It's a weed in a river.

2004-05-27T20:35:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I haven't written in my blog for ages. Here is an interesting dilemna: whether or not to document your life. I was thinking about that a lot today. Really, why do I write this blog? There are three options: 1. For myself, like a diary to let me reflect on my daily life. 2. To tell everyone else about what I'm up to (like my parents and brother, who are the only ones who read this.) or 3. For future generations. I think I write this for a mix of all three. But really, who is going to read this in the future? Let's say I keep this blog for the rest of my life. (I know I probably won't but let's just pretend.) If I average one entry per week, by the time I die someone will have to read through (wait let me get my calculator...) 4,420 blogs (because I am going to live to be 103, like the Jimmeny Cricket song.) Who would want to do that? Unless I become incredibly famous, the answer is no one. But maybe I will have some grandchild who will wonder what life was like in 2004.

Now that I'm done rambling about that, I will tell you a bit about my week. I have five days of lectures and then finals and then I am out of here! Ashley has started to take some of the stuff off the walls... It seems like just yesterday we were putting it up (I hope you noted the dreamy voice I said that in.) I only have one more lecture with this awful physics professor. Also only one more lab with a really good physics professor. We did an interesting lab on Wednesday. It used magnets and lasers and current and induced magnetic fields... nifty contraption. Speaking of physics, I should really go do my physics now because I have a whole quarter's worth of information that I still don't understand.

2004-05-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

EARTHQUAKE! There was a 4.6 earthquake 10 miles off the coast of Isla Vista. I was asleep and apparently having a dream about Ashley because I thought she was mad at me and shaking me. And then I realized I was in my bed and thought that Dad was shaking my bed. And then I realized that it was an earthquake and wondered how much it would hurt if that huge picture frame above my bed fell on my head. Small earthquakes are kind of fun.

They have a new farmer's market in the Camino Real Marketplace, so Dad and I went there after church. Corn, strawberries, cherries, peaches, apricots, and zuchinni -- yum!

Yesterday Lindsay graduated from Westmont and there was a big party at the Huberts with all their relatives and family friends. It was a lovely afternoon and we had fun romping around their backyard and playing with Toni. She is cute.

2004-05-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

Quote of the day:

"If you have been using this physics book for the past three quarters, you will know by now that it is not a textbook. It is a mystery novel." -- my physics prof

2004-05-05T22:48:00.000-07:00

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

2004-05-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

I was going to go the gym today but I made chocolate-covered strawberries and bananas instead. I am pathetic. :)

I was so confused last night. In fact, I still am a bit confused. For some reason, I woke up at 3am and my light was on, so I got up and turned it off, and it wasn't hot so it hadn't been on for very long. Then I got a little freaked out because I thought someone was in our room and had turned it on. But then I realized our door was locked. Maybe Ashley turned it on. I will ask her. Or maybe an electrical surge somehow turned it on. Or maybe I dreamt the whole thing. Then, at 5:45am my cell phone was ringing, and I don't remember getting out of bed, but next thing I know I was over on the other side of the room and it was an (805) number that I didn't recognize so I silenced it. When I woke up in the morning I thought that I dreamt that, but then I checked my missed calls and sure enough it really happened. Maybe it was a wrong number. And around noon today another (805) number called me. Who keeps calling me???

2004-05-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend I volunteered at Wildflower, the biggest Triathalon in the world. Friday afternoon, Ashley, Erin, Stacey, Amanda, and I drove to Lake San Antonio. When we got there, we had to wait in a line of cars for two hours because there were so many volunteers from Cal Poly and they had to check all of our bags for glass so the bikers don't pop their tires. It was fun waiting in line, though. We had our music going and I got to read Redeeming Love. When we got there, our tent was set up for us (on a slant), but it was nice that we didn't have to set it up. On Saturday morning we all wake up at 5am to an obnoxious loud noise and a lady all welcoming us to Wildflower and I was so confused because the earliest shift didn't start until 8am. I still don't know why we had to wake up that early. But we all got up around 6am, I think, and it was so cold outside. Then we walked down to the festival area where we were working our shifts and at 8am the triathalon began. Erin and Stacey and I wandered around watching the swimming and the beginning of the biking. It made me want to do a triathalon, but I quickly got over that idea. Mid-morning we stopped on the grass and basked in the sun and I took a nap, which was suprising for me, especially since there were tons of people around. But it was a lovely nap. At 11am, we heard that they needed volunteers at the finish line, and so we went over there and handed water to the racers as they finished. That was a lot of fun. And I got to see all the hot-shot athletes from Australia and Germany and other places. Then at 2:00 my shift started at the pasta/BBQ booth. I took orders for the whole six hours. I was a little nervous at first, but it was actually pretty fun. Then we cleaned up and walked back in the dark around 8:45. I was exhausted. Sunday morning we woke up at 6am and walked down to the festival area at 7 for a small worship service. Crusade band played (Amanda sang) and a couple people shared some things and a pastor (at least I think he was a pastor) spoke. It was nice and it was really pretty. Then at 8am I worked the pasta booth again, but this time I was serving, which wasn't too fun. And we were supposed to leave at 2pm, but they desperately needed us to stay and help, so I stayed until 4pm. 8 hours of serving pasta isn't that fun. Especially when it is roasting out. But it really wasn't that bad. Then we walked back to camp and went back to the dorms. And that was my weekend!

2004-04-29T15:34:00.000-07:00

Amanda B. asked me yesterday if I believed in dinosaurs. Last time I checked, dinosaurs weren't something that you had to believe in. I thought they were just a fact of life. I still think they are just a fact of life. But interesting to know that some people don't think so. Learn something new every day.

There are goats outside my window. (I hope Steven isn't reading this -- I'm trying to convince him to come here and I don't think goats are going to help him.) They are on the hill in back of the dorms. I wonder why they are there. It looks to me like they are walking in circles but it is hard to tell since the trees are in the way. I think I would like to live on a farm. Maybe I should move to Driggs. (Mom, that was for you.)

My room is a mess. I guess I should clean it before Bible study tonight. Speaking of Bible study, I don't know whether or not I should be a Bible study leader next year.

Oooh there is a sheepdog and an old man with the goats, herding them back and forth for some reason. No, really, I can see myself living on a nice big farm. Maybe because I am reading Redeeming Love (good book, by the way) and they have a cabin on a farm. I suppose I can't live in fantasty land.

Yesterday wore me out. Wednesdays this quarter seem to do that to me. I don't recommend taking two labs back-to-back, especially when it conflicts with Campus Crusade.

Hey the sheepdog is lying down on the job. I need to pack for Wildflower.

2004-04-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

San Luis Obispo is officially a furnace.

2004-04-24T21:23:00.000-07:00

The drive-in theatre is my new favorite place in San Louie. Ashley, Erin, Kelly, Amanda, and I went to a double feature of "13 Going on 30" and "The Prince & Me" -- two movies I had been wanting to see. And it was only five bucks. What a deal. We had two chairs and we stole another chair from the dorm (getting it into the car was a challenge) and two of us sat in the trunk (not the most comfortable thing, but it wasn't too bad.) But it was so fun getting all snuggled up in blankets and being able to talk during the movie and seeing the stars and the moon while watching it on the big screen. After watching those two movies we came back and Helena, Ashley and I watched "Bridget Jones's Diary." I like that movie more and more every time I watch it. Then Helena read us a bedtime story -- the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice and then we went to sleep.

