I woke early on Saturday to be ready for when Dad got home from work. He was supposed to be home at 9am but when 10am arrived and he wasn't home I went back to sleep. That morning I woke up and became my own whirlwind. I pack my bag, computer, and bedding. I clean myself and the fish tank. I even did the shopping for Mom for the entire week. All that in two hours time. Dad finally came home around noon. We didn't leave Iowa until after 1pm. The rest of the day, the car and us traveled through rain and sunshine and fall darkness until we stopped in What we thought that the time was Tennessee. I didn't sleep well because whatever position I found myself in hurt my back. We woke and left at 6am and found we were still only in Indiana. The rain continued as our companion all the rest of our trip through three states. We finally arrived in Statesboro sometime around 6pm. It was a very long drive but I was lucky and slept most of the way.

We were greeted with three shy smiling faces. They entertained us until they went to bed two hours later. I good drive, but worth the trip.

I was flipping a channels looking for something interesting to keep my attention while i waited to go to work, when I happened upon WWII in HD. It's a mini series now being shown on the History channel. It is color footage of WWII. The images caught me. It's one thing to be told various facts growing up about the war between the Allies and the Axis powers, the war that changed the world. It's another thing entirely to see what happened. Though I know that I'll never understand war and what it does to a human, I do know that a greater understanding will change anyone and especially me when I am confronted by the choice of putting any person through that.

I better understand now how this world went from the more innocent community oriented world it was before WWII, to what it is now. I think that by putting an entire rising generation directly in the path of death changed how they saw themselves and how they saw the world they were living in.

My generation now lives in a time where group after group go to war. Year after year it seems as if more and more neighboring countries battle and kill one another. We are not surprised when one people attacks another. We feel less outraged then we should. We are moving to become an apathetic generation.

I don't think I could can meet a person now that is not somehow personally connected with someone fighting in a war. I personally have had two cousins serve in Iraq. One is on another tour. I don't know if this is his third or fourth. I just hope that yet again he comes home again safe.

The news lately is always full of stories about soldiers who return home having trouble coping with everything. This is not a big surprise. I don't know how someone can go through an attack, battle, or skirmish and not be changed afterward. Most soldiers are not equipped to go through what they do mentally.

After all that though, I just have to express my gratitude to all those that have served and are serving now. When we were ambushed and challenged, it was those soldiers who met our aggressors and turned them away. They made life livable. Words aren't enough Grandpa, Chris, and Dale for what you have done. I hope that though you won, you were not defeated because of the experience.

I went to a Young Single Dance tonight. I took justina, alex and chris with me. we got to the dance but no one was there that we wanted to see, so we went to the pagent and enjoyed that. we then returned to the dance where there were more people. it was a fun night. jusy  and sasha are spending the night with me. It should be interesting.

These are the first five pages of my new science fiction story. Is it any good? Would you want to read more?

 

Her eyes blurred for a second as her mind wandered. Something on the roster she was trying to memorize had triggered the depths of her consciousness.  A prisoner’s name was Rose Samson. ‘What is a rose?’ she thought to herself. ‘I think that I remember something by that name.’ A glimpse, a shadow of a memory replayed a man with large hands handing her a plant. She remembered happiness.

PTZZZ. Her body began to convulse. Dark disgusting images invaded the memory. Opened scalps with maggots eating the brains, little children with the legs behind their heads while their guts fell heavily upon the gravel and their eyes stared vacantly towards you, as if pleading for release. Breathe, clear your mind.

‘What was the last name on the roster? Name on the roster!’ Alyes searched for it frantically in her brain, trying to ignore the bodies flashing one after the other. Ignas Plato. “Ignas Plato!” She realised she had shouted the name out loud. She commanded herself to breathe slowly.

