For What Its Worth

I gained some new perspective about life in general whilst I was away from Nebraska. At pom camp I learned that delerium brings genius ideas, at Florida, I learned that only with your best friends can you have fun in the hurricane inspired weather, and in Myrtle Beach I learned the importance of family can only be discovered once you appreciate each person for what they are worth.

At dance camp, I'll call it dance camp because it is more dance than pom, plus pom looks like porn and I have had many a few excited male friends crack jokes already. Right, well at the four day dance camp I was at, I believe I got a grand total of 15 hours of sleep. Not too bad, but lack of sleep causes increase of crazyness. Which brings me to believe that you have to be out of your mind to do anything great. Theres this theory that if your mind can concieve it you can achieve it or something crappy like that, but all of us dancers were out of our minds, therefore to lose your mind, your insecurities, your doubts, your better judgement, may lead you to some suprising outcomes. However, one must lose our mind in small proportions, for instace, I was nominated for all American (big deal thingy at dance camp) but I lost my mind and forgot the dance I was supposed to perform, therefore I failed. Fiddle sticks.

After dance camp, I drove from somewhere to some airport, I am not entirely sure I passed out in the car, and flew to Florida with the band and choir. Our dear Adam, whos last post about peeing slightly disturbed me, but none the less made me laugh, was there. The choirband set out to take over Disney World but was severely disappointed when we almost got rained out of every single park there. But most of us realized, that while we are somewhat spoiled (we go to a private school for crying out loud) we might not be able to come back to Disney World again and we had to make the best of it. Even if we were wearing skimpy tanktops that were probably see-through.

I came to Omaha to say aloha to my amigos only to leave for Myrtle Beach. Driving there. With my family. 27 hours in a car. Wasn't so bad. I got there and was greeted by my 24 cousins, 5 aunts, 5 uncles, 1 grandparent. Last summer my grandpa died of a rare disease, and this summer we wanted to have the family together. I just wanted to be home with my friends, because I've been gone so long. But once I realized why my being there, and why everyone had to be there, was so important, I didn't want to leave. We're all getting older, and getting everyone in the same place is getting harder. Even with my friends too, resposibilities and the reality of what the 'real' world is like is coming down on us hard, suddenly I have to make an effort to be with the people I love so much, but perhaps didn't appreciate as much as I should. Afterall, the world is an awful, ugly place without the people who somehow make it beautiful.
We, the human race in general, aren't meant to go on alone. So thats why every moment together has to be cherished. Not saying that I'm going to make everyone who I'm around at the moment bow their heads and appreciate our togetherness. That would be weird. But maybe, when I'm around the weirdos I call my family, or the idiots I call my friends, I'll start laughing for no reason, remembering some inside joke, and understand why I'm a weirdo and an idiot. Because we're together. And thats worth anything.

There you go, I couldn't travel to a far and distant land and come back without something philosophical to say, now could I?

Until we speak again,
Hakunamatata

Beth

Happy next Independence day

I would like to extend warm Other Side of the Coin Happy 4th of July to all two of our avid fans, especially all of our readers in Canada.

Let me just say that I think that the 4th of July, or Independence day as it is formally known, is by far the best holiday of all(yes, even better than Christmas) because it was made right here in the good ol’ U.S of A.

Today, not only do we celebrate our Independence from the red coat Saxton dogs across the pond, we also celebrate everything that is American and we spend the day being only American. You know, because some days we’re French (we don’t shave our bodies, we’re dicks to everyone and we lose at everything except, of course, the World Cup). Some days we’re German (we drink, drive fast and we drink). Some times we’re Irish (we drink). And other times we’re *insert nationality here* (we *insert stereo type about aforementioned nationality*). But Americans take the best from all of those: we’re dicks to everyone while we drink and drive fast as well as some other things that are American.

To celebrate, I set out to do things that are purely American. Not only did I steal two American flags but I also ate a base ball, watched an apple pie and listened to the Jimi Hendrix version of the Star Spangled Banner. Yet, as I sit here at around 6:00 p.m. I have not yet blown any shit up and that pisses me off because if there is one thing that is uniquely American it is the desire to blow shit up on a massive scale at whim.

Also, this day, I think it is important to celebrate personal independence. For instance, there was a fly buzzing around my legs all day and it was annoying the shit out of me. So I promptly declared my independence from the fly then and when it didn’t leave I swatted it with my right flip flop picked it up with my bare hands and threw it into the toilet. I then proceeded to triumphantly piss on the fly before I flushed it down.

This Independence Day is strangely significant because it brings to light some revolutionary feelings inside myself. Let me take you back a few hours to this morning. I was awoken my shoes being thrown at my face and the sound of giddy laughter coming from my mother, who was sitting in a chair across from my couch throwing shoes at my face and laughing. Then she had the nerve to get mad when I chucked a shoe back (being half asleep it went wide right). Her action was an unprovoked act of war whereas mine was a measured response to an outright attack.

This all made me think that next Independence day when I will truly be celebrating my personal independence and isn’t that a great feeling because the thing that is truly American is the ability to do what ever the fuck you want and, you know, I’ve got that feeling.

Have a happy safe Independence day and, for all of you in the same place as me, raise the nearest beverage to only one more year of tyranny.

I’m off to blow shit up,
Adam