"it's the most wonderful...

...time of the year!" -andy williams

CHRISTMAS EVE! what what?!

this time of the year really is one of the most wonderful.  it's cold but that means cozy time!  i've been on break for a week and a half now and i hardly ever went outside...i stay in this ridiculously comfortable bed until mid-morning when i wake up and then just stay in it longer to read.  my sister got me to read the Twilight books and i've already passed her. haha

my family and i went into the city the other day and enjoyed the commercial side of Christmas.  businesses will do some crazy things to get you to spend spend spend!  my youngest sister went ice skating while we watched her glide around the rink in circles.  and also while an awkward lanky man attempted to skate while running into small children and proceeding to fall quite firmly on the ice knocking his glasses off of his face. :D:D:D:D:D:D made me giggle.  he deserved it...he was a danger to the unconfident and unstable.  but there was a sign stating "skate at your own risk"

tomorrow is Christmas day! and it is not only wonderful because of the presents and family and fond memories made...but because of the original reason we celebrate Christmas.  for the birth of the savior of the world Jesus Christ!  the band relient k puts it into words quite well...

And the first time

That You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior

And the first breath that left Your lips

Did You know that it would change this world forever

To look back and think that

This baby would one day save me

In the hope that what You did

That You were born so I might live

To look back and think that

This baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day

That You were born to die

So I could one day pray for You to save my life

...pray for You to save my life...

"baby, i'm done...

...i gotta go home." -michael buble

so my semester is over and i am HOME!!! yay! :)

it's nice and rainy which is cause for cozy clothing, a warm mug full of hot cocoa, and lazy days of Christmas vacation. mmm...my favorite.

finals week was a little crazy but went fairly well as far as i'm concerned.  i really wanted to write a blog on wednesday but my laptop charger broke and i didn't have a computer.  so for the past few days i have been computer-less and it seemed like i had nothing to do. sad, i know.  we've become so dependent on the internet for entertainment.  but luckily i had my iPod and i listened to music for most of my free time...besides sleeping and studying of course.

but wednesday was quite a day if i do say so.  i had my 3-dimensional design final at 9:45 in the morning which was to present our animal masks to the class. so the night before i had stayed up until 4am working on my project.  i decided to create a cloth monkey mask referencing a sock monkey more than an actual monkey face.  so i finished it and went to bed and in just a few moments it seemed as if i were up again.  but it was 9am. so i went to my final and got to see all the other crazy animal masks.  our entire class then suited up and proceeded to parade out of the classroom and into the cafeteria like a herd of crazy zoo escapees.  it was probably the greatest final i will ever have.  everyone was looking at us but nobody knew it was me!  our professor then bought us all drinks from the coffee shop and we debriefed the semester and then said our goodbyes.

then when i got back to my apartment i was still very tired from the lack of sleep i had been getting so decided to take a nap.  when i normally take naps i usually set an alarm just to make sure i don't sleep too long but this time i decided not to. possibly a terrible idea.  i got into my bed at about 11:30am and woke up at 4:00pm. yes, my friends, i basically slept my entire day away after parading through the food court of my college campus literally looking like a monkey!  and the funny thing was for a second i thought it was the next day.  it had gotten darker and anyone could have easily been as confused as i was. another thing was that i had not consumed anything except for the iced chai that my teacher had bought me earlier at 10:30am.  that definitely was one of my stranger days compared to the rest although lack of sleep seemed to remain a common factor.

then on thursday night there was a banquet for the graduating liberal studies students, and i being a student worker in the liberal studies office was there to help.  basically i got paid to eat delicious food and listen to an amazing and profound professor speak on christian world views and how teachers affect their students.  just like jesus making prophets out of "donkeys" aka his disciples. haha :)  then friday i got paid to watch the movie "elf."  i think i've mentioned before that i love the people i work with.  that statement still stands.

and now all of my finals are completely finished and credit wise i am officially a first semester junior!

it is oh so nice to be home.

"it kinda crept up...