The convulsions had stopped and she lay on her side in the fetal position against the wall she had been leaning against only seconds before. It had only been seconds, right? She stood up shakily and then decided sitting would be better at the moment.  She reran the names on the roster through her mind again as she walked towards a crate on the other side of the walkway in the hanger to sit down. When she came to the name Rose again, she quickly shortened it to R. Samson and moved on. She licked her lips and tasted blood. This didn’t surprise her. Lately, whenever the convulsions came her nose would bleed. She wiped the blood off her face with a handkerchief and then ran the preflight checklist off in her head. Lists were her saving grace: lists, facts, calculations, anything that made it so her mind could never wonder.  She could think of the future with some limitations, but any thoughts that strayed to her life before she woke up in that hospital bed and the bodies came.

She breathed deeply one more time, feeling the strength and steadiness returned to her. The transport ship that the prisoners were being transferred from hadn’t arrived yet and neither had the replacement for captain. The last three captains had only lasted one transfer each. Most of the soldiers she got were green, right out of flight school, and too eager to be in the cockpit. Mean or disgruntled commanders that wanted to teach the soldiers a lesson signed them up at this command post and waited for the transfer request to come to their desk, asking for a position a little less… demanding.

The hanger was still bare, except for her freighter. Her steps on the metal grating echoed through the expanse of air that filled the hanger. She was alone. Alyes’s mind scrambled. She checked the time. Both the captain and the transport were late. She paced in front of the gangplank for a minute or two, counting the steps in her head. Right, one, two, three, four, five. Left, one, two, three, four, five. Alyes checked her watch again. Same time as before she started pacing. She brought the watch to her ear. It didn’t tick. Taking off the watch she noticed that the case was broken. It must have cracked when she was convulsing. She threw the piece of crap ancient clock down on the floor and it exploded, littering fragments all over the floor.

“I don’t know if it deserved that,” a voice from behind her stated boldly.

Alyes turned to see two officers walking towards her. The one who had spoken was slightly disheveled and was carrying a duffle bag in his left hand. He was of average build and features, but handsome. The other was slightly taller and blonde. The blonde officer had his uniform on crisp and neat, and made a stark contrast to his companion.

Alyes stood at attention and saluted. The pair of men stopped in front of her and returned the salute.

“Good Evening, Major Zhen, Captain.” She inclined her head to each in turn.

“Lieutenant Em, this is Captain Ranulf Arne Thorne,” the blonde officer gestured to his companion. “Captain Thorn this is Second Lieutenant Alyes Em.” They stepped towards each other and shook hands. “He is your new commanding officer and we hope will last longer than your last one.” Major Zhen smiled warmly, and Captain Thorne just smirked.

“Lt. Em is one of the best we’ve got. She has been piloting the Varis for the last three years. She would have my job if she could…” Mg. Zhen blinked rapidly and both Alyes and Cpt. Thorne looked at him. Zhen cleared his throat and continued. “Anyway, you had best get the Captain situated before the other transport gets here in the next five minutes.” They all saluted each other in turn before, the Major left.

Alyes and Cpt. Thorne sized the other up briefly. All that Cpt. Thorne could see was a woman in her twenties, with striking short red hair and muddy eyes. She was fit but slightly rumpled and there was a slight trace of blood close to her nose. He dismissed it, and moved on.

“Well, I guess this is the time to show you to your quarters before we start the pre-flight check list. That is if that is alright with you, sir.” She looked at him, but only half saw him and her mind raced ahead to the things that need to be done in the time before the other ship arrived and now. He nodded and Alyes led the way into the ship.

The Varis was a classic freighter. It was meant to have a crew of three, and also had space for passengers of around six. Whether the passengers were family of the crew, as was often the case on these ships, it was a little big for just two people. The military had bought it used and converted it, as best they could, to be a prisoner transport. It just meant that weapons had been integrated into the system and not very well.

The bridge was the right thing on the right after entering the hatch. It was small but was plenty big for the two people it sat. About seven paces past the bridge hatch and on the right again was the hatch that led into the crew’s quarters. A hall led past a window into the bridge on the left and past two doors on the left and ended at a door. The nameplate on the door at the end of the hall read “Captain.” Alyes pointed to the door, “Home for you for however long you’re stationed here, sir. My quarters are here closest to the hatch and bridge. Once you’ve dropped off your bag, we’ll meet in the bridge, if that is alright with you, sir.” Cpt. Thorne’s shoulders hunched slightly every time Alyes called him sir. The monotone deadness to her voice grated on his already shred nerves.