Today Ashley's parents and Chip came up to visit. We drove around town looking at pretty houses and hiked partway up to Bishop's Peak, but were kind of on the wrong trail so we didn't make it to the top, but it was fun anyways. We went to the Breakfast Buzz for lunch and we had a snack at Bali's. Time flies when you are having fun. Tonight I went to a "staged reading" of "Agnes of God." I enjoyed it. And now I get extra credit in my theatre class. :)

2004-04-22T15:38:00.000-07:00

Woe is me. I think I failed my physics midterm. On the bright side, I think I did quite well on math. But only time will tell. I had a fun time studying with Erin last night. And Ashley. But Ashley wasn't studying. She just added to the positive energy in the room. What am I talking about? I went to bed at 3:30. That was a little on the late side for me, but I really wasn't that tired.

Happy Earth Day!!!

2004-04-20T23:03:00.000-07:00

Stupid blog. The one I wrote about my weekend didn't save. I guess I will have to sum up my weekend for you, but it won't be as spiffy as the I wrote on Sunday since my memory isn't that good. Friday evening we went to a Sherwood concert. We got there at 6:30, the concert didn't start until after 7:00, and Sherwood didn't play until 10:15. But it was OK because the four bands before Sherwood were pretty good. It was just at a church -- a small, casual concert. It was fun. It was also really loud, but that could have been because I was standing four feet from the speakers. And after four hours of standing I thought I was going to die. Every inch of my legs and back hurt. But that's OK. The rest of the weekend was really fun too. We just hung out a lot...I will miss that about the dorms. I watched five movies, well really four, but we watched What a Girl Wants twice. The other three were Alex & Emma, Newsies, and Little Women. My favorite out of those is Newsies because it has good songs. On Sunday Ashley and I went to Calvary Baptist -- 31 people at the service. Ha ha it is so small. But I like it. And we will probably go to Sunday School next time. After church we went to Vista Grande Restuarant with Amanda and Stacey and Erin since VG's was closed for some random reason. We had brunch... I had a feast: some omellette, sausage, bacon, a pancake, OJ, a chicken enchilada, cake, and absolutely delicious coffee. We stayed and chatted for a long time. It was fun.

Studying is bogging my brain. I was very proud of myself -- I studied for five hours straight, and it was in the study lounge, so it sounds more official. In the Sandwich Factory today they had strawberries and everyone there was talking about them. It's funny b/c we were just laughing at how in Little Women oranges were a huge luxury -- it seems strawberries are a luxury for college freshman. Mmmm they were good. A nice suprise treat.

2004-04-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

Hey it has been a while since I wrote on my blogger. I have half an hour before I have to go to math so I'll give a brief update. I just found out that I have three midterms next week. Arrrrrrrrrrg.

On Tuesday I gave blood and they hooked me up to an apherisis machine. It was really weird. Lots of physics involved -- haha. They take a bunch of blood out and spin it so it separates and give the plasma? and a saline solution back to you. They do this twice for some reason. But since the saline solution is not up to body temperature it feels really weird. It's like getting cold from the inside out. You know when you drink a really cold drink sometimes and you can feel it go down your esophogas? Well it is kind of like that except you can feel your veins. I didn't even know that veins had nerves. I guess everywhere except your brain has nerves. Anyways, I kept shaking and I don't know if it was just because I was cold or because my body didn't like cold stuff in its veins. Either way it was weird. And climbing the stairs up to my dorm a few hours later my heart was pounding and I was completely out of breath. I am so thankful that I have good health.

Yesterday was my long day. I went to office hours at 9am because I really don't understand physics and he tried to explain stuff but it wasn't too helpful. At 9:30 I went to theatre -- I like that class. We watched a clip from Tartuffe and I think the actress who plays Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice was in it. 10:40 I got lunch from the Sandwich Factory and watched Ellen in my room and read Death of a Salesman. I am almost finished. It is kind of strange book. I can't quite figure out what is wrong with Willy (the salesman.) I think he has some sort of mental disorder but maybe he is just old. 12:00 Biology lecture. Everyone says my bio teacher is really weird, but I don't think is that out-there. I think his lectures are actually pretty interesting. 1:00 I don't know what I did for two hours. Bumbled around my dorm, I guess. I think I read some more and studied for my bio lab test. 3:00 Bio lab. We had a test and it was short and easy and then we did a lab on respiration of plants and animals. We somehow measured the respiration rate of radish seedlings and the respiration rate of mice in room temperature and on ice. I got to play with mice! I really don't understand why so many people are afraid of mice. They were the cutest little white mice you ever did see. I ended up helping a lot of groups with their mice simply because I wanted to hold them (although you weren't really supposed to -- you were supposed to pick them up by their tails, but it was easier just to grab them.) But they were so cute! And I had gloves on. I want a pet mouse. Just kidding I don't really. They kind of smell. I want a pet dog. But not right now. Anyways, our group finished early but we had to wait for everyone else to finish so I read my book. 5:40 I ate pizza from Backstage. 6:00 Physics Lab. I like my lab partner -- she is in my math and my physics class. It was an easy lab. We just had to find the voltage across a piece of paper and draw pretty lines for the voltage lines and the electric field lines. I like my lab teacher too. Happy retired guy. 9:00 I missed the first half of crusade because of lab, but I got to go to the talk part of it. This week was different. You could choose one of six talks to go to. Mine was about the tabernacle. It was all right. I knew some of the stuff from Heatwave already and the speaker was pushed for time. 10:00 Finished my physics homework 12:30 Went to bed.

I think I am getting sick. My ears itch and my throat hurts. My hair is really soft today. OK well I should get going. Bye!

2004-04-05T23:12:00.000-07:00

Ewwwww there was a giant spider on the ceiling above my bed and so I called Erin and she and Amanda and Kathleen all came over to look, but of course we are all both too afraid and too short to kill it. There was a guy in the lobby right outside so Kathleen made him come in and he jumped up on my bed and just barely reached it and everyone screamed, with Julie screaming not to kill it. But I am happy that it is killed and not waiting to crawl on me in my sleep.

I changed my math from 8am to 1pm. Yippee! Now my earliest class is 9:30 and that makes me so happy! We watched Big Fish for free in Chumash auditorium. I really enjoyed it. I think you could write a paper or something about that movie, not that I would want to. And Ewan McGregor is oh-so-cute.

2004-04-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

Women's retreat was awesome. On Friday after school Ashley and I went and got facials (part of that package we bought.) It was kind of weird. Then we drove with Stacey to Bakersfield -- woo hoo! Too bad Lori wasn't there since she was helping to move Grammy. But I didn't really have much time to see her anyways. Friday night we were a bit late so only caught the end of the Vivian Mabuni's talk. Then we broke up into groups -- I had a great small group. They were all really nice and down-to-earth. And one of them might hook me up with a summer job in Santa Barbara. Afterwards we had snacks and had to make up a song with our group and sing it on stage. I didn't like that one bit. Then we went to bed and Ashley and I talked for a while and then we slept!
On Saturday morning we had worship and then Vivian talked about women's relationships with other women. I learned a lot about having intimate relationships with my friends. Then we had an hour for quiet time -- it is weird how I have such trouble doing ten minutes of quiet time here but on retreats an hour never seems enough. Then my group and I went to pizza for lunch and did our discussion questions. Mmmm the pizza was good. Not that the discussion wasn't good. :) From 1:30-5:30 we had free time and it just so happened that Sammy had a soccer tournament in Bakersfield that same weekend so Ashley and I went to watch one of her games. They tied and Sammy didn't play much because her back is messed up, but it was fun anyways. And I got to take a shower at their hotel. And I gave Sammy her birthday present. I bought her a hat at the stand at the soccer game. I am so good at planning. Not. We came back to the church and had El Pollo Loco for dinner. Then we had worship and Vivian talked about women's relationships with men. She had some good things to say. After we had our discussion groups they had lip sync -- it was funny... Anna, the MC at Crusade this year, is the funniest dancer alive. I wish I had her on video.
Saturday night I only got 4 and a half hours of sleep because people were talking and we lost an hour due to daylight savings time. On Sunday morning, we had breakfast (mmm coffee with hot chocolate to keep me awake) and had worship and then testimonies -- a lot of people shared their deep dark secret struggles. Then we hit the road and the 2.5 hours flew by. And now I am back in the dorm and Ashley and Erin are watching Average Joe.