...and took me by surprise." -marie digby

the semester is coming to a close! ALREADY!
finals are this week...! ahh!
i have one final everyday starting monday through friday and two on thursday. and then i am finished! wow, that went quick.

there was a Christmas party at my friends place last night where we made graham cracker gingerbread houses and played fax machine/telephone pictionary and apples to apples. fax machine is when each person starts by writing a sentence on a piece of paper. they pass the paper and the next person draws a picture based on the sentence. that person then covers the sentence and passes the picture to the next person. then that person writes a sentence based on the picture. and it continues by alternating words and graphics. in the end it can be so extremely hilarious!
one girl's sentence started off as "my dog ate my homework" and nine people later there was a picture of a sheep getting it's head cut off into a treasure chest...lol. seriously.

i have a lot to work on for finals but all i want to do is play my guitar...

keep warm :)

"all the birds are heading down south...

...but you're staying up north you say." -matt costa

so i completely got into the Chrsitmas spirit yesterday. my roommate and i volunteered for an organization called "Angels Sing" where we went caroling for the elderly. SO FUN!

we didn't really know anything about how it was going to be so we showed up in festive-ish apparell, prepared to sing our little hearts out. we were paired with three other random people and received directions for the places where we were to sing. my roommate and i knew each other and i knew the other girl. the other two guys were cousins whom i had never met.
so there were 5 of us with directions to two facilities and a mobile home park. equppied with free t-shirts, 2 song books, and candycanes to hand out, they sent us off to merriment the old folks. uhh...ok? ready, set, go!

in a car with 2 guys we had never met i was a little apprehensive but determined not to make it awkward. we all introduced ourselves (joel, josiah, kelcey, cody, and me) and headed on our way. and it was GREAT.

before we even got in joel's car he warned us it may smell like cheese and we discovered a fingered inscription in the dust on his back window stating, "honk if you love weiners." bahaha he erased it of course...

we all made sure none of us were music majors and started "warming up" our voices... oh my goodness. those boys were hilarious. they would sing super high falsetto or belt out extremely low notes randomly in the middle of the songs which only made the rest of us laugh.
the first home we went to was very nice with lots of cute elderly people. so the 5 of us did a "marathon" of songs(meaning we sang the whole book they gave us cover to cover, except for "i'll be home for Christmas" because i thought that would be sad) in the dining area and had a wonderful time. :)
we also went to a mobile home park with residents mostly 80 or older and were instructed to stay in the car and drive around singing. joel has a ford explorer so we stood out on the sides of the car and belted Christmas carols around the park. haha it just makes me smile. :D we were told to meet the manager who gave us cider and hot chocolate before we went to our final destination.
then the last facility we went to there were only 3 ladies still awake although it was 7:15pm...so we sang to them as a finale of the night.
so i made 2 new friends, sang the entire twelve days of Christmas song 3 times, and had a very joyful night. :)

Merry Christmas!

"i remember when i remember i remember...

...when i lost my mind." -gnarles barkley

thanksgiving break was fantastic.
so it started off with jb on tuesday night.

wednesday i had an art crit that went well. it was my mother's birthday and we had some delicious chocolate cake from costco.

thursday was Thanksgiving! knott's berry farm provided quality entertainment with a bit of whiplash and a side of nausea...

there was no shopping involved on friday but wonderfully hilarious "Christmas pictures" were taken. i saw the movie twilight which was better than expected. we played the card game unci which i terribly lost. then i fell asleep watching a cinderella story.

saturday my family repacked everything they brought and headed home but left me with cabinets and a refrigerator full of food. :D
i was going to bed at 3am last night and checked my phone to find i had 6 new voice messages. six hilarious noisy messages which made my night. i love my friends.

the cherry on top of my scrumptious banana split of a week.

random:

• i like to take leisurely bike rides in the summertime and ride around my neighborhood without a plan of where i am going

two more weeks of school and then i am on Christmas vacation!!!

"oh what a beautiful morning...

...oh what a beautiful day."



so basically i had an amazing night.

it started out with my morning class being cancelled. yes! :) which meant i was able to go to breakfast with my roommate which was fun. then the class after that was only 45 minutes long. and then the class after that was cancelled too! so normally my day starts at 9:45am until 2:30 pm but all i had was 45 minutes of class for the entire day!

then my trek to hollywood began. i walked to the bus stop across the street from my school to take the bus to the metrolink. i knew a bus was coming at 3:20pm so i got there 5 minutes early and waited. and waited. no bus. eek!!! the metro i wanted to catch was leaving at 3:47 and there still wasn't a bus at 3:35! uhh...the next metro wasn't leaving until 4:47!

