So what's going on this summer?

Well, I went school shopping today. Goody's in blue ridge is having a super sale (tons of stuff is 70-80% off) and I'm pretty sure I've gotten all of the clothes I'll ever need. All under $300 too!!! Wooh! go cheap or go home!!! I took Steph with me, but she didn't find much. Ah! but earlier this summer, June 23rd to be exact, I went whitewater rafting down middle and lower Ocoee!! It was completely fantasmagorical!! The best part was when our guide was swept out on our very first rapid, which happened to have been a class 4, the highest class on that part of the river!! I ended up having to shout directions to get our group to paddle through the rapids. Sadly, my friend was swept out along with the guide, which freaked her out. Coincidentally, she didn't finish out the rafting with us. We tried to pull her back in our raft, but she was swept out too far away from us, and another raft got her instead. BUT IT WAS BLOODY WELL NOT FROM A LACK OF TRYING ON OUR PART!!! We paddled full force to her and almost had her in reach for one of the paddles. I also had to jump to the back of the raft to get the rescue rope, which is quite a thing to do, without getting thrown out, when going through a class 4 stretch.

So, we got out of the rapids and all of the other rafts were stopped. Each of the guides in the other rafts started shouting different directions at us trying to get us to the side of the river too. Eventually, I told them to stop shouting different directions and just told our group to paddle forward. So, when we finally made it to a stop with the other rafts, the guides were freaking out saying how awesome we were for making it down guideless when it was our first trip. yep *brushes off the shoulder* we were awesome. The other guides ragged on ours for getting thrown out. He was a little cut up too. Anyway, I pulled him in with my paddle after he floated down to where we were and then we got Liz back in our raft, but she only hit one more rapid with us before she decided to call it a day and head back to the sign in area.

I had a blast, though, and I hope to hit upper Ocoee next time. After all, if it's good enough for the Olympics, it's good enough to keep me entertained for at least a day!

Other than that, I put a lot of money in the bank for Ireland and college, etc. after spending a bunch on books. Needless to say, I also spent a considerable amount of time with my books. Oh yeah, and my niece Jenna turned 4 the day after my rafting adventure! I got her a beautiful puzzle of a castle and a flying unicorn... she's very into puzzles these days... scary.

On my AP exams, I got a 4 in Lit, a 4 in Lang, and a 5 in Calculus! It's pretty cool (Especially the 5!!!) but my mentor recommended I take the honors english anyway... *sigh* that sucks, but at least I don't have to take the stupid math placement exam or the actual math class!! Thank god, I would never get in my semester hours if i had to take another class. I already have 18 a semester just to get down the basics... blarg! A lot of them are music related though (duh, music major) which is cool, though it promises to be extremely difficult. Taking an aural theory class intimidates me, but I'm willing to give it a go. I do love music, after all, and I've tried to learn on my own. I get to take a piano class too!!! I love the piano!! I play a little already, but it's just what I've taught myself from sheet music. Speaking of college, I should go to bed so I can finish my preparations for the yhc START program...and also so I can wake up at an ungodly 7am in summer on Friday for the actual START itself.

later