No Way

I think--between long talks with my cousin, brother, and parents, long walks alone, and helpful conversations with other people I've needed to talk to--that things might actually be smoothing out for me. I say it's about time. Part of me is incredibly wary though, that I might be getting a few-day respite just to prepare me for another big drop. I'm still in the tree, but I think the rocks are leaving less of an imprint now. It's kind of nice.
I'm still putting up with a ton of wrist pain, but it's a bit more manageable now. I have one FHE brother up here who's had to have CT corrective surgery, so he's been teaching me some stretches and wrist exercises that have been helping too. It's progress, but if anyone has any other suggestions, I'm all ears.
My orchestra concert went really well on Friday, and I'm so glad Shelly was able to come up to listen! Hopefully I can get a CD or DVD to send home, so maybe those can circulate through the family to anyone who's interested.
I registered for my fall classes, and am at 15 credits with only four actual classes. So far, it's looking like this:

In theory, by the end of next semester, I'll be an EMT!
In other good news, my boss at the theater is willing to take me back for the 8-week summer session, so I'll be able to go back home and to work!
I don't know what it's like for everyone, but I was recently struck by the fact that I'm still younger than missionaries, but in about two weeks, I'll be the same age as missionaries. That's weird. I'm so used to thinking of missionaries being guys much older than me, and then RMs at school are somehow "my age". Plus, I'm so excited to start a new semester in which, when everyone goes around the circle and lists their name, hometown, major, and age, I'll proudly be able to answer "not eighteen!" I haven't minded being eighteen, I'm just tired of getting looked down on as "the baby" when everyone else in my group is older. It's like I'm back at youth dances, when the cute boy asks you to dance, and everything's going fine until he asks how old you are. Anything less than sixteen, and the conversation is immediately done. People look at me funny when I say I'm eighteen and have forty-eight credits.
Ok, enough of proving my immaturity by whining about not being older. I hope everyone is having a fabulous, warm summer. I know I am...not!

One final bit, because I want to brag a little. Some of you know that I spend a lot of time writing fiction stories. In fact, I finished writing my first novel just before classes started this semester. It's a simple little thing that's up on a website for whoever wants to read it, really just a first draft that I'm working on editing. I have two cool announcements regarding it though: first, I submitted the online draft to the US Copyright Office, legally documenting that my book is mine, and no one can ever steal it from me. Second, a website called Ari's Books found my story, read a bit of it, and liked it so much that they're making me the featured author for the next two weeks! It won't be up until Thursday, but I'll post a link. I'm so excited though! They asked me to at least make an eBook copy of it, and offered to sell it for me, but I won't do it until I've edited the novel more. Sigh. We'll see where this crazy train takes me.

Love you all!