Thursday, May 30, 2013

Discovery Days: a List and Swing Dancing

Hello guys (I think "guys" has become the official name for my readers). Tonight is--was--the last full day of Discovery Days. This was perhaps the funnest, most entertaining D Days so far. In a list I shall describe what I liked about today:


  1. Friends... Stop rolling your eyes at me, Mr. Without friends I would have a miserable time at this camp
  2. There was a western dance after all... I'd gone all week thinking there would be no swing/ western dance this year. Everyone was disappointed, an so I think they hired an extra dj last minute to host the swing dance. I had a lot of fun dancing with several people, although I'm ashamed to say I couldn't do much more than two step.
  3. The water wars... I got totally soaked this afternoon at the water war, hosted in front of Weber Hall on the lawn. It was fun because it was really hot out; what's a better way to cool off than with sponges and gallons of water?
  4. Have I mentioned the t shirts?... They're red this year, which is wonderful. They've got a match on the front and a vaguely Dr. Seuss-like quality to the titling, "find your spark"

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Discovery Days: The Improv Team

Hey there, guys. Things are going pretty well here at Discovery Days 2013. It is te end of my second day, and I'm loving nearly every minute of it.

What's to suck?

The fun run was completely cancelled due to rain and thunderstorms. My K-State veterinary school tour was cancelled and we went to the zoo instead (UGH. On the bright side, I got to touch a tiger pelt and a lazy armadillo). The meals are horrendous.

Still, best year yet. So far.

So what's there to like?

First and foremost, the improv team performance was AMAZING. It was like going to see a live episode of Whose Line is it Anyway, except without Colin Mockery or Wayne Brady. One of the girls was melodramatic and at best mehh, but the rest of the team was great and they acted out sketches with creativity and witty lines

Another great part about today was my duct tape class, in which I made a pair of purple shoes. They look like bags, but they're super comfortable and water proof, and I spent two hours making them, so of course I'm proud of them.

The new friends are an exciting bunch. The old friends are numerous and are awesome as always. One of my friends will be trying out for the talent how tomorrow, so I'm hoping they make it so I have a reasonable excuse to go to the talent show this year. 

... Well, maybe "just watching" still works.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Discovery Days: the Dance and Friends

// warning: this post throws you straight at my life with little to no exlanation and and so I suggest you read through my archives before reading if you haven't already

Hey guys! I am writing this post from the shambly wifi connection of an even shamblier dorm... Where, you may ask, am I?

DISCOVERY DAYS!

That's right, folks. I'm in Manhatten right now at my favorite camp o the year.

Already, on just the first day, I've made several friends and talked to old ones. There was a dance this evening, and I danced--very awkwardly-- with a group of about six people, all of whom were shoddier dancers than I was. We were having great fun until the fire alarm went off and all five hundred kids at the dance had to evacuate the building and sit out on the steps. The firemen actually came, and it was determined that some punk-ass kid hadn't pulled the fire alarm; there was an honest fire blazing in the Union.

Luckily they put it out before the firemen came and hauled themselves up on the roof with a ladder I'd only ever seen folded neatly on top the great red engine. Also, in Curious George books.

Then we sat over the fountain and played cards. This boy named Dennis had brought the cards. I met him last year at Discovery Days 2012 and we were well acquainted (this is for another post, but last year I played a two hour long game of Pterodactyl with him and another guy named Andrew. One gets lots of bonding experience with friends while playing Pterodactyl). We played a game called Liar that I'd learned at The Autumn Camp.

Then, we watched the fire department climb onto the roof. There's a certain beauty to firefighting that I'd never realized until tonight, and it's that firemen are the bravest men on the planet. I watched as this one fireman climbed the long, extended ladder, several feet over the nearest full-grown. Tree. The ladder swayed and creaked, but the fireman persisted.

"I love heights," said David, a tall, brown-haired senior had told me. "I'd love to do that."

I shivered and rubbed my shoulders, unable to watch. "I couldn't stand it." and then I shivered again for emphasis.