2004-04-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

April fools! Ashley got me yesterday. I woke up at 7am for my 8am class and Ashley was kind of smiling at me, which I thought was weird but didn't think much of it. So I got up and grabbed my shower stuff, but Ashley said, "Don't take a shower. April fools!!!" And I was so confused and had no idea what she was talking about. Then she told me that she had set all the clocks an hour ahead, but I didn't believe her. So I looked at my watch and sure enough, it was only 6am! Hahahahahahahahahaha!

2004-03-31T09:49:00.000-08:00

SPRING BREAK!!!

Saturday:
I don't remember what I did in the day, but in the evening I went to the DPHS talents show. Dad was in charge of sound and Steven sang in the jazz choir, but didn't get to do his solo. Boo hoo!!!! Oh yeah I saw Master and Commander.... I liked it, but Chip was bored out of his mind. After the movie Ashley's cousins were here and we played in the backyard and on a little patch of lawn down the street. Or maybe that was on Sunday.

Sunday:
Yay! Community Covenant Church is the best! We saw Auston at church -- he is home for a semester. We went to Bellyboards for lunch. Yum. After dinner at Ruby's, Ashley and I drove down to Mission Viejo (Chip and Lindsay were in another car and the Hammorks were in yet another one.) I love their house and their cute dogs.

Monday:
Disneyland!!! We went to Disneyland and CA Adventure. Since we all have season passes now, we didn't feel the need to rush around the park doing everything we could, fighting the spring break crowds. In Disneyland we saw the Snow White show that wasn't too entertaining. And we went on the Matterhorn and Big Thunder Mountain (twice).... hmmm was that really all we did? Oh and we saw the Lincoln show... that was pretty interesting. We had lunch at the Pizza Port. At California Adventure we went on Soaring Over California and that bear raft ride that I always get soaked on. We also went to the Disney's Millionaire show that is set up just like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" on TV. There were 650 people in the audience and we all play fastest fingers to try to get down to the "hot seat." Guess who got it? Yep, that's right. I did! I just punched in four random numbers and by pure luck got them right and was the fastest at it. I didn't even know that I was supposed to go down there until Lindsay was shoving me out of my seat. So I went down to the stage and was sooo nervous. My heart was beating out of my chest. But I don't think that I showed it much. The host guy kept making fun of me because I didn't seem excited. I got up to the 32,000 points question, but the next one was something about football that I didn't know. I could have one a cruise... too bad I know nothing about football. It was fun, though, and I won some pins and a hat and a shirt. We went home pretty early... around 8:30, I think.

Tuesday:
I got up around 10:00 and drove to Riverside to see Mimi. I thought I was lost the whole way there. But Mimi was really happy that I came to visit her. I brought her flowers and we went to lunch in the dining room and I pushed her in her wheelchair around the village. Then I drove to Lancaster and the drive was longer than I thought it would be. The traffic was awful in parts and I almost missed both freeway changes. I had dinner with Dad and Grammy and Grammy's new 24-hour care taker. I slept on the air mattress at Peter and Susie's.

Wednesday:
The kids had school in the morning, so I went with Susie to her Bible study. We watched a video that a lady named Beth Moore was speaking on. She was a really good speaker and I enjoyed it. She talked about Revelation. Then at 11:00 we went to pick up Brady from Desert Christian School and then went to the Whole Wheatery -- an organic-like food store. We had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and Allie came home around 3:00 and we played soccer in the backyard. We had salmon and asparagus and sourdough rolls for dinner -- delicious!

Thursday:
Peter had a firefighter's deal, so went to Universal Studios in Hollywood. It is kind of boring there, but I still had a good time. We went to Shrek 4D and then went to this place for kids with a million balls that you can shoot at people. It was loud and smelled bad in there, but Allie and Brady liked it. We also went to the Waterworld show and the Animal Planet show and Backdraft and the Behind-the-Scenes show and the Spiderman show. Then we went back to their house and I talked to my brother most the way on the phone. Then I watched The Apprentice on TV with Susie.

Friday:
After seeing Grandpa and Grammy I left in the late morning to go home. It was a pleasant drive. When I got home I went over to Ellwood to see my mom in the computer lab. It was fun seeing her slideshow and helping out when a class came in. I went to Baja Grill and got my favorite burrito and met my family in Kahuna Grill.

Saturday:
This was a fun day -- I spent most the day hanging out with Mom. We went to breakfast -- I forget what the restaurant is called -- but it was a nice morning, so we ate outside. Then Mom dropped off something for the jazz choir at Borders. Then we went shopping! We went to Sears and I got two new shirts and we went to Robinson's and I got comfy pants and a new skirt and a white shirt that I didn't really like but got anyways. Then we looked all over Robinsons May and Sears for a necklace that would go with the outfit, but couldn't find one. When I got home, I realized that the shirt I had bought at Sears matched perfectly with the skirt so I didn't have to wear the white shirt that I wasn't too fond of and I didn't need a necklace! In the La Cumbre parking lot we saw three planes flying next to each other and were trying to guess what it was. It turned out to be the X-43, a small pilotless plane that was launched of a B-52, I think. It went 7 times the speed of sound and then crashed into the ocean. Then we went to Payless and I got shoes to match my skirt. Now I have an Easter outfit! After shopping we went to two plant nurseries and to Longs and to a fruit stand to buy some strawberries. We scrapbooked some in the afternoon and had Dominoe's pizza for dinner.

Sunday:
Before church I went Long's and got Mom her birthday present. Christian Shalasky (sp?) spoke at church -- I like it when he talks. Then I went home and made brownies and ate the rest of my burrito and did laundry and laid in the sun but failed to get tan. Then Ashley and I went to Lisa's house. It is up on the Mesa and it has the coolest view ever. You can see all of Santa Barbara and the ocean. Then I came home and we had ham and mashed potatoes and peas for dinner -- mmmmmmm. Then it was time to go back to school. :( And that was my spring break!

2004-03-10T22:52:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful for Campus Crusade.

Today must have been a long day because morning seems like a long time ago. I don't have much interesting to say, so I will just tell you about my not-very-exciting day. This morning I got up and it was nice and I got ready listening to Jars of Clay's new CD. Then I went to English and we proofread papers. Then was Physics and I was half-listening but I probably should have been listening intently since I am not doing so well. Oh well. Then I had lunch and watched Ellen. After that I finished my physics homework -- now I just have to study for about three zillion hours. No, I won't, but I don't know how I am going to know everything for the final when I can't even figure it out for a quiz. Then I went to math and my teacher was late. We did review. Then I went to sociology and my teacher was late. We learned about Mexico -- it was pretty interesting. Then I came home and went to the gym for the first time in a long time and I ran on the treadmill and it was kind of fun but I'm sure it will get old quickly. Like by tomorrow it will be old. But I was proud of myself for going nonetheless. Then I came home and actually read my book on Mexico that I had been carrying around with me for two weeks. After that I went to VG's for dinner and we ate it here while watching "That 70's Show" and "Matchgame" -- my favorite -- during commercials. For dinner I had this weird squash-filled ravioli. It was good, but kind of sweet so it was weird. Then I went to Campus Crusade -- yay! It was really good tonight. Good speaker, good songs. And now I am going to bed!

