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My parents FINALLY sent me to Mojave Academy, which is this boarding school out in the middle of nowhere near Datil, New Mexico. They decided a change of enviornment would be good for me... and so here I am. I'll be around for a month or two working as a volunteer (that way my parents don't hafta pay... stare ), so I'll be away from New York for awhile.

Dude... I thought I was seriously gonna be screwed stuck out here in the middle of nowhere. But it actually looks like this is gonna be cool. Since I'm working here I'm not restricted by student rules like my sister (MWAHAHAHA!!! -yes I'm hyper-) which means I don't have a curfew, I get my own room, I can eat whatever I want as long as I buy it with my money, AND I get to use the internet whenever I want! HA!

And aside from that this place is great. Not the kind of great your average teenager is used to, but it's great. There's acres of land all to ourselves surrounded by mountains and trees (we're up in the mountains, btw) and the place itself is like a big open prairie that's been civilized. The whole academy is set up on these trailer like things (their trailers, but they look more like houses on wheels, to be accurate. We got plumbing and everything, thank god) and there's a trailer for the boys and girls dorms, the mess/dining room area, various different places, the school house itself, AND the staff houses. Staff get their own houses which they sort of get to share amongst themselves. I'm living with this spanish woman named Jackie and her son Santiago, for example.

Did I mention the wildlife? On our way here we must have seen about twenty deer, and a couple jackrabbits, and even a frickin' ELK. Dude, I do NOT EVER wanna hit one of those things while driving. It'll be the last thing I'll ever do. eek There's also goats and horses, and there's a neighbor who owns a cow herd, so sometimes we come across a few of those as well. Plus there's rabbits, and chickens, and baby turkies and piglets. Dude, during fall there's gonna be one HELL of a slaughter. Too bad I don't eat bacon. XD

And the best part of this is that I'll actually be working with people my OWN AGE! OMG! It's a frickin' MIRACLE! Most of the other staff here on volunteer are from 17 to 22, which is right around my age group. Back home all the people I was working with were WAY older. And the only friends I had left still living around were younger. I like them, but it's seriously good to hang out with people my own age who aren't ******** up and retarded, but still have a good sense of humor. Seriously.

There's a girl named Ellie who came all the way from England who's seventeen, and then another girl named Kelly from Florida. Then there's Lauren (don't remember where she's from) and the rest of the staff are guys. And these guys are... well... pretty damn good looking. I swear I'm glad that I'm not interested, or I would be SERIOUSLY distracted. Let's see, we got Moe (I know, but he's cool), James (-sigh- no, different James, who's not really hot but not ugly either), David, and Brian. And there was one kid two years younger than me who wasn't staff, but he was SERIOUSLY the best looking guy out of all of them. I was like, dude, that's sooooo gonna be the next main character in my next book. He is TOTALLY the kind of guy who makes girls stop and stare. I won't even bother giving a description. It wouldn't do him justice.

Anyway, they're all really fun and great to hang around with. Brian plays the guitar pretty well, and James is DAMN good at sketching. David I don't really know much about talent-wise except that he seems like a handy man (yes, I know that's not a talent), and same for Moe. Ellie has picked up the bad american habit of cursing like a sailor ever since crossing over to this side of the Atlantic as well as having become an icecream fanatic (YAY! Just like me! ^^). Kelly is... well, Kelly. She's cool, she picked me up from the airport, and she's Brian's fiancee. Lauren I know nothing about. At around 9 P.M. or so I went over to Brian and Kelly's house for a house meeting amongst us staff, and she was on the phone the whole time while we were waiting, so we ended up playing this game where one person started by saying a word, and then the next person had to say the next word that popped into their head, and round and round it went, until about 9:30 P.M. when Brian and Kelly just decided to hell with it and kicked the rest of us out (except for David, since I think he lives with them).

Did I mention that after dinner I went down a hole? Lol, no it's not what it seems. While I was unpacking Max, James and a bunch of other guys dug a tunnel into the ground and opened it up into this whole underground room. They made seats and everything inside it, but then afterwards there were so many flies that Brian set of a smoke bomb inside, which made it all messed up. And then after dinner when I was leaving the kitchen (I was on kitchen duty that night) they called down to me and I went to go see. I ended up actually going down in there with Max and Santiago, and I got completely and utterly FILTHY. But it was so much fun. We climbed down there and we were breathing in dirt and whatever and I was wearing my white parachute pants, but while we were sitting down in the room with a flashlight and our t-shirts pulled up over our noses I couldn't help but think it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. And then when we came out Max and Santiago's noses were BLACK from all the dirt they inhaled! I don't think mine was because I wasn't down there as long, but it was the most hilarious thing ever. And Moe was like, 'We definitely can't let the summer camp kids know about this or we'll never be able to keep an eye on them since they'll be going down here all the time." So we closed the trap door (they made a wooden trap door for it) and we left. The school kids went to go play poker in the mess hall, and I went with the other staff for a staff party thing that we were having.

Which ended up being a lot of fun. I got to know everyone there for the first time pretty well, and we ended up playing this game where everybody has the name of a cartoon character stuck on their back (as the night went on it changed to actors and other stuff) and you had to ask everyone else yes or no questions to guess who it was. I was the first one to guess mine, but we all went through at least five of them first. And we had chips and sour cream and onion dip, and icecream too, which was great. Plus these guys are just a lot of fun. I haven't had so much fun in awhile, to tell you the truth.

And afterwards (right before the house meeting, and yes I'm going out of sequence) I sat outside with Brian and Randall (the music teacher who's also in charge of treasury. Very southern kinda guy who likes the guitar) and they played a couple songs for me using Brian's guitar. I wanted to sing for them, but I couldn't think of anything they could play for me, but Randall said that I could practice with them when the kids started coming in and we'd put up a talent show or recital or something. THAT got me excited. It's been soooo long since I've been able to do anything with music. I never realized really how much I missed it until I sang for James a couple times (MY James, not the James here at the school).

Speaking of James, coming here I was thinking a lot of him, especially when I was confronted with all of these guys. I was totally like 'OMG' for a bit, and then I remembered that he said to me that if I went and came back with another guy, then he'd be fine with it. But I could never do that to him. Sure, he may not be good looking or anything compared to THESE guys, but he's MY big cuddly goofball and I love him, and I know he would do anything for me. So to turn around just because I found someone else who happened to be funny and cool and also good looking would be wrong to me. There are so many people out in the world, but why should I bother looking when I have one sitting right infront of me who already loves me?

In a different sort of way, when he came to visit me it was probably one of the best times in my life. I got to spend time with someone who loved me for me, and I didn't have to worry about what his opinion of me was or what he thought of me, because I already knew. It was just so comforting and peaceful to have him just hold me. I've never felt anything like it before.

Sure, in the beginning I was a little thrown off and shocked because I wasn't used to the real life him, but in the end I knew that he was still just my James and that he was and would always be the same person that I love. He's just so... James. I don't know what I'd do if I had to go back to New York and he wasn't there. I don't think I could go back, knowing he wouldn't be there for me. But I know he always will be, and I trust him. He definitely earned my trust when he came up here to see me before I left for Mojave.

Man... I need to get a phone card so that I can call him. I miss him soooo much. His hugs are so comforting, and I just miss him and the way he smiles at me when I look at him. Jeez I sound so romantically obsessed. But it's true. I really miss him.

Ah well. Maybe he'll come online one night when I am and we'll chat. Or I can always write him. Letters are fun. ^^ But it's 11:27 here (1:30 A.M. in NY!) so I really gotta get going to bed. I'll see ya around later though. Goodnight peeps. And to James, I love you and miss you and hope that everything's okay where you are.