most adults would have. I appreciated it.

  “Honestly? I don’t know yet. I look in the mirror and see a teenager with too-pale skin, too-big brown eyes, and too-long brown hair. Some look at me and see a pretty, well-adjusted, nice teenager who sings at church and volunteers her time at the middle school youth group, leading games. Some look at me and see a moody, intense girl who writes poetry, reads fantasy, and has a needle-sharp wit she’s not afraid to hone on your blunders. Both would be right.”

  He watched me, that look still on his face. “What if I told you I don’t see either of those?”

  I laughed, a sharp sound to my own ears. “What do you see, then?”

  “Hmm. I see a smart, charming, witty young woman who has a lively personality and a temper to match. She can turn anything you say around on you; make you think, really think, about things you never wanted to before; and has no problems making her opinion known. I see a girl who’s slightly cynical but all caring, and while she may have a sharp tongue, she knows how to really listen. That’s what I see.”

  I stared at him, for once unable to come up with anything to say.

  “Curtain call, you guys, come on!” Tim stuck his head through the green room door, and everyone inside quickly put down what they were doing, heading out to the wings for the final bows.

  I was grateful for the interruption. My eyes had chosen that moment to start watering from the air-conditioner being so close and set on high. As we walked with everyone else backstage, I used the opportunity to wipe them. I wouldn’t want Murph to think I was crying.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

~Lyssa~

  This past weekend rocked my socks off, haha. Oh my goodness, I had sooo much fun!!!

  Thursday night I went with Jadon, Mike, and Melissa to see Transformers 2 at a big movie theater down in the springs. An absofreakingloutley AMAZING movie.. it was very perverted, though, so big warning about that. But we had so much fun!! Jadon got us tickets for a 7:50 showing, and we had gotten there around seven, so we walked around the parking lot for a while, just talking, then crossed the highway and went to Target. Mike and Melissa bought Skittles and Sour Patch Kids and Jadon and I bought Twizzlers. We were going to sneak them into the movie, but I had left my bag (our mode of candy transportation) in Jadon's car, so Melissa and I ran back to grab it so we could get them inside.

  Jadon had gone mudding (where you drive your car through huge mud puddles and splash your car so it gets all dirty) the day before, and while Melissa grabbed our stuff, I decided to be impish and wrote "Just Married- Leave Me Alone To Dieeeee" on the back (lol it's an inside joke). Then we ran back to the theater just in time:).

  We got out around eleven thirty, and had a total music jam on our way back up to town:)

  Friday Jadon came down to get me around lunch time, and we drove up into the boonies to meet with Tyler, Mike, and Jadon's family so we could all go canoeing. At first I thought Melissa was going to come, but it turned out that I was the only girl- and the youngest teenager, to boot:). Tyler, Jadon, and Mike are all eighteen*rolls eyes* haha.

  Tyler was the first one there, so we hung out with him for a while, just joking around and laughing. Then Mike got dropped off by his mom. I hate to say it about anyone, but she was just annoying! She kept repeating herself over and over and over, talking constantly and nagging Mike to put on sunscreen and don't scratch up her car and don't get into poison ivy and don't do anything that would make her have to come back out here and ON and ON. lol. Wow, we were all glad when she left, me especially. She kept addressing me, mostly because I was the only other gal there. Yikes..

  The boys immediately put on their swim trunks (making sure I was far away first, of course, lol) and dove into the river, which was swollen to almost four feet. It's normally like one and a half.. the current was so strong!!!

  They all wanted me to come in and join them in the water, which was freaking cold. I refused plenty of times, but they all have little sisters and my "No's" had almost no effect. They resorted to trying to pull me/ push me in, constantly faking me out, haha. Finally, when I ran out of excuses, I went back to the car and put on my extra set of clothing, then came back out and started wading into the water. Jadon, just for another laugh, went to fake me out again, and rushed at me, pretending like he was gonna shove me in. I stepped backwards with a gasp and my foot slipped on the rocks...SPLASH, in I went, spluttering and coughing! hahahaha it was GREAT. We were in stitches for minutes, lol.

