So think of it like last year when all the Hollywood writers went on strike. It made us appreciate our shows so much more when they came back. Well, my blogmuse went on strike. For seven months.
*sorry*
Done apologizing.
So this term my FIG students took the development class that first inspired me to start this blog. They ended up having a different experience than I did.
For me, when I think of my personal development this term I thing about professional development.
I became a nanny, working for a local couple and taking care of a two-year-old. I wanted to approach it from a professional standpoint. I provided references, I have tried hard to apply what I've learned about early childhood development and to keep track of Grace's development. I love this job.
I became a TA for a Business School professor. I have gained all sorts of professional communication skills. I've ended up hob-nobbing with lots of professors and professional people.
I became a research assistant working with United Way to compile the latest research in the field of school readiness.
I have been taking three classes in my major, a professional program, and learning a lot about ethics, professional behaviors, and communication.
The single most important outcome of this term is that I feel more like a professional-in-training (PIT- is that a great acronym?). I have started dressing more professionally. I wake up at 7:30 every morning and I have a more regular sleeping pattern. I have all but eliminated my tendency to be late for things. I have gotten way better at communicating with people in a prompt and appropriate manner. I am even procrastinating less!
Just in general I feel like I am finally growing up.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Happy U-Day
University Day is apparently a big deal because you can get a free t-shirt. That is my perception of it. I am not participating, not because I don't love UO, but because, alas, I do not have a single free hour-long period of time required to get said t-shirt, and why else would I plant flowers ands spread bark and pick up trash? I mean seriously.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
So I know I should blog about the Marathon
But in all honesty, I've already moved on to much more important things like the fact that SLAVERY STILL EXISTS!!! Its true, in our world there are 27 million people who fit the UN's definition of slaves, something which goes above and beyond economic oppression to physical possession of another human being for forced labor or prostitution.
Raising awareness about this issue has taken over my life this week and next week, which is both awesome and making me crazy. I'm blogging right now because the day I've had is worthy to be blogged about even though it is only one day in a larger trend.
My Day, Wednesday, May 7, 2008
7:30am Alarm goes off
8:00am actually start writing essay about diversity, due at 12noon
9:00am meeting with Ron Severson. We have nothing FIG related to discuss so he asks me about my life. A 45 minute conversation ensues over the term "human trafficking" and the definition of modern day slavery (at this point I do not have the UN definition on me or memorized). Ron has the audacity to quote both Hagel and Locke, making me angry, but passive-aggressively because he is, after all, a professor I need to be on good terms with. He agrees to forward our SSE press release to everyone he knows. Victory. Take that Hagel.
10:15am work on essay more
11:00am Christian Leadership seminar with Ryan, mostly me talking about Slavery Still Exists Week (SSE) and convincing Ryan to cancel NCM worship gathering next week to attend the Thursday speaker
12:00pm announce about SSE to class of stunned FHS students, sit down, topic for today is sexual orientation, always a *fascinating* conversation
2:00pm discipleship meeting with Erin and Lily, tell them all about SSE, collect package from Lily to give to Krista to take with her on her trip to Taiwan next week to mail domestically to Lily's mom for mother's day. Hilarious coincidence, long story about how this came about.
3:00pm 20 minutes of intense emailing about SSE
3:25pm 20 minute FOB
4:00pm take bus to Hosea Youth Shelter to volunteer, always an interesting time both with the staff and the kids. We pray that things don't get *too* interesting. Apparently there have been some incidents. I don't really know what I'm doing at Hosea. I'm not great at talking to the kids, I know I can't make a really long-term commitment...I dunno, maybe its the delicious food.
7:15pm Meet up with Huston at the Campus Crusade meeting wearing my awesome SSE t-shirt. Huston apparently is the speaker for tonight, unbeknown to either of us, but it turned out great. Crazy story, I actually know a ton of people in Cru just from classes and various other things. Very encouraging. A lot of them are now totally excited about SSE.
9:15pm Finally make it over to the Newman Center for mass, where we hang out afterwards to talk about SSE and hand out fliers. Niki is highly skilled and efficient at this. I spend virtually the entire time talking to one guy, but he might come, so, victory?
10:15pm Walk home, have a deep talk with Huston about...religion, what else?
10:20pm talk to McClain girls about SSE
10:50 Dance party to bad hip-hop!
11:15pm eat left over curry katsu from my Monday lunch date with Lindsey. Blog. Consider how nice my bed sounds and how annoying my contacts are right now.
Somewhere in there I also got a ticket to the International Business and Economics Club's Etiquette dinner for Friday night. Also, the last two of my books from my mad book purchasing extravaganza came in today. Also, this week is the ASUO street fair, which is really fun because all sorts of food and clothing and weird stuff vendors come and set up on 13th. Great curry and Lasi drink. I didn't have time today because the lines were too long. Maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow is less insane because I don't have as much responsibility except for making announcement about SSE to three of my enormous lecture classes. I also get to sleep in.
I should mention that yesterday was completely off the wall depressing, for the first half anyway. Also that I spent my evening having very deep hour long conversations with three people literally back to back. That's three hours of deep, spiritual, vulnerable, passionate conversation. I was completely inarticulate by the time Jessica asked me about my day. I had no idea how to answer that question.
Raising awareness about this issue has taken over my life this week and next week, which is both awesome and making me crazy. I'm blogging right now because the day I've had is worthy to be blogged about even though it is only one day in a larger trend.
My Day, Wednesday, May 7, 2008
7:30am Alarm goes off
8:00am actually start writing essay about diversity, due at 12noon
9:00am meeting with Ron Severson. We have nothing FIG related to discuss so he asks me about my life. A 45 minute conversation ensues over the term "human trafficking" and the definition of modern day slavery (at this point I do not have the UN definition on me or memorized). Ron has the audacity to quote both Hagel and Locke, making me angry, but passive-aggressively because he is, after all, a professor I need to be on good terms with. He agrees to forward our SSE press release to everyone he knows. Victory. Take that Hagel.
10:15am work on essay more
11:00am Christian Leadership seminar with Ryan, mostly me talking about Slavery Still Exists Week (SSE) and convincing Ryan to cancel NCM worship gathering next week to attend the Thursday speaker
12:00pm announce about SSE to class of stunned FHS students, sit down, topic for today is sexual orientation, always a *fascinating* conversation
2:00pm discipleship meeting with Erin and Lily, tell them all about SSE, collect package from Lily to give to Krista to take with her on her trip to Taiwan next week to mail domestically to Lily's mom for mother's day. Hilarious coincidence, long story about how this came about.
3:00pm 20 minutes of intense emailing about SSE
3:25pm 20 minute FOB
4:00pm take bus to Hosea Youth Shelter to volunteer, always an interesting time both with the staff and the kids. We pray that things don't get *too* interesting. Apparently there have been some incidents. I don't really know what I'm doing at Hosea. I'm not great at talking to the kids, I know I can't make a really long-term commitment...I dunno, maybe its the delicious food.
7:15pm Meet up with Huston at the Campus Crusade meeting wearing my awesome SSE t-shirt. Huston apparently is the speaker for tonight, unbeknown to either of us, but it turned out great. Crazy story, I actually know a ton of people in Cru just from classes and various other things. Very encouraging. A lot of them are now totally excited about SSE.
9:15pm Finally make it over to the Newman Center for mass, where we hang out afterwards to talk about SSE and hand out fliers. Niki is highly skilled and efficient at this. I spend virtually the entire time talking to one guy, but he might come, so, victory?
10:15pm Walk home, have a deep talk with Huston about...religion, what else?
10:20pm talk to McClain girls about SSE
10:50 Dance party to bad hip-hop!
11:15pm eat left over curry katsu from my Monday lunch date with Lindsey. Blog. Consider how nice my bed sounds and how annoying my contacts are right now.
Somewhere in there I also got a ticket to the International Business and Economics Club's Etiquette dinner for Friday night. Also, the last two of my books from my mad book purchasing extravaganza came in today. Also, this week is the ASUO street fair, which is really fun because all sorts of food and clothing and weird stuff vendors come and set up on 13th. Great curry and Lasi drink. I didn't have time today because the lines were too long. Maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow is less insane because I don't have as much responsibility except for making announcement about SSE to three of my enormous lecture classes. I also get to sleep in.
I should mention that yesterday was completely off the wall depressing, for the first half anyway. Also that I spent my evening having very deep hour long conversations with three people literally back to back. That's three hours of deep, spiritual, vulnerable, passionate conversation. I was completely inarticulate by the time Jessica asked me about my day. I had no idea how to answer that question.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
InterVarsity has a Hostage Policy
"IV should not yield to demands, including the payment of ransom or other extortion, issued through the use of hostage taking or extortion."
Hmmm. I signed the release. I'm no legal expert, but it sounds like there had to be some danger of a volunteer being taking hostage so that the policy got put into the release form. Probably not from Summit, but from some of the overseas trips I can imagine that's a legitimate thing to worry about being liable for. Anyway, intriguing.
I had an interesting day.
Hmmm. I signed the release. I'm no legal expert, but it sounds like there had to be some danger of a volunteer being taking hostage so that the policy got put into the release form. Probably not from Summit, but from some of the overseas trips I can imagine that's a legitimate thing to worry about being liable for. Anyway, intriguing.
I had an interesting day.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
You are jealous of my pseudo-knowledge
I know that's why.
Anyway, there's some drama and some other silly spring-related shenanigans. Drama in the dorms. Involving my roommate. Silly things in NCM. Good silly. I completely blame spring.
School-type things have faded to nil. Also known as there will be very little school type things done in this term.
Running-type things are suffering under the "week and a half of running left. Blah." Yeah, I don't feel like really caring about getting any better. I'll run my half marathon, but I'm really not worried about time.
The leadership retreat was bomb, let's just say that. A very good thing to do for the weekend, and I wish it hadn't ended.
The upcoming weekend will be less amazing than usual because of fewer people and fewer planned events. Friday Caleb and Jacob are going up to Vancouver Washington to table at a student fair and talk about how to stay Christian in college and also scouting for future ducks who may also want to be NCMers. However, they will miss Bethany's 25th birthday party which is sad, because it will be awesome. The theme is 8th grade dance. that pretty much says it all. Last year's theme was 1983 and the pictures were amazing and awesome. However, because of the party there will be no regularly scheduled movie night.
Saturday I am going to sleep in and run 10 miles if the weather is nice. If not, I will go to the library or something. The weather has been stormy lately. Saturday night is International Night performance. I need to remember to get my ticket and also find someone to go with so I am not completely lame. Int'l Night is subject to being ditched in case I get another offer. Such as girl movie night at Jenell's while our boys are out of town.
Sunday will be usual, but again no Caleb and Jacob so slightly less awesome. The usual traditional Sunday morning is that me and Caleb meet downstairs and walk to the car and I am bright and chipper and talkative about how beautiful of a day it is our how fun _____ was last night. Then we go pick up Jacob and Kyle and I greet them similarly and they kind of roll their eyes. I make a silly comment and get picked on for being a girl at some point during the drive, funny stories from the weekend are re-told, the boys talk about sports. It's a very comfortable time for me. I love Sundays.
Taco Bell is a stand-by, so of course we'll go th is week, but we will probably not play golf since the boys are gone and they usually organize/drive. Also Caleb is the only other lefty and I borrow his clubs. The guys should be home for dinner though.
Wow. I didn't realize until one weekend last term when they both went to Gresham for an Africa trip meeting how much we miss them when they're not here. Of course I think that weekend we chose to just not do anything instead like replacing our usual activities with girl time.
It's like when intramural basketball was over in the middle of last term and the next Monday I was really bored and lonely.
It's great having friends. I think that's one of the reasons I'm so excited to stay busy this summer is so I don't miss them too much. Bonus though! I am moving back to Eugene the 9th of September and I think and all of the NCMers will be back by then as well, since the kick off football game is August 26th and of course they can't miss that. Imagine the parties we will have since there will be no school work until the end of September! And after Res FA training, which I hear is super mind-numbingly boring and obnoxious, I can head over the HQ and chill in the warm Oregon evenings.
What else is going on? Well, I had a sort of long talk with Marcy yesterday and then talked for Fred on the phone for about and hour today, so that's cool. I totally think my little sister is freaking awesome. Ummm meeting with my FIG professor again tomorrow morning so that's cool. Also, Jacob is leading the talk on Thursday night at re:generation so that will be cool; he's kind of nervous about it. I will have to duck out of the Point early in order to walk over there. Hopefully we will be done in time to watch the office at HQ; I missed almost the entire thing last week because the Point went really long but I walked over there in time to see the very last little segment. It was a bummer because last week's episode was completely amazing.
Anyway, there's some drama and some other silly spring-related shenanigans. Drama in the dorms. Involving my roommate. Silly things in NCM. Good silly. I completely blame spring.
School-type things have faded to nil. Also known as there will be very little school type things done in this term.
Running-type things are suffering under the "week and a half of running left. Blah." Yeah, I don't feel like really caring about getting any better. I'll run my half marathon, but I'm really not worried about time.
The leadership retreat was bomb, let's just say that. A very good thing to do for the weekend, and I wish it hadn't ended.
The upcoming weekend will be less amazing than usual because of fewer people and fewer planned events. Friday Caleb and Jacob are going up to Vancouver Washington to table at a student fair and talk about how to stay Christian in college and also scouting for future ducks who may also want to be NCMers. However, they will miss Bethany's 25th birthday party which is sad, because it will be awesome. The theme is 8th grade dance. that pretty much says it all. Last year's theme was 1983 and the pictures were amazing and awesome. However, because of the party there will be no regularly scheduled movie night.
Saturday I am going to sleep in and run 10 miles if the weather is nice. If not, I will go to the library or something. The weather has been stormy lately. Saturday night is International Night performance. I need to remember to get my ticket and also find someone to go with so I am not completely lame. Int'l Night is subject to being ditched in case I get another offer. Such as girl movie night at Jenell's while our boys are out of town.
Sunday will be usual, but again no Caleb and Jacob so slightly less awesome. The usual traditional Sunday morning is that me and Caleb meet downstairs and walk to the car and I am bright and chipper and talkative about how beautiful of a day it is our how fun _____ was last night. Then we go pick up Jacob and Kyle and I greet them similarly and they kind of roll their eyes. I make a silly comment and get picked on for being a girl at some point during the drive, funny stories from the weekend are re-told, the boys talk about sports. It's a very comfortable time for me. I love Sundays.
Taco Bell is a stand-by, so of course we'll go th is week, but we will probably not play golf since the boys are gone and they usually organize/drive. Also Caleb is the only other lefty and I borrow his clubs. The guys should be home for dinner though.
Wow. I didn't realize until one weekend last term when they both went to Gresham for an Africa trip meeting how much we miss them when they're not here. Of course I think that weekend we chose to just not do anything instead like replacing our usual activities with girl time.
It's like when intramural basketball was over in the middle of last term and the next Monday I was really bored and lonely.
It's great having friends. I think that's one of the reasons I'm so excited to stay busy this summer is so I don't miss them too much. Bonus though! I am moving back to Eugene the 9th of September and I think and all of the NCMers will be back by then as well, since the kick off football game is August 26th and of course they can't miss that. Imagine the parties we will have since there will be no school work until the end of September! And after Res FA training, which I hear is super mind-numbingly boring and obnoxious, I can head over the HQ and chill in the warm Oregon evenings.
What else is going on? Well, I had a sort of long talk with Marcy yesterday and then talked for Fred on the phone for about and hour today, so that's cool. I totally think my little sister is freaking awesome. Ummm meeting with my FIG professor again tomorrow morning so that's cool. Also, Jacob is leading the talk on Thursday night at re:generation so that will be cool; he's kind of nervous about it. I will have to duck out of the Point early in order to walk over there. Hopefully we will be done in time to watch the office at HQ; I missed almost the entire thing last week because the Point went really long but I walked over there in time to see the very last little segment. It was a bummer because last week's episode was completely amazing.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The Population Bomb
Hmmm, sounds very Malthusian I know.
Blah. I'm sitting in International Environmental Issues class which is a completely bogus class. I don't think I'm going to learn anything that I didn't learn in Intro to Intl Issues. I'm not sure whose fault that is. I think prof. Marten's fault maybe, because he was so personally interested in environmental aspects. Maybe also just the system- I wish people didn't have to take Intro, I knew almost everything from that class from 240 and 260 and what I didn't I'm having to re-learn here.
*sigh* Fortunately, this is the last completely silly Intl class I have to take and the last 100 level class I'll have ever.
Ranting aside, this is a pretty sweet term. The class I'm in now, while boring, is neither as boring as Intro or as ridiculously early in the morning. Africa studies and Diversity are all listening to guest speakers and the assignments pretty much just require showing up to class and there's no real reason to do the required reading. FA training is...fine.
I really want to go to Africa.
I also kind of can't wait till the Marathon. I ran 8 miles yesterday and felt amazing. I run so much faster now than I did before. It's exhilarating. Also, it was sunny and hot last night so I dug out a pair of shorts that I never wear and tied my dorm keys to my shoelaces. It was a beautiful night for a run. Bonus: the shorts I found work great so I will probably not be buying running shorts in the near future. I will however probably be buying a new sports bra soon, mine has seen a lot of use.
Not bonus: I forgot to put my keys back on my keyring so when I went to take a shower I locked myself out of my room and was stuck out in the hall in my robe. Fortunately Alexsondria helped me call the RA on duty to let me in.