"blah';'c;sdchv!" explains my emotion at this point in time...

so a bus finally comes and i get to the metro station and wait. again.

this blog was finished 11/30/08 4:49pm
after about an hour of waiting the train comes. and i'm on the wrong side of the tracks! i get up from the bench i was sitting on and frantically run down the side of the tracks around the front of the train and just as the doors are cllosing the conductor sees me and opens them. oh. em. gee. if i had missed that train i was going to cry. maybe even sob. the conductor's all like, "you barely made it, huh?"
"heh heh. yea. real funny."
but i made it thank goodness and then anxiously sat on the train in a car all to myself. i occupied myself by taking pictures of myself. i usually have a much more enterraining subject in front of me to photograph but since i was the only thing available that is what i did.
i finally arrived at the venue and got in line and was happy. but my sister and i didn't have a wristband like everyone else so we were still a bit apprehensive...
because we didn't have wristbands we had to wait for others to go in in front of us but in the end we were pretty darn close to the center of the stage.
we did quite a bit more waiting standing in front of an empty stage and tried to stay warm.
then...
the jonas brothers came out and put on an electrifying performance of 4 songs.
this pretty much sums it up:
me and my sister. jumping up and down. shout/singing the lyrics of a jobro song. smiling in the rain.
a great night. :D

"it would be so fine...

...to see your face at my door." -carole king

so last night i called my sister at like 1 in the morning and was afraid she would be asleep. but she most definitely was not because she was hanging out with my friends who i miss oh so terribly! but i was calling because i got 2 tickets to the jimmy kimmel live show on tuesday and was extremely excited to tell her that the jonas brothers will be the musical performers...! (she's a huge fan. haha) and i was really glad that i got to talk with my amazing friends. but it made me miss them more... :'(

and my family is coming to visit me this entire week because it's Thanksgiving!!! yes! :) i am unbelievably excited to see them!!!

tonight i went to a thanksgiving dinner put on by the church i go to every week. and it was the most delicious meal i have had in quite a long while. and it was free! there were incredible amounts of food and desserts and it was absolutely fantastic. it was truly a full on feast.

and yesterday my roommates and i went over to our friends apartment and watched most of the movie tropic thunder. i thought it was RIDICULOUS. yet so insane it was funny. but one word to describe that movie is definitely ridiculous. what kind of ridiculous is up for interpretation depending on the opinions of the viewer. but i was laughing...
and we played catch phrase which continued the laughter into the middle of the night. i love laughing. it's one of the best high's out there. :D

smile!

"in the middle of the night...

...i go walking in my sleep." -billy joel

well, i don't...i know a person who used to though. but i won't mention any names. you know who you are. haha

it's 1:15 in the morning and it was a good day. tomorrow is saturday and i have no where to be. meaning i will most likely sleep until the afternoon... :)

i worked on my next 3D project tonight in the art room. i felt like i was actually an art student for once.
now i am eating cold, leftover lasagna which is still delicious i might add; listening to jack johnson; and surfing the web.

i wanted to mention an incident which occurred earlier this week i thought quite amusing. i was working on my philosophy paper around 1 or 2am wednesday night and received an e-mail from my mass comm teacher. here it is straight from my inbox:

Dear All,
A reminder that Comm 200 is canceled today due your professor's loss of his
voice. Good news for all who may find him too verbose.
Best, Dr. W.

so i got as excited as i my tired self could get because i figured i would go to my 9:45am class and then have a break to go over my paper once more before turning it in to my philosophy professor.(because normally i have class at 9:45am, mass comm, and then philosophy all in a row) so naturally i went to the library and worked on my paper. i later received this e-mail:

Dear Comm 200 folks,
The gremlins are at work in the e-mail system. The message I sent out last
Tuesday about no class for that day, was automatically recycled and went out
again today. However that happened, it shouldn't have. We ARE having Comm 200
today (Thursday). Sorry for the confusion.
All the best, Dr. W

so, apparently there's a pretty talented hacker out there in my mass comm class who sent that e-mail to our entire class. i guess i should have thought something was fishy when it said "for all who may find him too verbose." HAHA! (that is my least favorite class, and long, and mostly boring...) but we didn't have class that tuesday because his voice was gone so it seemed logical to a person running on 4 hours of sleep at 2am. just thought i'd share that little story. it made me giggle. :)

i also had frozen yogurt from paradise juice cafe for the first time tonight which was delish. and listened to a fantastic gospel choir live recording concert. like i said, it was a good day.

tomorrow is a new day.

