So..College and Christmas

College. You know how sometimes you write a word and it looks really weird, even though you've seen it a bajilion times. Yeah well, just then, college had way to many L's and looked more like cologne in my mind, for some reason. ANYWAYS.

College. This being my senior year, I was supposed to be frantically writing essays and applying to multiple colleges, sending out the "best" of me in little paper packets, hoping to impress. Well, being me, I didn't do anything. As a result, I've missed all deadlines and will have to resort to community college for my freshman year. Wooooh. Meanwhile, my darlingest, JuEunhae, has successfully applied to 13 universities, most of them IVY league and UC's. And with her SAT scores, she'll doubtless have the problem of which to pick, when the acceptance letters come flooding back.

But I'm okay with all this. So, I'm a bummer stuck at the local community college with all the illiterate 40-somethings, trying to make a "fresh start". I get to be a minority, one of the precious few white people on campus, and I don't have tattoos, smoke, or use fowl language. Gasp! I even go to class most of the time!

:] I really like junior colleges though. The really wide variety of students, all ages, ethnicities, and capability levels. It's kind of a fun atmosphere. Exciting and unique. Plus, I don't know about regular universities too well, but I've always been able to get to know my professors at Valley (that's, the local community college) as well as I'd like to. And I've taken them aside for talks whenever there was great need. They're usually really neat people, I think. They rather reflect the student body in their diversity.

Plus, and this is a big plus, community college is way easy. Way easy compared to uni. or any private school. The students are so badly off most of the time, it's hopeless for the professors to expect much. So I can really sluff my way through. Get by with little to no studying. Don't waste the money on buying books..Oh! And there's another plus, money! Community college is mega cheap. Woot woot!

So, there you have it. Just a few of the good things I love about community college. There are others. Like, the really outdated, retro campus. Where none of the chairs match and the color scheme is bleak. Or how all units are transferable, and the schedule is designed for people who are working full time, so you can take pretty much anything at night if you need to.

Perhaps my favorite thing though, is my silly belief that true genius can be found in the junior college. There's a long and reasonable explanation for this belief, but I've already gone on about junior college for long enough.

So, Christmas.

I'll make this really short.

My family's spending Christmas day at home this year. (YES!! HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU) Which should be very nice indeed. (Means we decorated, full out. Garlands over every mantle, archway, doorway, and big bookshelf. We're doing the tree tonight. :D) And then a few days after that, I believe it is, we drive up to Washington, Right, on the border of Canada, to chill with my uncle and aunt. (they've a lovely spot on a peaceful lake so it should be very peaceful and lovely) (i guarantee while we're there though, it won't be so much peaceful as it will be full of laughter and story telling.) And then at some point we're driving up to Canada, (and here's where I get real fuzzy) and spending some time in Victoria and Vancouver Island.

I'll be out of the country for New Years. This, at first, bothered me. But then I remembered, New Years is a holiday that's celebrated all over the planet, and in pretty much the same way so, I shouldn't be missing anything at all. :)

I leave you with a quote.

Hmm, but that would require another explanation. About how I'm sick. And lay bundled up with the cat on my lap last night while Jenny put the tree up by herself. And how I read her some of her 42 pages of class notes on the transcontinental railroad, highlighting the stuff relating to agriculture in green. And how halfway through I read the date, September 23, 2008 (the day of class that the next section of notes was taken on) and went..

"Wait, that's kind of modern, isn't it?"

And I forget the rest. So, nevermind.

make me a child of your peace

My boys will be ballerinos. :) Yes, they will.

So, tonight I had a bit of a date with Anna. We met outside of Starbucks in the Galleria at 6:30. Both as nervous as can be. Though, surprisngly enough, I think she was nervouser cuz her hands were actually shaking when she got her drink, and she never stopped fidgeting with her beverage sleeve the entire time (she had it folded up tight by the end). But we had a great talk anyways. Left a little after eight. I actually got picked up by my parents, last minute change of plans, and went to Hamburger Hamlet with them for dinner. So I am waaay stuffed. I need to loose weight badly.

