tears and trips and pianos (which doesn't start with a 't')

At the moment, I should be doing piano practise. I have my exam in 15 days, and I'm not ready for it! Besides, I'm going away for just over a week, and we won't have a piano where we're staying, so I'll have to go to friends' houses to practise on their pianos every day! Though I'm pretty excited about going away. It's my cousin's wedding next week, and my sister is gonna be a bridesmaid. I still can't believe he's getting married - I haven't seen him for ages, and in my mind, he's still the little kid with curly red hair who was part of the family who came camping with us and had Christmas dinner with us and saw us every week. I haven't even met his fiancee! But I'm really excited, it's gonna be fun.

If Jen is reading this: Have plenty of adventures while you're overseas! Smile at random people you pass in the street, and try and start up conversations with shop-people or something - you could even start up friendships, with one of your fantastic jokes. Hey, you're in one of those rare experiences where if you make a fool of yourself, no one there will ever see you again! I'll be waiting to hear stories of how you've taken advantage of that, okay? Oh, and rug up warm whenever you go outside, and look both ways when you cross the road. You hear me? =D Just joking. Have fun, my dear, I love you lots!

This afternoon, I was reading a book about a school shooting in America, and it made me cry. (Just for the record, I've only ever cried 1.5 times when reading a book.) This book was so sad - the hurt and horrible stuff that some people go through . . . I can't imagine having a tiny sprinkle of it. Makes me huugely glad I'm in my family, and go to my school, and am a part of my church - I'm welcome with all of those people, and - dare I say it - loved. I don't want to sound up-myself, cos I know that I'm not everyone's favourite person, (hey, if I wasn't me, I wouldn't like me very much,) but I'm just saying that I'm really thankful to be where I am in life.

Ah! Another of my contemplative moods. It wasn't my fault - the book started it, not me!