"i hear it's nice in the summer...

...some snow would be nice." -augustana



wow. past the middle of november and it's still in the 80s. i can live with 70 degree weather...but 83? that's a bit warm for this time of year...



this week is basically over!!!!! it's time to finally exhale. phew.

i'm pretty sure i had about 19 hours of sleep this entire week...up until last night where i got a full 8 hours! woo! :)



okay now, so what happened this past week, besides me not sleeping much...

there were fires around santa barabara and i think 7 buildings and 14 faculty/staff homes burned down at westmont college. several rooms nio a dorm were completely burned and some students lost everything. some students came and visited our campus and we gave them free lunch and hugs.

there was a men's soccer game on monday which we lost 2-0. sorry, boys, no championship this year.

tuesday there was a basketball game which my roommates and i attended and saw our 3 next door neighbors play. yay! haha i don't even think they know us but we were excited that we live next to them. one is from new zealand[zane], another was supposed to play for kansas[dominique], and the thrid is a giant[braden](almost literally). zane opened a jar of sauerkraut for us once. yes! lol

my hall from freshman year had a mini reunion after the game that night which was really fun! we went to a 24 hour donut place. :)

wednesday i had a computer graphics project due and i had a peppermint hot chocolate. it was yummilicious.

i finished my paper and turned it in yesterday...it was a full 19 pages. ugh. one page hopefully won't matter too much. i worked really hard on it and lost much sleep because of it.

then today i had work and guitar class. guitar was delightful as usual. then i went back to work and got paid for using photoshop for a sign for the liberal studies graduates! YAY! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D

random fact:

• i love fruit and cottage cheese

remember to relax

"i'm always sure today's the day i will die...

i wanna look good if i get to look God in the eye" -eric hutchinson

this is gonna be short, sweet, and to the point.

i haven't got much time. i have a 20 page paper due this thursday...eek! :/

we put Christmas lights up outside my aprtment this weekend. a little early, but quite fun!

i went to church today and thoroughly enjoyed it.

my roommates and i had lots of bottles and cans to recycle so we went and got a couple bucks from them...$5.60 to be exact

we went and used that money to buy gifts from the dollar tree store for opertion Chrsitmas child.

we got a free shoebox from payless in which we placed all the fun stuff we got at the store.

a roommate in the passenger seat of the car was opening the door in the parking lot and a yukon came into the spot and hit the door slightly. there is much tension in the mod at the moment...

and to end on a happy note, i'm excited for thanksgiving!!! :)

strange fact:

• apparently squatting while your feet are flat on the ground is not normal...try it. i can do it. can you?

ciao, bella.

"it's friday night...

...and i just got paid." -'n sync

got my first paycheck today! yippee! :)

tonight is "les femmes" here at school. semi-formal girl ask guy dance. the biggest dance of the year actually. and it sounds like loads of fun...except i don't dance. not in front of anyone at least. but it's on the Queen Mary ship this year and everyone will look pretty. i'm excited to see pictures. :)

taylor swift's new album "fearless" came out this week full of songs about boys and one about her family. lol but it's pretty good.

i went to the second half our our women's soccer team GSAC championship game today. we won 1-o! but i missed the goal. i heard it was a beautiful header. we were really close to scoring again but just never caught a break. and some of the calls the ref made were terrible. it's always frustrating when they happen more than once. grr.

i have a 20 page paper due next thursday i plan on working on this weekend...hopefully i'll get a chunk of it out of the way. not really anything exciting lately...

fact:

• "youtube" was originally supposed to be a dating site called "hot or not" for people to post videos of themselves for others to see and is only about 3 years old.

hasta.

"this could all go so wrong...

