So, I was thinking...

2004-03-14T14:36:00.000-05:00

Well, at least for now, I'm back at Xanga.

www.xanga.com/siberian_lizard

2004-01-14T13:38:00.000-05:00

I do not think cold weather should be allowed! Perhaps I will move somewhere warm when I graduate. I'd still like seasons... but I think two weeks of winter would be sufficient. That's just enough to get a good snowfall and go sledding... maybe even squeeze in a ski trip. Then, just as you are beginning to get used to the cold, but before you begin to hate it, spring could begin. You would have had just enough winter that you would look forward to winter the next year. *sigh* I'm such a baby! Honestly, fall lasted right up until Christmas, and there hasn't been the really bad extended cold weather yet anyway... Thank goodness I don't live in northern Canada or Russia or something!!

2004-01-12T10:16:00.000-05:00

Just doing my part for the good old 'Dale. Always ready to help out Hillsdale College.

2004-01-11T12:17:00.000-05:00

Embarrassing story...

Yesterday, my family went to a really nice restaurant in Indianapolis for my 21st birthday. Being as it's "colder-than-a-butt" outside, I wore my super-incredibly-warm gray tights underneath my black pants. These are the kind of tights that you wear when it's cold, not because they look good. Well, when we got home last night I changed into pj's and left my black pants sitting on my floor. This morning I got up for church and didn't want to put on a skirt because of the aforementioned "colder-than-a-butt" weather. Black pants? They aren't that dirty, right? It seemed like a good plan. When we walked into church this morning, however, and were hanging up our coats, my dad pointed to my shoe and said, "What on earth is that?" At first I thought he was referring to the fact that I had open-toed shoes, which really are not sensible for when it is "colder-than-a-butt." I glanced down anyway, and saw, to my horror, a good 7 or 8 inches of my previously worn super-incredibly-warm gray tights peeking (if 7 or 8 inches can peek... that's kind of like an elephant tip-toeing) out from below my black pants! Have you ever taken off a pair of dress pants and pulled off your tights/hose at the same time? Well, when you do that, the tights/hose sometimes get stuck in the leg of the pants and remain there until you remove them. Apparently, I never removed them. After a quick supersecret trip to the bathroom (which is, thankfully, located very close to where my parents always hang up their coats) trailing the end of a pair of tights out of my pants, the super-incredibly-warm gray tights were stuffed into my mom's purse. *sigh* The plight of being terminally absentminded!!

2003-12-31T09:52:00.000-05:00

Duct tape. There's some on my arm right now. Supposedly it will make my yucky wart go away! Until then, I just look wierd because I have duct tape on my arm...

2003-12-31T00:00:00.000-05:00

First of all, kudos to my roomie for being the only one who ever leaves me comments. Second of all, I probably deserve not getting comments since I kinda never leave any for anyone else... oops!

2003-12-29T20:43:00.000-05:00

Kim is awesome and is letting us choose our bridesmaid dresses, as long as they are a certain color. For the benefit of Jane, who might care about this, these are the ones I like. There are some SERIOUSLY ugly bridesmaid dresses out there!! But there are also some very pretty ones... yay for that!

2003-12-29T16:32:00.000-05:00

Cold + Rain + Cloudiness + OPEN AIR MALL (that means all the stores are outside... you are completely exposed to ALL the aforementioned weather conditions) = FULL parking lot... as in, no parking spots... not just no good parking spots, but none... we actually had to wait for someone to leave before we could park just so we could run in Barnes and Noble and get stuff from Starbucks... strange that people would go to this mall instead of the one with a roof on such a yucky day. Kinda cool though... that people aren't hiding inside on yucky days.

2003-12-28T21:56:00.000-05:00

Having made cookies, I feel a little less blah.

I think a countdown is in order...

(not counting today) 12 days until Christina and I both turn 21!!!

Hey, it's kind of a palindrome... 12 days, 21 years... 12... 21... yeah, so I thought it was interesting... you've probably already stopped reading

2003-12-28T19:19:00.000-05:00

Yuck... grumpy mood... I think I'm ready to go back to school. I don't have a good reason for a grumpy mood... it's just one of those that sorta snuck up on me! Blah...