In other news, this weekend will be awesome: NCM regional Leadership Conference. Sunday night after we get back I think I'm going to a ballet performance.
Here's hoping I hear back from the ICY people pretty soon.
Since I'm completely bored and don't have any actual schoolwork to do I am working on: my voter registration stuff, Summit registration, improving my speed reading, returning staff application for TBC, IJM stuff, French, running, and reading more books for fun.
Yay!
Blah. I'm sitting in International Environmental Issues class which is a completely bogus class. I don't think I'm going to learn anything that I didn't learn in Intro to Intl Issues. I'm not sure whose fault that is. I think prof. Marten's fault maybe, because he was so personally interested in environmental aspects. Maybe also just the system- I wish people didn't have to take Intro, I knew almost everything from that class from 240 and 260 and what I didn't I'm having to re-learn here.
*sigh* Fortunately, this is the last completely silly Intl class I have to take and the last 100 level class I'll have ever.
Ranting aside, this is a pretty sweet term. The class I'm in now, while boring, is neither as boring as Intro or as ridiculously early in the morning. Africa studies and Diversity are all listening to guest speakers and the assignments pretty much just require showing up to class and there's no real reason to do the required reading. FA training is...fine.
I really want to go to Africa.
I also kind of can't wait till the Marathon. I ran 8 miles yesterday and felt amazing. I run so much faster now than I did before. It's exhilarating. Also, it was sunny and hot last night so I dug out a pair of shorts that I never wear and tied my dorm keys to my shoelaces. It was a beautiful night for a run. Bonus: the shorts I found work great so I will probably not be buying running shorts in the near future. I will however probably be buying a new sports bra soon, mine has seen a lot of use.
Not bonus: I forgot to put my keys back on my keyring so when I went to take a shower I locked myself out of my room and was stuck out in the hall in my robe. Fortunately Alexsondria helped me call the RA on duty to let me in.
In other news, this weekend will be awesome: NCM regional Leadership Conference. Sunday night after we get back I think I'm going to a ballet performance.
Here's hoping I hear back from the ICY people pretty soon.
Since I'm completely bored and don't have any actual schoolwork to do I am working on: my voter registration stuff, Summit registration, improving my speed reading, returning staff application for TBC, IJM stuff, French, running, and reading more books for fun.
Yay!
Monday, April 14, 2008
I Believe in the Sun Even When it's Not Shining
Yeah, that is a line from a Barlow Girl song. I listen to that album all the time lately when I'm running. It's amazing. I RIYL: girl power, amazing stuff about God, running in the rain.
Also, when I was listening to that song earlier on my RECORD 0:42 4-MILE RUN today in the pouring rain/hail was when I was thinking about what I was going to blog about. I had some great thoughts. I either don't remember them or don't feel like reconstructing them.
Also, this term its RAWKSOME! That is a contraction of "Rocking Awesome". Mostly I think this because of the weather, the awesome people that I have gotten really close to, my fun classes for once, and the fact that I feel like things are finally coming together for this summer and there's no horrible cloud of awfulness or things I have to do hanging over me. Yet. Just wait till my midterms and my term papers are due.
It's great to know where I'm living next fall and that I will be employed. Also, I sent off my application for ICY Africa today and my feeler email to LMBC about possibly getting funding. James knows when I'm coming to TBC. I have a plane ticket to AK. I have several leads on places to store my crap for the summer as well as places to stay/ways to get to Portland at the end of the term. One of them may involve taking a free detour to Seattle and watching the Mariners play. Yes, exciting I know.
More locally, I haven't fallen behind yet in my classes, I'm staying on top of my "Slavery Still Exists" committee that I decided to head and we are meeting on Thursday, and I'm making good progress in running, getting over my cold, and in speed reading.
That is all for tonight, I'm going to go to sleep and get a good, full night's rest.
Also, when I was listening to that song earlier on my RECORD 0:42 4-MILE RUN today in the pouring rain/hail was when I was thinking about what I was going to blog about. I had some great thoughts. I either don't remember them or don't feel like reconstructing them.
Also, this term its RAWKSOME! That is a contraction of "Rocking Awesome". Mostly I think this because of the weather, the awesome people that I have gotten really close to, my fun classes for once, and the fact that I feel like things are finally coming together for this summer and there's no horrible cloud of awfulness or things I have to do hanging over me. Yet. Just wait till my midterms and my term papers are due.
It's great to know where I'm living next fall and that I will be employed. Also, I sent off my application for ICY Africa today and my feeler email to LMBC about possibly getting funding. James knows when I'm coming to TBC. I have a plane ticket to AK. I have several leads on places to store my crap for the summer as well as places to stay/ways to get to Portland at the end of the term. One of them may involve taking a free detour to Seattle and watching the Mariners play. Yes, exciting I know.
More locally, I haven't fallen behind yet in my classes, I'm staying on top of my "Slavery Still Exists" committee that I decided to head and we are meeting on Thursday, and I'm making good progress in running, getting over my cold, and in speed reading.
That is all for tonight, I'm going to go to sleep and get a good, full night's rest.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Love is in the Air
Not really.
Well, maybe for some people.
I am reading in French "Love letters of the 17th century" so there you go.
Also, today is beautiful and sunshiny and I am done with classes for the week and don't have any real homework!
So I made a plan for re-learning (reapprennant) French instead of paying for or auditing a 5-credit, 5 day a week class. I'm hoping my way will save on time and money. I was able to borrow Caroline's $130 French 1 textbook and bought the grammar text and a verb book. Then today I went to the library and got some French short stories. I'm really not gonna focus on speaking properly because the placement test is all written.
My plan is to devote two hours Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to working on French, starting next week, and hopefully take the placement test in week 8 and hopefully get into 201 (or higher!) so I can take it next fall (or next winter!)
It would be totally awesome to get into 202 or 203 'cause then I would save like $1100 per course, but I kind of doubt that it will happen. Really, I need to finish 300 level French or test out of it, and I need to have 3 semesters of it to have arts and letters credits, so it would be completely legitimate to audit or test out of 200 level. But really, I could just teach myself everything in the world and not have to go to college, so where does that kind of logic leave me?
So we're learning about strategic learning in my FA training class and I was really happy to learn the in fact I am a really awesome person/ student! I could elaborate, but, you know, there isn't a whole lot more to say.
Wowza.
Ummmm Weekend plans are, as always, full and ridiculously awesome. The weekend started last night with Caleb's Birthday Party/ The Office is Back extravaganza! during which we had too much fun playing Catchphrase, eating food, watching the Office, playing Star Wars Battlefront Republic (or something like that) on playstation, general shenanigans, hanging out talking till 1am ish. Most people left by ten so it was just the most awesome people who were there till the bitter end.
Tonight is the Godfather 2 and maybe 3 (wow, long night, I may make a game-time decision to not go.) Tomorrow is completely ridiculous because I have the UO Leadership Summit from 9am till 4:15pm (yay free T-shirt and food!) and the NCM/ Chi Alpha video scavenger hunt supposedly from 3 to 6:30, which I will be very late for, and then the LA missions trip debrief/ dessert at Ryan's house goodtimes.
Sunday is usual madness, although apparently the Master's golf tournament is on and Caleb is obsessed so we may go to the 8:30am service in the name of him not missing watching golf. It will surely be an interesting day.
Also big news is next weekend I am attending the regional NCM leadership conference at Camp Tadmore in Lebanon, OR. It should be most excellent.
So one of the things in the back of my mind for this term is to apply for scholarships, but that may not happen. We'll see. I kind of feel awesome about my free room and board next year ($8000 ish, or more, if you consider it is a single room with the deluxe meal plan) and pretty sure that State Farm will renew my merit scholarship, so I wont have too much less money next year than this year. Also, next year it may be easier to apply for scholarships because a) I will be and upperclassman with declared majors, and 2) there are lots of study abroad scholarships, which is something I'm still planning on for fall 2009.
Hmmm, yeah, I'm gonna go lay out in the sun and work on my verb conjugations.
Well, maybe for some people.
I am reading in French "Love letters of the 17th century" so there you go.
Also, today is beautiful and sunshiny and I am done with classes for the week and don't have any real homework!
So I made a plan for re-learning (reapprennant) French instead of paying for or auditing a 5-credit, 5 day a week class. I'm hoping my way will save on time and money. I was able to borrow Caroline's $130 French 1 textbook and bought the grammar text and a verb book. Then today I went to the library and got some French short stories. I'm really not gonna focus on speaking properly because the placement test is all written.
My plan is to devote two hours Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to working on French, starting next week, and hopefully take the placement test in week 8 and hopefully get into 201 (or higher!) so I can take it next fall (or next winter!)
It would be totally awesome to get into 202 or 203 'cause then I would save like $1100 per course, but I kind of doubt that it will happen. Really, I need to finish 300 level French or test out of it, and I need to have 3 semesters of it to have arts and letters credits, so it would be completely legitimate to audit or test out of 200 level. But really, I could just teach myself everything in the world and not have to go to college, so where does that kind of logic leave me?
So we're learning about strategic learning in my FA training class and I was really happy to learn the in fact I am a really awesome person/ student! I could elaborate, but, you know, there isn't a whole lot more to say.
Wowza.
Ummmm Weekend plans are, as always, full and ridiculously awesome. The weekend started last night with Caleb's Birthday Party/ The Office is Back extravaganza! during which we had too much fun playing Catchphrase, eating food, watching the Office, playing Star Wars Battlefront Republic (or something like that) on playstation, general shenanigans, hanging out talking till 1am ish. Most people left by ten so it was just the most awesome people who were there till the bitter end.
Tonight is the Godfather 2 and maybe 3 (wow, long night, I may make a game-time decision to not go.) Tomorrow is completely ridiculous because I have the UO Leadership Summit from 9am till 4:15pm (yay free T-shirt and food!) and the NCM/ Chi Alpha video scavenger hunt supposedly from 3 to 6:30, which I will be very late for, and then the LA missions trip debrief/ dessert at Ryan's house goodtimes.
Sunday is usual madness, although apparently the Master's golf tournament is on and Caleb is obsessed so we may go to the 8:30am service in the name of him not missing watching golf. It will surely be an interesting day.
Also big news is next weekend I am attending the regional NCM leadership conference at Camp Tadmore in Lebanon, OR. It should be most excellent.
So one of the things in the back of my mind for this term is to apply for scholarships, but that may not happen. We'll see. I kind of feel awesome about my free room and board next year ($8000 ish, or more, if you consider it is a single room with the deluxe meal plan) and pretty sure that State Farm will renew my merit scholarship, so I wont have too much less money next year than this year. Also, next year it may be easier to apply for scholarships because a) I will be and upperclassman with declared majors, and 2) there are lots of study abroad scholarships, which is something I'm still planning on for fall 2009.
Hmmm, yeah, I'm gonna go lay out in the sun and work on my verb conjugations.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Jammity Jammin'
Welcome to Spring Term at U of O! It's looking to be a lovely term indeed. I am taking Africa Studies, Diversity, International Environmental Issues, Speed Reading, and my FA training class! WOOT! College is fun guys, I don't care what you say.
In related news, Easter and subsequently Spring Break were both awesome! Unfortunately, I am too lazy to give a more complete explanation, but I'll just say that it was really nice to be out doing service.
Ummm....officially downgraded to the half marathon from the full marathon. It was just getting silly how much time I had to sacrifice in order to do something that's just for fun and then I'd be too tired to do school stuff. Otherwise running is awesome. Maybe next year I'll go for it again.
Well, I could summarize everything else in my life but I just don't feel like it. This weekend is cool 'cause tonight is movie night and I think Jessica might come. Also, I get to sleep in tomorrow. And work on stuff that I haven't done all week. Sunday will be awesome because of my Harvest-Taco Bell-Run-Dinner@Ryan's schedule. I love Sundays.
I wish I had something more substantive to talk about but I do not. I need to go eat food before movie night. Ta.
In related news, Easter and subsequently Spring Break were both awesome! Unfortunately, I am too lazy to give a more complete explanation, but I'll just say that it was really nice to be out doing service.
Ummm....officially downgraded to the half marathon from the full marathon. It was just getting silly how much time I had to sacrifice in order to do something that's just for fun and then I'd be too tired to do school stuff. Otherwise running is awesome. Maybe next year I'll go for it again.
Well, I could summarize everything else in my life but I just don't feel like it. This weekend is cool 'cause tonight is movie night and I think Jessica might come. Also, I get to sleep in tomorrow. And work on stuff that I haven't done all week. Sunday will be awesome because of my Harvest-Taco Bell-Run-Dinner@Ryan's schedule. I love Sundays.
I wish I had something more substantive to talk about but I do not. I need to go eat food before movie night. Ta.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Monday Night.
Have not had time for run, shower, or nap. Am still working on Collegiate assignment which is due today. There are about four hours left in today. The new and improved plan is this:
Tonight: Finish assignment at all costs.
After: Shower, goal is asleep by 1ish
Tomorrow AM: fill out and mail Merit Scholarship thing. Start FHS exam.
12noon: go to Katie's office hours to pick up graded midterm
After: Go to library, acquire NT presentation source books
Then: go for a run. Shower.
Later Afternoon: Study for INTL 199 Final, if time then work on NT.
7:45 go to Ryan's house to watch "the 300"
After: Go to sleep early
Wednesday: 8am final, study for 260 exam, lunch w/ friends at China Blue, study/go for a run?, 3:15 is 260 exam.
Wednesday night: stay up really late to finish FHS exam and NT presentation
Thursday Daytime: 9am CFR conference call, turn in FHS exam, finish NT visual aid, do presentation/ eat yummy food @Ryan's house
Friday: Work on printed stuff and songs for LA missions trip. Pack+ move to Shantelle's. Possible movie marathon.
Saturday: do nothing. Hallelujah!
Sunday: Coffee!!!! Easter!!!! delicious food? Sleepover!!!!
Monday: 5am departure time.
I'm not sure if this is all possible. If today was any indication, I am very slow when it comes to writing things. I'm counting on the actual studying not taking much time. I don't want to cut out sleep. I also hope to be able to run again this week. I like running. I forgot how nice it makes my skin feel afterwards and how much I like being outside in the park.
I am pretty jazzed about the LA spring break trip. We had a (long) meeting today to go over details. I will post a complete itinerary this weekend probably.
I am also excited about March Madness! Yes, I said it. Mostly, because I filled out a bracket and am going to put a dollar in the NCM March Madness pool. It will be very fun.
Tonight: Finish assignment at all costs.
After: Shower, goal is asleep by 1ish
Tomorrow AM: fill out and mail Merit Scholarship thing. Start FHS exam.
12noon: go to Katie's office hours to pick up graded midterm
After: Go to library, acquire NT presentation source books
Then: go for a run. Shower.
Later Afternoon: Study for INTL 199 Final, if time then work on NT.
7:45 go to Ryan's house to watch "the 300"
After: Go to sleep early
Wednesday: 8am final, study for 260 exam, lunch w/ friends at China Blue, study/go for a run?, 3:15 is 260 exam.
Wednesday night: stay up really late to finish FHS exam and NT presentation
Thursday Daytime: 9am CFR conference call, turn in FHS exam, finish NT visual aid, do presentation/ eat yummy food @Ryan's house
Friday: Work on printed stuff and songs for LA missions trip. Pack+ move to Shantelle's. Possible movie marathon.
Saturday: do nothing. Hallelujah!
Sunday: Coffee!!!! Easter!!!! delicious food? Sleepover!!!!
Monday: 5am departure time.
I'm not sure if this is all possible. If today was any indication, I am very slow when it comes to writing things. I'm counting on the actual studying not taking much time. I don't want to cut out sleep. I also hope to be able to run again this week. I like running. I forgot how nice it makes my skin feel afterwards and how much I like being outside in the park.
I am pretty jazzed about the LA spring break trip. We had a (long) meeting today to go over details. I will post a complete itinerary this weekend probably.
I am also excited about March Madness! Yes, I said it. Mostly, because I filled out a bracket and am going to put a dollar in the NCM March Madness pool. It will be very fun.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Livin' the High Life
Woah! Katie's Party was a major hoot! We played catchphrase, mafia, ate cake, watched youtube videos, sat around and talked, she opened presents. Pretty much awesome. Tony and I went to Hirons a little before the party to get Irish stuff and a present for Katie and found some amazing gag gift stuff. They have some really ridiculous items there. We got her a bacon themed gift pack which went over very well, far better than I actually expected.
It was really fun to go to an actual college party, even though its not like there was alcohol or anything crazy, but there weren't any really adult-type people there. Usually when I go places on the weekend its to watch a movie at someone's house, or to Ryan's or something for one of my groups.
It was also really great to go to church at Harvest today, for the first time in about a month. It's hard to explain, but its like going home. I got up this morning and I was really excited about church.
Also this morning a new opportunity came up! Lorrie, Ryan's wife, asked me and Shantell if we were interested in helping with a "kid's on mission" program thing once a month. I think I might do it, but will definitely have to pray about it. I fell like I'm getting pretty loaded up with all sorts of stuff. I wish I had more time to sleep, or read, or do crossword puzzles, or actually go on a date, let alone be in a relationship with anybody. Actually, we'll see, I don't know if its really good timing to be in a relationship. And I don't know if I really want to be. Can you tell I'm confused?