  After hanging out in the water and playing splash-fights (apparently for a wimpy little sixteen year old girl, I'm pretty intense about splash fights XD) we all got out and walked a ways up stream so we could float to a small island in the middle. Tyler and Mike went the wrong way in the maze of bushes and long grass, so they ended up farther down-stream than Jadon and I, which was SUCH a good thing!! We start wading into the water, and all of a sudden I'm just caught in the current. I can't fight against it. All the guys were okay- Tyler's six foot and built like a football player, Mike's six four and wiry, and Jadon's five eleven and he's got muscles, man.  But me? A little five-four svelte ballerina? I had no chance. My feet were swept out from under me, and down the river I went! Jadon shouted for Tyler to catch me, and he reached out and got a painful grip on my arm, holding onto the reeds by the side of the river to steady himself. Mike swam down next to me and helped Tyler drag me into the shallows. Ow.

  From then on I stayed at the edges of the river, holding on to the plants growing there so I didn't get my feet swept out from under me again. The boys had somewhat of a hard time fighting the current, too, after a while, so we eventually all came back to where the cars were parked and just waded around for a while.

  Finally Jadon's family came with the canoe and some old friends, and we all had watermelon and took turns both riding down in the canoe and drving down to pick the others up just before the rapids. It was so much fun, I got so tan:).

   Around six-ish, maybe earlier, we teens left and all went to Tyler's family's campsite just a few miles up the road, Mike and Ty in one car and Jadon and I in the other. Of course there were huge mud puddles everywhere, so the guys decide to start mudding while they drive. Both cars start speeding up, Tyler's in front and Jadon and I behind him. We're both going at least sixty when Ty hits a huge puddle and slows way down, too late for Jadon to see. All of a sudden, we come up out of the mud and Tyler's Jeep is RIGHT THERE, two inches away from our front bumper, and we're still doing sixty! I scream and Jadon cranks his steering wheel to the left as Ty cranks his to the right- the collision was avoided, just barely. OH my FREAKING gosh, I was hyperventilating!!!  Jadon's Explorer locked up, and we skidded like crazy, but were able to get back on the road behind them. As soon as we could, we stopped.. the guys all looked really concerned about me, haha, I was just sitting in the front seat with my hands cupped over my mouth and nose, trying to stop hyperventilating, my eyes wide. I was so scared, I swear my heart stopped... I made them all swear to never do that to me again. We got a good laugh out of it later, but my gosh... whoo.

  Anyway. We got to the campsite without further harm, and had some hamburgers with his family. Hahaha ohh another great story- so we're all drinking sodas, and Mike and Jadon both burp really loud. Tyler's like "Hey, you guys, you're in the presence of a lady." And all of a sudden I let loose with the biggest burp of my life, totally by accident! Hahahaha we were laughing sooo hard!! Woooowww.. lol.

  After dinner the guys went mudding again, and Jadon's car got so much water up in the engine that it refused to work after a while. So we all sat out there and talked until he could get it working again, and decided to go to Jadon's youth group after saying goodbye to Ty's family.

  Youth group was fun, too. They all were eating, so we had some fries with them and read out of the book of proverbs. Then all the guys (there were only three girls, including me, and like fifteen guys) went outside to play football. So Rachel and Emily S. (the other two girls, two of my best friends) took me out to their house (Rachel is married to one of Emily's four older brothers, and they live on the same property) to see their new horses!! We talked and walked around and fed the horses, then went back and watched the boys kick each other's butts, haha. It was GREAT. Jadon took me home around ten thirty, on the way we got to see a spectacular storm off on the horizon. It was the greatest day:).

  Saturday was July Fourth, so I got to sleep in and eat a really rockin' breakfast of sausage and pancakes before going down to our town's annual festival thing at the park. MM, cotton candy and music and booths galore. SOO much fun. Unfortunately, it started raining, so the fireworks were cancelled. BUT.

  July FIFTH, our town all comes out to the middle school's football field to listen to a big symphony and watch this amazing display of fireworks. The army comes out with their cannons, and at the very end, before the fireworks, the symphony plays the William Tell Overture and they shoot them off, haha. Thankfully, no storms came to rain on that parade!! 