“That’s fine Lieutenant. You can start without me if you wish.” Thorne said before opening his door, entering, and shutting it behind him.

The room was spare of anything homey. There was a desk, a bed, some shelves, a dresser, and a door that led into a privy. It had everything you needed, nothing you wanted. Thorne breathed deeply, and steeled himself against the robot that waited for him in the bridge. This was nothing like he had expected when all this began. She was nothing like he expected. The only spark that she showed was the color of her hair. He placed his bag by the bed and left his room.

When Thorne got back to the bridge, Lt. Em was entering commands into the computer at a lightning speed. A beep sounded from the speakers in the console and was quickly followed by a voice. “Transport flight 00694B is just entering the hanger. Please ready your cargo clamps for transfer of two containers.” The communication ended. Before Alyes could react, Thorne reached around her and pressed the com button before replying, “Roger, readying cargo clamps now.” He quickly entered the commands and turned to the other control station and sat down. Clanking, grinding, and a roaring sound vibrated the air around the two silent occupants of the Varis.

 

 

Life is good. I split my time between five essentials in my life. Work, sleep, Tv, the internet, and reading. Alexis is staying with us. She's been here a week and she has another week with us yet. I love that girl but she makes me happy that I'm the youngest. Spoiled with the lack of responsibility towards younger siblings is a great gift and I thank my parents for it.

I'm writing again. I started a new project after reading Orson Scott Card's book on writing fantasy and Science fiction. I've been working on my last project to long. I figure if it still has merit after I finish this new project, I'll come back to it.

i had dinner at Jordan and Cindy's. The entire family on both sides was there. It was fun, but I'm not a crowd person. I'm happy to be back home in bed on my computer again.

I heart my computer.

Just one more day of work until I get an entire week off. That made my week when I saw that. After that, if the weather behaves, we'll be off to see Leah and Brian. Staying up late isn't good and i'm not very happy that Knights of the old republic decided that it wants to be reloaded. Yearning to start a new writing project since it has been so long since I started the last one. I hope I do finish that one sometime before I die.

Jordan and I are car pooling to work tomorrow since we work the same hours.

It's really cold and I don't want to scrape the windows of the van anymore.

Christmas came early this year. My parents helped me buy a laptop. My first new computer. I love it! I've been working at my local grocery store called HyVee's. I work in the bakery with my brother sometimes but mainly with a lot of cool girls that are just younger or older then 18.

I've started playing Oblivion again. It's fun but I for got how much time that game takes to accomplish any quests.
We're spending Christmas with Leah this year. I was so happy when I saw that I didn't have to work the rest of the week after Christmas.

Our house doesn't feel like christmas though. The tree is only half decorated and that is the only christmasy thing that is in our house. Jordan's wedding spoiled everything. We're not even wrapping gifts this year because most of our gifts are either too big (Mom's new bed) or electronic (Wii's and Comps). but that's okay. I'm loving my gift. I was so antsy waiting for the fedex guy to come. I kept on looking out the window everytime I heard a car that might be the truck. My mom was getting annoyed, so I went down stairs and watched three movies while waiting.

So today at school pretty much sucked becuase of a low grade in math class and a test in art history that I wasn't as prepared for as I would have liked. But all that is okay because Vickie called me back. I love talking with friends and discussing our stupidness. It makes my world go round.

Today was my first day back to College. That was great. To be amoung all those milling bodies trying to get an education. I'm in a class with Jordan. It's us and sever other students in the Art History Class. Then After that I have Math. That class has about thirty students I would guess.

Yesterday I took the Compass test to see where to place me in classes, and I got a perfect score so they,the advisors, are telling me not to take the class and to just clep out of it. That's make me happy since I didn't want to take comp1 anyway.

I get to buy my books tomorrow and then put in an application at Menards, so that I'll money to pay back Mom and Dad for this semester.
So yay!