Anyway. Today. I'm doing laundry right now, and after I put it in the dryer I'm going to go for my first run in like two and a half weeks. I am nervous. I don't wanna. But I'd rather run than work on the stuff that's due tomorrow, or my project, or my essay, or my studying for my finals. So running it is then.
This term I have a revised plan of attack. Instead of pulling an all nighter the weekend before finals like last term and messing up my entire sleep schedule, I am going to work really hard during the day and make sure I get at least 7 hours of sleep each night, unless its absolutely impossible. I am also going to run/exercise every day and keep on a very healthy diet. I'm hoping that I will be much more efficient than I think I will and will also be able to take an hour long nap in the afternoons when I am really tired like right now, but that may not happen.
On the accomplishment side, I finally emailed James and he is writing a letter of rec for me for my trip to Africa. He said in his email "You need to be careful though going to Africa; you might just fall in love with the people and never want to leave". Awwww. So true.
A note about my haircut: I really like it. It's fun and bouncy and easy and I don't have to spend any time at all thinking about my hair, which is great because its finals week and that helps a lot.
Mmmmkay. I need to get after it. Laundry. Run. Shower. Devos/nap?. Dinner. Settler's or studying @ Ryan's. Devos. Sleep. Wake up and eat food. Go to library and be super productive. Run. Shower. Nap. Study more. Missions meeting. More studying! Sleep. Repeat, except watch "300" @ Ryan's instead of missions meeting. Try not to panic or waste time. Wednesday: 8am INTL Final. Lunch @ China Blue. 3:15pm INTL 260 final. Evening: work on presentation.
It was really fun to go to an actual college party, even though its not like there was alcohol or anything crazy, but there weren't any really adult-type people there. Usually when I go places on the weekend its to watch a movie at someone's house, or to Ryan's or something for one of my groups.
It was also really great to go to church at Harvest today, for the first time in about a month. It's hard to explain, but its like going home. I got up this morning and I was really excited about church.
Also this morning a new opportunity came up! Lorrie, Ryan's wife, asked me and Shantell if we were interested in helping with a "kid's on mission" program thing once a month. I think I might do it, but will definitely have to pray about it. I fell like I'm getting pretty loaded up with all sorts of stuff. I wish I had more time to sleep, or read, or do crossword puzzles, or actually go on a date, let alone be in a relationship with anybody. Actually, we'll see, I don't know if its really good timing to be in a relationship. And I don't know if I really want to be. Can you tell I'm confused?
Anyway. Today. I'm doing laundry right now, and after I put it in the dryer I'm going to go for my first run in like two and a half weeks. I am nervous. I don't wanna. But I'd rather run than work on the stuff that's due tomorrow, or my project, or my essay, or my studying for my finals. So running it is then.
This term I have a revised plan of attack. Instead of pulling an all nighter the weekend before finals like last term and messing up my entire sleep schedule, I am going to work really hard during the day and make sure I get at least 7 hours of sleep each night, unless its absolutely impossible. I am also going to run/exercise every day and keep on a very healthy diet. I'm hoping that I will be much more efficient than I think I will and will also be able to take an hour long nap in the afternoons when I am really tired like right now, but that may not happen.
On the accomplishment side, I finally emailed James and he is writing a letter of rec for me for my trip to Africa. He said in his email "You need to be careful though going to Africa; you might just fall in love with the people and never want to leave". Awwww. So true.
A note about my haircut: I really like it. It's fun and bouncy and easy and I don't have to spend any time at all thinking about my hair, which is great because its finals week and that helps a lot.
Mmmmkay. I need to get after it. Laundry. Run. Shower. Devos/nap?. Dinner. Settler's or studying @ Ryan's. Devos. Sleep. Wake up and eat food. Go to library and be super productive. Run. Shower. Nap. Study more. Missions meeting. More studying! Sleep. Repeat, except watch "300" @ Ryan's instead of missions meeting. Try not to panic or waste time. Wednesday: 8am INTL Final. Lunch @ China Blue. 3:15pm INTL 260 final. Evening: work on presentation.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
De(com)pressing
Finals week. Blech. It always comes after dead week and before spring break. And this time, it is raining like cats and dogs out there. I'm at the library. I will be here until....6ish. I woke up at....9ish.
I'm getting ahead of myself. LA was Wicked awesome! There are pictures on my daddy's facebook and I will prolly eventually put some up on mine as well...not to mention v-day, JTR, and Bellingham. Sheesh, I'm fallin' way behind. Well, a lot has happened in the past month. Plus most people who read this already know about all of the haps.
The recent haps are a little more exciting. After Freddy Faye left on Thursday I was slightly bored/depressed so I sat around until 7:30 for re:generation with the NCMers. After that we broke into Jacob + Jess' house and watched the (recorded) Pac-10 tournament Ducks game, which we lost, which really sucks. That was depressing, but the people I watched it with are beautiful and amazing. Not cool though was that Caleb's car got broken into and his iPod was stolen. Major bummer.
Then last night I watched some of The Office in Tony's room before the whole gang met up at Shantelle+Bethany+Gabie's house for a little Star Wars episodes V and VI. Pretty awesome.
Today will also be interesting. I met up with Caleb and Tony for brunch which was excellent, but now I'm at the library and I'm supposed to put in many hours of work this afternoon. I am not excited. Also, Katie's Irish Fiesta 20th birthday party is tonight at 7 and me and Tony are gonna go to Hiron's at some point to get Irish stuff/bday presents. We had thought about not going to the party, because Tony and I don't know Katie all that well, and going out to see a movie instead, but all our friends will be there (at the party). It would be suspicious to be absent.
Argh!!! How am I gonna concentrate all day?!? Right about now my brain is starting to tell me "There's nothing you really have to get done today. You can do it tomorrow, or Monday. It's Saturday, who goes to the library on Saturday?" Well, yeah... but I need to get started. Ta-ta.
I'm getting ahead of myself. LA was Wicked awesome! There are pictures on my daddy's facebook and I will prolly eventually put some up on mine as well...not to mention v-day, JTR, and Bellingham. Sheesh, I'm fallin' way behind. Well, a lot has happened in the past month. Plus most people who read this already know about all of the haps.
The recent haps are a little more exciting. After Freddy Faye left on Thursday I was slightly bored/depressed so I sat around until 7:30 for re:generation with the NCMers. After that we broke into Jacob + Jess' house and watched the (recorded) Pac-10 tournament Ducks game, which we lost, which really sucks. That was depressing, but the people I watched it with are beautiful and amazing. Not cool though was that Caleb's car got broken into and his iPod was stolen. Major bummer.
Then last night I watched some of The Office in Tony's room before the whole gang met up at Shantelle+Bethany+Gabie's house for a little Star Wars episodes V and VI. Pretty awesome.
Today will also be interesting. I met up with Caleb and Tony for brunch which was excellent, but now I'm at the library and I'm supposed to put in many hours of work this afternoon. I am not excited. Also, Katie's Irish Fiesta 20th birthday party is tonight at 7 and me and Tony are gonna go to Hiron's at some point to get Irish stuff/bday presents. We had thought about not going to the party, because Tony and I don't know Katie all that well, and going out to see a movie instead, but all our friends will be there (at the party). It would be suspicious to be absent.
Argh!!! How am I gonna concentrate all day?!? Right about now my brain is starting to tell me "There's nothing you really have to get done today. You can do it tomorrow, or Monday. It's Saturday, who goes to the library on Saturday?" Well, yeah... but I need to get started. Ta-ta.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
High Energy Electron
Dude, I have so much energy right now you have no idea. I got up at 7:30 and went to class and then I WENT TO THE LIBRARY AND DID HOMEWORK which is a pretty big deal. I actually got a pretty good amount of stuff accomplished, but there's still much to be done if I want to get on top of next week in order to par-tay with the fam+freddy faye (hey that rhymes, eh?). I'm gonna stay up a bit tonight and maybe go to the other library till midnight and then try to work on stuff during the day tomorrow and also fit a run in. Lol, I haven't run since last Wednesday. Shame on me.
FHS was interesting today. I say interesting because I really can't think of a better word. My professor, who is a lesbian, brought in her partner and their baby (who is totally adorable!) today and let everybody ask questions about "what it's like." It was fascinating. I don't have anything against homosexuals, and the few I actually know are amazing people. I figure, people are people, and God tells us to love everybody unconditionally. I don't think hating gays or condemning them to hell really fits in with that like at all. I'm not gonna march in gay pride, and I don't think I would vote to legalize gay marriages, but I really think my professor is an amazing woman who cares about people and loves being a mom and teaching college students how to become family and human services professionals. I also really came to respect Doc Dent when I was in high school- I thought she was a really good teacher. I don't know where I'm going with this at all, but I just had to blog about it. I think its easier for me to love homosexuals than some of the annoying hippies and obnoxious college boys on campus. Not to mention dirty capitalist scums. But I digress...oh, I digress.
Hahaha I'm so weird. I'm also totally stoked about this weekend. Party!!! In LA!!! Wicked! U23D! Kaela? Family! Beach? Warm weather! Awesome new dress! Family!
FHS was interesting today. I say interesting because I really can't think of a better word. My professor, who is a lesbian, brought in her partner and their baby (who is totally adorable!) today and let everybody ask questions about "what it's like." It was fascinating. I don't have anything against homosexuals, and the few I actually know are amazing people. I figure, people are people, and God tells us to love everybody unconditionally. I don't think hating gays or condemning them to hell really fits in with that like at all. I'm not gonna march in gay pride, and I don't think I would vote to legalize gay marriages, but I really think my professor is an amazing woman who cares about people and loves being a mom and teaching college students how to become family and human services professionals. I also really came to respect Doc Dent when I was in high school- I thought she was a really good teacher. I don't know where I'm going with this at all, but I just had to blog about it. I think its easier for me to love homosexuals than some of the annoying hippies and obnoxious college boys on campus. Not to mention dirty capitalist scums. But I digress...oh, I digress.
Hahaha I'm so weird. I'm also totally stoked about this weekend. Party!!! In LA!!! Wicked! U23D! Kaela? Family! Beach? Warm weather! Awesome new dress! Family!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Its Super Tuesday part deux!
I sort of don't care about politics a whole lot anymore. I know, shocker, right? I still care way more than the average individual, or even average college student, but my total CNN watching and avid online campaign tracking has seriously taken a dive. This is because I have my own life. Someone in the school newspaper wrote a really good op-ed piece about politics and said "if there was news 24 hours a day it would be called life." I agree.
Any way, my life news is that I may be downgrading my marathon registration to a half marathon instead of a whole marathon. I know, I feel like a quitter, but my travel and class etc schedule is insane. Plus, I can practically run a half marathon already, and this way I could actually work on developing some mad skillz, instead of just hoping to survive and not look like a total loser when it takes me 5+ hours to complete. You're not really supposed to start marathon training until you've been running regularly for about a year anyways. Maybe I'll go for the whole thing next year. I definitely love running. Plus I'm also concerned about the damage I'm doing to my joints. I'm sore all the time and with my joint issues anyway...I just don't feel like I'm being healthy to my legs. I looked into it and all I have to do is send in an email saying I'd like to switch. I don't get any money back, but its only 20 extra bucks. I started seriously thinking about this because my friend Lindsey is thinking about doing the half and so I wouldn't be alone in my slightly-less-hard-core-ness. But hey, 13.1 miles is nothing to sneeze at.
Ummm, also bogged down with a million other things that I'm working on just now: IV staff application, devos, Africa, Camp, FHS, scholarships eventually.
I registered for classes last Friday. I am taking FHS 410: Diversity in Human Services; FHS 407: FA training; HUM 315: Intro to African Studies with the amazing professor Wooten; and INTL 199: International Environmental Issues (not as exciting). That is 15 credits ladies and gentlemen. I need one more credit to reach junior status in Fall 08. I don't know what filler class to take. Maybe speed reading? There, I registered for it. Its at 9am Tuesday and Thursday, but only for 1 month. My only class before noon. Boo. My only thing on Friday is a discussion at 10am for the silly Intl environment class. Oh well, at least Lindsay is in it with me hopefully. Will audit French 103 also, if possible at 11am. Yeah, thats actually the only possible time...
Now, for some links.
SUMMIT- my 2 week Portland thing right after school gets out.
Tanalian Bible Camp- I still need to email James. Hopefully Heather will come out to camp this summer also. I am linking this page on the off chance that someone from LMBC or TBC reads this- try the crossword puzzle, its way fun.
My Mini City This is a random French website where you can go and set up a "city." Your city grows based on the number of people who visit your city. Its way more complicated than that, but basically once you set up your city you go all over the internet linking to it so people will click and you city will grow. This is my city. There is nothing yet there. Please click on it. Check out some of the huge ones though. What I thought was neat about this was not only the principles of teamwork and social networking, but also that it has only been up for 98 days and is so popular already, Man, there are a lot of people on this planet.
There was something else cool on the interweb I wanted to link to but I forget now. Oh well. Have a nice day, I'm off to go see if they have yummy grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.
Any way, my life news is that I may be downgrading my marathon registration to a half marathon instead of a whole marathon. I know, I feel like a quitter, but my travel and class etc schedule is insane. Plus, I can practically run a half marathon already, and this way I could actually work on developing some mad skillz, instead of just hoping to survive and not look like a total loser when it takes me 5+ hours to complete. You're not really supposed to start marathon training until you've been running regularly for about a year anyways. Maybe I'll go for the whole thing next year. I definitely love running. Plus I'm also concerned about the damage I'm doing to my joints. I'm sore all the time and with my joint issues anyway...I just don't feel like I'm being healthy to my legs. I looked into it and all I have to do is send in an email saying I'd like to switch. I don't get any money back, but its only 20 extra bucks. I started seriously thinking about this because my friend Lindsey is thinking about doing the half and so I wouldn't be alone in my slightly-less-hard-core-ness. But hey, 13.1 miles is nothing to sneeze at.
Ummm, also bogged down with a million other things that I'm working on just now: IV staff application, devos, Africa, Camp, FHS, scholarships eventually.
I registered for classes last Friday. I am taking FHS 410: Diversity in Human Services; FHS 407: FA training; HUM 315: Intro to African Studies with the amazing professor Wooten; and INTL 199: International Environmental Issues (not as exciting). That is 15 credits ladies and gentlemen. I need one more credit to reach junior status in Fall 08. I don't know what filler class to take. Maybe speed reading? There, I registered for it. Its at 9am Tuesday and Thursday, but only for 1 month. My only class before noon. Boo. My only thing on Friday is a discussion at 10am for the silly Intl environment class. Oh well, at least Lindsay is in it with me hopefully. Will audit French 103 also, if possible at 11am. Yeah, thats actually the only possible time...
Now, for some links.
SUMMIT- my 2 week Portland thing right after school gets out.
Tanalian Bible Camp- I still need to email James. Hopefully Heather will come out to camp this summer also. I am linking this page on the off chance that someone from LMBC or TBC reads this- try the crossword puzzle, its way fun.
My Mini City This is a random French website where you can go and set up a "city." Your city grows based on the number of people who visit your city. Its way more complicated than that, but basically once you set up your city you go all over the internet linking to it so people will click and you city will grow. This is my city. There is nothing yet there. Please click on it. Check out some of the huge ones though. What I thought was neat about this was not only the principles of teamwork and social networking, but also that it has only been up for 98 days and is so popular already, Man, there are a lot of people on this planet.
There was something else cool on the interweb I wanted to link to but I forget now. Oh well. Have a nice day, I'm off to go see if they have yummy grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Its March!
Where have the first two months of '08 gone? An entire sixth of the year, poof! I would argue that a lot has happened, however. I have worked my way up from barely being able to run 3 miles to running 11.2 last Monday. I have gone skiing and hiking. I applied for my major, a scholarship, and the RA and FA jobs. I've played mud football. I've gone to dance parties and dinners with friends and watched the Giants win the Superbowl. I went to Portland to the amazing Jesus the Revolution Conference, I turned 18, and I went to Bellingham to chill with mEgger!
This weekend with Marcy was totally awesome. Right away after I got to Bellingham we went out for delicious yummy burgers and also ice cream with Marcy's roommate Katherine and her friend Cynthia and stayed up late watching the Office and then talking for hours.
Saturday we (sort of) slept in, ate brunch and then hit the town by bus (which worked out great because I got Karelia's bus pass- she left WWU at break). We went all over the place and saw the sights, plus went shopping at the mall where Marcy discovered my dress for Wicked next weekend and I introduced her to bubble tea. Eventually we ended up at the hippie food co-op and met up with four of Marcy's friends and then we all went out for truly delicious Thai food at a really great little restaurant. Great times indeed.
We slept and followed the same sleep-in-brunch routine this morning but just hung out around campus. We went up to this neat little look out place where there was a pretty sweet view of the town and also the bay. Also, a cool little cave/tunnel. Then we went and got drinks and hung out and just talked for a while and eventually called fred and talked to her. Then I pretty much had to leave.
I didn't get a tattoo just because it didn't really work out with what everybody else was doing and Marcy didn't really want to get one. I figure I'll go with Lindsay some time.
So now I'm gearing up for another very late night. A few hours ago U of O InterVarsity kicked off our four day 24 hour prayer marathon and I have the midnight shift. By an amazing act of God we got a room on campus, which is very neat.
