Ahhh now I'm back with Part II. We are currently enroute to Louisville. I have just dolled up my face so that I look gorgeous. I think I'm still going to have that I just got done traveling look, but at least I feel good. I?m supposed to have an entourage at the airport ready to greet me. If I do one of my dreams will have been fulfilled-to be greeted by someone not related to me i.e. a friend.
We?re flying in a smaller plane right now so it?s a lot more crowded. I swear everyone onboard is asleep. I should be since I woke up at 4 am this morning, but I had a half hour nap so I feel refreshed, not to mention my new face.
My dad is a silly person. Last night at dinner we were all talking about something having to do with rules. So my dad randomly pops up with these strange rules we had back in Kentucky that I forgot existed. Since moving to Eugene we?ve created new rules-my dad apparently had no clue that the old rules weren?t in effect. So we had this mini-discussion on how much dad needs to wake up and smell the coffee-how that he need to sit down with Tori and I to revisit the rules. He in turn insisted that we were revisiting the rules now. My dad, sometimes the Dutch in him just screams out.
I love Holland. My favorite place in the whole world is Bemmel, the town my dad grew up in. it?s the one place that I have ever known that hasn?t changed much. While we?ve been moving it?s stayed the exact same spot. The streets are still in their original form and the toy store that I?ve loved and cherished is still there.
Makes me wonder if Louisville is still all there. Just like I?ve remembered it. After talking with some of my friends over the phone they have a very noticeable accent that I haven?t noticed until now.
I miss Manual. For all of its restrictions and limits it?s still my favorite school. I enjoyed being with a group of people whom I artistically meshed well with...I was one of the actors. Sorry, quick shuffling break. Need to practice if I want to get good at it. It?s one of the few skills I have yet to completely master-I?m getting much better though. Practice makes perfect. Where was I before I interrupted myself? I don?t know. Does it really matter? I always do that to myself. Unless I am completely focused *RAT* I get sidetracked fairly easily. Not very good, but I am getting better at staying on target by listening and focusing on what people are saying.
I need to trust my instincts more. Whenever I felt some impending disaster I ignored it. With Tyler for instance, I took all of the warning signs that he was going to break up with me and threw them out the window. Could I have handled things better had I listened to what I was telling me? I need to have more faith that I know what I?m doing. Like with Snow Rally, while packing for it I had the urge to bring my scissors, I thought that was pretty dumb, but I did bring them even though I got close to not doing so. As it turned out they proved very useful. I guess I need to keep telling myself to do what I tell me and not second guess my own authority. Sometimes our subconscience knows best.
People in general are stupid but individually they?re smart. Is that an oxy-moron or what? I believe this is both true and false. The world is filled with a lot of stupid people. In some places there are higher concentrations of them then in others. In fact the actual number of intelligent people in this universe is very low. That doesn?t mean that those who are stupid are mean and cruel. The percentage of our population that?s like that is also pretty low and a few bright people are caught up in that mean streak. I have found that most people are good and kind with a decent heart. We also have to keep in mind that people are smart in different ways. There are three or four general ways and areas people have intelligence with. The categorized I have identified are book smart, street smart, life smart, and common sense smart which applies in all of these categories to a certain extent. It comes part and parcel with the smart deal. I for one consider myself very well off with life and book smart. I am street dumb and my common sense is decent. No one can be well endowed with all of these things. I?m sure there are a few exceptions to this. When you find them; let me know. I enjoy talking about intelligence but I also have to watch out of what I say so as not to offend too many people. I amidst that I sometimes feel bad for bringing it up. It?s an interesting debate issue that holds the potential for a lot of hurt feelings. I am a thinker so generally speaking the abstract topics I?ve discussed are all based off of my scattered brain. I?ve had all of these idea and beliefs locked inside of me since I had no other real outlet. Usually my notebooks are dedicated to some purpose, which restricts my wanting to go outside of what I designated a notebook for. Since this book has no designated purpose I feel free to randomly go off talking about things that I?ve thought about a million times over but never really said out loud due to either the lack of an audience other than myself and the lack of desire to share. So here I am sharing what I never thought I would share with myself much less a piece of paper. I am enjoying this immensely. Unfortunately we are getting very near our final destination so I must end the second part of my wonderfully random essay. Who knows if it will continue on or have it end here. That all depends on what I feel like doing. It sure is a lot of fun to do. I only wish I had done it sooner. We are now *RAT* sinking below the clouds into the place I called home for 6 long and wonderful years. Someday I will not only paint what I see with words but in drawings and paintings as well. End Part II.