  Mike, Melissa, Tyler, Jadon and I all met up there around six, along with Tyler's sister Tory and their friends, Brock, Key, John, and Taylor. It was so much fun. We just walked around everywhere and talked to lots of random people. We were right next to the cannons when they went off, and saw the fireworks up close. It was spectacular! I love this town:).

  Afterwards Jadon took Mike, Melissa and I out to Taco Bell, and we hung out for a bit before I had to go home, and listened to lots of metro station.. I've been addicted ever since, lol. 

  Haha so that was my weekend! I had a BLAST. How was your fourth of july weekend??

~Lyssa~

  Lots has happened in the past however many days of not-writing, lol. Wow. it's been a WHILE, hasn't it?? Gosh!

  So I went to a revival meeting on the seventeenth (a Wednesday) with Katie, Emily, and Sammi. We got a ride from our newest friend, Tyler, who graduated with Katie and Jadon in May. It was actually his dad and grandpa doing the preaching, and WOW they were amazing! It was definetly a new experience- They're southern baptists, so they did all the "hallelujahs" and "amens" in agreement to everything, haha and they called each other "brother" and "sister." I was Sister Alyssa, hehehe. Some things they said I had a bit of a hard time with, but that's just because I'm more of a liberal christian than most people. I don't think I could ever be Southern Baptist.. I was raised Presbyterian, which is almost completely opposite. But it was cool to go.

  Afterwards we all ran around with the other kids and played zombie, lol. It was so much fun!

  Friday night Jadon, Emily, Katie, Sammi, Tyler, Jesse, Donnovan, Tory (Tyler's cousin and little sister) and I were all supposed to go dancing, but it was cancelled. So Emily and Katie and I had everyone over to their house for chips and root beer floats and movies. We watched Hurcules, then went to the park and acted crazy. Haha it was so much fun.

  The next day we all went down to this indoor theme park thing called Mr. Biggs and hung out. Tyler and Jadon both brought friends of all sorts, so we were enough to fill three cars to the bursting by the time we all met up. I swear, we were at Biggs for five hours, playing all the arcade games and go-carts and miniature golf. We ate nasty pizza and ran around having a grand old time. Unfortunately, I got a migrane after lunch that kinda laid me low for a while. I took some ibeuprophen and drank caffiene, but still. Ick.

  Emily and Katie left Sunday after church. They're on the East Coast, hanging out with family. I think currenly they're somewhere in Vermont, probably having lots of fun without me, haha. Sammi's back in Denver, but I may visit her soon *crosses fingers* I hope! I've been babysitting this past week, finally, so I'm getting some cash flow. Let's hear a Woot! for Dr. Pepper and Sunflower seeds! haha. Emily also left her bright pink iPod with me, so I've been listening to all her up-beat, peppy songs. I still miss her, though.  :(      

      Wow. Today is such a pretty day, I can't waste any more of it indoors. I'll talk to you guys later!!!

~Lyssa~

Hey again. Sorry it's been so long. I got a Facebook and, well, you know what that means. But two weeks ago I had driver's ed...which was long, boring, and terrifying at the same time. Last week I had VBS at my church, in which I did skits every morning with my friends. It was a lot of fun! I also helped with drama and woodworking. So today, I'm really tired. But anyway. Drop me a comment!

-TPK

I have been acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain- and back in rain.

I have out-walked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane

I have passed by a watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over the houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

And further still at an unearthly height,

One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

Choices, choices

A choice is

A path you must follow

The life you must lead

“Make good choices”

Dear people, take heed

I cannot see for the blinders

My choices have sewn

I cannot live to the fullest

Because of my own

Choices.

Right of left

Yes or no

Good or wrong

There is no middle path

Choose wisely.

 Consequences

 First it started out

As a single touch, a

Kiss of the hands

A caress of two

Lovers, fingers

Intertwined.

Innocent and

Real.

How then did I end

Up on this bed

Not even clothed in

Dignity or honor

Anymore.

How could something so

Pure

Turn into something

So dirty?

Where did I

Go wrong?