Here are the promised pictures from this school year, taken just earlier this week. :)




Me looking weird in my bathroom-which-is-lit-by-very-yellow-light.





Looking strangely foreign, if you ask me. I like. But I don't like these pictures. I did when I took them, but you know me. So I won't torture you any longer with this batch.

Here's some from with my school pals from later that day!




We have trouble with the self-portraits. So, AJ helped.



That's Molly, Timothy, and myself. During PE. Which is when we go out back and play basketball and the girls whoop the boys.



Timmy aspires to be a runner in the Olympics. We're not very supportive. He has a very good heart though, and I'm glad to have him in our school.

Well, that's way enough pictures to update you of myself for now. Tata!

Okay..

I know that last one was long so I don't expect resounding support (okay, i lied. i do, but i know i shouldn't.) However, this one will be really short (comparatively) and I will do my best Not to mention Twilight ever. Not once. (btw, we need to have a conversation about how Bella--actually, we really don't. no, we definitely, do not. hmm..i think nikki will have to read this book... yes..) Anywho.

Um..

Actually, I don't have a lot to say besides Twi--Twin Towers..anniversary, is coming up. two weeks. Yup. Oh! And that reminds me. School starts Tuesday. I'm really glad because, a) school rocks and it's about time my delapitated mind was forced to work and, b) it will keep my mind off...things. Heh heh heh

Soooooooooo, anyone want to be a brave soul and ask--Funny thing is I'm having this exact conversation right now. Okay, I'm stopping now.

(And for those less intuitive minds, no, that was not about..a book. That one little, weird convaluted sentence up there.)

I think I'll end this now. It's sufficiently long to be a post. And has enough unfinished sentences to make up for the overall uselessness of the thing. I'm afraid nothing will make up for the silliness though. Apologies for that.

Oh, and I wrote a poem the other day. Rather nice I should think. Very interesting to read afterwards.

four months later

Heyo.

Summer has been great. Lots of things blog worthy, but you know me and blogs. I can't stay faithful to one for very long.

Just a brief run down of my travels this, summer of 'o8.


The moot.

The first event of my summer and what a major one it was. Flew to Colorado Springs with my dear friend, Nikums. Stayed with strangers from the interweb for two weeks.

Here's are some memories from the moot, frozen in photographs. (click to bigify)









san francisco.

From Colorado, I flew, by myself, to LAX, and then connecting flight to Oakland, where my parents picked me up, we went out do dinner, and then went deep in the heart of old San Fran to our old hotel.



A cafe we adored and went to very often. :) (viva la france!)



Can you tell we're still waking up? Haha, this is what you call a candid shot. "wuh?"

Both these pictures make Cafe Trieste look uncrowded, but that's a lie. That place is Hoppin'. big time.





a small part of the view from my shower's window if you lean out past your waist. which requires you to lay across the window sill and balance because you can't touch the floor.







new mexico.

My high school group went to Glorieta, New Mexico for a week for summer camp. It was wonderful. The eighteen hour bus ride, there, and then another one back, were full of great conversation and new friends.

Interesting, quick little story. I was set to room with two strangers, freshmen, none the less, and worst of all, the sort of people where the two of us would have very little interest in each other. When I finally got to my room, they had already swapped one of the places with their friend and were eyeing my spot greedily. I gave it to them without hesitation, along with my keycard, and just left my suitcase in the hallway of the time being.

JuEunhae was to room with two people we both new well from Grace, but she didn't particularly care for either of them, and we really wanted to be together. So she added her luggage to mine in that, remote hallway, and the two of us spent a good portion of that first evening asking if anyone would be willing to let us room in their room, even considered just sleeping on the couches in the lobby! (But the staff were starting to catch onto us, both bucking our pre-ordained rooming assignments. so we had to go covert.) We stopped asking, and just went back to my building. (yes, i was set to room in not only a different room, different section, or different floor than everyone from my church, i was put in an entirely separate Building!) Turns out, the room across from my original room had lots two of it's three inhabitants, so we just moved in. The third girl eventually left too. So it ended up being just the two of us, JuEunhae and Julia, in a room neither of us were supposed to be in, in a building surrounded by strangers, so no staff were nearby and no one every knocked on our door and told us to be quiet because it was WAY past lights out.