I went to orientation today at SCC. It was ....boring.  I didn't really learn that much but I wrote my name on a card so that they know that I attended.

My friend Alex spent the night Saturday. We spent most of the time just reading the same book at the same time. She was ahead of me and would make all these noices about something that she read which really frustrated me because I didn't know what she was reacting to. At one point she sat down after getting another amount of tissue and tells me, "You are a heartless jerk." I just laugh because I didn't cry at all during the same parts of the book.

Jordan's engaged to a girl named Cindy and they set the date to be November 29th. I'm happy for them and we really love Cindy.  She went to Georgia with us to visit Forrest and his family.

I can't believe that it has almost been a year since my last entry. That is sad in my neglect but then again if I had finished my mission there wouldn't have been an entry until next May.

I live in Iowa now with my parents and Jordan. We moved here in April. My niece Ellie was born on May 28th and my other niece,Gemma, was born the forth of July.

I've been reading like I'm going blind. My goodreads.com account really shows it.  I remember not that long ago when I was waiting to get to 200 hundred books that I have read, now I'm easily getting close to the 300 mark. I'll be starting college again in next month,after we have gone down to Georgia to visit Forrest and Sonya and their expanding family.

I applied at the library and hope to have an interview soon. I go in twice a week but I really need to introduce myself to the librarian that is hiring. I want her to know me by name soon with how much I bother her about the job.

I've gotten my mission papers and I'm going to be in Provo and Southern Utah for the next year and a half. I'm excited because I'll be teaching in spanish. I love languages. I know that Utah isn't the exciting and you would think that there are enough Mormons there already, but no, there are never enough Mormons. lol. I leave for Provo on the 24th of October.

Well now I can say that I have been to California. We went this last weekend as my birthday celebration. We didn't do much. We were centered in Eureka. We drove and hiked through the Redwoods and even spent about an hour on the beach collection rocks (since there weren't any shells to be had. On Monday we spent the day trying to drive from the coast to Redding. It took us 8 hours to go about 50 miles. We were going around crazy curves and bends up in the mountains and even ended up in this town that felt like it was suck in the fifties. Oh Alderpoint. While in Redding Jordan made sure that we all experience In n Out Burger. It was good place and an interesting place. It was a fun vacation and I would go back.

Today when Jordan and I decided to make lunch I went straight for my Peanut Butter and Nutella and He started to toast bread for a meat sandwich. On discovering that there was not meat in the fridge, he put some chili in the microwave to heat up. He ate two bites of his toast then put it down to get the chili. The bowl was hot and Jordan grabs the first thing that he can think of to put between his hands and the bowl, so he grabs the toast. Nice hot pads Jordan. Toast is deffinantly my first choice too. I was laughing so hard to see Jordan toating his chili with toast from one side of the kitchen to the other. A great moment I would say.

I'm so much closer to completing my paper work for my mission. I went to the doctor on Friday and was there for two hours. Most of that time was waiting. So while at the doctors I had a physical. Just the basic stuff. My cordination, listen to my heart and lungs, feel my spine. All that fun stuff. After that the fun stuff came. I had a PPD test to see if I have TB. Then they drew blood and I got to pee in a cup for a urine sample. Then I got a tetnis shot and both Hep A and B shots. So over all I had a needle shoved in me five time in less then twenty minutes. Good thing I don't mind needles. Well to let you know. I don't have TB..YAY! lol. Not that I thought I did.

I did have a strange reaction to the Hep shots. The area around the shots became swollen and tender. The swelling is finally going down today, three days after the shots. I hadn't been able to sleep on my right side because the area was so tender.

Now I just need the dentist paperwork and all will be ready to submit to Salt Lake.

I've decided to go on a mission for my church and will be putting in my papers as soon as possible. I'll keep everyone updated on what my address will be and where and when I'll be going.

