Curfew Break Part 1

I suddenly felt like reaccounting what I half-mentioned one or two posts ago, since I'm really bored and I don't want this memory to go to waste.

So, one stormy night during the retreat a one year younger friend I've known for a long time and I were in our dorm. I had just come out of the shower and she had come in the room after going off and doing something with the other girls that I had missed out on. When she saw me, she said she was STILL bored so she tried to drag me out of the girls' floor and outside where it was raining, but my hair was still wet so I said I'd get there later but she said she'd wait for me, so after about 10 minutes of blow drying my thick, way too healthy hair, I dragged myself down the stairs into the night.

I knew I had an umbrella in my room, but Rachel was too impatient so she dragged me all the way down the hill outside, in the rain, next to the trees. Now I know: lightning + trees = bad, but we wanted to get to the Big House before curfew. My friend speeded through the door first, and when I got to the lobby the first thing I saw was a foot. And it was in my face.

After I picked myself up, a slightly buff normal heighted guy said sorry and continued his taekwondo spar. His opponent was none other than our youth pastor, who used to be a martial arts teacher. I walked over to my friend and sat next to her and looked around. Two guys, four girls, and one youth pastor in total. Apparently the two sparring were showing off, because the rest of us were watching them and letting out occasional "oh my gosh"s and "whoa"s.

So for a count of all people, here's how I'll call them. They're all asian, by the way.

Guy #1 is a moderately tall and thin rising 9th grader who wears glasses and has a record of moving through girls fairly quickly. He is a moderate guy, very funny, quiet on stage, and pretends to be mean at times. Gentle when he wants to be, moderately athletic.

Guy #2 is a rising seventh grader, although his looks and speech quirks tell otherwise. He knows all the middle school guy talk and has already had a voice change. He is as tall as Guy #1, and slightly more muscular (possibly because of his status as a black belt in taekwondo). Big eyes and looks ages younger when smiling. He could go really well with the ladies if he tried, especially older girls. You know that type.

Girl #1 is big faced and has small eyes, nose, and mouth. Rising 8th grader. Resembles pig and is a wannabe everything. Her mosquito voice and the need to say everything that she thinks of is why some people avoid her. She also sometimes likes getting attention through others care.

Girl #2 is my bespectacled friend, a rising 8th grader. There is almost nothing unlikeable about her, except that she can be a little too bossy at times. A normal, outgoing kid who smiles at all the right things and is a terrific jazz and pop singer. Cute at times and knows who to trust and is an outdoorsy person, always on the go.

Girl #3 is a very patient rising 9th grader. who can stand even Girl #1. She gets along with guys and girls alike and is very cute. She knows how to gossip but never does, and teases guys all the time. Loves what any normal girl loves: shopping, younger guys, highlighted hair, joking with guys. Knows all the right things to say and easy to get along with. Takes kumdo (which might be the source of her patience).

Girl #4 is me.

After our pastor finished sparring with Guy #2, the kid suggested that they have a rematch with a sprint race, roughly 30~40 meters from the end of the hall to the door. Girl #3 acted as the finish line and stretched her arms out to make a T, and the results kept saying it's a tie. Guy #1 wanted to race Guy #2 and Guy #2 won by half a second, but Guy #1 insisted that the double glass door being closed made him slow down, so we opened the doors so it was fair. However, in the rematch Guy #1 promptly crashed into the wall next to the doors. All of us started laughing and I went to help him up, and as he got up, he was laughing and red in the face.

We decided to go into the auditorium since it was a bit chilly and we didn't want to crash into any more walls.

Telepathy on a table

You know how you have this giant blank from a sport and then you suddenly get back into it? But then - with a terrible jolt of astonishment - you realize that all your talents for that sport have suddenly (and mercilessly) left you to rot at the expense of your own foolishness that you created with the fantasy that you could play your favorite sport again?

Damn, it's a terrible feeling.

On a completely different complaint, it also feels really bad when you have been thinking of using a field, table, or court soon and suddenly out of nowhere two people decide to hog it. Even though you know it was your fault for not claiming that ground first, you just can't help but blame the people who took it for taking what you wish was rightfully yours by mental claim.

Here I am, with nothing better to do with myself and being especially irritated today. Not just because my teenage self reached an emotional peak, but because of more... let's say... physical problems. Maybe I'm blaming this problem for my sudden lack of talent, but let me just say that whether it was just me or some real problem, there is some serious issues going on here.

For one, I came over to my church to play a lax game of ping pong. Yeah, I know, Chinese stereotype and all, but let me tell you, I am NOT Chinese and I have NEVER actually took lessons on this sport. If it could ever be called a sport. Ping pong requires patience and lots of thought, so unless you're prepared for some hard-ass mental breakdown, I suggest you not play this game.

It's almost as mind wearing as Kumdo.

Speaking of minds, I loved X-Men First Class and their new cast. Especially the two main dudes, Charles Xavier and Erik... thingy. I forget their names, but I do remember that the man who played Charles Xavier in First Class also voiced Gnomeo and played Mr. Tumnus. I absolutely LOVE his Scottish accent. If you concentrate, in the movie you can hear Xavier slipping from the English into Scottish. Despite the slip-up being a total unintentional mistake, I loved hearing some of the actor's quirks come out in the movie.

Oh, and another thing: I love psychological warfare. If there was such thing as telepaths I would definitely try my best to run into radiation and get that mutation. But seeing as I don't have much mental patience at this age, I probably would be really bad at telepathy.