2004-03-09T22:42:00.000-08:00

Oy! Registering for classes is awful!!!!! OK I'm over it and I'm not talking or thinking about it anymore.

This morning when I woke up it was perfect. The sun was shining and it was warm, but the window was open so a breeze was coming in through the window. And the birds were singing... I kind of made that up. I don't know if they were singing or not, but they probably were. But I felt like I was on a tropical island. I wish I was back in that moment right now....

I only have three more days of English, two more days of physics, two more days of calc, and one more day of sociology. And then finals and then spring break. Yay! College is so much better than high school. Ten weeks of a class instead of nine months. I think Steven will like it.

2004-03-09T00:10:00.000-08:00

I love my brother. Here is a snippit from his blog. The beginning was all about how he doesn't like school right now.
"And yet, life goes on. There are still good things in life. Like jazz choir, with our first performance on Saturday in LA. And I do have some good times playing games. It's not like the world is crashing down on me or anything. And I look forward to my future: to programming, to college, to a gaming job, to anything and everything else that might come. But there is so much more that I want, not only things that I have told about, but things that I wouldn't write about here, or anywhere else for that matter. But, as the poet Horace said... carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero."
By the way that last part means "Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in tomorrow."

2004-03-08T23:40:00.000-08:00

I had a good night sleep last night. I love getting enough sleep and not being tired when I wake up and being able to stay awake in physics and all that. This weekend was absolutely fantastic. Friday night I spent the night at Ashley's house and it was so much fun. I got to eat dinner with her family and then afterwards Chip and Ashley and I played Mexican train and it was sooo much fun and I was being a little crazy. Then we watched Bend it Like Beckham, which was a good movie. And I slept on the couch because Lindsay was being stubborn, but it was pretty comfy except I had a really bad dream that I still can't get over. On Saturday morning Ashley and I met Sammy, Cynthy, and Toni in Thousand Oaks because Sammy had a soccer tournament. And her Papa was there too. I like him. And he has a cool new car that has a cool phone in it. Anyways, it was the perfect day. The sun was shining, but it wasn't hot in the sun. But it wasn't cold in the shade either. It was absolutely glorious. I laid on the blanket and half-watched the game half-watched Toni. She is so cute. And we had a picnic lunch with yummy turkey sandwiches. Ah, it was glorious. People would pay a lot of money to have a day like that. And then we went shopping and I spent lots of money, but I don't do that very often so it was OK. We went to Kohl's and I got three bras, courdouroy capris, a pink shirt, and shoes. And then we went to Target and I got a new bikini since I don't really have one and I definitely didn't have one in Thousand Oaks and needed one to go in the spa. And I got some comfy gray pants. Then we went to the Hamburger Habit for dinner. I think it is really just called The Habit, but no one calls it that. They invited me to stay in the hotel with them since Stevie didn't come and so they had an extra spot and I love staying in hotels! At least when they are nice hotels I do. She got the room at priceline.com for only $55 which I think is a pretty good deal, but not that I really know that much about hotel prices. We went in the big hot tub and my feet almost fell off because they were cold and the water was really hot. But after the initial shock it was nice. The next morning we got around 9, and Ashley went to Sammy's game but I decided to go home. I had a really nice day hanging out with Dad. We made banana/applesauce pancakes -- I ate four of them. Then we did random stuff like water the front yard and the plants on the side. We went to Home Depot and wandered around there for a long time. He got some more stuff for the yard. And then we went to Channel City Lumber and got a 10-foot square drain-thing and all we had was my little Echo so we had to put the seats down and stick it sideways through the window. But we got it home. Actually, I think I watered the front yard after that. Because I remember that the shade from that tree was on me. Then at around 4:30 we made meatloaf and later we made oven-baked french fries that were really greasy, but good. And peas. Steve and Dad were making fun of me because I ate so many peas. Then we watched Trading Spaces while watching Scrabble. Steven played too. I think I call Steven Steve but I think it looks funny when I write Steve instead of Steven. Anyways, then I went back to San Louey and I hate that drive back after a good weekend. It is the worse thing ever. Well, there are probably worse things, but I can't think of any at the moment. So that was my weekend and it felt like summer vacation. The only slightly bad thing about it was that I didn't get to see my mom, but it is OK since she was helping out in Lancaster and spring break is only two weeks away. Yippee!

Today, on the other hand, was slightly wretched. Physics is sad and depressing since I feel I have learned absolutely nothing this quarter and I don't think I am going to do well on the final since it is impossible to study what I never learned. But only two more classes, so that is a plus. Then I felt like I was running like a chicken with my head cut off trying to figure out my classes for next quarter. Not really, I just felt like saying that. But the physics dept. keeps emailing me saying I need to get a move on stuff and it is making me nervous. But now I am so sick of that I hardly care if I even get into any classes next quarter. Then I went to calculus and got my test back -- a 75 -- yuck. Then I went to sociology and he talked about Mexico. It was slightly interesting. I don't think I ever want to go to Mexico City. It sounds like I could get lung cancer in about three days from all the smog. Then I had to write a stinky essay that I am not too fond of. And that was school. Now I am going to go do my quiet time and go to bed. Good night.

2004-03-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

Two people asked me if I dyed my hair today. Random. I wonder why. I didn't think it looked any different. I did use more conditioner than I usually do, but I didn't think it would really do anything.

Campus Crusade was happy tonight. Well, I was in a happy mood. I don't know about everyone else.

I am so glad English is almost over with. I don't even care about it anymore, which is probably bad considering I still have an essay to write. But that class drives me crazy.

Today I had a grilled cheese sandwich made on a waffle iron. It was cheesy-yummy.

This is the most random blog I have written in a while. And I have used the word random in it twice. Well I guess that would make it three times.

I want to read my book right now. It is easy reading... all emails. OK I'm leaving before I ramble any more. Adios.

2004-03-02T00:12:00.000-08:00

Happy March! I am so sleepy right now. I just finished my physics homework (sort of.) Enough for tonight, at least. I went home last weekend and it was soooo nice. I planted lots of plants... the front yard looks really nice already. Some of them were pretty pathetic looking, so hopefully they won't die. I don't think they will. And I planted cactus in my flower box. I had been wanting to do that for a long time and Cindy gave me some of her cacti and they look really cool. I can't even describe how different it is being home than here. It seems like here on the weekends I am always in my dorm the whole weekend, and since I have nothing better to do I always end up doing homework, which isn't always a bad thing, but when you don't need to do homework it gets pretty dull. But at home I worked outside in the yard, saw the stars at night, gave Kelsey a shower, basked in the sunshine, played Crash Bandicoot, wandered through my closet, very tempted to clean it, and lots of other stuff. Maybe it's just because it is a house and not a 6x19 box. Maybe it's because my family is there. I don't know. I don't even know what I am trying to say.

I need to think of a topic for my final essay.

At Bible study tonight everyone was talking about how life is dull and repetitive, how they don't have time for schoolwork this quarter, how they are so worried about money.... and I was like, hey, I feel like I really don't fit in here. I was just thinking today how I am really liking college and finally getting used to it here and how this quarter has been really good and I am kind of bummed that it is going to end and how home doesn't seem so far away now and how life is good! But I guess I will just celebrate by myself!