2003-12-28T12:17:00.000-05:00

I am currently compiling a list of songs that remind me of my childhood and downloading them off iTunes (Thanks for the gift certificate, Dad!). I'm amazed at how much of this stuff I'd forgotten... R.E.M., Spin Doctors, Aerosmith, Amy Grant, Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soul Asylum, Genesis... this stuff is GREAT! Remind me why I listen to anything current? Honestly! Unfortunately, "I'm Too Sexy" is NOT currently on iTunes (what were they thinking????) but hopefully I'll find it somewhere... my brother and I used to think that song was HILARIOUS when we were little!

2003-12-27T15:45:00.000-05:00

Things I don't like:

The headache I've had almost non-stop since I came home. That is NOT fun! It makes me feel like not doing anything...

When someone calls your house, twice, and doesn't respond when you answer the phone!

Things I do like:

Going rock-climbing with my brother and his friends!

Cheese... specifically Christmas Cheese... not the kind that you eat, but the kind that you watch on t.v. My mom and I have been diligent about watching all the cheesy Christmas movies... all sappy and such... gotta love it!

Family!!!

Christmas ornaments that get put up every year and have been since I was a baby.

2003-12-24T01:03:00.000-05:00

Mad Cow disease killed a cow in the U.S. After reading this article, I would just feel a bit safer if they hadn't sent ANY parts of this cow on to enter the food market. Maybe I'm being a bit over-cautious... but it would make me feel better.

2003-12-23T00:34:00.000-05:00

1) When a radio station plays Christmas music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from Thanksgiving to Christmas, that should not give them the liberty to play BAD Christmas music! Honestly, is there some rule out there that EVERY popular musician has to do at least one really bad Chrismas song... or worse, an entire album of bad Christmas songs?!?!

2) Little girls (the particular ones I am referring to looked to be about 8 or so) should not be dressed up in sparkly outfits that show their stomachs (we're talking a good 2 or 3 inches here... not just slight belly-button peekage), given prom-like hairdo's, covered in make-up, and taught some Britney Spears-like cheer to perform for their moms who look on commenting on how "adorable" they look. THEY ARE LITTLE GIRLS!!!! Let them BE little girls. Let them play with baby dolls and play house and color pictures and run around outside and play baseball and do stuff that little girls do! They will get to be grown-ups for the rest of their LIVES! Don't push them into it when they are still so small! Don't dress them up in clothes that my dad wouldn't have let me leave the house in when I was in high school! And for goodness sake, don't teach them to imitate teenage sex-icons!!!! This rant is in reference to the Libby Lu store at the mall where my mom and I finished up our Christmas shopping today. None of what I said has been exaggerated (well, the bit about the little girls doing a cheer for their moms was from the last time we were at the mall and passing by that store, but I'm pretty sure that applies to every Libby Lu experience). It's this little store where you can have your 8 year old turned into a 16 year old in an hour or so. Better yet, you can have this done for your little girl AND all her friends! *sigh* I find this sad!

3) Strawberry Shortcake... an icon from my childhood, along with every other girl who was nursery school/kindergarten age at some point during the 80's. She's this cute, pudgy kid with a mopcap over yarn-looking hair. She wears a jumper-apron thingy and green/white striped tights. She bakes... a LOT! Why did they change her????? There's this new Strawberry Shortcake wannabe running around toy stores, book stores, and video shelves! She wears a straw-hat style hat (but it's not a straw hat), a trendy looking longsleeve shirt, a jacket tied around her waist, and PANTS!!! This upsets me! If they are going to re-introduce Strawberry Shortcake to a new generation of kids, she should be the same one!!! *sigh* Why does everything have to be re-made to be trendy?