However, I still am not excited about walking back at 1 am. And then staying up for a few more hours working on the devotions for Collegiate that are due at some point tomorrow. I also have a couple applications for things due ASAP and a part of a research paper due tuesday morning early. This shall be a week with very little sleep and less running.
I say less running because my marathon training is going on a diet. By that I mean I am in a lot more pain than I think is healthy recently and I have a lot going on both this week, this weekend, and the next week what with lots of people visiting. My plan is to work really hard on schoolwork, get sort of a decent amount of sleep, and try to fit in running, or at least cardio workouts.
I'm re-prioritizing. Of course, first priority is prayer room duty, then school/other school-like things, then sleep, then running, then hanging out with people/watching CNN/blogging. Starting at midnight tonight, clearly. So I may drop off the face of the earth this week, or at least until Friday.
Summer update: It would be the coolest thing ever if Heather and I go work at Tanalian Bible Camp together for two weeks in July. This randomly came to me while I was talking to her on the phone earlier tonight. I am so excited. I plan to email James either tonight or tomorrow and tell him, among other things, of this plan. I think Heather would really like it there. The training and the experience that the LMBC team has is pretty daunting I think, and its totally understandable that Heather wasn't really interested in doing it that way, but I think she would really get a lot out of camp, plus it would be a great experience for her, plus it would make me feel better about not being able to see her hardly at all before I go to Africa and miss her birthday. I like spending time with my sister, so its gonna be great.
My phone alarm just told me that its just about time to go pray my heart out. I'm so excited. I am less excited about coming back and having to go push on for a couple more hours. Maybe I'll just come back and go to sleep. Hmmm. I've all but decided not to run at all tomorrow anyway....I'll play it by ear at this point. Even though Marcy and I didn't get up early, we still didn't get much sleep and it was rather uncomfortable sharing her bunk, plus I went into the weekend already exhausted...but on the other hand I have 15 college devotions to research and write and an application to finish and a bunch of people to email. It will have to wait. I am sleepy and achy. Goodnight
This weekend with Marcy was totally awesome. Right away after I got to Bellingham we went out for delicious yummy burgers and also ice cream with Marcy's roommate Katherine and her friend Cynthia and stayed up late watching the Office and then talking for hours.
Saturday we (sort of) slept in, ate brunch and then hit the town by bus (which worked out great because I got Karelia's bus pass- she left WWU at break). We went all over the place and saw the sights, plus went shopping at the mall where Marcy discovered my dress for Wicked next weekend and I introduced her to bubble tea. Eventually we ended up at the hippie food co-op and met up with four of Marcy's friends and then we all went out for truly delicious Thai food at a really great little restaurant. Great times indeed.
We slept and followed the same sleep-in-brunch routine this morning but just hung out around campus. We went up to this neat little look out place where there was a pretty sweet view of the town and also the bay. Also, a cool little cave/tunnel. Then we went and got drinks and hung out and just talked for a while and eventually called fred and talked to her. Then I pretty much had to leave.
I didn't get a tattoo just because it didn't really work out with what everybody else was doing and Marcy didn't really want to get one. I figure I'll go with Lindsay some time.
So now I'm gearing up for another very late night. A few hours ago U of O InterVarsity kicked off our four day 24 hour prayer marathon and I have the midnight shift. By an amazing act of God we got a room on campus, which is very neat.
However, I still am not excited about walking back at 1 am. And then staying up for a few more hours working on the devotions for Collegiate that are due at some point tomorrow. I also have a couple applications for things due ASAP and a part of a research paper due tuesday morning early. This shall be a week with very little sleep and less running.
I say less running because my marathon training is going on a diet. By that I mean I am in a lot more pain than I think is healthy recently and I have a lot going on both this week, this weekend, and the next week what with lots of people visiting. My plan is to work really hard on schoolwork, get sort of a decent amount of sleep, and try to fit in running, or at least cardio workouts.
I'm re-prioritizing. Of course, first priority is prayer room duty, then school/other school-like things, then sleep, then running, then hanging out with people/watching CNN/blogging. Starting at midnight tonight, clearly. So I may drop off the face of the earth this week, or at least until Friday.
Summer update: It would be the coolest thing ever if Heather and I go work at Tanalian Bible Camp together for two weeks in July. This randomly came to me while I was talking to her on the phone earlier tonight. I am so excited. I plan to email James either tonight or tomorrow and tell him, among other things, of this plan. I think Heather would really like it there. The training and the experience that the LMBC team has is pretty daunting I think, and its totally understandable that Heather wasn't really interested in doing it that way, but I think she would really get a lot out of camp, plus it would be a great experience for her, plus it would make me feel better about not being able to see her hardly at all before I go to Africa and miss her birthday. I like spending time with my sister, so its gonna be great.
My phone alarm just told me that its just about time to go pray my heart out. I'm so excited. I am less excited about coming back and having to go push on for a couple more hours. Maybe I'll just come back and go to sleep. Hmmm. I've all but decided not to run at all tomorrow anyway....I'll play it by ear at this point. Even though Marcy and I didn't get up early, we still didn't get much sleep and it was rather uncomfortable sharing her bunk, plus I went into the weekend already exhausted...but on the other hand I have 15 college devotions to research and write and an application to finish and a bunch of people to email. It will have to wait. I am sleepy and achy. Goodnight
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Latest Mixed Greens Podcast
Seriously, there is one. Boy I was sure waiting for the next one, they kept us in suspense with that spinach or chard question last week.
Anyway: My birthday happened yesterday! That is way more important than mixed greens!
All in all, it was up there on the top 10 best birthdays list (which isn't that hard since I've only had 18 of them...) but also probably the busiest birthday I've ever had. I stayed up late the night before to cram for my Culture of Capitalism midterm until I couldn't see straight. I kept checking facebook, of course. Brittany Dukatz from my FIG was the first one to write on my wall, so props to Brit! And double props to Jenell who texted me at midnight and then again during the day!
Then I got up early to run 4 miles. The first song I heard on my birthday was "The Circle of Life" from the Lion King, coincidence? yeah probably. I had to rush to shower and make it to my leadership meeting. Leadership turned into "let's play pool in the basement" which is totally cool with me. Hey, leaders need to play pool too. The best part was the present Shantell got for me. She is the sweetest girl, let me tell you. She got me all these great inside joke things like tomato soup and toothpaste and a pedicure thing which was all awesome and hilarious, plus a pez dispenser and rice krispies treats fixins. The best part though was the cd she made for me! She went through each year I've been alive and picked out a song! Highlights include "Smells like Teen Spirit," by Nirvana (1990), "Blaze of Glory," by Bon Jovi (1994), "Popular," from Wicked (2003), and "This Fire," by Franz Ferdinand (2004) and many, many others. Shantelle gets like a million points.
After pool I had to stuff down my lunch and cram for my midterm. I was not too happy with my preparedness. Then, at 1:50 pm, exactly 10 minutes before my midterm I got a call from First Year Programs office telling me I GOT MY DREAM JOB!!!! Residential FIG Assistant for the As the World Shrinks FIG!!!! Best day ever. I was so excited. I called mom on my way (late) to class. I'm still so happy, I had completely given up on the possibility and then it made the best birthday present ever, second only to the awesome cd from Shantelle of course.
After that I went to Bible study and my buddies sang (if you can call it that) happy birthday to me and bought me a cupcake from Dux. So good. I came back to the dorms and called my family for realsies. After that Tony came upstairs to hang out and he stuck around till like midnight, and we had some great conversation, but I didn't start on my huge project until after that. I stayed up till 2 and then got up early and skipped everything in order to finish it on time. I think it turned out OK. I have absolutely no idea what I wrote in the essay part, and I'm pretty sure I just made some stuff up. Oh well.
So I know I was going to post about the conference. Something really amazing definitely happened at the conference, and I took lots of notes, but I haven't had time yet to collect and organize my thoughts. Maybe this weekend.
Yay for this weekend. I'm gonna hang out with beautiful Marcy in beautiful Bellingham. I found a ride to the airport, but I do not yet have a ride from the airport on Sunday. At some point I'll have to decide what to do about Sunday night dinner. I like my new schedule of doing long runs on Monday morning because it makes my weekend more relaxing and I don't really do anything Monday mornings anyhow.
Oh! Other big news is that my scary International Negotiation essay final has been canceled and instead we are doing a reprise of the neat little exercise we did on the first week of class plus a reflection paper, but nothing during finals week! Yay!
Um....other big news is that I may get a tattoo this weekend, I promise to post pictures. Also...the LA mission trip meeting is tonight and I have to not forget to bring $50. Also...I got nominated for student staff for InterVarsity next year and I have to do that application at some point, before Saturday night. Also, hopefully I will know more details about Africa soon now that going in September is definitely out of the question.
That seems to be most of it. There are a million other things going on as well, but I need to go finish my discussion homework. ttyl.
Anyway: My birthday happened yesterday! That is way more important than mixed greens!
All in all, it was up there on the top 10 best birthdays list (which isn't that hard since I've only had 18 of them...) but also probably the busiest birthday I've ever had. I stayed up late the night before to cram for my Culture of Capitalism midterm until I couldn't see straight. I kept checking facebook, of course. Brittany Dukatz from my FIG was the first one to write on my wall, so props to Brit! And double props to Jenell who texted me at midnight and then again during the day!
Then I got up early to run 4 miles. The first song I heard on my birthday was "The Circle of Life" from the Lion King, coincidence? yeah probably. I had to rush to shower and make it to my leadership meeting. Leadership turned into "let's play pool in the basement" which is totally cool with me. Hey, leaders need to play pool too. The best part was the present Shantell got for me. She is the sweetest girl, let me tell you. She got me all these great inside joke things like tomato soup and toothpaste and a pedicure thing which was all awesome and hilarious, plus a pez dispenser and rice krispies treats fixins. The best part though was the cd she made for me! She went through each year I've been alive and picked out a song! Highlights include "Smells like Teen Spirit," by Nirvana (1990), "Blaze of Glory," by Bon Jovi (1994), "Popular," from Wicked (2003), and "This Fire," by Franz Ferdinand (2004) and many, many others. Shantelle gets like a million points.
After pool I had to stuff down my lunch and cram for my midterm. I was not too happy with my preparedness. Then, at 1:50 pm, exactly 10 minutes before my midterm I got a call from First Year Programs office telling me I GOT MY DREAM JOB!!!! Residential FIG Assistant for the As the World Shrinks FIG!!!! Best day ever. I was so excited. I called mom on my way (late) to class. I'm still so happy, I had completely given up on the possibility and then it made the best birthday present ever, second only to the awesome cd from Shantelle of course.
After that I went to Bible study and my buddies sang (if you can call it that) happy birthday to me and bought me a cupcake from Dux. So good. I came back to the dorms and called my family for realsies. After that Tony came upstairs to hang out and he stuck around till like midnight, and we had some great conversation, but I didn't start on my huge project until after that. I stayed up till 2 and then got up early and skipped everything in order to finish it on time. I think it turned out OK. I have absolutely no idea what I wrote in the essay part, and I'm pretty sure I just made some stuff up. Oh well.
So I know I was going to post about the conference. Something really amazing definitely happened at the conference, and I took lots of notes, but I haven't had time yet to collect and organize my thoughts. Maybe this weekend.
Yay for this weekend. I'm gonna hang out with beautiful Marcy in beautiful Bellingham. I found a ride to the airport, but I do not yet have a ride from the airport on Sunday. At some point I'll have to decide what to do about Sunday night dinner. I like my new schedule of doing long runs on Monday morning because it makes my weekend more relaxing and I don't really do anything Monday mornings anyhow.
Oh! Other big news is that my scary International Negotiation essay final has been canceled and instead we are doing a reprise of the neat little exercise we did on the first week of class plus a reflection paper, but nothing during finals week! Yay!
Um....other big news is that I may get a tattoo this weekend, I promise to post pictures. Also...the LA mission trip meeting is tonight and I have to not forget to bring $50. Also...I got nominated for student staff for InterVarsity next year and I have to do that application at some point, before Saturday night. Also, hopefully I will know more details about Africa soon now that going in September is definitely out of the question.
That seems to be most of it. There are a million other things going on as well, but I need to go finish my discussion homework. ttyl.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Aaugh!!!
In a review session for my culture of capitalism midterm which takes place on Wednesday. I have a lot of reading to do. Like six chapters....oops. I have an FHS quiz tomorrow also which I don't know if I'm very ready for yet, and a NT quiz that I am also not ready for yet. The plan is to head to the library for a couple of hours before watching the boys play basketball, and then to the basement? or maybe I'll go to sleep after the game. Yeah, that sounds good.
I'm so tired, man. The weekend was awesome but emotionally and physically draining, and then this morning I woke up early and ran 11.2 miles. Thats right, 11.2. I got kind of dehydrated towards the end I think though, so I was dizzy for a while and felt rather awful today. I've got to figure out how to remedy that. I ran home in the middle of my run, a little over an hour in, to drink to gatorade, but when you run for a really long time you're supposed to drink it every 20 minutes or so. It took me a really long time to finish the last two miles. I skipped int'l negotiation to nap this afternoon. Jessica was napping all afternoon. She helped her mom move all weekend and is also tired.
My FHS final project is due on Friday. This is going to be an interesting week.
I'm so tired, man. The weekend was awesome but emotionally and physically draining, and then this morning I woke up early and ran 11.2 miles. Thats right, 11.2. I got kind of dehydrated towards the end I think though, so I was dizzy for a while and felt rather awful today. I've got to figure out how to remedy that. I ran home in the middle of my run, a little over an hour in, to drink to gatorade, but when you run for a really long time you're supposed to drink it every 20 minutes or so. It took me a really long time to finish the last two miles. I skipped int'l negotiation to nap this afternoon. Jessica was napping all afternoon. She helped her mom move all weekend and is also tired.
My FHS final project is due on Friday. This is going to be an interesting week.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Mind Blown, Call back Later
Yeah, freaking awesome. I'm trying to decide how to organize my narrative. If I become remotely coherent and organized in the next 24-48 I may try to break things into five or so individual blog posts.
In conclusion: I heart the Sabbath, singing in Spanish, Malaysians and Koreans, and Psalm 130. Also, Jesus.
Cool beans: Ashley Miranda and Alex Roy came along for the Revolution, along with their IV staff which includes Debbie, Jason Rowland's wife. Very cool beans.
So much more to tell but a combination of not sleeping much/mind blowing conference craziness/ crying more tonight that I have in that past year combined makes for one tired little girl.
In conclusion: I heart the Sabbath, singing in Spanish, Malaysians and Koreans, and Psalm 130. Also, Jesus.
Cool beans: Ashley Miranda and Alex Roy came along for the Revolution, along with their IV staff which includes Debbie, Jason Rowland's wife. Very cool beans.
So much more to tell but a combination of not sleeping much/mind blowing conference craziness/ crying more tonight that I have in that past year combined makes for one tired little girl.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Waiting for the Revolution to begin
I am so totally stoked right you guys have no idea. In 20 minutes or so I am heading out to Portland for the weekend to the InterVarsity Jesus the Revolution conference! I'm riding with Dawn, my marathon buddy, and a couple of other cool cats. Plus, what is also neat is that Alex Roy and Ashley Miranda are coming all the way from Fairbanks AK to attend, so I will be finding them to say hi of course.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Obama Won!
Wouldn't it be weird if Obama is the antichrist?
I'm just gonna leave that for now, or else I'm gonna freak myself out.
Okay so it started when Linda Brady was talking about the implications of the next election for middle east peace and she said Obama was the most likely to figure out a lasting peace treaty, which is something only the antichrist is supposed to be able to do...don't listen to me.
Anyway, there are more important things at hand! Like... My birthday is in 1 week! To celebrate, I am going to take a scary 260 exam, go to Bible study, and then go to Lily's house for dinner. Then on Friday I'm going to Bellingham, WA to visit my dear friend Marcy and maybe go skiing! Mommy and Daddy bought me the plane tickets for my birthday, an excellent gift for an 18-year-old.
To make it even better, the next weekend I get to go actually see them, in Los Angeles, and also see my sister and the amazing musical Wicked! This was not really a Christmas or birthday present but more of a family trip. Then on Monday
wow. I'm back. I just got a funny email from Marcy that made me titter a bit and was also distracting. Anyway, after the LA trip my family is coming to visit me here at U of O, followed by Fred also visiting, later that week.
This weekend will also be amazing. I am going with all the InterVarsity kids and we are attending Jesus The Revolution conference at a really nice hotel in the awesome city of Portland.
I am excited. I have not left the dorms for a weekend yet this term, and now I get 3 in a row!
Lent Update: I really miss coffee. Plus, the conference is coming up and to me, "conference" and "coffee" are very closely related words. Who knew this would be so hard? Every time I go to a coffee shop and order tea, the person right in front of me gets something delicious, like coffee, and then the barrista asks me if they can get a drink started for me and then I say "I'd like a tea please" and I feel like a hippie loser. I am finding that I sort of like tea now, but I'm getting picky about my tea, like I am about coffee. I prefer the Republic of Tea black tea, but there are only two places on campus and the bookstore that have it. Most other places have that Starbucks brand tea which is, at best, substandard, like all things at Starbucks. I also like African red tea but I don't actually have any and the only places that do are Starbucks and the bookstore, which are way over there on the other side of campus. I am going over there today though, so I have something to look forward to. I generally try to avoid both the bookstore and starbucks because , A) they are crowded and I don't like crowds, and B) I always buy something there. At Starbucks I always buy a muffin or coffee cake and at the bookstore...well that's just dangerous.