I watched Forrest Gump for the umpteenth time this weekend. That is a good movie. Interesting to think about, too. While most Americans are striving to be rich and famous, here is this guy just living his life the best he can, and he ends up being incredibly rich and meets the president twice, and is all over the newspapers. And none of it affects him. All he really cares about is Jenny. And a happy ending... I love happy endings.

I have a calc midterm and I am not stressed out about it, but a bit concerned since I don't really understand the material and he is cramming it all in so that we have a midterm before the final. I hope I don't fail physics. Now that would really screw up my schedule. Today I got a perfect on my physics quiz, but I did it the wrong way, so I don't know why he gave me full credit. I still don't understand what I did wrong.

I feel like I should write something about the Passion on here since I have been thinking about it a lot and everyone has been talking about it, but I really don't know what to say about it. See if for yourself, I guess.

Well I am going to go read and sleep. 'Night!

2004-02-23T11:58:00.000-08:00

The clouds outside are sooooo pretty. Huge, white, puffy clouds that you want to take a nap in. And the sun is shining but it is still cool outside -- ahh perfect weather. How I love living here. I had a physics midterm this morning -- I had no idea how to do the first problem and there were only four problems, so I hope everyone else did poorly too. That is funny that I said poorly instead of bad. I don't talk like that. Physics 133 is complete filled and I don't register until Thursday, but I talked to my advisor and he said that I should be able to crash it no problem. So now I just have to wait and hope that my other classes don't fill up. There are only three more weeks in this quarter, plus finals. I have enjoyed this quarter. It has been pretty easy. I actually understood calculus for once, and my sociology class was pretty interesting. Physics is physics.... too basic to be interesting. The only thing I am glad that it will be over is English. I really can't stand my english teacher and I don't really know why. Class is fine, but she just bothers me. I am going home this weekend again. I think I am going to cook something. I miss having a kitchen. I do like getting "free" coffee with my plus dollars, though. I don't think those two sentences really connected. Right now I am drinking a latte with chocolate milano syrup in it. I don't know what that is, but it tastes good. Probably quite fattening too.

2004-02-18T17:25:00.000-08:00

Hey there Blogster! I had a fantastic weekend. On Saturday Mom and I planted 25 plants -- the front yard is starting to be really nice. I like planting plants. And playing with worms. I also watched 3 movies on Saturday -- one about Shakleton that was really interesting, Whale Rider which was kind of weird, and Legally Blonde 2 which no one should see more than once. Then Dad came home from Lancaster (Grammy is in the hospital -- we just found out she has Parkinson's disease, but she is doing better) and I gave him his bday presents. I got him coffee and a dilbert calendar. Then on Sunday I went to GSLC and it was good to see people I knew like Pastor Jim. We went to Mimi's cafe for breakfast -- yummmmm. Then I went to Community Covenant Church and Jeff gave a really good sermon. Then it was off to LA to see Ellen! We stayed at Ashley's grandma and papa's house, playing mario party 5 and watching TV. The next morning we drove to Burbank and started waiting at 11am... we ate subway sandwiches and played cards in the park and finally got to go wait in a different line after we passed through security. Then we waited in another room and finally we got to go into the studio and the show started at 4:30. It seems a lot smaller than on TV. Ashley and Jason sat in the front row -- Ellen walked right by them -- and I sat with Lindsay, Mr. Mark, and Mrs. Nancy in the fifth row. It was fun seeing all the cameras and cue cards and makeup and hair people that fix ellen in every commercial. Jolly good fun.

2004-02-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

I just had the most delicious tri-tip breakfast burrito from the campus market. Yay for good food! I am so happy today because I was stressed out about my English assignments, but she moved the essay to Monday and completely canceled the other assignment. So here I have time to do silly things like write on my blog. I am going home this weekend and I get to see the Ellen show on Monday. Yippee!

2004-02-07T21:09:00.000-08:00

Hi, Bloggy. Today is Saturday. Yay! I am the biggest procrastinater right now. Actually that is not true. I really don't procrastinate that much. Erin is a procrastinater.

It is weird how different my view of the dorms are now than last quarter. I really didn't like the dorms at first, but now I actually am kind of fond of them. I don't like living between Bridget and Hallie and Jade and Caitlin because they are way to loud and party-ers. (Today this was written on their board "I feel sorry for people who don't drink because they wake up in the morning and that is the best they are going to feel all day." What is that supposed to mean? Waking up in the morning certainly isn't the best part of my day.) And I don't like the bathrooms here, although they are kept pretty clean. But I love how we can hang out with Erin and Stacey and Amanda all the time. Anyways...

I went to the Women's physics luncheon today. It was pretty fun. It was good to learn some stuff from the older girls. And the house is was it was in Los Osos right on the estuary -- beautiful!

There has been a lot of trama recently in my family. A few days ago Grammy couldn't get up from her chair and they are pretty sure she has Parkinson's disease. Cindy and Lori had some kind of tiff this morning because they are all stressed out. But get this -- when Grammy was in med school about 50 years ago, she was one of the nurses of Mr. Parkinson. How cool is that? Oh the other thing I was thinking about isn't really a trama. Lori sold her house. That is good news because now she can buy another one and Grammy can move in with her and hopefully Verne and Hugh can find a retirement home somewhere in Bakersfield. I wonder where we will go for Christmases after that happens. Just think -- I could be married in about five years. That is surely going to change things. Crazy. I wonder if I will be married in five years. What if I don't even have a boyfriend by then? I think that would be sad. But I guess I would get over it.

We were doing Mod Podge last night and I cut out some things and stuck them on my wall (not with Mod Podge, but with tacky stuff.) This is what I cut out -- 3 pictures of Johnny Depp (one of them is a scene from Pirates of the Carribean.) A picture of Elijah Wood. A picture of the movie cover for Sweet Home Alabama. A picture of Dory and Nemo's dad. And a picture of the movie cover for The Importance of Being Earnest. And I was thinking how I like all these things so much right now but I bet in twenty years, probably less, I will laugh at myself. Ha ha ha!

2004-02-04T00:05:00.000-08:00

I saw the prettiest rainbow today. It was a full double rainbow, really bright, and the bottom rainbow looked like it was triple-thick. It looked so unreal. Like someone had just painted it infront of my eyeballs or something. Yesterday it rained the whole day long. I liked it, once I got my umbrella. It is weird how you cannot tell that it is raining in the dorm unless you look out your window, which I don't most mornings. So I didn't know it was raining until I got outside. My ugg boots got a little wet, and I hear that it bad for them, so when I came back I changed shoes.

Ashley did this thing in her English class that is supposed to show different things about your ideas and Ashley did it to me. That was a confusing explanation, so I will explain what she did. She had me close my eyes and think about something, like a forest. And then I had to write non-stop about it for a couple minutes. And then after I did that about five times, she explained what each thing symbolized.
The first thing was a key, and I later learned that it symbolized education. I wrote, "I tried to turn the key and nothing happened." Ha! So I think that I am going nowhere with my education... sometimes I think this is true. I don't know what I want to do with a physics degree. I don't know why I am taking some of the classes I am taking.
The second thing was a cup. It symbolizes love. I said, "I don't like this cup....I am stuck with this white-and-blue teacup and I am a bit grumpy because my legs are sore. I am also thirsty, and I look inside the cup and it is filled with water. The water is good. I like the cup now so I put it in my backpack." Ashley and I really laughed at that one. I don't like love until I see that it is good, then I take it all.
Next was a bear that symbolized how you deal with problems. I threw my teacup at the bear. So much for love. :)
Fourth was a stream that symbolized physical touch. "I jump in the stream splashing around. It is too shallow to swim, and pretty fast-moving." Hmmm. Interesting.
Last was a wall that symbolized death. I described it as "a big, red brick wall. It is twice as tall as me, and about the same across. I clearly can't go through the wall, so I walk around to the other side. On that side, the wall is still brick, but it is painted white. And there is a small round lawn right next to wall, so I sit down and have a picnic." I was happy about this one. I can get over death and think there is something good on the other side, which I truly do.
Hmmmm that was fun.