4) If you are a bookstore, or more precisely the owner of a bookstore, seeing as how a bookstore is an inanimate object... or rather a room full of inanimate objects. Anyway, if you are a bookstore, do the world a favor and carry actual books. This is not to say that I went into Waldenbooks today and was faced with a roomful of artificial books... but... well... sort of. I want to read The Last of the Mohicans over break because I know I will have to read it next semester for a Birzer class, and I would much rather read it now, when there is still an inkling of a chance that I will enjoy it, rather than being stressed about getting it all read. So, I very unsuspectingly went into Waldenbooks today, expecting that I would be able to find it. Now, Waldenbooks is no Borders, of course, but this was one of the larger Waldenbooks, as mall bookstores go. Anyway, NOWHERE in the store was the book Last of the Mohicans. Um. Ok. That's a classic! There should be at least one copy on the shelf. Nope. In fact, there was nothing by James Fenimore Cooper. Um. Ok. Perhaps I missed the section entitled "Classics" or "Classic Literature" or "Books That Are Actually Books and Not Just Pop-culture Novels That Hit the New York Times Bestseller List Making Everyone Want to Read Them So That They Can Sound As If They Are Well Read Without Having to Expand Their Knowledge or Actually Think." If so, it was well hidden. I had no problem finding the plethora of romance novels. There were quite a few on self-improvement (perhaps if people read better literature, they wouldn't need self-improvement books!). Plenty of relationship advice for the taking. But... no good stuff. Honestly, the entire bookstore was just one big festering wound of pop-culture bound in paperback goodness. Are we that mindless? I see nothing wrong with reading for pleasure! Don't get me wrong! I love to read, and I frequently (that is, frequently when I'm not in Hillsdale) read books that aren't challenging at all and certainly aren't classic literature because I think that they are fun to read. I appreciate a good story, and I have never been one to turn up my nose at a quality book, no matter what age it is geared for. However, I also appreciate the good stuff. The really good stuff. A bookstore should have both! Pop culture is fine, but those who experience it should also be thoroughly steeped in Dickens and Bronte and Mark Twain and C.S. Lewis and even James Fenimore Cooper, no matter how long-winded he may be. On the other hand, many kudos to Border's Bookshop (the little subsidiary of Border's Books and Music over by the mall) where I found 5 copies of The Last of the Mohicans (and two different printings, no less) amid at least a dozen copies of other books by Cooper. They were in the Literature section along with other "good stuff" that intermingled with more recent books. Please do not read this as a snobbish rant with regards to current books. Most of what I read for fun is not intellectual. Rather, it's purely for me to enjoy reading. My point is not that popular books are bad or that everything on the New York Times bestseller list is worthless. Instead, I find it sad that that is all that some people ever read, and that that is all Waldenbooks expects people to want!

With the exception of my previous four rants with regards to today... it was a wonderful day! Really! These four things didn't actually make me mad, they were just observations that I had which made me "mad." "Mad" meaning that I think that I should be in charge of things for a day, just so that I could change what I think is wrong with the world, and then the people who decide what Christmas music will be played, what Strawberry Shortcake will look like, what Libby Lu will do to little girls, and what books will be in Waldenbooks... then they can take back over... because I'm pretty sure that me being in charge of things for much more than a day (that might even be too long!) would result in some royal mess-ups, and I'm pretty sure everyone would prefer that we just avoided those altogether. So... until I am crowned queen of the world (which won't ever happen... much to the benefit of the world... I'd probably spend too much time sitting in my royal bedroom, under my royal canopy, reading books that aren't the "good stuff"... but that are fun to read:-)... and then where would we be?)... until I'm crowned queen of the world, I suppose that I'll just have to sit and watch. I don't like it, but I'll go ahead and live with that;-)

Ok, bedtime! I'm tired!

2003-12-20T22:05:00.000-05:00

So, here's my last few weeks in a nutshell...

The weekend after Thanksgiving break (the one after I was back at school) I got sick with whatever yucky-ish thing was going around campus. So... that meant I wrote most of my research paper with a fever of 102. Hm... writing a paper with a fever isn't always such a great idea! It's never a good sign when the person who is proofreading your paper occasionally laughs and asks you what on earth you are talking about...

After that was finals...

Then the SAI concert... yay for being a singing rodent with Kim and Emily ;-) i.e. We sang the Chipmunk Song.

The next few days were just one test/paper filled, sleepless blur! Then Tuesday night finally arrived. More specifically, midnight on Tuesday night... that would be the time that we poured into the movie theater along with at least HALF of Hillsdale College to see Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Yay for going to the movies at midnight to see the first showing!

4 a.m... we got back to Hillsdale and I promptly began finishing my paper... tired? NAH!

Since Wednesday evening I've been home... and that's WONDERFUL!!! First night home, I went to bed at 11 and slept for 12 and a half hours... since then I've spent a lot of time sleeping!

My mom and I put up our Christmas tree last night and put the lights on this afternoon... I know now why my dad doesn't do the Christmas decorations...

Dad: Wouldn't it be neat if the lights were just built into the branches and all you did was put the tree up and turn it on!
Me: That's no fun!!
Dad: And doing this is? Hey, you could permanently attach the ornaments too.
Me: *sigh* That kinda defeats the purpose of decorating, Daddy...

I like decorating the tree... it IS fun :-)

I made salsa... it's yummy!

Tomorrow I'm going to go see Lord of the Rings again with Alisha. If you haven't seen it... GO... NOW!

