10DYC: six places

1. The Family Farm: by family farm, I mean the family farm out in the middle of western Kansas in the country (somewhere nearish to Pratt) where there aren't any street signs and you have to know exactly where you're going or you end up in Africa (an exaggeration obviously, but you get my point I'm sure).  I love the farm, mostly because of the pond.  I've had so many memorable times at the pond every summer I get so excited just thinking about it.  It's probably one of my most favorite places ever.

2. Winfield: we don't go to Winfield all that often, but since I'll be in college down there next year, I'll be down there basically 24/7 for at least four maybe five years.  I love Winfield so much, it has such a good vibe when I'm down there. Saying I'm excited to move to Winfield is an understatement for sure.

3. Mulvane: There have been times in the last several years where I've hated Mulvane.  But that was before I appreciated things more than at face value like I used to.  Mulvane has it's flaws like every other place in the universe, but it holds a special place in my heart and not just because it's my home town.  Mulvane has a vibe to it where you know there's a community of people who love this area.  And I don't mean to toot our horn or anything, but our football team this year is pretty awesome, we won again last night at our first home game against none other than Pratt.

4. St. Louis, Missouri: Okay, I'm putting this one down on this list because St. Louis has some memory attached to it, some definitely not as good as others to remember, but it held a big part of my life at one point.

5. Heber Springs, Arkansas: My great aunt Dottie lives in Heber, and I remember when I was younger we used to go down and visit her once or twice every year.  I remember this partially because every time going down there I would end up getting sick...but Heber has a bunch of great memories attached to it.  Like the time I spent a week with Aunt Dottie just the two of us, this was back when I was a really hyper and energized child that wouldn't sit for more than a minute.  We went to the park one day and I played my heart out all day.  Heber is one of those places where it's nice to visit.

6. London: Over the last several years I've dreamed about going to London.  It seems like a really interesting place that I could probably end up spending the rest of my life in.  I really hope I get the chance to either study abroad in London, or visit/move to London in the future.

Today is awesome because: I forgot how much tea we have in stock in our cupboard, so there's always an opportunity for a tea break. (:

days until ACT: 32
days until the fall musical: 56
days until I become an adult: 110
days until graduation: 241

BEDA 18: it's a national holiday

As promised, today I'm going to explain Mulvane Old Settlers to you.  It's actually quite a pretty easy concept to grasp. It's basically like a county fair, but just for Mulvane celebrating our town.  It happens every third August, no matter what the wheather is like.  There's been years where it's flooded most of Saturday, and other times when it's hotter than hell out.  The latter I'm most positive is what this year will consist of.

Old Settlers first started way back in 1873 as the quad-county fair.  Eventually though, at some point it became Mulvane Old Setters, or often referred to as Old Settler Days, or just M.O.S.  I think having Old Settlers is a great thing to really appreciate the history that there is in this town.  The train depot at the end of Main Street once was an extremely busy place when the railroads where the major transportation.  The small town that most think Mulvane was back when it was first settled wasn't all that small compared to other places.  Mulvane was a railroad town, we had even had the Santa Fe Railroad Memorial Hospital, and let me tell you, it wasn't a small hospital.

We had an opera house, a hotel, and a movie theatre at one point.  Although all three of these things and the hospital are long gone there are still several remains of what there was before.  Looking back in the historical museum that is actually in the old train depot, there are photos of Mulvane through the years since a bit before it was even settled by Joab Mulvane.  There are several buildings on main street that are actually still standing there today.  The old movie theatre, the building is still there, but it's been converted into our public library.  And the hospital, it was eventually taken down and a nursing home was built in place of it. If it hadn't been for the fact that so many things needed changed in the building, I honestly think that the hospital might still be there today.