Which brings us back into the patience part of table tennis. Because the table is so small and the ball is harder to control, you need to channel your power in a completely different way than real tennis. In here, instead of focusing on running for the ball and hitting it ferociously towards the general "area" of the court, you must focus on NOT ferociously hitting the ball. You have to think about every twist of the wrist and every step you take. Balance is key, and getting the ball over the net isn't everything.

Kuk... tak... kik... tak... kuk... snap.

Of course, for some of the more serious tennis players, this applies to them too. But the difference is that you don't need to condition yourself physically for the miniature table. Mental balance is what you really need.

And despite being a complete noob at this "ping pong" game, I've already gathered data on the various differences of each human mind as they play the sport. It's quite unnerving, really, how ferociously calm each player is while they're shooting and returning these really fast plastic yellow-and-white balls. Conditioning yourself? Forget it. This is where the hardest battles are played.

Bottom line: Ping Pong is not easy. >P

HIJACKED = PISSED.

Hey, just came back from an AWESOME 2박 3일 summer retreat!! Actually, I'm not even excited anymore because i was sleeping on the bus ride back home for like 1 1/2 hours and it was REALLY hot and stuffy in there. But I had my own seat, anyway, so the ride wasn't all that bad.
 
But for now, I am not going to talk about my summer retreat and talk about THIS instead: what awaited me back at home.
 
So I'm really really tired, right? I mean, I hadn't even slept last night (reason comes later) and was stuck in a very bipolar room. One second it would be hot then the next second it would be cold, you know what I mean? And since I had a sweatshirt, not a regular jacket, I had to keep my sweatshirt on and only hope to get enough air when I roll up my sleeves in hot temperatures. Really, these wierd A/C controlled rooms can seriously get your body tired from melting then freezing back up again. >:P
 
My bus let us off at our church, and from there I had to wait like 1 hour until my mom finally came out of the KM young adults service and started driving me home. I swear, the moments after retreats just feel like another last day of school aftermath. I feel terrible, even though I'll be seeing everybody again next Sunday. What sucks is that, just because you were friends during retreat does NOT mean that you will be friends for the other Sundays. Like, already I've been excluded from an originally 7 person group (now narrowed down to 4) and the only reason we actually bonded was we were all up together. (Doing what? Comes later) So, it's just, you know, 7 teenage asians in junior high grades (7~9) all holed up together, at night, and you know what's going to happen next.
 
Boy #1 started hitting on Girl #2.
 
Wait, no, hold up, I said I wasn't gonna say anything because I'm supposed to be talking about what happened after the retreat, when I got home!! What's wrong wit chu fool?
 
Okay, so I'll stop explaining and get to me finishing unpacking all my stuff from my sportsbag on my 3rd floor. Dirty clothes in laundry, unused clothes back in dresser. Bible in bookshelf. Toothbrush and toothpaste in bathroom toiletries cup, arranged so that the toothbrush's bristles face outwards. Floss on the back corner of the sink, 45 degree angle.
 
I come back to the 2nd floor, where my computer is sitting there, just begging me to turn it on. Something tells me something wierd is going to happen. When I login to my first and most used email account, there are red words saying I didn't put in the right password. Usually, I don't make huge mistakes when I'm typing letters, so there really is no reason for that to appear. But just in case, I try entering my password again, slowly so I don't miss any letters. Red words again.
 
Suspecting some sort of odd hack, I go to my backup email and try to log into that one. I try to log in 5 times until I give up and continue my login attempts at a completely isolated 3rd email, which has no connection whatsoever with the other two emails. Okay, I got into this one on the first try, which means there's no problem with this email site or my computer. I go to Facebook so I can change my email address to my 3rd email which is now more secure than the other two.
 
After I change the email address and send an email to my friends to start emailing me on my 3rd email, I go to enter a lot of information on my backup email to retrieve it so I can go on from there to get back my 1st email. It takes forever, and I have to fill in things like "When did you create the account?" where I would just pick a reasonable year and my birthday month. This is taking way too long...
 
I finally finish it, and I'm so glad it's over; I send my results to my 3rd email. But wait, who is that scrawny boy walking up to me with a portable game system in his hand?
 
My brother tells me he had to reset the password and everything on both my email AND my backup email just so he could see the books I borrowed from the library. He gives me the new password, a mediocre 4th grade statement, which I furiously punch into the computer. I jam the Enter button and I log in to my 1st email. From there, I go straight to the Settings toolbar to change my password back to my old one. What the... They won't let me change to my old one!!! My brother must have chosen the "I think my account has been hacked" option, which therefore prevents that password from ever being used again. The whole time, I am thinking, "YOU COULD HAVE LOOKED AT THE RECEIPT IN THE COVER OF ONE OF MY BOOKS INSTEAD OF MAKING ME GO THROUGH ALL THIS TROUBLE!!"
 
So then I proceed to thinking about the new passwords I would have to instigate into my two previous accounts. My old password was the verification code from the worldwide internet dolls known as Webkinz. It was such a good password, too; a perfect random combination of letters and numbers. What now, should I try making my password something more literal? Such as, "I love TOFU" or some other crush nickname? (Those are pretty popular these days) Even now, I'm still thinking about that new password... And trust me, you do NOT want to keep the password my dear bro came up with. Seriously, I need a new password PRONTO.
 
I also need to find a flyswatter big enough to whack a certain oversized pest with..