2003-12-20T16:04:00.000-05:00

Um... this is disturbing!

2003-12-19T22:40:00.000-05:00

Random thought after watching Brit Hume on Fox News this evening. After spending a semester in the dark hole of college where I never have time to watch the news and lose all knowledge of what goes on in the world *slight moment of being ashamed at my ignorance* I was interested in what Howard Dean had to say in a clip that was played. As a staunch conservative, you can imagine my disagreement with him politically. I found it interesting when he said that he wanted to return to the "liberal roots" of the Democratic Party. Take a history class, Mr. Dean! Check out the Democratic party during the 19th century... doesn't exactly resemble the "liberal roots" you speak of. Number two, what's this I hear about wanting the government to provide paid health care and $10,000 scholarships to every college student? Please, if you would, show me where in the constitution the government is given the right to do that. Speaking as a true Hillsdalian, I refer to Davy Crockett's speech on governmental spending during the nineteenth century (I'm not sure of the exact year since my American Heritage Reader is up at school gathering dust on my bookshelf):

"I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has NO POWER to appropriate this money as an act of charity. EVERY MEMBER UPON THIS FLOOR KNOWS IT. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our OWN money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have NO RIGHT so to appropriate a dollar of the public money."

Honestly, have gotten so far away from our founding that politicians do not even think to consider whether what they are doing is constitutional? UGH! I'm continually unnerved by increases in welfare expenditures by the government, the current one as well as past and future! I don't doubt their noble intentions, but it is NOT A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT given to the national government!

All right, ranting done... I will put my soapbox back in storage for awhile :-)

2003-12-13T11:16:00.000-05:00

Two finals are done! Thank goodness I'm through with Civil War. It didn't go exceptionally well, come to think of it, neither did my English final. But I don't think I did bad enough on either of them to result in me having a terrible grade... and I learned a lot in the classes and LOVED both of them, and that's what matters most... or at least that's what I keep telling myself :-/ Anyway, I only have two finals left, a ten-ish page paper for Dr. Stewart in place of our final and another paper for him and I'm DONE! I can't believe that by Wednesday night, at the latest, I will be home and finished with this semester!!! These last few months have FLOWN!

So, I got whatever is going around campus last weekend... the flu or a cold or whatever it is. Saturday I woke up feeling not so great, and by afternoon I felt downright terrible! I spent the whole day doing nothing and working a little on my research paper. That night I did not sleep AT ALL. Seriously, maybe an hour, but that's it. I thought I was going to get out of being a mime the next morning, considering my temperature was bordering on 102, but we ended up not having enough people, so I went anyway... that was interesting. I was so out of it! The rest of Sunday was a repeat of Saturday. Some of the stuff I wrote in my paper was... well... interesting. When Lauren proofread it she would sometimes just start laughing, and I would have to explain myself... generally I had no clue what I'd been thinking. The best was when, after I had described how 3 or 4 people had already been shot, I made a big point of talking about the FIRST casualty of the raid... um... what? I chalked most of the stuff up to delirium from a fever;-) I got lucky, though, and I didn't stay sick for long!

Now I need to start working on my papers/finals studying that needs to be done.

2003-12-08T10:57:00.000-05:00

So, my fever is pretty much gone... yay for that! I did, however, use up most of my allotted energy for the day in going to my 9 a.m. class. Oh well...

2003-12-06T13:53:00.000-05:00

Now there is a Christmas tree in my downstairs :-D

Unfortunately, I think I'm getting the yucky sore-throat-stuffy-runny-nose-achiness-headachy-overall-blah thing that's been going around lately! I'm not a fan.

Despite that, the semester WILL be over in a week and a half, and I will be at home!

2003-12-03T11:02:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness!! Kim Ryan is engaged!!!!! My Kimberly is going to marry Lucas! Wow! I cannot even express how HAPPY I am for them!

2003-11-30T21:13:00.000-05:00

I got my video today from the camp where I worked this summer. Wow! I really want to go back there now!!! Can summer be here soon? I'm ready to be a camp counselor again!!!

2003-11-29T22:07:00.000-05:00

I was NOT impressed with Love, Actually. Andrea, Jessi, and I walked out partway through. Honestly... can't they make a good movie where people keep their clothes on!!!

2003-11-29T16:32:00.000-05:00

Yay for people at RediMed who give shots without making it hurt!