Oh I want to tell you about last Saturday. (Whoever you is.) The tower zero and one boy bible studies asked the tower zero and one girl bible studies on a "date." It was sooooo much fun. All the girls on my floor got ready in Erin and Kathleen's room. Kathleen helped me with my makeup and Jessie did my hair. I thought I looked pretty good. Then the guys made us spaghetti dinner at one of their leader's houses, and it was the best spaghetti I had ever tasted. Maybe because I was so hungry. Then we went to the Madonna Inn -- that place is crazy -- and went dancing. I actually danced with some guys, and it wasn't that awkward, and it was a lot of fun. And then we went to Bali's and it was freezing cold, but yummy and fun. Hmm. That description sounded kind of lame, but seriously, it was a ton of fun and I want to do it again.

2004-01-28T00:07:00.000-08:00

I'm 19! Yay! Holey moley I have not written in this for over a month?!? It is going to take a short novel to catch up. I guess I will have to skip all the fun things that happened over break and start back at school again. Oh, one thing I will tell you is that I went to Disneyland on New Year's Day and it was sooooooo much fun. I went with Mom, Dad, Cindy, Glenn, Cheryl, and Fred, and Lori brought over Allie and Brady. In the morning I went on the big-kid rides like Indiana Jones (my all-time favorite) and the Matterhorn. We also went on Pirates of the Caribbean, which I love all the more because of the new movie. I had a delicious lunch at the French Quarter and then in the afternoon I got to hang out with my cousins. We stood in line for an hour waiting for Dumbo, which would have been torture except that I got to be with Allie and Brady basically one-on-one for an hour, because it was just me and my dad with them, which I don't get to do too much. Jolly good fun. I like that Casey Jr. ride. Brady thought we were insane for making all the animal noises, thought. :)

OK, now I'm going to skip to my birthday. (It sounds like my life is one big party.) My 19th birthday was on Saturday, and Dad and Jason came up to celebrate. :) We went to the Breakfast Buzz and I had the best omelette I have ever had -- bacon, avocado, and jack cheese. Mmmmm it was delicious. Then we went to El Corral bookstore and Dad bought me a new Cal Poly sweatshirt... I had wanted one for a long time and Ashley found the perfect one. Around noon Dad and I ditched Ashley and Jason and went to a plant nursery to buy some plants for Mom for the front yard. It was an absolutely gorgeous ride up to the nursery... we saw deer and quail (and cows) and rolling green hills... I wanted to live there. It was fun walking around the nursery with the guy who owned it -- quite a character. Then we drove to San Simeon, well I guess it is really Piedras Blancas, to see the elephant seals. (Oh we stopped in Morro Bay first to get lunch at Foster's Freeze. I had a taco and half of a mud pie ice cream twister. Yum.) The elephant seals were so cool!!! There were so many of them and they were so weird. There were lots of noisy babies and noisy female seals and huge noisy males. I don't know what is so fascinating about them, but there really is something, because we spent over an hour there, even though it was really cold. And I saw a baby being born! I was hoping that would happen becauce I had heard that January is the best time to see that. When I was almost a popsicle, we went back in the car, and drove a bit further, but it was so beautiful (I just love the rocky coastline up there) and it was almost sunset so we stopped and climbed over a fence that said "no tresspassing" to watch the sunset. Luckily no one cared that we were there, and so we got to enjoy the peacefulness of being on the cliffs, with the great ocean in front of us, sun reflected in the waters, with a few elephant seals down below. It wasn't a spectacular sunset because it was cloudy, but it was still amazingly beautiful. And it was special to be there, just me and my dad, enjoying it. It would have been nice if mom was there too, but she had to take steven to the SAT. Then we came back and went to Applebee's for dinner. We were going to go to Tahoe Joe's, but there was a two-hour wait because it was some high school's winter formal. But my shrimp, mashed potatoes, and vegetables were tasty and I had sizzling apple pie for dessert. Then we came back and I opened my presents. Ashley gave me a cute shirt and an anklet. Cheryl gave me a Christian book. My mom gave me one of those Blue Day books. And Jason gave me a picture that he painted that I had really wanted. Then I thought the fun was over, and Ashley kept trying to get me to go with my dad to buy a newspaper. I thought she just wanted more time with Jason. So I went with my dad, and when I came back, I opened my door and I saw streamers and balloons and when I turned on the light they all yelled "Suprise!" I was so excited! Ashley, Jason, Amanda, Stacey, and Erin, had decorated the room and bought cookies and ice cream. Yay! I had always wanted a surprise party! Jessie came over later too. I think Ashley was kind of bummed because people were tired and left pretty early, but I had a great time.

OK now for school. This quarter I am enrolled in Calculus 241, Physics 132, Sociology 110, and English 134. My calc teacher cracks me up. His name is Prof. Kato and he is Japanese and says funny things like "cheesy cake" all the time. He is a very optomistic fellow. My physics prof. is extremely boring, but whatever. I'll get over it. My sociology prof. knows a lot about what he is talking about, which is good. And my english teacher is a nut case. No, she's not really that bad. I just think she is a little quirky. Many English teachers are, it seems.

Well I'm going to go to bed... actually hopefully do my quiet time. And I will try to start writing this more because maybe in a few years I will wonder what I did my freshman year.

2003-12-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

Hi again everyone. (Not that anyone really reads this, but oh well.) I haven't written for a while, so here is a summary of the last week and a half of my life.

Thanksgiving was great. I got Wed-Sun off from school. We went to Lancaster and I got to play with my cousins and help make Thanksgiving dinner with Cindy and I went shopping with Lori and lots of other fun stuff. We stayed in a hotel, which was kind of weird, but it was OK and Allie's room is really cute and I am jealous. Maybe I'll paint my room over break. (Yeah right.)

Last week....hmmmm... what happened last week..... It went by pretty fast. It was the last week of classes before finals. I had a psychology midterm on Thursday. OK get this -- Ashley and I got the same exact scores on all three midterms. Someone is going to think we are cheating. We only missed one question on the last test -- yay for us!

This past weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday afternoon Ashley and I ran some errands. We went to Hollywood video to rent a movie, then we picked up a movie from the SLO library, then we went to the Paso Robles library to get a movie, then we went to the Target in Paso Robles and the Ross next door to Target. At target I got a purse for my secret pal and at Ross I got a journal for her. Speaking of secret santas, last Wednesday we were supposed to give homemade gifts, but my secret santa gave me blue sparkly soap from the GAP, and today we were supposed to give a gift under $3, and my secret santa gave me socks from the GAP that were $7.50 (I could still read it even though they scribbled over it.) But I really like the socks. They are pink striped and this is what they are made out of: 38%Modal (I wonder what that is), 30%Nylon, 16% Wool, 14% Angora Rabbit Hair, and 2% Spandex. Weird, huh?