...but we're so happy." -the wombats

that song makes me quite happy actually.

yesterday my late night computer graphics class got out early which was exciting and i was really craving this thing called boba tea with pearls(tapioca pearls). so my friend and i went up to the coffee shop to get some but they had run out. sad. but there was still hope for the coffee shop on the other campus! so as we were walking back to catch the trolley we see it coming and start running so we don't miss it. thinking we're definitely going to make it we hop down the stairs and see it stop, open the doors to let a girl off, close the doors, and proceeds to take off while i am still chasing it...now almost sprinting. my friend had stopped way behind me and just couldn't stop laughing at the fact that i was still wildly chasing after a trolley in the dark.
so we walked back and when we got to the coffee shop they didn't have the tea but gave us smoothies with the pearls at the bottom which was still scrumptious.
then as my roommates and i were walking to the track for some exercise i wasn't paying attention and i tripped down a sidewalk curb...

then today we were at ikea and my roommate bought me frozen yogurt on a cone! woo! and then at the grocery store i discovered that you can buy pumpkin in a can. and i saw a little girl who was quite possibly half albino...i'm not lying when i say her hair looked like a skunk and at first i thought it was a left over halloween costume but then the rest of her skin was speckled too. and i also remembered i had been to the same albertson's once before and i saw some kids getting caught trying to steal alcohol. haha

then as i was walking by my RA's room tonight the blinds were open to the kitchen and his roommate was standing at the sink in his underwear! no joke. the blinds weren't even partly closed. luckily he was turned away from the window, but still. he had nothing but his gray undies on! uhh...can you say, awkward?...is that normal?
but while i was running in quarter mile circles i saw the most beautiful shooting star! it was like a firework falling from the sky. it was so bright and brief and reminded me of how small i really am. that there are things so much bigger and more important than me, my life, and my "problems". God is in control and loves me the way i am. How can this be? I'm not quite sure. But he loves me anyways and that's what keeps me going.

fact:

• i am a ridiculously slow eater but don't even try

mucho amor

"can't you see that it's just raining...

...ain't no need to go outside." -jack johnson

except there's a funny story. i was crawling into bed last night around 2am and i had my iPod in my ears when i heard the sound of water outside my window. not the sound of rain though, the sound of rushing water like a pipe broke or a sprinkler was gushing onto the side of my apartment. so i got up out of my comfy covers and crept to the window to take a peek. low and behold it indeed was rain! the thought of rain barely crossed my mind because of the fact that it had been sunny and pleasant all day long. so i got really excited and went out on my front porch and just sat and listened and smelled and watched the water fall from the sky...at 2 o'clock in the morning. i LOVED it! so according to jack you stay inside when it's raining, but according to me you go out!

then i went to church today with my roommate and this guy who is seriously gorgeous sat next to me! haha i don't think i've ever felt so girly before. :) we had already known his name because he's a popular kid on campus. he's really nice and attractive and involved so my roommates are already predicting he will be crowned homecoming king for next year. lol but he introduced himself anyways and that was the end of it. as we got in the car to go home my roommate was like, "i'm glad you were the one sitting next to him because if it were me my heart would be pounding so hard." hahaha yeah, he's that cute. he's one of those guys who i'm pretty sure almost every girl would agree he's pretty darn good looking. and the fact that he's still so nice just makes him that much more attractive. i think it could almost be compared to meeting some famous person. hahaha you meet them and they're really nice but you'll probably never talk to them again...but who knows? lol

my roommates and i went running tonight for the first time in a while and it is such a bitter cold out it hurt to breathe so hard. and i am still wearing the same running shoes i've had for the past several years...as in 5 or 6 years. but hey! it's not my fault my feet haven't grown. my parents should actually be thanking me for not growing. i never need new shoes or clothes! i just get hand-me-ups from my younger sister. yay! haha good thing she has some sense of fashion. ;) lol anyways...hopefully we'll get back in the habit of exercising so i won't feel so bad about eating all the baked goods that seem to magically pop out of our oven. so now i'm waiting for my laundry to dry so i can take it out and take a shower and go to bed!

random facts:

• if you're listening to a song on iTunes you can hit the space bar and it will pause/play it! sweet, right?
• the new doctor on Grey's Anatomy, dr. hunt, was the scottish guy in Made of Honor(also starring dr. shepherd/patrick dempsey!)!

think positive!

"you should have said...