School has been good since I started. I love my English and Mandarin classes. I like my Religion class and Bio Lab as well. My roommates this semester are Lizzy (who is my room roommate), Emily (who I roomed with last summer), Amber, Megann, and Brittany. They're all pretty awesome. I also inherited old FHE brothers and they are interesting. So anyway. Campus is a wreck this semester because of construction. In order to get to the other side of campus you either have to go through other buildings, or go way out of your way to go around the fences they have put up. It's definently not the pretty campus I left. Tonight, as an apartment, we ate pizza and went to Music and Lyrics, that is except Brittany, who stayed home and went to bed. The movie was good. I haven't written in my story in a while which makes me sad but I think that I will since I don't have much to entertain me between sleeping and school work. I've been practicing my guitar because of the lack of other entertainment. I just don't like watching TV when I live away from home. It's doesn't seem like the best kind of entertainment to be doing. Anyway...I'm tired. My earliest class is at 7:45 and I get to wake up at 6:30 to get ready. The morning is always brisk and windy. I can't wait till it's warmer. I send most of my day on campus in the morning and evenings, so the warmer air will be perfect.

Thank goodness! I;m in Rexburg and soon will be signing up for classes. I'm excited. Just thought that I would share this joyous news with everyone. Last night was my first night back, and I'm really happy. My roommates seem like interesting people. Now I'm getting ready for church.

I just realised that I hadn't said that Jordan is no longer engaged. Nichole broke it off about a month a half ago. He was seriously heartbroken for a good month of that. He's better now. I don't know how much better but he doesn't suck to be around anymore. He's more chipper and actually is starting to socialize again. That's what happens when you've had your heart broken as many times as Jordan in only two years.

So the Japan thing might not be completely out of the question which is amazing. It makes me all giddy and happy with just that thought of it.

I went to a concert tonight by The Paperboys. They're a Canadian band and they are pretty cool. It's hard to describe their music. It's like a bluegrass,folk,rock,.... band. The "..." was for the word to describe them that I couldn't think of. They were very approachable and fun. The lead singer played four different instruments throughout the concert and talked to the audience a lot. At one point he broke his g-string on his acoustic-electric guitar and asked if anyone in the audience played guitar and knew how to change guitar strings. This guy named Frank did. The venue was this old church with a dome that had been changed into a concert hall and is now called the Seasons. It still had the pews and the stained glass windows and hard wood molding and woodwork. It was a great Friday night. I also got all dressed up in my new dress and put on high heels and fun stuff like that. I went with my dad and mom and afterwards we went to Applebee's and had dessert. We were served by a guy named Steve.

All didn't go well and I'm not going to be packing for Japan this time next year. The girl, Susan who I was going to be taking the job over for decided to stay on another year.

I went to the Pacific Ocean this weekend and saw the waves crashing on the shore and rocks. I wasn't paying attention to my own surroundings at one point and the ocean came in and covered my feet up to the ankles so I had to change socks and shoes but since I hadn't brought an extra pair of shoes I had to wear my dad's extra pair of shoes. They weren't that big though since my dad's feet aren't that big. It was an awesome trip. We went to the Sealion caves and saw nearly 200 sealions lying on each other with a couple swimming in the water. It was cool to see the animals in their natural habitat. We also went to an aquarium and drove for about an hour down the coast.

The hotel we stayed at sucked because the beds were as hard as the floor. So we didn't sleep well, but the excitement of the day gave us energy.

On our way home we stopped in Portland, OR and ate dinner with my cousin Penny and her family. Her husband Dan and her little boy Issac and little girl Sydney. She was so cute that when I was taking a test last minute at their house she kept on sitting next to me and talking to me while I was trying to concentrate. We got home at about 1am this morning and I was greatful to crawl up onto my bed and sleep which I did until 2 o'clock this afternoon.

I also found so weird oval shaped dots on my back from my lower back up to my neck. My mom doesn't know what they are but loads me with benedryl just in case. If they persist than I get to go to the doctors. They itch a little. I'm always tempted to scratch them.

When we were in Oregon I started the day with some pretty flat relatively straight hair and by the end of the day it was huge curly wind blown hair. I named the style to Salt Water Perm.