the craziest night dive everr

So eric & i went night diving last night..by ourselves. all alone. it was such a..idk, rite of passage? i'm a grownup! :) but anyway. incredible, no joke. well first off, we went to laguna beach, a place called crescent bay. and you park in residential areas. and get ready in residential areas. which includes getting on the skin, the wetsuit, the booties, the gloves, setting up the b/c and the octopus and the tank, getting fins and snorkel/mask close by, putting the weight belt on..which all takes about 20-30 mins depending. then you double check everything. then you put everything on. the 22 lbs of weight on a belt, the b/c like a jacket with the tank and octo connected on your back, then carrying your mask and fins down to the water with you. which was a flight of about 50 stairs. i think we were carrying at least, well, 22lbs plus whatever the tank & stuff weighs, which is a lot. i'm gonna guess around 50 lbs. 45 lbs. something like that. but all the while, we were in a residential area..and there was across the street, about three drunk men and one woman on their balcony, and we were their entertainment for the half an hour we were getting ready. one of them yelled at us, called us brother and sister, and marines...then the woman started taking pictures? wtf? but whatever. (how did they know we were brother and sister??)

anyway. after that was fantastic. once we were actually in the water, fabulousss!! we saw a shark right off, a little horned shark. it was a decent size too for a horn shark, about two feet. then we saw a moray eel and eric decided to knife an urchin and cut it open to see if the moray would eat it. but it didnt. then we saw a pretty dang big lobster, and eric caught it. then handed it to me. it was crazy. when i let it go, it flipped away..they swim really strangely. it actually made me laugh underwater. well my flashlight stopped working after a bit, so i just prayed really hard that erics would stay lit. it is a little freaky to be under the water in the dark, i'm not gonna lie. i was a little freaked. and then we saw another horn shark, more morays...i was looking for an octopus but we didnt see one that night. a little disappointing. until along came...something HUGE. neither of us could tell what it was at first. it was about our armspan long, fat, and spotted. at first i thought it was a sea bass or something and those things are FREAKY. but then, after eric jumped back a bit, seeing as it was right close to us about three feet away, we saw that it was a seal. a SEAL.

it looked something like that. spotted. i'm not up on my seal identification but it was spotted & played in our flashlight until we got out of the water practically. that was the last like half of our dive. he would just come in our flashlight and play on the rocks next to us. eric said he was going to eat us. he was pretty scared of the seal. every time it would come he would immediately back paddle away from it. but then would keep his light on it so he knew where it was. it was sooo funny. i loved it. it was kinda scary, and i swear it sucked up most of my oxygen cuz the adrenaline was pumping like crazy, but it was well WELL worth it. most amazing dive ever. i've never ever been that close to a wild marine mammal before, and this was AMAZING. after we got up and out..which was a difficult process seeing as my tank was almost falling out (my fault) and i got knocked over by the waves coming in & had to crawl out on my hands and knees with that much weight on me. FUN STUFF. then climbed up those 50 stairs after kicking in from about a hundred feet out from the shore then crawling in. it was lovely. and i'm sooo super sore right now. but it was a good workout. and i was determined not to give up. i did it! eric was super sweet..i can't believe how thoughtful he is. he really is. i couldnt ask for a better brother. :) then we drove home. & i finally got to be around 1:15am. it was an intense night. and i loved it. YAY FOR SCUBA!!!

Graduation

i know i know..its been like, a week since graduation..and a day. but here are the graduation pictures...which i was SO inclined to take, meaning i hated every second. cuz graduation was kind of a joke, not gonna lie. the seniors were rude to the people talking and then we just walked up and got handed diplomas. there could have been a much simpler way to do that, lemme tell you. all their threats about not walking..well they couldnt keep me from graduating right?? i just wanted the diploma..ahhh well. grad nite made up for it. and i loved grad nite. and i have pictures, but they are still on a little disposable camera in my room. & i'm also gonna blame my lateness on them, cuz i was waiting to post graduation and grad nite together but, it didnt happen that way.

The setup.
I dont know what i was doing in this pic. or where i was. probably just started walking.


The handshake.


The family shot.

KARINA!!

Jeff & I. This was my fave, even though i'm not looking

The neighbors. Sara, Jessica, and Alex. LOVE THEM!

