[ the joys of summer time ]

wow last post was june 17. that was before exam week. huh. funny.

ps. long post ahead because of absence. not for the faint of heart.

so it's just past the midway point of summer break and i'm only making my first post... i completely skipped out on july. i guess i never really got around to it or that i've just been completely ignoring this blog. it's kind of a mix.

anyhow, july went by quickly. yknow that feeling like.. damn. half of my summer is gone already?! i worked all school year for 2 months of break and half of it is gone already. tear tear sob sob. yeah i'm kinda feeling that right now. sooo recap of july.. personal drama resolved and in the end celebrated, 2 weeks of volunteering, and just chillage with friends.

the volunteering wasn't too brutal. sure, i came home from camp seemingly exhausted, but only because i don't get enough sleep (but i'm too much of a guy to admit this to my mom). anyway, first week with a bunch of 10-14 year olds, second week with 6-9 year olds. each week had its own ups and downs, and i realized that age groups have their pros and cons. for example, the older kids were more mature and generally you didn't have to watch them as carefully, but because of their older and slightly more intelligent mindset, they would from time to time do something they know is irritating, and they think that since they are the older group they have the right of not listening to the higher-ups. the younger kids, on the other hand, were more impressionable and had more respect for the staff and volunteer, but were also at times harder to control just because, well, they're kids and have a ton of energy. people asked me why i didn't just get a staff position at the camp since i already volunteered there last year. it's simple. i don't have the kind of attitude or personality to face these kids the whole summer. i can handle a couple of them but not.. such a big handful. really i don't have the responsibility nor the maturity to take it. so that was half my july, i got 70 volunteer hours for it. kinda makes me wonder at the same time why i'm still striving for the hours. i'm way over the required amount now anyway.

i think the highlight of my summer so far has been my second year anniversary with shelley. really it's been such a ride; there's been the ups and the downs, but i wouldn't give it up for anything. reflecting on our relationship so far, it's a pretty amazing story, totally worthy of a tv show. haha. and the future? as always, noone can see too much in the future, if any at all. but both of us realy hope we can make it through and keep the drive going. our actual july 21, 2008 was awesome. we planned to go to woodbine beach, but had our hopes dashed by a rainy forecast. no real matter, as per usual, our plans never really matter as long as we got to spend time together. as cheesy as that may sound, it's the honest truth. anyway, we ended up just bussing around gta, ending up at weston road, where we found ourselves in the theatre watching the dark knight on the 3rd day of its opening. and omgoodness what a show it was. really, if there was anything anybody needs to see this summer, it's the dark knight. the movie took up a good 3 hours, before we headed back to richmond hill to find a place to eat. all day long shelley had planned a surprsie for me but i had no idea what it was. the reveal - we were apparently cooking dinner together. i'm no cook, and shelley had some experience at it, so we played around for a little bit in the kitchen and came up with some shrimp penne. it was pretty good, decent. our night ended at mill pond, watching the sun set and the rise of the stars. and as such, was my 2nd year with my beloved girlfriend.

oh remember how i went job hunting months back? i finally decided to give putting edge a call, scheduled an interview, and after a 2 week wait they told me they weren't hiring anymore. jerks. they didn't even call me back. oh well, disappointing but nonetheless a good experience? even though i didn't get a job out of it.

so with my 2 weeks of freedom after volunteering, i had some time to catch up with friends and such. zimu, mike, and ambrose came over for some chilling time, with the majority spent outside playing basketball and just fooling around. in my opinion, this is how summer should be spent- with friends, just having fun. it never really matters what you're doing. all that actually matters is the time spent. speaking of which, my birthday IS coming up.. need to plan something for that as well.

so the most recent happening was summer conference at brock u. simply put, it was a church retreat with 2 guest speakers invited in. to be honest i didn't really find the messages to be mindblowing or astoundingly revolutionalizingto me, but the speakers themselves both had a general intersting aura surrounding themselves, which made the messages worthwhile and what not. i really appreciated the fellowship time with both friends and God, and just being away from the city was a refreshing change. inserted between worship, messages, devo time, was just free time where you could basically do anything within obvious boundaries. this was amazingly fun. pushup poker, scattagories, meals with ice cream, 3 hours of basketball, bundled with an awesome environment for worship, praise, and devo, summer conference was totally worth the 70 bucks and 3 days. haha!

so that's basically my summer up to this point. i'm looking forward to the rest of it, especially my birthday. i really hope i can get something together successfully this year unlike my last attempt. =)
till then.