So right now I'm actually skipping my Wednesday 5-mile run. Allow me to explain. I ran 10.2 miles on Sunday and the next day I felt fine, my shoulders were a little sore, but that was it. Then yesterday I ran four miles and was in agony. I am at a loss. I was in pain last week in my shins and so I switched all my routes to chipsod trails and I've been stretching better, but for some reason my legs got very angry with me. So my 5 and 4 mile runs this week are going to be replaced by lower impact cardio workouts at the gym. I only need to do those two of the three days left in the week, and so I chose today to skip out, but I got up early anyway and now I'm kind of bored. What's that you say? I should do school work? You might have a point.
I'm just gonna leave that for now, or else I'm gonna freak myself out.
Okay so it started when Linda Brady was talking about the implications of the next election for middle east peace and she said Obama was the most likely to figure out a lasting peace treaty, which is something only the antichrist is supposed to be able to do...don't listen to me.
Anyway, there are more important things at hand! Like... My birthday is in 1 week! To celebrate, I am going to take a scary 260 exam, go to Bible study, and then go to Lily's house for dinner. Then on Friday I'm going to Bellingham, WA to visit my dear friend Marcy and maybe go skiing! Mommy and Daddy bought me the plane tickets for my birthday, an excellent gift for an 18-year-old.
To make it even better, the next weekend I get to go actually see them, in Los Angeles, and also see my sister and the amazing musical Wicked! This was not really a Christmas or birthday present but more of a family trip. Then on Monday
wow. I'm back. I just got a funny email from Marcy that made me titter a bit and was also distracting. Anyway, after the LA trip my family is coming to visit me here at U of O, followed by Fred also visiting, later that week.
This weekend will also be amazing. I am going with all the InterVarsity kids and we are attending Jesus The Revolution conference at a really nice hotel in the awesome city of Portland.
I am excited. I have not left the dorms for a weekend yet this term, and now I get 3 in a row!
Lent Update: I really miss coffee. Plus, the conference is coming up and to me, "conference" and "coffee" are very closely related words. Who knew this would be so hard? Every time I go to a coffee shop and order tea, the person right in front of me gets something delicious, like coffee, and then the barrista asks me if they can get a drink started for me and then I say "I'd like a tea please" and I feel like a hippie loser. I am finding that I sort of like tea now, but I'm getting picky about my tea, like I am about coffee. I prefer the Republic of Tea black tea, but there are only two places on campus and the bookstore that have it. Most other places have that Starbucks brand tea which is, at best, substandard, like all things at Starbucks. I also like African red tea but I don't actually have any and the only places that do are Starbucks and the bookstore, which are way over there on the other side of campus. I am going over there today though, so I have something to look forward to. I generally try to avoid both the bookstore and starbucks because , A) they are crowded and I don't like crowds, and B) I always buy something there. At Starbucks I always buy a muffin or coffee cake and at the bookstore...well that's just dangerous.
So right now I'm actually skipping my Wednesday 5-mile run. Allow me to explain. I ran 10.2 miles on Sunday and the next day I felt fine, my shoulders were a little sore, but that was it. Then yesterday I ran four miles and was in agony. I am at a loss. I was in pain last week in my shins and so I switched all my routes to chipsod trails and I've been stretching better, but for some reason my legs got very angry with me. So my 5 and 4 mile runs this week are going to be replaced by lower impact cardio workouts at the gym. I only need to do those two of the three days left in the week, and so I chose today to skip out, but I got up early anyway and now I'm kind of bored. What's that you say? I should do school work? You might have a point.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Hmmm. Weekend was interesting. Kind of fun because I didn't go into it with set expectations or plans and I was really flexible. I had a very relaxing time sleeping in on both Friday and Saturday mornings, as well as today. I finished my FHS application so now I don't have to worry about that for another month when I get nervous about my interview. I did not go the dance party or the Basketball game, but I did go out with all of the girls to the Lucky Noodle on Valentine's Day night and had a lovely time. I also went and saw Jenell's dance thing that she was teching for, which was totally awesome and fun. After that we went over to Jacob and Jess' house and consoled the boys after the ducks lost and also watched a couple hours of the Office and generally had good times.
Sunday was the best though, as it usually is. Church was great, me and Caleb got there in time for major snacks, but the weather was really cold and cloudy. We went to Taco Bell afterwards of course, and then not long after we got back to campus, the sun came out and made it a glorious day!
And then I went for a run. I ran 10.2 miles everybody! That is way more than I have ever run in my life! I feel amazing. I ran in Alton Baker park, which is beautiful, and I listened to two hours of the RELEVANT podcast and had a great time. wOOt. I don't think I really thought I could do it until I finished it. I'm not even sore today, except for my shoulders.
After my run was the Harvest 15 year anniversary party at the church, which managed to be very entertaining even though I have only been going there for a few months. Plus, there was lots of dessert. Afterwards, the gang regrouped at Ryan's for a night of Settler's/ American Gladiator finale. And chips with fake cheese dip. And yummy Mexican hot chocolate.
I went to sleep early and stayed out of it until 11am this morning. It is again a beautiful day! Tony and I walked over to the 13th + University crossing where NCM hands out Hot Chocolate on Mondays and I totally hung out in just a tshirt! It was in the 50s! To make it even more amazing, some guy from the Register-Guard (Eugene Newspaper) came over and interviewed us. Neat-o, my friends.
That was the high point, because then I had two really boring classes back to back and then a boring even and then Bible study, which is not really boring, but also not the highlight of my day. Oh yeah, today I also found out that I have the second part of that weird research project thing due tomorrow. Lame. I haven't started on it yet.
See, here's the thing. I skipped class on the day they handed back our first papers, and then another day the GTF brought the leftover ones back to class, but I spaced and didn't pick mine up. And then, since the deadlines were not on the syllabus, I didn't write them on my calendar and finally looked at the website today and went *oh crap*. So I'm trying to decide what to do, because if Lia (the GTF) made comments on my paper about my topic (the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, which I know all about now) I don't know about them, and can't do the second half accordingly. So should I go to her office hours after class tomorrow and get my first paper and turn the second one in late (the thing is 7% of my grade, I don't remember the late policy) or do I chance it and stay up late and do the same topic. *Found the late policy in a really random place: late papers not accepted. That is bogus.
Yet it is too early to justify going to bed early. Last time, when the first part of this paper was due I went to bed early and slept through my alarm, which really sucked.
I had some really profound things to say but they are not happening. Darn.
Sunday was the best though, as it usually is. Church was great, me and Caleb got there in time for major snacks, but the weather was really cold and cloudy. We went to Taco Bell afterwards of course, and then not long after we got back to campus, the sun came out and made it a glorious day!
And then I went for a run. I ran 10.2 miles everybody! That is way more than I have ever run in my life! I feel amazing. I ran in Alton Baker park, which is beautiful, and I listened to two hours of the RELEVANT podcast and had a great time. wOOt. I don't think I really thought I could do it until I finished it. I'm not even sore today, except for my shoulders.
After my run was the Harvest 15 year anniversary party at the church, which managed to be very entertaining even though I have only been going there for a few months. Plus, there was lots of dessert. Afterwards, the gang regrouped at Ryan's for a night of Settler's/ American Gladiator finale. And chips with fake cheese dip. And yummy Mexican hot chocolate.
I went to sleep early and stayed out of it until 11am this morning. It is again a beautiful day! Tony and I walked over to the 13th + University crossing where NCM hands out Hot Chocolate on Mondays and I totally hung out in just a tshirt! It was in the 50s! To make it even more amazing, some guy from the Register-Guard (Eugene Newspaper) came over and interviewed us. Neat-o, my friends.
That was the high point, because then I had two really boring classes back to back and then a boring even and then Bible study, which is not really boring, but also not the highlight of my day. Oh yeah, today I also found out that I have the second part of that weird research project thing due tomorrow. Lame. I haven't started on it yet.
See, here's the thing. I skipped class on the day they handed back our first papers, and then another day the GTF brought the leftover ones back to class, but I spaced and didn't pick mine up. And then, since the deadlines were not on the syllabus, I didn't write them on my calendar and finally looked at the website today and went *oh crap*. So I'm trying to decide what to do, because if Lia (the GTF) made comments on my paper about my topic (the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, which I know all about now) I don't know about them, and can't do the second half accordingly. So should I go to her office hours after class tomorrow and get my first paper and turn the second one in late (the thing is 7% of my grade, I don't remember the late policy) or do I chance it and stay up late and do the same topic. *Found the late policy in a really random place: late papers not accepted. That is bogus.
Yet it is too early to justify going to bed early. Last time, when the first part of this paper was due I went to bed early and slept through my alarm, which really sucked.
I had some really profound things to say but they are not happening. Darn.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
It Has Been Too Long
I meant to post several times this week, I really did. I've been going insane being busy with my huge Intl Negotiation project, which is now over, plus midterms, and a million events etc. demanding my precious time. But I am back now. All I have left to do for the next week or so is my FHS application, which is due tomorrow. I have an exam on my birthday and a huge FHS project due the next day, but it should all work out.
My RA/FA interviews are over, and I think they went well. I wish I had added a couple of things in at the end of my FA one today but oh well. I really have no idea how well I'll be considered for the resFA job. I did pretty well in the RA interview, and I expect to get invited to join the class, but I would really rather be and FA....but I need the free housing. Oh well, I refuse to worry about it. I have better things to worry about.
Things like my TB test that I got a couple of hours ago and it is puffy and a bit pinkish. I don't think it was puffy at all last time, and it certainly didn't look pink. I have another day and a half before they read the results though, so I wont get anywhere by stressing about it.
Today is Valentine's Day! I am dressing up tonight in my cute red dress and going out with a ton of girlfriends after the Point. We are going to the Lucky Noodle and having a great time.
There was a completely interesting poll that I saw on AlJazeera this morning, which broke down candidate (all, regardless of party) opinion polls by region of the world. In everywhere except for the Middle East, Barack Obama had over 30% popularity out of all the delegates, and as high as 74% in Africa and 60 something% in East Asia. In the Middle East is was weird- Mitt Romney had 78% of the popular vote. I have no idea how scientific this poll was, and I figured out how to vote more than once. Also, it was based on less than 10,000 responses. I just thought it was interesting how internationally Obama had strong support, and Hillary had no more than the less popular candidates, and sometimes less. Ron Paul was also surprisingly popular.
I went hunting for international straw polls this morning because yesterday in Linda Brady's class she talked about how she predicted each of the three main candidates would appoint their cabinets and how they would choose their foreign policy positions like secretary of state etc. She knew a lot of the people she talked about too, which is awesome. Linda has had such an amazing career working for the pentagon on Jimmy Carter and doing arms negotiations work in Vienna.
So, now I'm actually letting my mind rest after the most stressful week of school so far, and I am skipping my discussion class. Shame on me, yes, I know, but I wanted to have time to get ready before the point tonight.
Other news: The boys won their inter mural basketball game Monday night which was awesome! It was an intense game too. Also, The V-day banquet at church went well, I thought. Last night I learned how to play FIFA, the xbox soccer game. Tony was very patient and taught me. Oooh I also watched American Gladiator for the first time, on Monday night, and I am totally stoked to watch the championship on Sunday night at Ryan's house. Mom sent me a huge box full of cookies, chocolate, and tea, and also Gatorade mix and ice packs. Yay! Pretty awesome stuff happened this week, although it was very stressful, and I am looking forward to tonight and also the weekend. I might even go to my first Ducks bball game on Saturday. We'll see how it works out. I got the ticket, but if I decide not to go then some of Caleb's friends really want it. Tomorrow night is also the InterVarsity International Dance Party night, which will be awesome. Plus, I think I might go see the Oregon winter dance performance on Saturday night. SO much going on!
My RA/FA interviews are over, and I think they went well. I wish I had added a couple of things in at the end of my FA one today but oh well. I really have no idea how well I'll be considered for the resFA job. I did pretty well in the RA interview, and I expect to get invited to join the class, but I would really rather be and FA....but I need the free housing. Oh well, I refuse to worry about it. I have better things to worry about.
Things like my TB test that I got a couple of hours ago and it is puffy and a bit pinkish. I don't think it was puffy at all last time, and it certainly didn't look pink. I have another day and a half before they read the results though, so I wont get anywhere by stressing about it.
Today is Valentine's Day! I am dressing up tonight in my cute red dress and going out with a ton of girlfriends after the Point. We are going to the Lucky Noodle and having a great time.
There was a completely interesting poll that I saw on AlJazeera this morning, which broke down candidate (all, regardless of party) opinion polls by region of the world. In everywhere except for the Middle East, Barack Obama had over 30% popularity out of all the delegates, and as high as 74% in Africa and 60 something% in East Asia. In the Middle East is was weird- Mitt Romney had 78% of the popular vote. I have no idea how scientific this poll was, and I figured out how to vote more than once. Also, it was based on less than 10,000 responses. I just thought it was interesting how internationally Obama had strong support, and Hillary had no more than the less popular candidates, and sometimes less. Ron Paul was also surprisingly popular.
I went hunting for international straw polls this morning because yesterday in Linda Brady's class she talked about how she predicted each of the three main candidates would appoint their cabinets and how they would choose their foreign policy positions like secretary of state etc. She knew a lot of the people she talked about too, which is awesome. Linda has had such an amazing career working for the pentagon on Jimmy Carter and doing arms negotiations work in Vienna.
So, now I'm actually letting my mind rest after the most stressful week of school so far, and I am skipping my discussion class. Shame on me, yes, I know, but I wanted to have time to get ready before the point tonight.
Other news: The boys won their inter mural basketball game Monday night which was awesome! It was an intense game too. Also, The V-day banquet at church went well, I thought. Last night I learned how to play FIFA, the xbox soccer game. Tony was very patient and taught me. Oooh I also watched American Gladiator for the first time, on Monday night, and I am totally stoked to watch the championship on Sunday night at Ryan's house. Mom sent me a huge box full of cookies, chocolate, and tea, and also Gatorade mix and ice packs. Yay! Pretty awesome stuff happened this week, although it was very stressful, and I am looking forward to tonight and also the weekend. I might even go to my first Ducks bball game on Saturday. We'll see how it works out. I got the ticket, but if I decide not to go then some of Caleb's friends really want it. Tomorrow night is also the InterVarsity International Dance Party night, which will be awesome. Plus, I think I might go see the Oregon winter dance performance on Saturday night. SO much going on!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Learning to be flexible
So I'm kind of bummed. I was running my five miles yesterday through Hendricks park and then all of the sudden *WHAM!* and I got this huge amount of shooting pain through my upper back. I almost had a panic attack actually, because I was still more than a mile away from campus pretty much in the middle of nowhere and I didn't have my cell phone. I know, I should always carry my cell phone. I don't usually because its so bulky and I usually stay in residential neighborhoods.
Anyway, I actually continued jogging back to campus because it hurt more to walk than to jog, plus it was faster, but in the long run I might have hurt myself more by doing that. When I got back to my dorm I asked my friend Nora to get me some ice from downstairs, took ibuprofen, and called my mom.
Yesterday morning was an extremely inconvenient time to get hurt. I had two midterms yesterday and I was on a pretty tight schedule for studying for them. It all worked out though I guess, because I had the foresight to study for FHS before I left to go run, and then I left FHS class right after the test, which only took 15 minutes or so, and took a two hour nap. The New Testament midterm went pretty well also- I think with all the extra credit I got a pretty solid A. It felt pretty good to take that test, because I knew that I had actually prepared pretty well for it.
However, I also went to bed early, right after class. Now I have only so many hours left to write my Intl Negotiation essay before class at 4. I'm supposed to have class at 2 also and a meeting at 12. I want to crawl back into bed and not think about it anymore. My back hurts really bad this morning and sitting at my desk hurts. I took a vicodin instead of ibuprofen this morning, so we'll see how effective I am at writing for a while...maybe I'll feel happier anyway, 'cause I'm in a pretty bad mood right now.
Plus, it is ash Wednesday, the start of lent, and I cant have coffee for 47 days. Not a huge issue right now, but don't come near me around 3pm or I'll bite your head off. Oh yeah, I am definitely PMSing this month. The hormones+cortisol+pain-caffeine combo is really upsetting my chemistry.
Fortunately, God is good. I need to remind myself of this more often, but my body freakin' out right now is making that really hard. Me and God had a pretty long talk last night and I think we worked some things out. If I hadn't been in pain yesterday I definitely could have seen what an awesome day it was and how many really good things happened. I had an very fun, very late night with my friends, I woke up on time, I ate a yummy warm scone, I actually enjoyed 199 class because we were talking about AIDS in Africa and it was very interesting, I felt pretty good about my studying for FHS, it was actually a pretty nice day for a run and I didn't get too lost like I did Monday, I got to read the past few days of the Emerald (while lying on my back on ice), I finished the crossword puzzle really fast, I took a long nap, me and Caleb quizzed each other on NT stuff that actually showed up on the test, I had a really good time in New Testament last night with my friends hanging out after the test (there's always so much laughter with that group), I found out that Tony might come to Wednesday night small group, I talked with Fred online for a while and we commiserated about our bad days, and I actually did get to watch a decent amount of Super Tuesday election coverage. Plus, I read a really amazing Psalm last night...I actually can't remember what number it was but it was amazing. Yeah okay, when I look at that list I'd say yesterday was pretty awesome.