It was awesome. The best possible situation we could have asked for. Thank you, God. =]

(btw, it turned out almost all the girls on our team (who were not from our church) were rooming just down the hall. they were all younger girls, some even in jr. high due to their parents being on staff. and they attached themselves to junebug and i and wanted to be with us a lot. it was the first time junie and i had been instant role models like that. and it was really neat. so much responsibility. them always asking our opinion? listening to what we said so intently, and watching, watching, watching us. it was a good thing, that week. for all of us. we grew up a lot.)

JuEunhae and I also happened to be placed on the same team. And our team won out of all eighteen. Which is a lot of stories as to how that happened which I won't bore you with reading but, just know it was a great, great team. So many amazing people.













My seat on the bus, being confiscated by John Bierhorst. (He was so tired, poor thing.)Note the "brown towel-blanket of awesomeness". Luv that thing.

mcgrath state beach.

I got to camp out for four four days on the beach with Samantha. It was great. Some really neat stories from that. (mucking through tarpits, scaring all the birds out of the forbidden tern nesting grounds, wading through rushing waters of unknown depth, with, crunky unknown things at the bottom.. finding two separate lost rings on a sandy beach in the middle of the night, what some would call a miracle, me not bringing hardly enough clothes, boogie-boarding so deep you can't touch the ocean floor, waking up at sam's house with THREE little boys staring at me from the doorway. loosing badly at Seven-Up, but having a lot of fun. folding clothes at one in the morning and watching a really, girly movie together.)

But alas, no pictures yet. I didn't bring my camera, because I made sure she brought her dad's really nice Nikon D50. And there are some great pictures on that so, soon we shall have them.

Here are some! More, better ones to come. Jumping pictures that are Not of the first day of our trip. Since all these were.. (we had a majorly eventful first day. dying seal, oil slick/quicksand, peeing pants. oh yeah.)




This was the seal, which we rescued from the ocean, only to have it die in our arms. It appeared to have a broken neck, poor dear. We only hope she didn't have a pup out there looking for her.

Check back!

henceforth, to the moot!

Dedicated to the prevention of a week long "uuh" moment.

Things We Must Do

Stargaze
Take pictures of the Triumvirate
(F/F) -on a roof (or other high place)
Dance
Sing
Late night DnD
Make videos

Be barefoot in the grass

Things we Can Do

Play Pit, Euchre, chess, spoons, and other such, exciting and crazy active games
Paint
Walk barefoot
Dress-up
Pull a prank
Throw a surprise party
Watch stuff
Cook food
Eat outside

"are you the one who threw that ball at me?"

"that's not gunna work."

I'm going to hug her on Sunday, and make friends.

He said I only made friends to feel better about myself. So, I sprayed him with the hose. So, he grabbed the hose from me and aimed it at my head. And we laughed at our wet selves. And he apologized a lot.

A few minutes later he came back with a large, absoultely perfect dandilion. "Don't think anything special by it." A few minutes later, I went out to make a wish with it where he could partake as well. But on the way I was attacked by a bumble bee, or as he corrects me, a wood bee. Even worse. They think I'm a flower. So, after the scary dance to get it out of my hair, the perfect dandilion was ruined. But he said it would still work for wishes, so I wished. : )

The garden is beautiful. So green and wet. Like a rainforest.

Once, I killed over sixteen snails in one night. Once, I blew out over a hundered candles in one night. Once, I found a bunch of feathers stuck all in the ground and everywhere in the east portion of my garden. I never did find the body. Suspect it was eaten whole.

The feathers are still there.

He defended the beans. But rather lazily.

He says it's more fun to work with someone there to talk to. But no. No can do.

Rhyming sessions rock. He wrote an ode for her, and when he was finally done making it up, she answered with a one line killer back. "Ooo, touche." We don't know how to write it in order to say it.

I say, Scott,

it's going to be very hard to maintain my silence.
Perhaps this blog will be sufficient vent of my desire for communication. =)

So! Today is Sunday. 'Tis very hot. I woke up for church at 6:30 and mom said I was showing every sign of over tiredness and sent me back to bed. She took me to second service later. I didn't see Christian.