And that concludes the people becca took pictures with for graduation. i'm sure other people were trying, namely nea (sorry!) and others.. oh and i had a pic with brionne but i told her not to show my dad or else he'd take a thousand pictures and that just wasnt a happy thought anymore..and then i booked it out of there. like, seriously booked it. :)

i can't believe i forgot

ERIC CAME HOME! like two weeks ago.

what was i thinking when i posted that last blog? i knew i was missing something. well hes home! he came on June 3rd. he's pretty normal..in everything but appetite. he barely eats anything anymore. mostly just rice...and i think he wants some curry. he's asian now! he has the strangest asian shoes...and he wears skirts sometimes now too like the malaysians. he misses them, i can tell. he loved the language, and the people, and he's super excited to go back too. were going in august.

these are his shoes. they're funky, right?? he wears them all the time too. well, thats him! we actually dont have any recent pictures of him, so if you want others you can go look at the previous post i did of him. :) malaysia, HERE WE COME!

Life

so here's what happened:

after AP tests came the end of the year projects. AP Bio means cat dissections. about a week of skinning, a week and a half of muscle learning and testing, and now the real dissection. its been fun. sort of. i'm not grossed out by most of it. the skinning was pretty nasty but i could handle it. the smell just keeps getting worse though. makes me gag a few times when i walk in but after that its fine. oh well. the insides are the best. definitely.

Her name is Sally.

then in Chemistry we put together a skit/magic show/science fair thing for some 6th and 2nd graders at morris elementary. that was fabulous. 0ur skit was based off of Cinderella.

From Left to Right: Kevin, the prince. Me, Cinderella. I have a bag over my head, yes. Michael Black, as ann evil stepsister named Drucilla. and Holly Smith, evil stepsister #2 named Pricilla. i gotta say, the whole thing was really hilarious. REALLY hilarious. there was even some science involved! :) (cinderella was a scientist who didnt dance at the ball but instead did a science experiment & thats what he fell in love with...you get the picture??)

English project: writing a childrens book. called Rindercella. (i can't get away from the disney these days.) fantastic. then we made a movie of it. even more fantastic. i think its hilarious. and i worked hard on it. with this girl and her kitten (not pictured):

& Neal Rummler, but i dont have a picture of him handy. oh how hilarious that project was! grant rummler helped us a lot too, and i must say i love that kid. sooo funny. all in all, a bit stressful, but we conquered the computer and the lack of sleep and now! we have a fabulous video of our senior year. mrs. cook even asked us for a copy of it. YAY! that means we win.

the end of this project also means : THE END!! of everything. of high school. of seminary. (from which i just graduated from on sunday) of life as i know it, basically. its incredible how much changes are coming my way this year. and its also incredible just how READY i now am for them. i wasnt a month ago, or even two weeks. but now i'm ready. sooo ready.

another thing that happened was

PROM.

i had a great time. jeff&i, devon&arielle. we all went together. & had dinner at the workmans, thanks to sister whitaker! it was fabulous. (seriously. can i get a recipe?) and Lynne's fiance served us. hilarious!

bro workman took many, many pictures. and we all went in Lynne's fantastic red mini coop convertible. to the shark club in costa mesa. there really was a shark there! and the music wasnt half bad at all. i was impressed. afterwards we ended up at devon's house and played the most fantastic game of catch phrase everr! meaning the girls whooped the guys. since they decided it was a good idea to play guys vs. shakespeareans. (is that what it was? can't remember. maybe it was the guys that had the funky name?) but me & arielle kicked butt together! :) all in all, a great night. :D

during and through all of this that has happened, my dear karina coleman decided it would be a good idea to adopt a cat. oliver was his name. freaking adorable. 8 weeks old.

i was his aunt. i went over after school and took him home

with me while karina was at work. he did the most adorable things! i love him. but now he's gone. karina got sick of him, and hated him, and threw him out in the streets. and my mother was too terrible to take him in, so he is abandoned somewhere and probably dead. okay..not really. karina found him a home. but still. thats what it feels like to me. i miss my oliver! i took him to petco, and i got him his collar, and i gave him a bath, and we took naps together, and he kissed my nose, and made weird noises while he ate...freaking adorable. he sat on my shoulder even!

ohh well. i now live a lonely life without him. i'll get over it..sometime in the next twenty years.

well honestly, i think i covered everything big since i posted last. i've been meaning to over and over again, but i was suddenly busy. a preview of coming attractions: GRADUATION!! only a week left. less than a week. next tuesday. THATS IT BABY!