David laughed softly. "A lot of people say that."

"Well, they're right. Gosh, that guy up there is so brave." I'd said it as though I hadn't a clue that firemen were supposed to be brave, that written somewhere in some dusty archive it detailed bravery as a job requirement. David gave me a strange look, and it had slowly dawned on me then that I was a moron.

Then, when the firefighters had packed up and left, we went back inside to dance. From the speakers, "Shorty fire burning on the dance floor (somebody call 911)" was playing. Ironically.

Not even thirty minutes later, our extension agent came in to tell us we had to leave, because we were switching dorm rooms. Why? It smelled like a big sweaty man in the hallways and rooms, and both the floors and walls were soaking wet. I bid a hasty goodbye to my friends and came back to the dorm.

Gosh, it's soooo sketchy, this whole dorm building. People paint K-State as a whole being quite clean and a wonderful place for nurture meant and growth. I love this college more than anything else in Kansas, and yet I know that not all of K-State is beauty; there are hallways that smell like mildew/tube socks, and dances that get postponed due to fire alarms.

Despite this, I feel like I'm home.


Monday, May 20, 2013

Yay! Lists!

Okay, so as of now my computer is still broken. No worries, without it I've been getting along famously. Here is a list, because new readers should know I like making lists, of what I've been up to for the past few days.


  1. Planted a garden 
  2. Rode horses
  3. Chicken type stuff
  4. Called the bf
  5. General landscaping of the yard
  6. Learned how to mow
  7. Built a drip line irrigation system built by myself--well, THIS year
  8. Read three books
  9. Fan art!
  10. Picked up my room (finally)
  11. Saw the new Star Trek... Benedict is delectably evil in this movie, ehehehe


Thursday, May 16, 2013

Another Update--My Life is Full of Them

Hello, internet. My laptop is not fixed yet, nor do I think it ever will be. I write from my mom's iMac desktop. It's getting late and I'm trying to wind down before I go to sleep, so I figured I might as well write a blog post, so you can learn what has been happening in my life recently.

First and foremost, I got a boyfriend.

*falls out of chair in surprise*

*gets back in chair and falls out again*

I know, dear reader. I was shocked too.

I met him last November at a 4-H camp. This is the post where I release it into the public, so I'll say that  he is very nice and I wish for all the world he lived in the same town I do.

But, alas, we live two hours away... much to the relief of both of our moms I'm sure.

I liked him enough that I gave him the link to my blog, so he's probably going to read this post. Probably. A message:

Hi Michael! I like your face! - Hannah

..

Second, I got rejected by two literary magazines. I told you a few posts ago about Lightning Cake, the tiny zine that publishes flash fiction... I did not tell you about The Luna Station Quarterly, which caters to women sci-fi writers. I submitted a piece that I wrote back in October (on my birthday, to be exact).

They wrote me a really nice letter back critiquing the little pieces in the story that made them ultimately reject it, and I think I'll print it out and frame it.

Lightning Cake was also really nice about it all. Though my story (about a girl with a love impediment) fit the requirements and was well within the word count limit, they wrote back telling me that my story had too much bulk to it to be successful in their magazine. This was the first rejection I got, so I was pretty down in the dumps for a while. Then, after I'd consumed some ice cream (yeah, sorry, mom) I went back to my computer and reread the piece, and of course I agreed with everything they said.

Currently I am writing this piece about a girl named Amelia who is spending her final summer in her little hometown before she "runs away" to college. She works in an orchard and dates a boy who's afraid of animals, and the whole thing is so absurd and silly, but it's so much fun to write.

I don't know how long it will get, but as-of-now it is on its way to being a good-length novel. How many scenes I want to write yet! It's so much fun, and this summer I am putting it first and foremost on my long list of things to finish. Maybe I'll get it done by August if I just saddle down and do it.

It's a goal.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

My normal computer might be broken, meaning there will be no new post in the next couple of weeks. Sorry.