"Remember, no man is a failure who has friends."

Nothing to cheer your day up like a good 'ol reminder of what you've got.

It is a wonderful life.



I love this movie.

And so it begins.

Last weekend marked the first official tournament of the speech and debate season.

Not only that, it was the first official tournament that anybody in our league has had.

Like, nobody else in the country had a tournament yet.

Isn't that special?

There were no speech events - just debate. So that was 2 very long days of debate -- with my psychotic, half-insane debate club. :D

We spent 5 hours in the car (yes, our entire club.) (Granted, there's only 4 in our club) driving down to Eugene, Oregon - listening to Veggie Tales, Revive, Irish Pub music, and creating debate examples based off of things we saw outside the window.

Because we all had school-ish such things going on that day, we didn't leave till 4:30pm. This means that with a 5 hour car ride, we didn't get there till like 10 pm.

And, at 5am the next morning, tournament insanity began!

Because it was just debate, there were extra rounds. My friend Paul and I were also crazy (or perhaps ignorant...you never know) enough to try a new form of debate which we've never done before called "parliamentary debate." Styled after, of course, the British Parliament.

So combined with that and the usual amount of debate, I debated a total of 11 rounds, which is roundabouts of 11 hours of debate.

11 hours.

That's 11 hours of having your ideas beat to a pulp, and then having to muster up the brainpower to attempt to beat their ideas to a similar pulp.

With no speech to balance it out.

So at this present moment, I am thoroughly out of my mind, and fear I shall remain so for quite awhile.

Scenes from a Summer

This was almost like a preschool reunion or something.
I have known this amazing girl since I we were 3 years old!

My lovely new friend Emily and I at the Rebelution Conference in Portland
[post on that coming soon....ideally]

Some of the sweetest girls I know.

Me 'an my Narnia Nerd buddy at the Narnia Exhibit in Portland.

One of CS Lewis' wardrobes. :D

Cousinsauce

This is my awesome friend Heather. We've known each other since we were 4.

Last weekend we adventured out to Fort Casey and Deception Pass on Whidbey Island with some friends.

I love them.

Middle of August, wearing jeans, hiking trails. It's what we do.

We are true Washingtonians. We wade in the pacific.

Kite flying at Fort Casey

We are pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

I feel as if this picture accurately describes our relationship.

Explaining to visiting East-Coast friends what real pine trees look like. ;)

Ever seen the movie "The Wilderness Family?"

Cheesy/fake/cropped/free Space Needle souvenier :D

Definitely going on my list for best summers of the year. Oh wait, that doesn't sound right, there's only one summer per year. Oh well. ::happy sigh::

Oh life....

So. Pictures....of life! From the last...3-4 months or so! Minus the pics from Nationals, which ideally shall come later.

Portland, Oregon for the Region II tournament. My favorite thing about this picture is Raymond in the background... =]

Adventuring out to see Jane Eyre with Gray and Ophelia...

My awesome Silversmith speech club. LOVE.

Co-op semi formal...sooo much fun! Except that swing dancing on a boat is *not* that smart...

John-Luke's 10th birthday - I made him a lego cake. =]

Co-op graduation. (not my high school graduation, just co-op graduation)

So...I have pretty much grown up with these girls all my life. <3

One-day production of Fiddler on the Roof. Good times, that.

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match....

Summer weather with my crazy dog....

...and my crazy friends....

...and crazy siblings...

But somehow, it's the middle of July and I'm still wearing jeans...something is wrong with this picture....oh, Seattle....

smile (:

I'm beginning to grow rather fond of the random, spontaneous blog updates. [that's a warning, dear reader] Probably due to all the rather deep thinking I've been doing lately. But never mind that right now.

We had quiz practice today and yesterday, which proved to be quite entertaining and actually productive. (as opposed to last week's, where we mostly hung out, mulled over all the information we didn't know, ate popcorn, and argued over whether to listen to my ipod or Micah's.)

I ALSO got to spend time with my sister yesterday, (!!!!!!!) whom I haven't seen in a year, which is a ridiculously long time. I'm trying to find an appropriately awesome word to describe our visit, but I'm not finding one. Ah, well. Guess that means I should expand my vocabulary.

This is our Christmas tree. (:

Today is Christmas Eve Eve! Kind of scary how it's crept up. I have so much work to do before break is over.

OH! and Maple Candy is the best thing EVER! We have some in our house. ::sigh:: it's sooooo good. (:

It was a sunny smile,
And little it cost in the giving.
But like morning light,
it scattered the night,
And made the day worth living.
-anonymous

Camp Marathon?

I've been at camps for the past month.

First there was VBA. (which could be a whole series of blog posts by itself, but I think I'll spare you on that one.)

Then there was Debate camp. (Firehose of information in my debate-novice face :D )

Last week there was speech camp. (Exhausting. Insane. Totally amazing.)

And today I leave for awana camp!!

....be back in a week! (:

Nationals! [part V - That's going in the book]

Yes, Hannah still does author this blog. And yes, she has returned from Nationals quite safely, thank you. Yes. I'm finally posting about nationals. :) I have about 10 billion thoughts swirling in my head in relation to my trip. And I really do like it when people post thoroughly about their trips, so I'll try to do the same. But it will probably take me a month, so bear with me. :)

In my perfect little world, I was hoping to get a picture of Regent just like the one off their website that I've been using for the past few Nats posts. Except with me in it. Wouldn't that have been cool? Except that I never did. So here's one of another part of the campus. That I did take. :)

And now, for pictures of Nationals. Most of these are from my camera...hopefully my friend will send me hers and I'll have a few more to post.

It's impossible to capture my nationals experience in one post with a few pictures. And as Gray said later, "after four years of communication studies, I've still found that occasionally, music just says it better."

So here's a song for you to listen to while you look at the pictures. Yes, I know I'm obsessed with it. Listen to it for me, please? :P

This is the sign at the hotel we stayed in. I like it. And that the "W" is an upside down "M"

(at the banquet) We. Want. Breaks!!!!!!

My new friend Christiana, whom I met at the beginning of the year. We had a fun time at Nats. :)

Audrey! :)

The crazy guys of our group. X)

I always wanted to do a feet picture.... :P

If they don't announce breaks soon.....

This is what we're gonna do!!!

Oh, no, we're not nervous for breaks AT ALL....

Okay, maybe a just a *little* nervous....

Not quite sure what Sophia and I were thinking here. I have a feeling Rebecca grabbed my camera, said "make a face", and...uh. We did. :P

BREAKS!!!!!!!!! (note the 2009 banner. Yeah. Fail, NCFCA.)

After the banquet, with the joy of having broken to semis putting a skip to my step, we went dancing in the pouring down rain. In our speech clothes. It felt better than I can describe. ::sigh of contentment::

Friends. Forever. :)

And geeks forever too. 8)

Now we fast forward through all rounds, panic, running-around-in-dress-shoes-and-80-dgree-weather, turmoil, meals, sleeping, (or lack therof), getting lost, frantic food cramming, breaks, getting lost, breaks, getting lost..... to the awards.

Mr. Larimer and a bunch of gigantic trophies

After awards.

We walked to Shoney's for a ballot party - and were rather amused by the uh....descriptive nature of this sign. :P

I love these girls so much.

This is a cool picture. =]

A lot of laughing went on that night....

This is it! The end. NCFCA year is over. Yes. This was the best part of the tournament; the only ballot party I ever went to; with some of my best friends ever.