We're going through first Thessalonians in high school and today Austin was talking about the attributes of a Godly spiritual leader as annotated by Paul in his letter of defense to the church in that city. I'm typing with my head laid back on the chair's top and my eyes closed. Really quite compfy. Wonder if it'll improve my spelling.. *smile*

Right now, my twin baby nephews, Dash and Euan, are over to be babysat while my brother takes Kimmy Jo out on a date. They each have two front teeth now. And are so cute. But I couldn't help but think as I held Euan, now eight months old, that my baby was going to be this big compared to me, one and if I have one. And it's rather a scary thought because they're already getting pretty big and chunky. And, for further example of prediction, the kids I serve as a leader in Disco Club (Discovery Club), some of them are taller than me! (Mom: I believe it.) And they're, max, in sixth grade. So, summing up what we've learned, it's very possible my kids will outgrow me before they reach their teens.

If. I have kids.

And if they survive that long.






Things that stood out to me in the sermon.

Being in a position of spiritual authority without exercising love makes you nothing. But a clanging gong, or a clashing symbol.

Three Aspects of Motherly Love Which Every Spiritual Leader [must have] (i realize now i kinda left that title hanging.)
1. Gentle.
And we're reading out of first Thessalonians, right here in verse seven.
He spent most of his sermon explaining how we don't think of mothers as an authoritative model. We tend to think rearing horse, sword brandishing admiral. And he did a great job explaining and convincing us how it is not whimpy for a man, a leader, to be gentle. It takes more strength to be kind and patient and gracious than to be a bully. So true. And, as always, Julia applied most of the sermon to her future, possible, who knows, authority, that of her husband.

One particularly interesting point was when he said, "If leaders are proud and hot tempered, than their [people? flock?] will be proud and hot tempered too." That was actually, a paraphrase. But it was quite interseting. And he gave us a good example of a gentle but Strong! leader in Jesus Christ. He was God Himself, for pete's sake! How much stronger can one be?? But He was so incredibly gentle and it reminded us of the verse, "The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to offer up His life as a ransom for many." Leaders serve those they lead.

He also read a cool quote by some man who's last name was Hog about the power of tenderness on the hardest of hearts. How they can soften them, break their shell, when the meanest threats and hardest of trials won't. So! true!

Along with gentleness Mr. Duncan spent a bit of time on patience to all as well. In fact, I thought it was the second aspect of motherly love he was talking about but it wasn't. Anyways, quick quote from our senior pastor John MacArthur about this, "I am impatient with the truth, and patient with people."

The other two points were Affectionate and Sacrificing. He talked to us about his new baby daughter, born thirteen days ago, and we got to meet her. But the cutest thing was his story about Adeline, his first daughter. And how one time he came home and saw his wife kissing her head and confronted her saying something like, You were kissing her head when I left and you're kissing it again when I come home.. You're going to put a dent in her head! And Austin asked his wife how many times Merrily thought she had kissed Adeline that day and she said around a hundered and..yeah. You should have been there to hear him go on about a mother's love. Very neat.

and THIS is today

I just finally finished the last sentence and added random quotes and sent, that one.

Actually, this is for yesterday. Since nothing has happened yet today.

Mary brought us fresh flowers from her grandfather's garden. Aren't they M-azing!?




See the tiny pansie? It's like a broach for the other flowers.

this one was dipped in the blood of elves.

which they give up freely to heal the bite of the targon spider. a monster among the fairer flowers of the garden.

Haha! wow.. this is funny. Lyrics from an intersting electro/house/pop artist. She mixed the typical musical phrasing with paragraphs of speaking. Actually was cool because of her Swedish accent.

Anyways, you will know which parts made me laugh.

Why do I always end up in situations that are bad for me?
How come I don't fall in love with normal people?
and why don't normal people fall in love with me?
I don't think I'm that strange
Do you think I'm strange?
I don't intend to It's just that things very easily get complicated around me
It's just that things very easily get complicated around me


okay enough of that.