Now I need to take some initiative, show my character, and Just Do It! (haha inside NCM joke) and get to work on my paper. I'm trying to convince myself that I want to write it. I need to critique one framework for understanding international negotiation and talk about it in the context of a real life example. The example should probably be Israel-Palestine because that's what my huge project is about. History is complicated and not that interesting to me, game theory is weird, but it might work, especially since its the most theoretical and the least specific of the frameworks, and politics is professor Brady's favorite, in fact she wrote a book on it, but I didn't actually read it like I was supposed to. I choose.....politics, because it sort of makes sense to me.
Okay, I'm going to make my last bag of Irish breakfast tea and hope that this vicodin induced haze/dizziness doesn't impair my ability to focus and type (yeah right...).
Update: 10:48 am- the Vicodin finally kicked in and I can still tell that my back hurts but the pain isn't bothering me anymore...does that make sense?
Also, the paper is coming along all right. I shouldn't be too terribly hard. Linda's book is surprisingly very helpful and easy to read. She writes about political theory as if she is doing this very assignment...its perfect, I don't actually have to think much. I would actually recommend it for general light reading. It's called "The Politics of Negotiation," by Linda Brady (1991).
Update: 12:02 pm- I just got a text from Ryan saying our meeting is canceled because Shantell and Lindsey can't make it. Yay! Well, not yay that Lindsey is really sick, but now I have a whole extra hour and a half or so that I wasn't planning on. I might be able to make it to 260 at 2 after all.
I'm mostly done with the reading and the outline. Now I just have to write this bugger. I pretty much decided not to use Israel-Palestine because I have a lot more relevant information about US-Soviet relations from actual lecture notes and wont really have to research.
This update deserves a woot. *wOOt!*
Update: 2:26 pm- I actually did make it to 260 class. I also got yummy healthy lunch. I wish I could have some coffee. I'm nearly finished with this essay. I found out that I can't use the US-Soviet example though, because the assignment is to find a current events example. I chose US-Iran, even though I don't really know much about it. Ah this brings back memories of working on other homework during class...
I bought a "peanut butter cup brownie" to reward myself when I finish.
The vicodin is still working, but I hope it lasts. I don't want to take more than one day because I only have a couple left.
Anyway, I actually continued jogging back to campus because it hurt more to walk than to jog, plus it was faster, but in the long run I might have hurt myself more by doing that. When I got back to my dorm I asked my friend Nora to get me some ice from downstairs, took ibuprofen, and called my mom.
Yesterday morning was an extremely inconvenient time to get hurt. I had two midterms yesterday and I was on a pretty tight schedule for studying for them. It all worked out though I guess, because I had the foresight to study for FHS before I left to go run, and then I left FHS class right after the test, which only took 15 minutes or so, and took a two hour nap. The New Testament midterm went pretty well also- I think with all the extra credit I got a pretty solid A. It felt pretty good to take that test, because I knew that I had actually prepared pretty well for it.
However, I also went to bed early, right after class. Now I have only so many hours left to write my Intl Negotiation essay before class at 4. I'm supposed to have class at 2 also and a meeting at 12. I want to crawl back into bed and not think about it anymore. My back hurts really bad this morning and sitting at my desk hurts. I took a vicodin instead of ibuprofen this morning, so we'll see how effective I am at writing for a while...maybe I'll feel happier anyway, 'cause I'm in a pretty bad mood right now.
Plus, it is ash Wednesday, the start of lent, and I cant have coffee for 47 days. Not a huge issue right now, but don't come near me around 3pm or I'll bite your head off. Oh yeah, I am definitely PMSing this month. The hormones+cortisol+pain-caffeine combo is really upsetting my chemistry.
Fortunately, God is good. I need to remind myself of this more often, but my body freakin' out right now is making that really hard. Me and God had a pretty long talk last night and I think we worked some things out. If I hadn't been in pain yesterday I definitely could have seen what an awesome day it was and how many really good things happened. I had an very fun, very late night with my friends, I woke up on time, I ate a yummy warm scone, I actually enjoyed 199 class because we were talking about AIDS in Africa and it was very interesting, I felt pretty good about my studying for FHS, it was actually a pretty nice day for a run and I didn't get too lost like I did Monday, I got to read the past few days of the Emerald (while lying on my back on ice), I finished the crossword puzzle really fast, I took a long nap, me and Caleb quizzed each other on NT stuff that actually showed up on the test, I had a really good time in New Testament last night with my friends hanging out after the test (there's always so much laughter with that group), I found out that Tony might come to Wednesday night small group, I talked with Fred online for a while and we commiserated about our bad days, and I actually did get to watch a decent amount of Super Tuesday election coverage. Plus, I read a really amazing Psalm last night...I actually can't remember what number it was but it was amazing. Yeah okay, when I look at that list I'd say yesterday was pretty awesome.
Now I need to take some initiative, show my character, and Just Do It! (haha inside NCM joke) and get to work on my paper. I'm trying to convince myself that I want to write it. I need to critique one framework for understanding international negotiation and talk about it in the context of a real life example. The example should probably be Israel-Palestine because that's what my huge project is about. History is complicated and not that interesting to me, game theory is weird, but it might work, especially since its the most theoretical and the least specific of the frameworks, and politics is professor Brady's favorite, in fact she wrote a book on it, but I didn't actually read it like I was supposed to. I choose.....politics, because it sort of makes sense to me.
Okay, I'm going to make my last bag of Irish breakfast tea and hope that this vicodin induced haze/dizziness doesn't impair my ability to focus and type (yeah right...).
Update: 10:48 am- the Vicodin finally kicked in and I can still tell that my back hurts but the pain isn't bothering me anymore...does that make sense?
Also, the paper is coming along all right. I shouldn't be too terribly hard. Linda's book is surprisingly very helpful and easy to read. She writes about political theory as if she is doing this very assignment...its perfect, I don't actually have to think much. I would actually recommend it for general light reading. It's called "The Politics of Negotiation," by Linda Brady (1991).
Update: 12:02 pm- I just got a text from Ryan saying our meeting is canceled because Shantell and Lindsey can't make it. Yay! Well, not yay that Lindsey is really sick, but now I have a whole extra hour and a half or so that I wasn't planning on. I might be able to make it to 260 at 2 after all.
I'm mostly done with the reading and the outline. Now I just have to write this bugger. I pretty much decided not to use Israel-Palestine because I have a lot more relevant information about US-Soviet relations from actual lecture notes and wont really have to research.
This update deserves a woot. *wOOt!*
Update: 2:26 pm- I actually did make it to 260 class. I also got yummy healthy lunch. I wish I could have some coffee. I'm nearly finished with this essay. I found out that I can't use the US-Soviet example though, because the assignment is to find a current events example. I chose US-Iran, even though I don't really know much about it. Ah this brings back memories of working on other homework during class...
I bought a "peanut butter cup brownie" to reward myself when I finish.
The vicodin is still working, but I hope it lasts. I don't want to take more than one day because I only have a couple left.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Mondays are usually not notable
This week is looking to once again be crazy, but this time actually because of school. I have to study, which has been unheard of thus far in the term. I have two midterms tomorrow, a paper due Wednesday, plus two projects, a paper, and a midterm next week. Add to that my running schedule, RA/FA interviews this weekend, and the Valentine's day banquet and my cortisol levels are getting up there, or at least to normal college kid proportions. I haven't stressed enough in college I think, and that's why I get these crazy kid ideas about marathon running or being an RA and an FA at the same time...Fact: cortisol keeps you sane.
I'm going to be missing another vital substance here pretty soon: caffeine. I am giving up drinking coffee for lent, except, as Jess says, for "social drinking." This is going to be my sacrifice to God from Wednesday until Easter. Forty days and forty long nights. Oh well, at least its not cheese or music, which is what Shantelle and Jenell are giving up. In comparison I don't seem to be sacrificing all that much. Plus I haven't been drinking that much lately, it will save me money, and I can still have tea. But I like coffee. The perfect lent sacrifice.
In other news, I'm pretty stoked about super Tuesday. How sad is it that I'm trying really hard to get my homework done so I can watch CNN coverage of the primaries which I'm not even voting in....I'd say pretty sad. It's going to be hard though because of the way my Tuesday schedule is, plus I have an evening exam and a Wednesday deadline paper, but I'm sure I'll watch a good chunk of it, or at least update Reuters constantly.
Also a weekend highlight: Saturday night boy's poker night. I was the only girl haha. We started the Texas Hold 'Em tournament around 11 ish and I got out a little before 2 and went to bed. Much fun was had, but no food because we were all out of points and common grounds was packed after midnight all the way up to 2am. At some point we shared half a can of pringles...
Oh yeah, so the Super Bowl was freakin' awesome, man! We (NCM + our friends) had this awesome house to ourselves with a huge HD TV and lots and lots of food. Plus, most everyone was rooting for the Giants, so there was much celebrating. Also, the 6th annual Mud Bowl took place directly before the real game, and it was awesome. I caught a touchdown pass actually, totally by surprise, but there was a flag on the field because Tony ran into me and I guess I dropped it? I also sort of learned how to mud slide, softball style, although Shantelle is definitely the master at it. After the real party, we sort of transplanted over to Ryan's, rehearsed the V-day banquet skit, and eventually played a sweet game of Settler's which I actually managed to get 8 points in this time! Yay me!
Oh yeah, also on Sunday a new girl named Megan came to Harvest. She's just moved from SoCal and she thought she'd visit the church across the street and so Ryan introduced her to me and Caleb and Jacob. Well, she ended up hangin' out with us the entire day which was totally cool! Yay for awesome new people! Once you start hanging out with the NCMers, its pretty addicting, I can testify to that lol.
Okay so I've got to go start studying soon. Theoretically if I don't mess around too much tonight I'll have time for Bible study at 7 and watching the boys play basketball tonight at 10 before coming home and studying some more. Ready....break!
I'm going to be missing another vital substance here pretty soon: caffeine. I am giving up drinking coffee for lent, except, as Jess says, for "social drinking." This is going to be my sacrifice to God from Wednesday until Easter. Forty days and forty long nights. Oh well, at least its not cheese or music, which is what Shantelle and Jenell are giving up. In comparison I don't seem to be sacrificing all that much. Plus I haven't been drinking that much lately, it will save me money, and I can still have tea. But I like coffee. The perfect lent sacrifice.
In other news, I'm pretty stoked about super Tuesday. How sad is it that I'm trying really hard to get my homework done so I can watch CNN coverage of the primaries which I'm not even voting in....I'd say pretty sad. It's going to be hard though because of the way my Tuesday schedule is, plus I have an evening exam and a Wednesday deadline paper, but I'm sure I'll watch a good chunk of it, or at least update Reuters constantly.
Also a weekend highlight: Saturday night boy's poker night. I was the only girl haha. We started the Texas Hold 'Em tournament around 11 ish and I got out a little before 2 and went to bed. Much fun was had, but no food because we were all out of points and common grounds was packed after midnight all the way up to 2am. At some point we shared half a can of pringles...
Oh yeah, so the Super Bowl was freakin' awesome, man! We (NCM + our friends) had this awesome house to ourselves with a huge HD TV and lots and lots of food. Plus, most everyone was rooting for the Giants, so there was much celebrating. Also, the 6th annual Mud Bowl took place directly before the real game, and it was awesome. I caught a touchdown pass actually, totally by surprise, but there was a flag on the field because Tony ran into me and I guess I dropped it? I also sort of learned how to mud slide, softball style, although Shantelle is definitely the master at it. After the real party, we sort of transplanted over to Ryan's, rehearsed the V-day banquet skit, and eventually played a sweet game of Settler's which I actually managed to get 8 points in this time! Yay me!
Oh yeah, also on Sunday a new girl named Megan came to Harvest. She's just moved from SoCal and she thought she'd visit the church across the street and so Ryan introduced her to me and Caleb and Jacob. Well, she ended up hangin' out with us the entire day which was totally cool! Yay for awesome new people! Once you start hanging out with the NCMers, its pretty addicting, I can testify to that lol.
Okay so I've got to go start studying soon. Theoretically if I don't mess around too much tonight I'll have time for Bible study at 7 and watching the boys play basketball tonight at 10 before coming home and studying some more. Ready....break!
Saturday, February 2, 2008
My Weekends are...different
I ran 7 miles today! In the rain and cold and wind! I got wet and cold and muddy and tired! I just thought I'd let you know.
I also watched the entire Democratic debate tonight, and did my laundry. I wish I had any nerdy friends so I could say that I watched it with somebody and so I could talk about politics, but I don't. Well, Sam's into politics, but I don't see him all that much. Speaking of Sam, I want a cinnamon roll.
We were supposed to have a New Testament study/Space Jam party at Jenell's apartment tonight after the game but the game's been over for a couple hours now and I haven't heard anything, so I'm just sitting here waiting... If we don't have the party my plan is to hit the basement for a couple hours and study anyway, and then turn in early. I know I wont have time tomorrow, what with church, the mud bowl, and the super bowl all in one long, exhausting afternoon. I'm pretty psyched about it, but there will be no brain suitable for homework after all that.
I also watched the entire Democratic debate tonight, and did my laundry. I wish I had any nerdy friends so I could say that I watched it with somebody and so I could talk about politics, but I don't. Well, Sam's into politics, but I don't see him all that much. Speaking of Sam, I want a cinnamon roll.
We were supposed to have a New Testament study/Space Jam party at Jenell's apartment tonight after the game but the game's been over for a couple hours now and I haven't heard anything, so I'm just sitting here waiting... If we don't have the party my plan is to hit the basement for a couple hours and study anyway, and then turn in early. I know I wont have time tomorrow, what with church, the mud bowl, and the super bowl all in one long, exhausting afternoon. I'm pretty psyched about it, but there will be no brain suitable for homework after all that.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Lucky number
I just have to point out that this is post number 14 for the year 2008, which is remarkable because I have already doubled my number of posts in 2007! Yay me! I think we should celebrate. We should sleep in really late, eat whatever we want (amazing Hawaiian food), sit around and read, and play Sudoku on the interweb. Oh wait, how silly of me, I already did those things!
Hahahahahahahahaha. I want cookies now.
Good grief. Okay, so I did want to do a little month in review type thing. January began at home, mostly shopping, playing DDR, and generally not doing a whole lot. Then came my huge adventure en route to Eugene which involved being stranded in Seattle, racing around Portland, feeling icky at the Grayhound station, lost luggage, and eventually Hawaiian food, oddly enough. Wow, I had totally repressed that. Then there was school: FHS is awesome, International Negotiation has become increasingly awesome, New Testament is hard, and the other classes are blah. I am marathon training. That's all I need to say about that. I went skiing, which was excellent. I applied for RA and FA jobs because I am a bit insane.
Here are a few pictures that either I took before my camera got angry with me or which I stole from my facebook friends:
This is my African Violet after I left it in my dorm room alone for the entire month of break. The little bugger flowered on me. I don't know much about plants, but I was pretty sure that if you don't water one for a month it dies, it doesn't grow pretty flowers!
Also this month I finally decorated my dorm room. Here is a picture of my main wall before:
Pretty lame, although the picture is neat. Here is that same wall, afterwards:
V. Awesome, no?
Okay so then two more, these are from the InterVarsity MLK day hike:
Lydia, Hannah, and me, and we were freezing because we hadn't started hiking yet.
Me and Joel having a High Energy Trail Mix! snack break. Joel is also training for the Eugene Marathon. Woot!
Hahahahahahahahaha. I want cookies now.
Good grief. Okay, so I did want to do a little month in review type thing. January began at home, mostly shopping, playing DDR, and generally not doing a whole lot. Then came my huge adventure en route to Eugene which involved being stranded in Seattle, racing around Portland, feeling icky at the Grayhound station, lost luggage, and eventually Hawaiian food, oddly enough. Wow, I had totally repressed that. Then there was school: FHS is awesome, International Negotiation has become increasingly awesome, New Testament is hard, and the other classes are blah. I am marathon training. That's all I need to say about that. I went skiing, which was excellent. I applied for RA and FA jobs because I am a bit insane.
Here are a few pictures that either I took before my camera got angry with me or which I stole from my facebook friends:
This is my African Violet after I left it in my dorm room alone for the entire month of break. The little bugger flowered on me. I don't know much about plants, but I was pretty sure that if you don't water one for a month it dies, it doesn't grow pretty flowers!Also this month I finally decorated my dorm room. Here is a picture of my main wall before:
Pretty lame, although the picture is neat. Here is that same wall, afterwards:
V. Awesome, no?Okay so then two more, these are from the InterVarsity MLK day hike:
Lydia, Hannah, and me, and we were freezing because we hadn't started hiking yet.
Me and Joel having a High Energy Trail Mix! snack break. Joel is also training for the Eugene Marathon. Woot!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
An important milestone
Guess what folks. Today was the last day of January. I actually had some awesome ideas for a blog post about this, but I am tired tonight for serious this time. I've been really pushing myself this week and I have gotten a lot done, but its just a tad too much right now. Not to mention, I have posted every day this week at least once, sometimes twice.
So, I am going to go get ready for bed. Maybe I will do my amazing wrap up post tomorrow. In conclusion, January was a pretty rad way to start the new year, and I think February will build on the overall rad-ness.