...nice to meet you, i'm your other half." -relient k

i went to the grocery store the other day and i was casually listening(not eavesdropping!) to the cashier talking to the lady in front of me. they both looked a little elderly, like grandparent status. and i am pretty sure i heard the cashier say "you know i'm 91." i know, that seems a little far fetched. dost mine ears deceive me?
the other lady says, " i don't know how you do it."
and the cashier(i think her name was victoria phillips or something) says, "i just do it."
"when are you going to retire?"
"i don't know...never."
victoria smiled and i was next in line. if she is truly 91 years old she is in pretty darn good shape. maybe she said she had been working there since '91? i don't know...

but the same day i was walking back from class and upon seeing a woman with a rather large backside my mind immediately flashed back to that subway commercial...
man: "can i get the love handles, double chin, and some blubber."
worker: "do you want the double blubber?"
man: "sure."
woman: "and i'll have the same thing but instead of the blubber can i get some thunder thighs and a badonkadonk butt."
bahahahaha! somewhat mean, but much too hilarious to pass up! click it!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxqRg2Nohso

i've got a full list of to-dos this weekend...ugh. i guess i better get started. but i am attending my roommates first home swim meet tonight which should be exciting! woo! :)

in my opinion:

• sign language is a really beautiful language
• it would be fun to live in a log cabin for a part of my life

enjoy the daylight.

hum a merry tune...picture addition!

the three story barnes and noble we went inside! so many wonderful books!
lacey schwimmer in chipotle!!!! :D

"so hum a merry tune...

...it won't take long when there's a song to help you set the pace." -Snow White and the Seven Dwarfes

i had to look up the lyrics on that one to make sure i had it right. i always seem to remember dopey's part, "so whistle while you work, *whistling noises* *whistling noises* *whistling noises*" :)

but indeed i am at work at the moment and it is quite slow. i am grateful for this job that i have though. a little income is always nice. and the people i work for are great! but it's not likely i have anything else to do now that i've filed everything because it is a friday morning and most students are probably still sleeping.

but i'm listening to music on this cool website someone showed me called pandora.com and you type in an artist or a genre of music and it will create a playlist for you with other artisits and songs related to the one you typed in. it's really cool actually. i suggest you try it. of course after a certain amount of time it will stop and make you give your information before you can do it again; but you should test it out.
like i typed in john mayer and i've already gotten john himself, the fray, jack johnson, and jason mraz. can you say score!? ding! ding! ding!...we have a winner!!!

although i am up earlier than normal this morning i feel so good! i went to bed at 11:00pm last night! the night before was quite eventful. i got to see a taping of Dancing with the Stars. it was really a fun show. three other girls and i sat in the balcony across from the judges in the front row right smack in the middle. we had such a great time dancing and clapping and cheering, although i'm sure i speak for all of us when i say we were tired of all the wooping and hollering after a while. but we saw a fantastic hip-hop dance routine by the choreographer Dave Scott and saw Lionel Richie perform 2 songs, granted i didn't know either of them, it was fun nonetheless.
afterwards we had grumblies in our tummies and decided to eat at a nearby chipotle. i had personally never eaten at chipotle before and was delighted to find their chicken burrito quite delicious. :) we were finishing up when mid sentence i stoppped and said to my friends, "is that lacey schwimmer(lance bass's dance partner from the show and benji schwimmer(from So You Think You Can Dance)'s sister who was also on SYTYCD) sitting behind you?!" they all slowly turned and began quietly freaking out. haha then i said we should say hello and maybe get a picture but we felt bad because she was clearly in the middle of her meal, eating with 3 older ladies(i'm guessing her mom and relatives) but we went over anyways and she politely stopped chewing to talk to us and ask if we wanted a picture(thank goodness we didn't have to ask)... i think it was a highlight of the night! who knew? lacey schwimmer eats at chipotle! lol


question:

• if a person were to leave the oven on all night could this possibly burn a house down?

be grace.

"the little things you do to me...