2003-11-29T00:40:00.000-05:00

You would think, having gotten two allergy shots a week since I was six years old (minus the many times I've forgotten to go down to the health center to get them here at school... which encompasses most of freshman and sophomore year) I would be used to shots and would not be so adverse to the thought of a flu shot. Nope. Don't want one! However, I've gotten lucky the past few years, not having had a flu shot AND not having gotten the flu. I don't think I can keep being lucky, and since this year's flu seems to be pretty nefarious (I like that word)... Bottom line, tomorrow I will be braving the doctor's office (praying the people who are good at giving shots are there... I'm obsessive about who gives me my shots... when I was little my mom used to call the doctor's office to see exactly who was there before we'd go over... there were some nurses I would refuse to allow to give me shots... you can get away with that when you are six... you can't when you are twenty) and getting a flu shot. I just hope that I avoid the day-after-flu-shot-yuckiness of feeling just slightly sick.

So, here's my reasons for being thankful... I was going to make a list like this a few weeks ago, but I got distracted. Anyway... here goes:

1. God.
2. My family! They are amazing! My mom gives incredible advice. My dad gives me great advice without even knowing it... sometimes reassuring me that things will be ok when it seems like I'm not agreeing with him at all... I know that doesn't make much sense, but I know what I mean. My brother has listened to SO much of my complaining over the last few months with stuff that has been going on with me. He's a great person to vent to and gives me good advice!
3. My friends! I know, this is sound like everyone else's list... Anyway, my friends have been amazing this year! I'm so thankful that I have friends from home who I can have very little contact with during the school year, BUT as soon as we get home, we pick things up like nothing has changed... or, at least, very little has changed. My girls at school have been SO supportive through all my moodiness and frustratedness and angriness this semester... and I know that they are a big reason why I've gotten over a lot of that stuff. My roomie is amazing, and I love her to death!!!!
4. As much as I hate to say this, as much as I might sometimes say otherwise... I'm thankful that I haven't had a boyfriend this semester. It's the first time that's happened since my senior year of high school, and God has showed me a lot of things. I'd rather not expand on them here, but suffice it to say, I needed to be stretched this year, and although this was certainly a tough way to go about it, it has been really, really good in the long run.

And now it's late (1 a.m.) and I have to get up early (i.e. before 10) so I'm going to cut my list short and go to bed!

2003-11-27T00:22:00.000-05:00

Very few people understand my exact sense of humor. Except Amanda. She does. This makes me happy! As she pointed out, she makes a joke, and I build on it, and then she builds on it... and no one else really understands why we end up laughing so hard that we cry.

Things I learned today:
1. Sleeping in is a good thing!
2. I should be more careful when pulling a bowl of spinach dip out of the fridge... the five second rule doesn't apply so well to semi-liquids.
3. Amanda and I like Trivial Pursuit... unfortunately, everyone else got bored by it!
4. Alisha can't tell the difference between a belt and a thong... there should be a reference to this on Amanda's blog, too ;-)
5. My mom is amazing at getting stains out!!
6. Hot loops should make a comeback. Do you remember those little colored loops of fabric that everyone used to make bracelets and headbands out of? Amanda made us all bracelets... yay!
7. I still sleep better in my own bed, even though I sleep there less often than anywhere else.
8. Jessi wants to see Love, Actually too! Yay for that!
9. My brother needs a man bag... well, he might not agree with that at ALL, but at least then he wouldn't leave things on other cars and then drive off. I hope he doesn't read this because he'll probably be a little peeved that I put this on here.
10. My family is hilarious!

I'm loving being home!!!!!!!!!!

2003-11-19T17:09:00.000-05:00

My prayers are with the Henry family. Anything I've complained about seems so insignificant now.

2003-11-18T15:06:00.000-05:00

I love my roommate! Last night was... frustrating. I was really hurt about some things, and instead of helping me be more and more bitter, my roommate (who already had her Bible out) started reading a Psalm. For the next 20 or 30 minutes, we read Psalms back and forth to each other. I think it was one of the most calming times I've had in awhile.

2003-11-18T00:17:00.000-05:00

ouch.

2003-11-16T13:42:00.000-05:00

*sigh* I feel like I am missing something... that there are so many people I should know better, but I don't. Can I just put everything on hold for a minute, figure everything out, and then start life back up again? But I guess it is our inability to know everyone we want to know that allows us to appreciate the people we do know. It still stinks!