If you were wondering why we got all those movies on Friday, here is the reason. On Saturday we had a Christmas movie marathon. It was supposed to be with other people, but Erin was stressed out, Amanda had to sing, and Stacey was sick. So it was just me and Ashley, but it was fun anyways. We watched It's A Wonderful Life, Christmas Vacation, and A Christmas Story. And then that night I went to the Cal Poly choirs Christmas concert. I like concerts. The best part was the sing-a-longs. This doesn't have to do with anything, but Ashley and I got Kayode a Cal Poly hat, and it is really cute. Just thought I'd mention that.

On Sunday we went to a new church, Calvary Chapel Shorline. It's in Morro Bay, so it is kind of far, not really, but I liked it. Then I kind of studied physics and in the evening studied econ. Yuck. I only got 5 hours of sleep last night because I went to bed around 12:30 due to studying (which is actually earlier then I usually go to bed) and then I couldn't fall asleep until 1:00 because people were being really loud outside adn I just wasn't tired. And then I had to get up at 6:30 because my econ final was at 7:00.

Ashley is banging her head on my bed. What a silly goose.

We just finished watching My Life So Far and now we are going to watch TV. Jolly good fun.

2003-11-26T19:39:00.000-08:00

Books I really really want:
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire – Jim Cymbala
Loving God with All Your Mind – J.P. Mooreland
Desiring God – John Piper
Changes that Heal – Henry Cloud
Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis
The Case for Christ – Lee Strobel
Books I really want:
How Now Shall We Live – Chuck Colson
Ruthless Trust – Brendan Manning
God in You – David Jeremiah
Scaling the Secular City – J.P. Mooreland
Books I want:
Dissappointment with God – Phillip Yancey
Journey of Desire – John Eldredge
Ragamuffin Gospel – Brennan Manning
Edges of His Ways – Amy Charmichael
Witnessing Without Fear – Bill Bright
Waiting on God – Andrew Murray
Abba’s Child – Brennan Manning
My Utmost for His Highest – Oswald Chambers
Faith is Not a Feeling – Ney Bailey
Cost of Discipleship – Dietrich Bonhoffer
What’s So Amazing About Grace – Phillip Yancey
Books that sound a bit intimidating but I still want:
Our Idea of God: An Introduction to Philosophical Theology – Thomas V. Morris
Bible Doctrine – Wayne Grudem

2003-11-26T19:38:00.000-08:00

I am finally home! Steven and Mom and I went on two of his field trips today. We had to look at creatures at the beach. We found a "carnivorous worm" -- sounds scary. The beaches were very pretty, especially sunset. For dinner we went to the new (well, sort of new) restaurant, Bellyboards. It was yummy. Happy Thanksgiving (a day early)!

2003-11-24T23:44:00.000-08:00

Only one more day of school and then I get to come home!!! Yippee! Not even a whole day. Classes in college are so much better. Today I only had 2 hours of class... noting that I ditched one of my classes (don't tell my dad.) And tomorrow I have three hours of classes, and then I'm home free! Of course, there is supposedly more homework, but I don't think that will hit me until next quarter when I have to start writing essays. Wow I am so excited about Thanksgiving! I get to see my whole family!!!! I went to Longs today to get some Zicam. Hopefully the homeopathic zinc stuff will make my cold better so I don't cough all over my cute little cousins. Oh I just remembered that I have to get up early and go to office hours tomorrow. Bummer. But anyways, the cashier at Longs was a cute little old lady who was so friendly and seemed so happy that I had come and shopped at Longs. Made my day. Especially after I had just dealed with the mean old lady at the health center. But that is another story. Speaking of muggles, have you seen the Harry Potter trailer? I know, the movie doesn't come out until June 4th, but the trailer is really good and you should watch it. www.azkaban.com Well I have to go pack now and it is getting late so I'll talk later. Buh-bye!

2003-11-20T23:54:00.000-08:00

(This is taken from Pathway to Living Faith by Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose

Shrink the earth’s population to a village of one hundred people and it looks something like this:
·57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere, and 8 Africans
·52 female, 48 male
·70 non-Christian, 30 Christian
Six people would possess 59 percent of the entire world’s wealth, and all six would be from the United States. Eighty people would live in substandard housing, seventy would be unable to read, fifty would suffer from malnutrition, one would be near death, one would be near birth, one would have a college education, and one would own a computer.
When you consider our world from such a compressed perspective the following is something to ponder:
·If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of this world.
·If you have never experienced war, imprisonment, torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million other people.
·If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8 percent of the world’s wealthy.

2003-11-17T16:56:00.000-08:00

Quote from my physics book: "To convince yourself that internal forces cannot affect the momentum of a system as a whole, try a little experiment: Bend over and pull hard on your shoelaces. If you lift yourself off the floor, you have a whole new career ahead of you."

2003-11-15T19:32:00.000-08:00

And it's a great day to be alive, I know the sun's still shinin' when I close my eyes...

Today was a great day. I went on a hike in "South Hills Open Space." Well I don't know if I would really call it a hike. More like a steep walk. It was very cloudy, in fact it rained the minute I got back into my car -- how is that for good timing? The trail took me up to the top of two hills, where I could see all of SLO. At least I am assuming that was all of SLO. On one side I could see all of downtown, and Cal Poly in the distance, and on the other side was more open land. The trail was in cow grazing country, so there were lots of cow pies, but I only saw cows way down the hill. Amazingly enough, I did see a few wildflowers. Little purple ones and little yellow ones. I think it will be nice in the spring, because there were a lot of dead flower plants that will probably look spectacular in the spring. I also saw a couple of birds. I saw a black phoebe and a male and female bluebird, and a little triangular-shaped brownish bird that blended in with the rocks very well, and a slightly larger brown bird, and some flying birds with white on their rumps, and two hawks. Mom probably could have identified them all, but as you can tell, I cannot. The trail was very steep, but not difficult. The hill was covered with medium-big rocks -- grandpa would have liked it. At the top I wished that I had a wide-angle lens, but I didn't. Oh well. It was a nice peaceful escape.

In the afternoon I saw Elf with Stacey. Very funny movie. It made me excited about Christmas. I recommend that you see it.

2003-11-15T00:19:00.000-08:00

Hola, anyone who actually reads my blog. I wonder if anyone does read my blog.

This week seemed pretty easy schoolwise. I had two midterms, so stressed a bit over those, but other than that it wasn't too bad. I think my calc midterm went well. At least I hope it did.

It is raining outside right now. Misting, really. But I walked this girl back to Yosemite and my toes froze.

Amanda and Stacey and two girls I had never met and I went downtown tonight. There is really nothing to do there. We just walked around then decided to rent a movie. I started out despising one of the girls, really for no reason, but I think she is nice. So I don't know what changed. We watched "Say Anything." It was cute. I think Ashley would like it. The dad in it is the dad on Frasier.

I don't know what I am going to do tomorrow. I wanted to go for a short hike, but it is raining so I don't know. I think I'm going to see Elf at 2:45. So maybe I'll go to bed now. Or just wander around my dorm room. Either works. 'Night.

2003-11-11T23:56:00.000-08:00

OK this is weird. My blog is a sagey sort of green. But if you read Ashley's blog, which is bright tealish green, and then read mine, mine just looks gray. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself.

2003-11-11T23:54:00.000-08:00

Today I learned that I can't study. I probably could have guessed that, but today I proved it. I set the whole day aside so I could study physics. I don't think I did a bit of studying. Oh, sure, I read a bunch of sample problems and did a bunch of sample problems, but do I feel like I accomplished anything? No, not really. Oh well. We will see how it goes tomorrow.

Today was not a bad day. I woke up really late -- around 11:30, I think. I don't know what I did all day. I played a fun geography game with my mom and steven. I read a bunch of books to my neopet. (He didn't like it to much, so I had to play with him afterwards.) I went to Backstage Pizza with Joanne and Michelle. That was yummy.