This is today.

That post counts for yesterday.

And as another note before we move to today, that picture is old. I didn't take it last night..

UM..what was I going to say.

Well, I can start with. Turns out this morning, I felt sick and tired and so I called Ramon and told him I would be skipping class and would he please be sure to pass on any assignments for me. Then I tried to go back to sleep. Got woken up by every single family member in turn, as they each realized I was still in bed and 8:15 was fast approaching. It was actually very sweet of them. Mom woke me up at nine something she says and I showed her the fruit of my labors from late last night, so she could dice them and give them back for me to make into a fruit salad. (..sorry) And then I went and took a shower. A really long one. Which was great. And at the end, there's this new thing in my life I recently discovered where you turn the water bit by bit to cold. (I'm the type who likes really, really hot showers. Scalding.) But as you turn it to cold you start shivering and, I can actually feel my heart start beating faster or something. It's really weird. It's like a strange thrill I get. And talk about reviving! I think you could bring me back to life by doing this, it majorly wakes up the body.

After the shower, Mom and Ramon actually successfully made a classification sentence for me and we squeezed into the first paragraph before hastily reprinting, re-annotating, and dashing of to class in Mrs. Sanchez's teal coloured volkswagon.

"wen ur in love wid a girl...its all heart, bt wen it cums 2 god....u reason" I just read that quote on someone else's blog.

"so, we have great britain, and the over there great france and up there great germany."
"yes, except, only britain is great."
Just heard that on Doctor Who.

"cuz i couldn't stand the pain"

..if our new love was in vain.

so i hope you see, that i would love to love you.

if i fell in love with you!

yey. beatles.

okay. so. it's two in the morning, and i'm about to go to bed. to get up in several hours. that'll be the hard part. i think i'm going to sit next to ramon during math and drift. he can take the notes today.

hope my english class goes well. i'm choosing not to do one of the twelve writing techniques we have to use. i hope that's not an automatic F.

flying low

So, Ramon and I both did very badly on this, our third exam in math 125. But, it's not devastating because Prof. Castillo will let us retake whenever we want. Yey.

My test was majorly screwed up though. So, one encouraging thing is I should be able to do a lot better fairly easily. (For example, three of the problems weren't on my test? And I had two different problem fifteens.. And did I tell you guys about how the first page had all the answers underneath the problems??)

Looking down at the camera does not make for the most flattering of photos.

Ramon and I have officially established our relationship as brother and sister. All is well. 'Cept that we're failing our classes. But we're happy!

rose coloured glasses

BigLots, is amazing. I am so buying most of my future house's stuff there. My husband and I could purchase a futon bed and mattress for a hundered bucks! And that's your couch, your bed frame, and your mattress right there, all in one! Amazing. And futons are great beacuse your bed disappears when you're not using it and you save so much room (and money) on having less furniture.

If we have our bed in the living room..the bedroom could be a library or a music room or something! Yay!

Anyways. I refrained from buying a futon for my hope chest (or the dishes for 57 cents. or the art work for ten dollars. or the floor rugs for ten to fourty-five! they were wonderful!) (or the pillows..and grass seed..and house appliances..and bubbles..) But I did buy two pairs of jellies for my summer shoes. Because I couldn't decide between the blue ones and the dark grey ones. The grey ones show up better, and they go nicely with jeans and anything else. But the blue ones look like princess slippers! And I like colours because colours are happy. =) They were three bucks a pair! Mom paid for one of them.

I also bought sun glasses. Four bucks. It was very hard to decide between regular Valley girl style (hugemongous, eat your face, teal coloured, dark ones), aviators (which made my nose look small. which is amazing. because most glasses make my nose look huge. which it is. the glasses just really frame it and make you notice even more) and the ones that I ended up getting. Cuz mum liked them, the lady behind the counter liked them, and I liked how they were so incredibly hippy and had John Lennon written all over them. (i swear, he wore these very ones.)

Daddy likes them a lot too. He likes that I'm hippy. =) I like that he likes that I'm hippy. And that he used to be hippy.

Anyways..

The glasses.

if i post here

will you guys comment?