...are taking me over, i wanna show ya." -colbie caillat

the small things can mean so much to me. like a papercut. it's so small but it can be so painful.

there is both a positive and negative side to the little things as do most things in life. but the little things can make my day or leave me feeling guilty for long periods of time.

for example: today as i was walking to class i saw a girl drop some of her papers on the ground and i walked right by her. the thought crossed my mind to bend over and help her but i just continued walking without pause. also take into consideration i was talking with a friend i rarely see while simultaneously eating a warm chocolate chip muffin. but still. it was a simple gesture of kindness i chose to disregard. and it's still bothering me hours later.

but then i also love the little things. like there was this cool little bug chillin on my stairs in front of my apartment the other day and i got a really cool picture of it. having captured that bug so crisply with a dinky digital camera was quite a nice moment.
a nice, honest compliment or even just a comment when someone notices something about you; like if you did your hair differently or are wearing a new outfit. or just those little catnaps you can squeeze into your day sometimes. like 15-20 minutes of glorious rest. I also saw someone riding a unicycle down the street which made me smile. :) Sometimes the little things make all the difference. so don't forget how much they may mean.

nugget of knowledge:

• i am missing some eyelashes on the bottom half of my left eyelid apparently to a vicious chickenpock(singular of chickenpox?)

paz(that's peace for all you non-spanish speakers)

"is there anyone who ever remembers...

...changing their mind from the paint on a sign?" -john mayer

election day tomorrow...no biggie. GAHH! this is HUGE!

i really have a dislike for politics. i don't like to argue. but then there is this part of me that always wants to see every side of every subject. so it may seem as if i am arguing with someone when really i'm just bringing up another point from someone else's perspective. i like things to be simple and calm. politics is anything but those two things. so many controversial issues placed into my lap for deciding which is right. that's quite a bit of responsibility. the future of this country is basically in my hands, along with the hands of every other voter...but i did said basically. i know for a fact i could have educated myself much more on each issue which will be presented on the ballot tomorrow. whew...well all i can do now is vote to the best of my ability based on what i believe as true and right. we'll see what the rest of the nation thinks soon enough.

fact:

• fall is my favorite season

don't forget to breathe.

"how do you measure a year in the life...

...how about love, measure in love, seasons of love." -rent

although i have never seen the musical "rent" i had to learn that song "Seasons of Love" in middle school. it's a fun song. five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes...so catchy.

my most recent 3D design assignment was to create a portable landscape with some sort of spiritual expression. so i was over at a neighbor's eating some sort of pub mix from costco in a giant plastic cylinder and decided that was what i was to use as the container for my portable-ness of the portable landscape. then i decided the spiritual life can have seasons of change. so i divided up the inside of this pub mix container into four parts and attempted to portray each season. i used dead leaves, cotton balls, fake flowers, and sea shells...hopefull you can guess which item indicates which season. and in the process many a sticks of hot glue were used and an unfortunate finger was in the way at one point and was injured. oh, how much i sacrifice for art. hahaha but critique is tomorrow so hopefully it'll get some good reviews!

i'm so glad we turned our clocks back. an hour of sleep really does make a difference.

facts:

• i like my ketchup at room temperature...not straight from the fridge cold
• my second toe is longer than my big toe
• my morals and values are extremely important to me

sweet dreams.

"it's not just gonna happen like that...

...'cause i ain't no Hollaback girl." -gwen stefani

i never actually knew what a "hollaback girl" was...i guess i still don't.

but i do know that HOLLA-ween was super fun! i wasn't even going to do anything but stay home and chill in my pj's. but my neighbor came over to borrow something for his costume and he convinced my roommate and i to dress up and go to a party with him. haha

so he and my roommate were wearing sheets and curtains as togas to be greek people but i didn't have anything so i was like, "well you two have fun. i'll just stay here." but they would have none of it. so i ended up putting on some shorts and a $2 flannel shirt i got from a thrift store, had my hair tied in braids, and borrowed a bandana, belt, and cowboy boots(which were much to large for my small feet) from my neighbor.

when we got to the party there were soo many people there! and there were all these games you could play to win stuff like mac and cheese, poptarts, a fish, etc. my roommate won a mini cactus! and there was this game where you had to choose an egg and crack it on your forehead! if it was raw you lost, but if it was hard-boiled then you won $20 to starbucks! lol i think it was more fun to watch than to actually participate...


fact of the day:

• i like to ride on trains...doesn't matter where

live, learn, and love

"i love to laugh...