Weekend run down: Dr. appointment, Movie night/ free pizza, 7-mile run, NT study party, Church, Mud Bowl game, super bowl awesomeness and more free pizza. Interspersed in there: lots of sleep, do my nails, french?, FHS application, reading, critique paper.
So, I am going to go get ready for bed. Maybe I will do my amazing wrap up post tomorrow. In conclusion, January was a pretty rad way to start the new year, and I think February will build on the overall rad-ness.
Weekend run down: Dr. appointment, Movie night/ free pizza, 7-mile run, NT study party, Church, Mud Bowl game, super bowl awesomeness and more free pizza. Interspersed in there: lots of sleep, do my nails, french?, FHS application, reading, critique paper.
Nuclear Terrorism
This morning was the Council on Foreign Relations conference call. There I was, with three other freshmen, a gtf, and the provost of the university, in her office, on the phone with Micheal Levi all the way from Israel, and about 30 other prestigious universities with mostly graduate students. Another amazing opportunity brought to me by the University of Oregon. Also, donuts and coffee.
The conversation was amazing. I won't summarize the whole thing here because its pretty involved and no one but me cares a whole lot anyway, but here is a link to one of my favorite of the debates Micheal Levi has been participating in. He also recently wrote a book entitled On Nuclear Terrorism which I've read a bunch of excerpts from and its really easy to read. Today he basically covered the probability of a nuclear attack and what that means for how we should best go about developing our defenses and how we might try to think differently about some of our foreign policy. He also talked about risk-benefit analysis both for terrorist groups and US defense. Most of the questions were from Rutger's Law school and also U of Nebraska's international affairs grad program. Linda, or course, knew a lot of the professors from the other schools.
At the end of the call Linda stayed and talked with us and showed us some sweet pictures of when she was part of the US negotiating team in Vienna during the cold war. Basically awesome. She's really nice and approachable and her office is amazing. I must find a way to go to office hours.
Well, now I need to go run and get on with my day. The last three nights I haven't gotten very much sleep, so I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!
The conversation was amazing. I won't summarize the whole thing here because its pretty involved and no one but me cares a whole lot anyway, but here is a link to one of my favorite of the debates Micheal Levi has been participating in. He also recently wrote a book entitled On Nuclear Terrorism which I've read a bunch of excerpts from and its really easy to read. Today he basically covered the probability of a nuclear attack and what that means for how we should best go about developing our defenses and how we might try to think differently about some of our foreign policy. He also talked about risk-benefit analysis both for terrorist groups and US defense. Most of the questions were from Rutger's Law school and also U of Nebraska's international affairs grad program. Linda, or course, knew a lot of the professors from the other schools.
At the end of the call Linda stayed and talked with us and showed us some sweet pictures of when she was part of the US negotiating team in Vienna during the cold war. Basically awesome. She's really nice and approachable and her office is amazing. I must find a way to go to office hours.
Well, now I need to go run and get on with my day. The last three nights I haven't gotten very much sleep, so I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Calling it a Day
And oh what a day it has been.
Of course, it started last night really. The day, I mean. I was up pretty late again. I swear time passes like 33% faster when you're in the basement. Also, the past two nights I have been down in the McClain/Tingle laundry room other people have come in later than me, not to do laundry, but to sit there and study all night.
Marathon training doesn't really help me get schoolwork done in the am on Wednesdays I have realized. No matter how early I get up (8:30 today) to clock in my 4 miles, by the time I finish and shower and dress it will always be almost time to go to leadership. My strategy for next week is going to be to get up and do schoolwork and then go run, forcing me to stay on schedule.
Today was the day that RA and FA applications were due. I think that spending so much time last term and up until a few weeks ago fully intending not to apply for either, indeed not even thinking about the FA position until last Wednesday, convinced me that it would never happen. And yet, I have turned in both of my applications with fairly good essays, complete references, and signed up for an interview. Its starting to seem real. Now I really want those jobs.
I talked to a 2007 FA today about trying to decide between RA and FA and she suggested I think about being an RA and an non-residential FA. This, as far as I can see it, is both the best possible job scenario and the most ridiculous thing ever. If I did both, not only would I get free room and board, I would also make $2000 cash for being an FA. FA position is theoretically less than 10 hours a week, so I am allowed to do it while being and RA. However, with two jobs, two pretty involved clubs, and two majors, I am hearing major over-commitment warning bells go off in my head. The FA girl that I talked to said she knew some people who did this and they liked it because apparently as a residential FA its hard to get funding for activities but that's no problem for an RA, and also res FA's have a harder time getting the respect of their students because, well, they live in the same res hall and report to the same RA. If this whole paragraph isn't confusing, I don't know what is.
Bottom line:
Incidentally, tonight in Freshmen Bible Study we were talking about choices and the idea of choosing to take action in some direction instead of sitting around waiting for some obvious sign from God to show you the definite clear path he wants you to take. I'd like to think that this is what I'm doing by applying for these jobs. I took the initiative and applied, and if I don't get the jobs, then I'm pretty confident something else will present itself. I am deciding to stop worrying about it.....now.
In other news I took my 260 midterm which I probably did okay on. The stuff I didn't know were the names of the different authors of books and quotes and such, which if I had studied at all I probably wouldn't have studied anyway. My instructor was in a bum mood today because apparently Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the election. Yeah, interesting class dynamic. I would not in a million years have guessed he was a Giuliani fan. Interesting. I will never look at him the same way. He was also bummed because Mitt Romney lost yesterday or whenever that was. Y'know, he's made casual comments about Romney when we were talking about capitalists and I thought he was totally joking about being a fan, because he seems pretty negative about capitalism. So now I'm really confused.
The part that really surprised me about the whole thing though was the fact that I hadn't known about it (Giuliani) before class. I knew about John Edwards dropping out, but sometime between when I checked Reuters and when I went to class....I need to start paying more attention to the news I think, which may sound ridiculous because I am a self-proclaimed news beast, but not only was I surprised by something today, I also couldn't answer two of the four questions on the current events quiz yesterday! 50%! Something about a Southeast Asian dictator who died. I still don't know. Also, I haven't read the Daily Emerald since last Thursday or something so I have no idea what's been going on on campus. I shall remedy that tonight. I will also read my People, because its fun, and I need to keep up on my celebs, since its almost Oscar season.
Besides reading the news, the only really pressing thing on my plate for tonight is to get completely caught up with the issues surrounding US-North Korea relations and be coherent enough to discuss them with some really smart author/professor people and their groups of students via teleconference with New York at 9am tomorrow in the Provost's office. Note: taking the Provost of the University's seminar class was just about the smarted thing I could have done.
Bonus is the fact that I genuinely like her and am very interested in the subject matter. Win-win situation. We learned about those in that very same class, actually...
Speaking of that class, International Negotiation, some boy had a stroke of genius today. We have this big paper due next week see, and from the beginning of the course Prof Brady said that she would always be willing to negotiate. Well, the kid said something along the lines of "Since Sunday is the Superbowl, could we push the deadline from Monday to Wednesday?" It totally worked. Dude, you rock! Also, I managed to get the Middle East peace process as my topic for the ginormous project, due to my last name being conveniently located at the top of the class roster. This is great for two reasons. First, this is the one I was most interested in, and I already started researching it (see Ethics crisis post). Second, the entire huge project is due in two weeks, which I see as a good thing because it means that the rest of the semester I wont have to worry about it and can focus on studying for the final and my big project in FHS. By the time things get really crazy in March with travel and visitors and stuff, all I'll have to worry about is one essay and three tests during the latter half of finals week. Ka-ching.
I need to not forget to work on my FHS application. I'm not terribly worried about that though because I think a huge part whether I'll get accepted or not is based on my experience and the interview, not so much the paper application or essay, so there's not a whole lot I can do between then and now to make me a better candidate anyway. Still, I plan to pull it out on Friday sometime and look at it a bit.
Well, I think I'm gonna try to get some serious sleep tonight, so I should probably sign off.
Of course, it started last night really. The day, I mean. I was up pretty late again. I swear time passes like 33% faster when you're in the basement. Also, the past two nights I have been down in the McClain/Tingle laundry room other people have come in later than me, not to do laundry, but to sit there and study all night.
Marathon training doesn't really help me get schoolwork done in the am on Wednesdays I have realized. No matter how early I get up (8:30 today) to clock in my 4 miles, by the time I finish and shower and dress it will always be almost time to go to leadership. My strategy for next week is going to be to get up and do schoolwork and then go run, forcing me to stay on schedule.
Today was the day that RA and FA applications were due. I think that spending so much time last term and up until a few weeks ago fully intending not to apply for either, indeed not even thinking about the FA position until last Wednesday, convinced me that it would never happen. And yet, I have turned in both of my applications with fairly good essays, complete references, and signed up for an interview. Its starting to seem real. Now I really want those jobs.
I talked to a 2007 FA today about trying to decide between RA and FA and she suggested I think about being an RA and an non-residential FA. This, as far as I can see it, is both the best possible job scenario and the most ridiculous thing ever. If I did both, not only would I get free room and board, I would also make $2000 cash for being an FA. FA position is theoretically less than 10 hours a week, so I am allowed to do it while being and RA. However, with two jobs, two pretty involved clubs, and two majors, I am hearing major over-commitment warning bells go off in my head. The FA girl that I talked to said she knew some people who did this and they liked it because apparently as a residential FA its hard to get funding for activities but that's no problem for an RA, and also res FA's have a harder time getting the respect of their students because, well, they live in the same res hall and report to the same RA. If this whole paragraph isn't confusing, I don't know what is.
Bottom line:
- I really want free room and board.
- I really am opposed to the idea of wage labor in its traditional form of $/hour and want to avoid getting that type of job.
- I want to work with a faculty member and make awesome connections like that.
- I need to pursue this for next fall because junior year fall term I want to study abroad.
Incidentally, tonight in Freshmen Bible Study we were talking about choices and the idea of choosing to take action in some direction instead of sitting around waiting for some obvious sign from God to show you the definite clear path he wants you to take. I'd like to think that this is what I'm doing by applying for these jobs. I took the initiative and applied, and if I don't get the jobs, then I'm pretty confident something else will present itself. I am deciding to stop worrying about it.....now.
In other news I took my 260 midterm which I probably did okay on. The stuff I didn't know were the names of the different authors of books and quotes and such, which if I had studied at all I probably wouldn't have studied anyway. My instructor was in a bum mood today because apparently Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the election. Yeah, interesting class dynamic. I would not in a million years have guessed he was a Giuliani fan. Interesting. I will never look at him the same way. He was also bummed because Mitt Romney lost yesterday or whenever that was. Y'know, he's made casual comments about Romney when we were talking about capitalists and I thought he was totally joking about being a fan, because he seems pretty negative about capitalism. So now I'm really confused.
The part that really surprised me about the whole thing though was the fact that I hadn't known about it (Giuliani) before class. I knew about John Edwards dropping out, but sometime between when I checked Reuters and when I went to class....I need to start paying more attention to the news I think, which may sound ridiculous because I am a self-proclaimed news beast, but not only was I surprised by something today, I also couldn't answer two of the four questions on the current events quiz yesterday! 50%! Something about a Southeast Asian dictator who died. I still don't know. Also, I haven't read the Daily Emerald since last Thursday or something so I have no idea what's been going on on campus. I shall remedy that tonight. I will also read my People, because its fun, and I need to keep up on my celebs, since its almost Oscar season.
Besides reading the news, the only really pressing thing on my plate for tonight is to get completely caught up with the issues surrounding US-North Korea relations and be coherent enough to discuss them with some really smart author/professor people and their groups of students via teleconference with New York at 9am tomorrow in the Provost's office. Note: taking the Provost of the University's seminar class was just about the smarted thing I could have done.
Bonus is the fact that I genuinely like her and am very interested in the subject matter. Win-win situation. We learned about those in that very same class, actually...
Speaking of that class, International Negotiation, some boy had a stroke of genius today. We have this big paper due next week see, and from the beginning of the course Prof Brady said that she would always be willing to negotiate. Well, the kid said something along the lines of "Since Sunday is the Superbowl, could we push the deadline from Monday to Wednesday?" It totally worked. Dude, you rock! Also, I managed to get the Middle East peace process as my topic for the ginormous project, due to my last name being conveniently located at the top of the class roster. This is great for two reasons. First, this is the one I was most interested in, and I already started researching it (see Ethics crisis post). Second, the entire huge project is due in two weeks, which I see as a good thing because it means that the rest of the semester I wont have to worry about it and can focus on studying for the final and my big project in FHS. By the time things get really crazy in March with travel and visitors and stuff, all I'll have to worry about is one essay and three tests during the latter half of finals week. Ka-ching.
I need to not forget to work on my FHS application. I'm not terribly worried about that though because I think a huge part whether I'll get accepted or not is based on my experience and the interview, not so much the paper application or essay, so there's not a whole lot I can do between then and now to make me a better candidate anyway. Still, I plan to pull it out on Friday sometime and look at it a bit.
Well, I think I'm gonna try to get some serious sleep tonight, so I should probably sign off.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Word "Application" and My Top Ten
The word "application" is one that I have said, written, and typed probably hundreds of times in the past year. The first thing that comes into my head is paperwork. The second thing is deadline. The third things is a more general idea of tedium mixed with anxiety. If I step back a bit and think about it, the word probably means application in the sense that you have to apply yourself to some task (in this case filling out applications).
OK, done with that. I finished my MEA scholarship app today and tonight I'm scrambling to write essays for both the RA and FA ones, which are both due tomorrow by five. The problem is, I really don't want to be an RA. I really want to be a residential FA. However, if I don't get that job, I would still rather be an RA than a regular FA. But I really don't want to be an RA and yes I know I already said that. So the dilemma right now is do I just not do the RA application and use the time to finish the FA one and study for my midterm tomorrow, or do I push to do everything? I guess I might as well since Michelle and Ryan both already filled out the recommendation forms.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The other purpose of this post is my list of:
Top Ten Study Spots @ U of O, in no particular order:
OK, done with that. I finished my MEA scholarship app today and tonight I'm scrambling to write essays for both the RA and FA ones, which are both due tomorrow by five. The problem is, I really don't want to be an RA. I really want to be a residential FA. However, if I don't get that job, I would still rather be an RA than a regular FA. But I really don't want to be an RA and yes I know I already said that. So the dilemma right now is do I just not do the RA application and use the time to finish the FA one and study for my midterm tomorrow, or do I push to do everything? I guess I might as well since Michelle and Ryan both already filled out the recommendation forms.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The other purpose of this post is my list of:
Top Ten Study Spots @ U of O, in no particular order:
- Dorm room- not the best environment, but major points for convenience and not having to deal with the weather.
- The Laundry Room- my favorite for writing essays, its five flights away from my bed, but without having to go outside
- The Lounge late at night- easy proximity to anything in the hall, plus the TV has some pretty weird things on at 3am
- The Library- superior concentration, moderately comfortable, but too far away to convince myself to walk at night- this is really best for getting some work done during the day
- The Law Library- closer to the dorm than the big library, very quiet and nice tables and lighting, but it closes at 12am
- The Buzz coffee shop- I have done a lot of reading here, plus they have easy access to food and coffee
- That weird lounge thing on the main floor of the EMU- very comfy chairs and nice decor, everybody in there is reading, but there are no tables, and I'm kind of a table girl, but this spot is ideal if I have 20 minutes and decide to spend it getting some reading done.
- The Skylight area of the EMU- Generally pretty quiet with excellent light, pretty available seating, but I just never seem to get anything done up there...
- Starbucks, Cafe Roma, or Lillis Cafe- coffee shop feel can be great if you like popular music and lots of buzzing chatter, but it can be hard to find a table and it is very tempting to listen to other people's conversations instead of working.
- Common Grounds cafe in Hamilton Commons or Dux Bistro in LLC- these are very conveniently located and well known to me and I usually eat meals at one or the other, but some really strange people hang out in Common grounds and Dux always feels overcrowded.
Monday, January 28, 2008
A couple more things
In a less narrative form, a few things happened today that might be interesting for discussion.
Today has been a dance party. I mentioned that we listened to awesome Europop on the drive to the mountain. Yeah, so thanks to Rhapsody music I looked up one of the songs- Blue, by Eiffel 65- and listened to it three or four times before finding a link to an excellent dance playlist. I have been sitting in front of my laptop most of the day working on my trance robot/ car commercial dancing. It has been a well spent day my friend. I have learned so much.
At some point Marcy started talking to me on MSN and we ended up talking about travel and she linked me to the "Where the Hell is Matt?" page. I had heard about this guy on the news a couple of years ago but never really looked into it. I watched the dancing video on the homepage, and then, in typical Alisha fashion, I watched on youtube about a half hour of the lecture the guy gave at some college about his experience. He has some really interesting insights on the benefits of travel, and especially about Africa. Next I went to his blog. Its neat because the entries are organized by country, so I looked up a bunch of the Africa and Japan ones. I really enjoyed reading Ned's blog last term while he was studying in South Korea, and this guy has a similar style. I was thinking about travel blogs, and how fascinating they are, and it reminded me of a website that I used to frequent, back in middle school, called cockeyed.com. If you go look at it, its really dizzying at first how much stuff is on it- science, pranks, travel blogs, random blogging. This was one of the first interweb sites I really explored, and that was in 2002 or something, when it was way smaller. I love this site because I wish I was that random and awesome.