Among these buildings, one that really stood out to me in my research over the summer of Mulvane, is the two story school house that used to sit on the play ground of our current grade school.  The places I mentioned above, I can pretty easily picture in my head how they would have looked all those years ago, mainly because everything is still in it's place as it was in the photos taken.  But for the two story school house, that just seems insane to me because up until recently I had absolutely no idea that we even had a two story school house at one point, and it's just hard for me to imagine it really being there. Of course though, I think that building too might still be standing if there hadn't been a fire...

Among all this, Old Settlers is just a way of celebrating all of the history of our town.  Over the years I've learned things about Mulvane, but not as much as I did when I researched this past summer, it really gives a lot more meaning to a lot of the things we do during Old Settlers.

Old Settlers starts the third Friday of August and includes Main Street and Main Street park being shut off for the entire weekend.  We have a decent sized carnival that includes the same rides that my brother remembers all too clearly riding when my parents and brother first moved down to Mulvane several several years ago.  One of the most interesting and traditional things, besides the food booths, that happens during Old Settlers is the wide variety of booths that are set up.  It's just interesting to walk through the park and look at every single booth, the majority of them sell clothes and jewelry, but each one has something different from the last.  And the merch sellers are really friendly and chatty.

And of course, what would be a fair or town celebration without a parade?  The parade has always taken place on Saturday in the morning.  There's such a wide variety of people and things in the parade I couldn't even begin to describe it.

Mulvane Old Settlers is a big deal around here.  Even for a few of the surrounding towns, though we're the only ones who get off a day early from school for the festivities.  It's a holiday to us, we've never gone to school the third Friday of August, EVER.

Sorry if this was too much rambling. I enjoy sharing the things I know a lot about and this is one of them.

Today was awesome because: everyone is getting their booths ready down town for Old Settlers, and even though it's a pain in the but while driving because you have to take the detours around Main Street, it's still really exciting.

days until the fall musical: 59
days until I become an adult: 141
days until graduation: 274
steps taken today: 4,251+

BEDA 5: five long hours

About 2:30 this afternoon my internet went all weird on me.  Now this isn't anything new; every once in a while I have to mess with my internet connection and then it goes back to normal and life goes on.  This afternoon though, I messed with every button I knew that would normally fix it...and then one I shouldn't have pressed.  I don't know how I manged to do it, but I managed to disconnect all possible ways to connect my laptop to the internet.  I was literally freaking out to the point where I wasn't even cursing but just banging my hands on my desk, I was basically in a speechless fury.

My mom came home at a bit after three and after she listened to me rant and rave about my laptop and the internet being stupid again she told me that the Mulvane area of Cox communications was completely out.  She only knew this because of the nursing home she works at was completely phone-less AND internet-less.  I was relieved that it was an area thing not just my laptop that was down.

But I still had the problem of accidentally hitting that button I should have just left alone because I didn't know the function of it to deal with.  After spending a good thirty minutes or so messing around, if figured out how to reset my computer systems back a few days which I hoped would also reset the button I pressed *guilty eyes* and thankfully it did.

My dad came in for dinner with mom and I and we had a good time joking and laughing.  And I successfully got dad to take me fishing tomorrow morning.  So overall I think it was a good evening with my parents.  I was sent out to go get worms since we're leaving at 5:30 in the morning to get to the lake before sunrise so we can fish when it's not nearly as hot as out as it would be if we went any later.

It's amazing when the only thing I was holding was my little box of worms and three different people asked me if I was going fishing.  I smiled and told them we were going in the morning bright and early, though I really wanted to say something along the lines of "Nah, I just buy worms for fun." *head desk* I don't know why people think it's odd that a teenage girl goes to buy worms that means she's going fishing, WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT?

Anyway, thankfully, by the time I finally got back home from getting worms, the Cox communications system was back up.  I only knew this because my mom was back on her laptop after she had abandoned it earlier because she couldn't play her FaceBook games.

Out of my busy day the thing I was most worried about was not being able to make my BEDA post...and now I can rest easy for the rest of the night and sleep well tonight knowing that I've survived day 5 of BEDA.