I listened to Davis on the phone today. He is sooo cute! He kept saying hello to me, and kept saying "motzart" because he wanted to watch is baby motzart video. His "gobble gobble" is still the best, though.

"Oh, so cute. Bye bye!"

2003-11-10T23:01:00.000-08:00

Well tonight was a bummer of a night. Tomorrow is a holiday, so Ashley went home to see Davis and Jason, but I decided I probably shouldn't since I have a midterm the day after, and I know I wouldn't study at home. So I was kind of bummed, but for Bible study we were supposed to be having a fun night, so I was excited about that. But hardly anyone showed up. It was basically just me and Erin. Kathleen and Kelly for some reason decided it was more important to do facials than come to bible study fun night, so we ended up doing that with them. And guess what they were making it out of? Kitty litter. Yuck! So I just watched and took pictures and then pouted in my room. But luckily my parents were online so I got to talk to them for a long while. And then I ate ice cream because ice cream makes the world better.

2003-11-09T15:31:00.000-08:00

It is rainy-looking out, but I don't think it is raining. It's not even that cold. Today we went to church with Stacey and Amanda and Michelle. It was pretty good, exept I really don't like it when they go on random singing tangents. Then I got some ModPodge at Beverly's. We tried to go to the library, but it was closed. Boo hoo. Then we went on a crazy goose chase trying to find a movie store that rents cheap movies. No such luck. But we rented an old one for $2.

Ashley's new favorite quote: "On one hand, they say it's a sin. On the other hand, I love Lenny. I choose I love Lenny!"

2003-11-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

It was a crazy night in the dorms last night. A girl across the way from us got really sick. Then this guy Mike was really drunk and looking for Katie. Apparently he had 17 shots, but that seems like a lot to me. He was pretty drunk, though. For some reason he got mad and hit my door and I jumped about three feet in the air because it was so loud and knocked one of Ashley's pictures down. But it was kind of funny to watch. And then downstairs there was a fight. It's like there was no party anywhere out, so everyone was in the dorms drunk instead of out and about drunk.

Christine came to visit. She didn't get here until 11:30, but we stayed up until three talking with her, Amanda, Stacy, and Helena. It was fun.

Ashley and I went to PCF (poly christian fellowship) with Erin last night. It was pretty cool. Erin is fun. We went to Backstage pizza beforehand and I had chicken alfredo pizza and a salad -- yum.

It's raining. I love the rain. I need to go balance my checkbook now.

2003-11-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

I watched a ladybug crawl around my notebook for half and hour in Physics today. Lady bugs are kind of dumb. He kept crawling back and forth around the same spot. He didn't seem to want to fly. I think he forgot that he had wings. Because if I had wings, I would be flying all the time, not crawling around on a piece of paper. I was going to save him for Joanne's bio class, but I didn't have anything to put him in. Oh well.

2003-11-07T01:12:00.000-08:00

OK. I just figured out a schedule that actually works, so I really hope that the classes don't get filled before registration on Monday. I found out today that my math tutor is an international student from Cypress. I probably didn't spell that right. No. I didn't. It's Cyprus. Cypress is the tree. Cyprus is a country in the middle of the Mediterranean. But I doubt that any of you really care. I went to that Bible study tonight. Met a nice girl named Molly. She's graduating next quarter. She's my "prayer partner." Anywho.... I have a math quiz tomorrow and I'm not prepared. It's a really long chapter and since I didn't understand the first part of the chapter, the end is just plain impossible to understand. We watched Growing Pains tonight -- *sigh* -- the good ol' days. Mom sent me a card and a letter in the mail today. I get so excited about mail. I don't know why. But I do.

2003-11-05T15:47:00.000-08:00

I went home last weekend. Twas fun. My lil bro is cool. We went to the beach and to Lake Los Carneros and ate lunch at the Hamburger Habit. Oh. Happy Halloween, by the way. I wore a kimono and was oh so cute. Ashley was a cowgirl and Jason wore a toga. If you want to see pictures, they are on ofoto. We watched the Ring and Anger Management. Movies -- how I miss them.

OK. This is a little complicated, but really funny. Click here, then click on photos (on the right) and then click where it says "click here to open the gallery" and then click on "keyboard for pirates." Well I thought it was funny.

2003-11-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

If you have too much free time and want to listen to an awesome speaker, click here to listen to some of Francis Chan's fall retreat talks.

Wow I haven't done much today. It has been nice. I want to write something here, but really have nothing to say. What a problem. I need to go to the Campus market and get OJ. I just talked to Kelley. I want to see that little trouble maker Kayode. OK I'm done rambling.

2003-10-29T15:21:00.000-08:00

Campus Crusade is tonight. Yea!

Here's an interesting scientific theory for you to ponder. (Another tangent thanks to Professor Mottman.) Supposedly the universe is infinite. So if it is infinite, that means that eventually things will repeat themselves. Like if you sat a monkey down at a typewriter and he kept writing for ever and ever, he would eventually write a Shakepeare sonnet just by chance. So since we are all made up of atoms and such, eventually the atoms are all going to come up in the same order again. So some wacko scientist figured out that there is an infinite number of you in the universe. And get this -- if you walk (10^10)^32 meters, you would find an exact replica of yourself. Interesting how people try to explain the universe.

I watched the news at lunch and it said that 1600 homes have burned in the Southern California fires. Sad.

2003-10-28T17:36:00.000-08:00

I just watched a gorgeous sunset. I knew it was going to be a good sunset tonight because of all the smoke from the fires. So around sunset time, I went to check my mailbox (thanks for the stamps, Dad) and the sun was bright red. So I ran back up to my room and grabbed my camera. Suprisingly, there was film in it. 400 speed film, so I don't know where that is from. I guess I will find out. And then I went back outside and there was another guy taking a picture of it and lots of people were pointing to it. I took some pictures, that will probably be kind of ugly since there is so much clutter in them, but hopefully you will get the point that it was a cool sunset. I walked out to the edge of the parking structure and there were a couple people there watching the sun too. The giant red sun tucked itself beneath the mountains and the sky was glowing with oranges and yellows, turning slowly to red. It was so peaceful to just stop and watch it, with my camera (how I miss taking pictures.) *sigh* Life is good.

2003-10-27T18:51:00.000-08:00

Monday, Monday, so good to be Monday.

VG's had tostadas for dinner. Yeah for new and interesting food!

On American Dreams last night Sam's mom died. It was a very sad time. I feel sorry for Sam and for Sam's sister. I know, I know, they are only TV characters. But it is still sad.

I saw a giant rabbit on the hill outside my window today.

My physics professor is sometimes amusing to listen to. He likes to go on tangents. Today he talked for about fifteen minutes about how he graded the writing proficiency tests and how stupid people are. One person wrote self-of-steam and another wrote youth in asia. Ha ha. Anyways...

At lunch today I watched the news about the fires down south. They are huge. 85 homes so far have been destroyed. There was a fire right over the hill today, but I don't know if it was controlled or not. Walking around campus today I would catch tidbits of people's conversations and if they were adults they were talking about the fires.

Jessie just knocked on my door so I have to go. Bible study is at Jenny's house tonight. I think we are making journals and decorating our boxes.

2003-10-26T22:28:00.000-08:00

Wow the weekend is almost gone. How did I do homework all weekend and end up with so much unfinished homework? Arg.

I still don't get this thing and Ashley is making fun of me. :)

2003-10-26T22:13:00.000-08:00

Testing 1 2 3 I don't get this thing