I'm getting way off topic. The topic was travel. Marcy sent me that link because the girl's got the travel bug. She's doing some soul searching and asking those dangerous questions like "Why and I really in college?" and "Why can't I just go travel?" Great questions Marcy, I commend you. I wish I could pause college and just go to all the places I've always wanted to go. Europe, Morocco, Africa, Thailand, the Philippines, Hungary, Tokyo, China, New Zealand, Dubai, India, Turkey, Argentina, South Korea, France, Spain, Tunisia, Jamaica, Australia, Egypt, Ireland, Israel, Lebanon, Taiwan, heck, even Chicago or New York. One thing that really stuck with me was when Matt from the website said in his lecture that Australia, and Europe really also, are very different from America in that it is widely accepted that when young adults finish school they just take off for a couple of years and travel. In fact, parents usually save up money for their kids' trips like they would for college or something. I think this is brilliant and I want to do this. My dad did it, why can't I? It would be so great to just travel, not doing humanitarian work, not studying, but just traveling and thinking and experiencing. And then come back and get a job or go to grad school.
Until then though, I'm stuck reading about other people's adventures. I'll get there. The future is really unlimited. The only thing that's impossible to say is what I wont do. Does that make any sense?
This whole conversation was really the highlight of my day, but it couldn't have come at a worse time. This is likely to be the busiest week of the term and I really need to be doing work or at least reading about international issues and paying attention to stuff about the economy instead of daydreaming about travel. I have a lot to do tonight.
Today has been a dance party. I mentioned that we listened to awesome Europop on the drive to the mountain. Yeah, so thanks to Rhapsody music I looked up one of the songs- Blue, by Eiffel 65- and listened to it three or four times before finding a link to an excellent dance playlist. I have been sitting in front of my laptop most of the day working on my trance robot/ car commercial dancing. It has been a well spent day my friend. I have learned so much.
At some point Marcy started talking to me on MSN and we ended up talking about travel and she linked me to the "Where the Hell is Matt?" page. I had heard about this guy on the news a couple of years ago but never really looked into it. I watched the dancing video on the homepage, and then, in typical Alisha fashion, I watched on youtube about a half hour of the lecture the guy gave at some college about his experience. He has some really interesting insights on the benefits of travel, and especially about Africa. Next I went to his blog. Its neat because the entries are organized by country, so I looked up a bunch of the Africa and Japan ones. I really enjoyed reading Ned's blog last term while he was studying in South Korea, and this guy has a similar style. I was thinking about travel blogs, and how fascinating they are, and it reminded me of a website that I used to frequent, back in middle school, called cockeyed.com. If you go look at it, its really dizzying at first how much stuff is on it- science, pranks, travel blogs, random blogging. This was one of the first interweb sites I really explored, and that was in 2002 or something, when it was way smaller. I love this site because I wish I was that random and awesome.
I'm getting way off topic. The topic was travel. Marcy sent me that link because the girl's got the travel bug. She's doing some soul searching and asking those dangerous questions like "Why and I really in college?" and "Why can't I just go travel?" Great questions Marcy, I commend you. I wish I could pause college and just go to all the places I've always wanted to go. Europe, Morocco, Africa, Thailand, the Philippines, Hungary, Tokyo, China, New Zealand, Dubai, India, Turkey, Argentina, South Korea, France, Spain, Tunisia, Jamaica, Australia, Egypt, Ireland, Israel, Lebanon, Taiwan, heck, even Chicago or New York. One thing that really stuck with me was when Matt from the website said in his lecture that Australia, and Europe really also, are very different from America in that it is widely accepted that when young adults finish school they just take off for a couple of years and travel. In fact, parents usually save up money for their kids' trips like they would for college or something. I think this is brilliant and I want to do this. My dad did it, why can't I? It would be so great to just travel, not doing humanitarian work, not studying, but just traveling and thinking and experiencing. And then come back and get a job or go to grad school.
Until then though, I'm stuck reading about other people's adventures. I'll get there. The future is really unlimited. The only thing that's impossible to say is what I wont do. Does that make any sense?
This whole conversation was really the highlight of my day, but it couldn't have come at a worse time. This is likely to be the busiest week of the term and I really need to be doing work or at least reading about international issues and paying attention to stuff about the economy instead of daydreaming about travel. I have a lot to do tonight.
Its Becoming a Trend
So I'm writing again, which means that I have a lot of work to be done which I am not doing (this is pretty much my last resort) and also that some awesome things have happened!
Well, last Thursday ended up being pretty much a wash, but the weekend was Awesome! Friday I woke up at 11 and hung out with Ryan, Caleb, and Jacob getting gear for our ski trip. Among other experiences I found a used, but quality, Columbia winter coat at Goodwill for 15 bucks and also got my ski rentals for free 'cause Ryan had these awesome coupon books. We eventually made it back to campus and I eventually went on my 3 mile run- I took it pretty easy, I didn't want to be tired for skiing. I don't really remember doing anything else that night....I think I did laundry and I probably watched The Office online and messed around on facebook. Not bad for a Friday.
Saturday was the real gem of the weekend. We met at Mac Court at 7:30 am, which I though was awesome- for some reason I really like being up in the early morning before everyone else is. We got Starbucks for really cheap on our way out because Callie works there so she gets a discount and she treated everybody, which was awesome. Callie, you are my favorite.
The best part about the drive up though was the tunes. We started out with "We Built This City" by Starship, which, if you don't know, is the Settler's theme song and therefore the NCM theme. That was on an excellent mix CD which Jenell made for Ryan at some point which has some killer tunes. When we ran out of awesome 90's rock, Disney songs, Journey, and Europop, the next CD was 90's BIG HITS cd. That pretty much says it all. Just picture Ryan, Drew, Jess, Me, Callie, and Callie's fiancee Ryan doing interpretive motions to "I'm like a Bird" by Nellie Furtado.
Yep, awesome.
Skiing itself at Willamette Pass was excellent. I was in the single digits temperature-wise and snowing most of the day, so there was a lot of powder- really perfect snow. I was kind of anxious about skiing because Ryan was the only other person with skiis and I was the only girl with all the boys- Callie and her Ryan hung out in the lodge reading Harry Potter and Shannara books (I can't blame them, that would be my second choice to spend a Saturday). So I was the only girl and most of the guys were snowboarders. Also, I hadn't skied in like two years and Sunday was my scheduled 6 mile run, so I wasn't in the mood to push myself.
Really, I needn't have worried because I remembered my ski mode really quick and had a blast. I didn't fall at all, but of course I didn't try anything really tricky like 360's or jumps or anything, and I went down the steep parts pretty cautiously- I didn't want getting hurt to interfere with marathon training. We started out on the bunny slope and then the green trail lift. Before lunch though we made two runs up at the top of the mountain, which is all blues and black diamonds. The Kaleidoscope-Perseverance route isn't too terribly rough though, but Kaleidoscope-Rosary was a lot harder for me. By the third huge steep part I was getting a but tired because I was trying to go kind of slow and controlled.
Compared to Alyeska, Willamette Pass isn't as high of a mountain or have as many trails and it probably doesn't always have as much powder as it did on Saturday, but it could probably keep me entertained for another couple of trips. There are like three other places to ski around here but none are as close (2 hours).
Ryan's going back on Friday and taking his son Zach, who's 8, and I was gonna tag along but then I remembered I have a doctor's appointment, which is lame. Oh well, we might find a weekend in February- I know Caleb and Jacob and Drew would probably go again.
So the trip back was pretty tame- we listened to an awesome selection of U2's best and probably had some intellectual conversation/ fell asleep. We also went and got ice cream at Dairy Queen, which was definitely ironic after being freezing cold all day, but hey, we all were in the mood for it...
So then Sunday at like 9 am Lindsey started screaming "Snow! Snow! Snow!" Everybody rushed out into the hall and then back inside to their windows- It was snowing like crazy! There was a mad rush to get outside and play in it. By the time I went outside an hour later to go to church the whole lawn was filled with frolickers. Everywhere you looked there were people having snowball fights and building snowmen and stuff. I rarely see another human being up at 10 on Sunday morning when I leave so it was pretty surreal. The roads were insane because by that point there was already about 5 inches accumulated and it was still cold enough to not have melted yet. Poor Jenell had trouble driving to pick up Katie for church in her little car so we followed her and helped her out. She was pretty shaken over the whole thing by the time we got to Harvest at 10:45 ish (service starts at 10:30).
They actually hadn't started the service yet when we showed up and there weren't exactly a ton of people there. Good sermon though. The best part was, because there was pretty puny attendance there were a ton of baked goodies left, which we (the college kids) got to finish off at dinner later. We never make it in time for goodies.
We decided to brave the roads and went to Taco Bell, per usual, and ended up getting in a big snowball war in the parking lot. Great fun. While we were there, Shantelle called. She, Gabie, and Bethany couldn't drive anywhere because they live on a scary icy hill and couldn't get out, but they had walked down and hiked like four miles to the Taco Bell near there house and wanted to see if we could meet them there, but we were already eating, so that was sad.
Anyway, we eventually made it back to campus, and everybody else had a hugely confusing adventurous day trying to figure out how to do everything with all sorts of different people and only two people who could drive...Meanwhile I was cleaning up and getting psyched up for my 6 mile run.
My feet got soaked walking over to the rec center, because by mid-afternoon the snow was nasty wet slush and it was miserable. However, I had new running socks that I got from REI. My first 2.5 miles were okay, but then my left foot and calf went completely numb, so I stopped and stretched really well. It was weird. The rest of the run went okay. I really didn't want to be running, and my favorite podcast hadn't updated on schedule and I felt icky. My last mile though, surprisingly, was amazing. I ran it was faster than I ran the previous 5 miles, listening to Barlow Girl's "Enough" about three times in a row. It was awesome. I actually wanted to keep running when I done, which is crazy.
I need to remember how awesome some of those worship songs are to run to. The problem is that some of them really aren't so awesome to run with, and if I have to interrupt my stride to find another song I tend to slow down or at least screw up my form and get tired, so I like podcasts, because they last a full 30-70 minutes some of them which is just perfect.
Jessica, my roommate, had a pretty crappy weekend and she's likely to have a rough week though, so it was kind of a downer to get back to my dorm room. It'll all work out, but there's a lot of drama right now.
Therefore, I was very happy to get out of there and head over to Ryan's for dinner. It took an age to get there though because Caleb ended up being the sort of taxi cab for everybody who would usually drive but couldn't. We made it though, and we had meat sauce with a side of spaghetti noodles and lots of baked goods. A very well carb-loaded meal. It was a smaller group so we just played Settlers, no movie and no football, and me and Shantelle totally lost. It was actually a really close game except for our team haha. We had good strategy, but bad luck.
Then we made our way back to campus and I stayed up kind of late hanging out with the Alexsondria /Alison/ Ryan crowd and we eventually watched South Park (my first time! it was...as I expected). Everybody was hoping that it would snow over night and all day today and our professors would cancel class, but no such luck.
Well, last Thursday ended up being pretty much a wash, but the weekend was Awesome! Friday I woke up at 11 and hung out with Ryan, Caleb, and Jacob getting gear for our ski trip. Among other experiences I found a used, but quality, Columbia winter coat at Goodwill for 15 bucks and also got my ski rentals for free 'cause Ryan had these awesome coupon books. We eventually made it back to campus and I eventually went on my 3 mile run- I took it pretty easy, I didn't want to be tired for skiing. I don't really remember doing anything else that night....I think I did laundry and I probably watched The Office online and messed around on facebook. Not bad for a Friday.
Saturday was the real gem of the weekend. We met at Mac Court at 7:30 am, which I though was awesome- for some reason I really like being up in the early morning before everyone else is. We got Starbucks for really cheap on our way out because Callie works there so she gets a discount and she treated everybody, which was awesome. Callie, you are my favorite.
The best part about the drive up though was the tunes. We started out with "We Built This City" by Starship, which, if you don't know, is the Settler's theme song and therefore the NCM theme. That was on an excellent mix CD which Jenell made for Ryan at some point which has some killer tunes. When we ran out of awesome 90's rock, Disney songs, Journey, and Europop, the next CD was 90's BIG HITS cd. That pretty much says it all. Just picture Ryan, Drew, Jess, Me, Callie, and Callie's fiancee Ryan doing interpretive motions to "I'm like a Bird" by Nellie Furtado.
Yep, awesome.
Skiing itself at Willamette Pass was excellent. I was in the single digits temperature-wise and snowing most of the day, so there was a lot of powder- really perfect snow. I was kind of anxious about skiing because Ryan was the only other person with skiis and I was the only girl with all the boys- Callie and her Ryan hung out in the lodge reading Harry Potter and Shannara books (I can't blame them, that would be my second choice to spend a Saturday). So I was the only girl and most of the guys were snowboarders. Also, I hadn't skied in like two years and Sunday was my scheduled 6 mile run, so I wasn't in the mood to push myself.
Really, I needn't have worried because I remembered my ski mode really quick and had a blast. I didn't fall at all, but of course I didn't try anything really tricky like 360's or jumps or anything, and I went down the steep parts pretty cautiously- I didn't want getting hurt to interfere with marathon training. We started out on the bunny slope and then the green trail lift. Before lunch though we made two runs up at the top of the mountain, which is all blues and black diamonds. The Kaleidoscope-Perseverance route isn't too terribly rough though, but Kaleidoscope-Rosary was a lot harder for me. By the third huge steep part I was getting a but tired because I was trying to go kind of slow and controlled.
Compared to Alyeska, Willamette Pass isn't as high of a mountain or have as many trails and it probably doesn't always have as much powder as it did on Saturday, but it could probably keep me entertained for another couple of trips. There are like three other places to ski around here but none are as close (2 hours).
Ryan's going back on Friday and taking his son Zach, who's 8, and I was gonna tag along but then I remembered I have a doctor's appointment, which is lame. Oh well, we might find a weekend in February- I know Caleb and Jacob and Drew would probably go again.
So the trip back was pretty tame- we listened to an awesome selection of U2's best and probably had some intellectual conversation/ fell asleep. We also went and got ice cream at Dairy Queen, which was definitely ironic after being freezing cold all day, but hey, we all were in the mood for it...
So then Sunday at like 9 am Lindsey started screaming "Snow! Snow! Snow!" Everybody rushed out into the hall and then back inside to their windows- It was snowing like crazy! There was a mad rush to get outside and play in it. By the time I went outside an hour later to go to church the whole lawn was filled with frolickers. Everywhere you looked there were people having snowball fights and building snowmen and stuff. I rarely see another human being up at 10 on Sunday morning when I leave so it was pretty surreal. The roads were insane because by that point there was already about 5 inches accumulated and it was still cold enough to not have melted yet. Poor Jenell had trouble driving to pick up Katie for church in her little car so we followed her and helped her out. She was pretty shaken over the whole thing by the time we got to Harvest at 10:45 ish (service starts at 10:30).
They actually hadn't started the service yet when we showed up and there weren't exactly a ton of people there. Good sermon though. The best part was, because there was pretty puny attendance there were a ton of baked goodies left, which we (the college kids) got to finish off at dinner later. We never make it in time for goodies.
We decided to brave the roads and went to Taco Bell, per usual, and ended up getting in a big snowball war in the parking lot. Great fun. While we were there, Shantelle called. She, Gabie, and Bethany couldn't drive anywhere because they live on a scary icy hill and couldn't get out, but they had walked down and hiked like four miles to the Taco Bell near there house and wanted to see if we could meet them there, but we were already eating, so that was sad.
Anyway, we eventually made it back to campus, and everybody else had a hugely confusing adventurous day trying to figure out how to do everything with all sorts of different people and only two people who could drive...Meanwhile I was cleaning up and getting psyched up for my 6 mile run.
My feet got soaked walking over to the rec center, because by mid-afternoon the snow was nasty wet slush and it was miserable. However, I had new running socks that I got from REI. My first 2.5 miles were okay, but then my left foot and calf went completely numb, so I stopped and stretched really well. It was weird. The rest of the run went okay. I really didn't want to be running, and my favorite podcast hadn't updated on schedule and I felt icky. My last mile though, surprisingly, was amazing. I ran it was faster than I ran the previous 5 miles, listening to Barlow Girl's "Enough" about three times in a row. It was awesome. I actually wanted to keep running when I done, which is crazy.
I need to remember how awesome some of those worship songs are to run to. The problem is that some of them really aren't so awesome to run with, and if I have to interrupt my stride to find another song I tend to slow down or at least screw up my form and get tired, so I like podcasts, because they last a full 30-70 minutes some of them which is just perfect.
Jessica, my roommate, had a pretty crappy weekend and she's likely to have a rough week though, so it was kind of a downer to get back to my dorm room. It'll all work out, but there's a lot of drama right now.
Therefore, I was very happy to get out of there and head over to Ryan's for dinner. It took an age to get there though because Caleb ended up being the sort of taxi cab for everybody who would usually drive but couldn't. We made it though, and we had meat sauce with a side of spaghetti noodles and lots of baked goods. A very well carb-loaded meal. It was a smaller group so we just played Settlers, no movie and no football, and me and Shantelle totally lost. It was actually a really close game except for our team haha. We had good strategy, but bad luck.
Then we made our way back to campus and I stayed up kind of late hanging out with the Alexsondria /Alison/ Ryan crowd and we eventually watched South Park (my first time! it was...as I expected). Everybody was hoping that it would snow over night and all day today and our professors would cancel class, but no such luck.
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