...loud and long and clear." -uncle albert from mary poppins

so there was this pep rally type thing my school had tonight for our men and women's basketball teams called "midnight madness" (yet it ends before midnight begins). The cheerleaders and spirit team come out and do their thing and each basketball player gets announced and they have dunk competitions and silly games to show off how good(or bad) they are and get us all excited for their season.

but before all of that the first 500 students to enter got a free t-shirt and free ice cream. TOTALLY WICKED! i had pumpkin flavored ice cream and it was delicioso for sure.
also when we were waiting for the actual festivities to begin my friend told me if you sleep in a certain position your body will automatically wake itself up in 20 minutes. so if you're sitting in a chair with a table or desk in front of you what you do is lay a hand on the flat surface and rest the middle of your forehead on the middle of the back of your hand. she said her nursing friend does it all the time to take quick naps but i have never seen this theory proven. maybe you should test it. but i tried it for a while and then it felt like the blood in my fingers was lacking and the bone in my hand was jabbing into my forehead. apparently i had the wrong technnique...

and now i'm excited for basketball to start because 3 of the guys are my neighbors! haha one of them helped us open a jar of sauerkraut and he's from new zealand, another one won the dunk competition this year, and the other is extremely tall and quite big(in the non-fat sense)

then afterwards my roommate had been washing her laundry while we were out and when she came back her clean load of underwear(including several things) was out in the open on top of a washer instead of inside of one. she came back telling us there were 2 boys and a girl working on a film project in the laundry room(don't ask me why) and she was embarrassed to move her unmentionables in front of them. so...i said i would do it for her because i wouldn;t mind and they aren't really mine. she also had another load in a different washer which i needed to find and dry along with her load of undies.
ok, so i walk in and say hello to these people whom i recognize/sort of know and i was "looking for my laundry" as if i forgot which washer i had put it in but really i had no idea and kept looking in the wrong ones(even in the out-of-order ones i didn;t know were out-of-order) and as i was looking one of the guys(Ty) goes of to the panties sitting on top of the washing machine and says, "This is explicit!" HAHA...not. So i find her other load and try to scoop everything together and finally place it in an empty dryer and leave. wow. quite an eventful day in the laundry room.

factoids:

• i like the smell of rain
• i enjoy playing soccer for fun
• i don't know how to do a cartwheel

make a great day.

"lalalalalalala...

...life is wonderful." -jason mraz

so it's been a pretty fantastic morning so far. my first class of the day was cancelled because the professor is sick...not that i'm happy he's sick. just that we don't have class because of it. and i don't have to take the quiz i didn't do the reading for.
so then i went to the library and borrowed several books i need for this 20 page paper i haven't started on due november 20th. and i got to thinking...libraries are amazing. i LOVE libraries. think about how much information is in one place. a single book holds tons of information about so many different subjects. but a library has thousands of books of almost any subject. rows and rows of books. full of pages of stuff i may never know or learn. and it's all organized. the smell of old books has always been a favorite of mine. :)
then after the library i was fortunate enough to have time to get a blueberry bagel with cream cheese and still have time left to study for my midterm at 11:25.
life is so exciting and thrilling. there's so much out there i still ghaven't discovered or experienced. i am just in love with life.

a few more random facts about me:

• it really annoys me when the toilet paper roll spins away from you if that makes sense...
• i've never been stung by a bee
• i'm a fan of musicals

"i'm just a little bit...

...caught in the middle." -Lenka

sleep. schoolwork. sleep? schoolwork? hmm...

sleep is sounding really delightful right now. if i don't know this stuff for my test by now, it's too late anyways, right? haha

a little more on me:

• i'm still trying to find my direction in life
• i like mellow music
• my favorite season is fall. especially with the lovely weather. cool enough for a sweater and scarf but not teeth chattering cold. and the beautiful falling leaves. *sigh*
• i love food. of any kind. mostly.

"i want to wake up kicking and screaming...

...i want to know that my heart's still beating." -switchfoot

i'm enjoying life as it comes and trying to stay positive in every situation.

how about a glimpse in the day in the life...

• mass comm midterm tomorrow
• annotated outline due tuesday(as in this past tuesday)
• tea time with my roommates in an hour

my philosophy to living life: keep an open mind, love everyone, don't complicate things, and trust in the love and goodness of Jesus

grace and peace