Here I am in a hotel getting ready to write a very brief Part III. I?m here! Louisville has greeted me with a very big hug. At the airport I was greeted by Lucretia, Elliott, Ada, and Will. I was so happy to see them I almost cried. Home never looked so good. Physically nothing much has changed here in town. It was as if I picked up where we left off. I didn?t realize how much I missed everyone until I finally saw them again. Life is cool like that. It reminds you that even after you become grateful for what you once had you become even more grateful if you get it back. You don?t know what you got till it?s gone. Well we?ll see who remains my true buds and who were there for the ride. I am a great person to have around. The energy I produce is extremely unique. So when it?s gone most people miss it. There?s no one or thing quite like me. I most definitely walk to the beat of my own drummer. My drummer has a very different beat.
My Texas trip was the most awesome experience I?ve ever had. I have grown so much from that whole trip that I have no idea how lucky I got in doing so. Perhaps the best part of the whole trip was our closing circle. I learned in that circle how my tightest knit group of friends viewed me. they told me, which I totally believe, is that I?m awesome, a key cornerstone in the group. It made me feel good knowing that I am an important member of my youth group as a youth leader. I feel extremely special. I attempted to let everyone know individually how awesome they are. Without them there is no way I could be who I am today. Without them living in Eugene would be pointless. They gave me something to look forward to every weekend in the beginning. Even now I look forward to Sunday. My best friends are all there. The trick now will be trying to get new members into the group. my goal is to eventually reach out to those without faith or belief in the one true God. See I?m talking like a preacher! In two and a half weeks I?ve reached the point where doing ministry is a very plausible thing which I intend to ensue. Nothing like your faith to help plow away at life?s mysteries and problems. My goal in life is to make people happy. The happier the person the happier I am. Being happy is only one of the greatest things in the he world. It?s a great natural form of weight loss, it?s free, and it?s not half as hard as making people frown. It seems like a lost cause sometimes since there is no way I could ever make everyone happy. If I wanted to do that I would have many me?s running around. Having one me is scary enough. So I am content trying to make people happy to the best of my ability. I think it works pretty good too. I don?t really find unhappy people near me-unless an external dilemma is bothering them. In which case I can?t do anything about. Generally though I keep people around me laughing. Not such a bad thing. It?s really good to see my two closest friends again, it really is. Elliott gives the best hugs ever and Ada is just the creates to go out and have fun with. Tomorrow I get to go to the mall with Ada and then see a movie later that day. My trip won?t have any endearing marks of boredom etched into it. There?s always something to see or do and someone to visit.
Know what really bugs me? The fact that in most hotels the water pressure sucks in the shower. What is normally a 15 minute shower ends up being more like 30 minutes. Almost every motel I?ve ever stayed at though has had great water pressure. The campgrounds I?ve stayed at also have good water pressure. Hotels don?t know what water pressure is. Nothing beats the shower at home though.
Someday I?m going to buy back my good ole Kentucky home. It?s the best house I?ve ever lived in. My room was the perfect size with an awesome walk-in closet. My house was great! Everybody loved it, especially me. There was nothing wrong with it to me. My house was where I grew up, where I rediscovered music. It was there that the best parties I had came alive. It was big and old and I loved every inch of that house-down to the last wooden beam. maybe someday I?ll have the chance to live in it again. my house and I share many fond memories. We survived the worst of the tornado warnings there. And it was there that I learned how to dance, appreciate carpet, write poems, and the art of doing homework while talking on the phone listening to music. The house was perfect. Didn?t need a thing. The pool was just the right size and depth. The location nothing less than stunning any time of year. It?s where did my growing up, taller and taller to stopping just short of my goal. Perhaps the best thing of all was the love that built the house and made it a home. With never-ending storage space for everything we bought and collected. There was always room to out something, in the same way we always have room in our heart to love those we treasure. For it is they who help us feel more like a home than a house. End Part III.