Let the Wellabration Commence!!!!

This once-a-year, first-day-of-the-new-year celebration was held six days ago at Mike Bishop's house with all the festivities I could have hoped for on New Year's Eve. The glow of fireworks, and small, destructive children with sparklers. High-spirited adults with recently emptied wine glasses in front of them. The satisfying taste of sparkling cider, either grape or apple, deliciously sliding down the throats of those not old enough for wine. If you enter Shawn Bashor's man-cave, you'll find crazy men playing WWE on the XBox 360, beating the virtual crud out of each other. My friend Josh nearly blowing his ears out with bottle rockets that he didn't quite let go of in time, and concerned mothers gasping at his daring feats. A couple full rounds of "cops and robbers", arguing about whether the star in the middle of the sky was Mars or Jupiter, and wellabrating like no one else could dream of. Screams and shouts of delight rang from the Bishop's house like from no other house in Jupiter Florida, and the smiles on people's faces as they left the party proved that NOBODY wellabrates like we do.

I meant to post sooner...

...but a lot was going on.
Let's start on Friday, the fourteenth, my eyes felt like lead weights all the way through school as we took our diagnostic tests. We keep taking useless tests like that.
After school, it was unofficial "poker night" at Mr. Darrel, "Big D's" house. I call it Josh's house, because normally, although I really love and enjoy the presence of the whole Easley family, I'm normally there to see Josh. Tons of people showed up. Brant Hansen, Shawn Bashor, my dad, Chris Miller, Dr. G, Paul Adams (just started showing up at our house for worship) and one of my dad's co-workers. Those who had sons (Brant, Chris Dr. G, Big D) brought them, and their sons just happen to be my friends. Justin, another friend of mine, also showed up. Unfortunately, those younger than eighteen (Joel G., Josh E., Justin L., Justice H., Peter M., and me) didn't seem welcome to play a game of poker with the "elders," so we played our own game of poker... and got... bored. We went outside and played tons of games. Eventually, we concocted a plan for everyone to sleep at Josh's house. It worked. All six of us hung out that night. Consequently, I wasn't at home to post.
Saturday...
We woke up spread in all corners of Josh's house on either couches, air matresses, blanket cots or beds. My dad came in later and invited us to go snorkeling. We declined in favor of airsoft wars (recentlty banned by the Maplecrest H.O.A.) We played our match B.B. (Before Ban) and hung out at my house playing video games later. After a while everyone seemed to vanish back to their houses, and later Peter and the rest of the Miller family would come for dinner. They stayed late. Once again, I didn't post. I didn't mind either.
Sunday... I don't normally post because of group and such runs late, and I would much rather hang out with them than be on the computer.
Monday...
Once again without good sleep, and still taking a few diagnostic tests, I made it through shcool making the best of it all. I went to get my haircut after school... an interesting part of my day. My mom and I arrived at the haircuttery, and were greeted warmly by the face at the front counter. Not too much later, I was called to the chair to get it over with. The lady there was very enthusiastic, either about people or hair, at first I couldn't tell. She commanded I get a shampoo, and I sat at the sink. My mom came up and asked if I told the lady cutting my hair what I wanted. Before I could answer, the lady, whose name I got to know, "Ilana", asked a question I never expected to hear... I'll never forget this... While looking at my mom, she asked "Oh, is this your boyfriend?"
I froze, my mom tried her best not to react strangely. "No, this is my son. I'm married."
Ilana covered her mistake well "Oh, you look so young, it's possible."
Later I found out that she was saved. Strong in her faith in Jesus. I also learned that she was the mother of a certain girl quite popular due to a certain event, and certain technology recording that event, and posted all over YouTube until they banned the video because it was too violent. No, her daughter was not the bruiser. She was the "bruisie." ?
She has a locker right next to mine. I was encouraged to talk to her. It's not easy when she's always talking to other people. I'm not one to interrupt people's conversations. Tuesday, regular, and today, not much happened. Some of Josh and Big D's friends from Louisiana came down. They're still here. It's pretty cool, they can cook really well!
Yeah, so my week had its hinderances to my posting on this blog, but it was all worth waiting to post all of it in one post.
GOOOOO JOE!

Ballin'!!!

Hah! No, not really, but what a blast we had. So, yesterday, September 12, the guys of the Well gathered for a game of intensely competitive basketball. So competitive, that best friends turned and tackled eachother, former highschool football linemen planted so that former highschool librarian association presidents could run face-firs into them. So competitive that Dr. G. ran the score up on his son's team! Face-punching, nail-biting, trash-talking, body-checking, smash-mouth b-ball, yo!! Yeah!
No, it was loads of fun. Yeah, I tackled Josh for the ball, yeah, Dr. G scored on his son, and me, and everyone that wasn't on his team. Big Shawn "Puffy" Bashor had tons of rebounds, and Josh's dad, Darrel, or "Big D" did plant in front of Brant "Librarian" Hansen, (kidding) and by the looks of it, it was like running into a wall of bricks. Yes, bricks. I scored once, got a couple assists if those count in basketball, and a few re-bounds. Peter "Pistol" Miller and his dad worked well as a team. A Josh and Joel G. combo caused the other team's offense to skyrocket in terms of skill. Justice H. and Matthew G. played tough on eachother, and were pretty good competition. Over all, we were all white people playing basketball.

Yeah, it was pretty awesome.

It was hot. Smothering humidity made the sun's wrath even more furious. Not the kind of weather we were hoping for in a football game, but we made the best of it. And, man was it good!
We picked teams. My team (I was captain, yaa!) Me, (didn't see that comin' did ya?) Brant Hansen, Justice Hansen, a guy whose actual name really is Paul, Matt, Mike Bishop, and a couple of other talented people that I didn't get to know that well... like their names... that would've been good to ask.
The other team captain's, uh.. team (one of those people I didn't know that well) had that kid, (the surprises just keep comin') Justin my good friend, Joel, the host Roland, my dad Mike, Jackson Bishop, and those other people (sorry people whose names I don't remember.)
We put on our flags. Team yellow, The Bad Guys, vs. team red, They Never Had a Name. I was captain of The Bad Guys.
It was a close game. The odds showed no team favor at the beginning. Touchdowns went back and forth end-zone to end-zone. Player of the game, though, was on the team "They Never Had a Name." Roland. Or, as we call him, Dr. G.
He scored most of their touchdowns, us we shared our touchdowns. I ran one in, barely crossing the line for those points as a persuer grabbed my flag just a second too late. Touchdown, The Bad Guys. The Bad Guys ended up having a three point lead near the end of the game. I was star running back, being that I was the only one who ran it, but I did good. I had one touchdown, one first down, and I ran over a good friend of mine, Joel for the sake of the game. They Never Had a Name came back two touchdowns, but couldn't tie the game in time. Victory goes to The Bad Guys. Yeah!!!
Bad Guys, 8 touchdowns, They Never Had a Name, 7 touchdowns.

Developing Story...

I'm not sure if it's tackle football, but either way.
You know those people I was talking about that care about me and love me and vice-versa? Well, today, we're getting ready to smear eachother's faces in the grass, and call eachother names while playing a competitive sport. It's fun!!! Can't wait. Roland, one of the roughest and toughest of us is hosting the game. This could get interesting.
Tune in later to get details.