2003-11-16T01:23:00.000-05:00

There is a small bunch of pansies that I have noticed growing over one of the lights in the ground by the eagle statue as you go up the hill by way of the Liberty Walk. I saw them first a few weeks ago because the light was shining through a purple flower, illuminating it so that the other side stood out in the dark. It struck me as beautiful at the time, especially because it seemed so unusual for a flower to be in full bloom after it had gotten cold a couple times. The other day, I noticed that the purple flowers had dried up, and the effect was all gone. It was kind of sad because it was the last little bit of summer that had ended. BUT! Tonight, there was a yellow pansy highlighted in the same way, looking as if it were still warm out! I think the flowers might be a bit confused. This definitely is NOT the time of year to start blooming! I wonder if the heat from the light might be what has caused them to last so long... Anyway, I thought it was interesting...

2003-11-15T18:36:00.000-05:00

What I learned tonight at dinner: if you are craving something, and you can't figure out what it is... it might be fried squid!

2003-11-15T01:28:00.000-05:00

WHERE WAS EVERYONE TONIGHT??????? I spent the evening in Whitley with Lauren while she sat desk. We had REALLY fun games to play! Alas, they were left unplayed because there was no one to play with! We even sent Jen and Sharon on a mission to find boys in Niedfeldt... but there were none. So goes life...

My roomie started a blog!!!! janehiett.blogspot.com Go say hi! Now! Do it! It will only take a second! GO!

I don't have to get up tomorrow! Well, I have get up, eventually. I'm not planning on sleeping ALL day, but I am certainly taking full advantage of the fact that I don't have anything tomorrow morning and I can SLEEP IN! I think I might make pancakes tomorrow... oh, I don't have any blueberries... that stinks. Maybe scrambled eggs... just so long as it's something that is already in our house and that is not Saga.

On that note... I'm tired! Good night (er... morning?)

2003-11-13T15:24:00.000-05:00

Winter came last night. It blew in amidst some beautiful, dark clouds that covered the entire sky for awhile, and brought with it all of the elements of cold weather that I had repressed from my memory. Last night was awesome, though. The wind was so strong and played havoc with the trees... and I loved the feeling of being in my nice warm room, hearing the wind outside! Fittingly, my first memory from this morning was my roommate commenting with dismay that there was snow outside (although not much.) I'm waiting for my body to acclimate itself, so that this won't seem so bad. I know that it will happen, but until then I'm going to live off of a lot of hot chocolate!

Yesterday was an interesting day. First, I accidentally pulled my curtain down... twice. This is easier than it sounds! The second time, I jumped off of my bed, and onto my fleece blanket. Fleece blankets slide very easily. When you jump on a fleece blanket, you slide very easily. My bum hurt for a short while. At some point in the afternoon (I think it was before the blanket-sliding-falling incident) Christina and I went on an expedition in our attic. Mission: find out if there was a bird, serial killer, or circus bear hiding up there. It would have had to have been a circus bear, as opposed to the normal kind, because a normal bear would not have learned how to open a door, but a circus bear might have. We had been hearing strange bumps up there, and on Tuesday night around 1 a.m., I was convinced it was a serial killer/psychopath. Fortunately, by yesterday afternoon, when Stina and I went upstairs, I was a little more rational. Anyway, we didn't find anything, so it's probably a bird flying around up there, and it was hiding. BUT, if the four of us girls are murdered in our sleep, check the attic first! I think that before even checking the attic (I'm entirely out of order) I discovered that I had received a care package from my church! My church sends incredible care packages, and I am pretty well set for the rest of the semester (and quite possibly for a good deal of next semester.) I love surprise candy/popcorn/hot cocoa/portable pudding... wait! Portable pudding? That's right! They make pudding now in these little plastic squeezy tubes (kinda like go-gurt.) The consensus of my house was that squeezable pudding is just wrong! The fact that I don't like pudding probably didn't help... Well, anyway, I'm SO thankful to my church for the care package (even if it did include pudding in a tube.)

I've spent most of today being cold! I know, this is ridiculous because it still isn't even close to how cold it is going to get! But, now I'm warm because I drank hot chocolate and chatted with Kim in the kitchen.

Now I'm off to go help little kids with homework and play at Beacon Hill :-D

2003-11-08T23:11:00.000-05:00

I watched the lunar eclipse from the roof of the Sports Complex. Very nice...aside from the conversation about where we would land if the roof caved in on us, and whether we would survive falling into the pool or if it was so shallow that we would hit the bottom and die. Well, I wasn't too fond of the trip DOWN the roof, either. I was a little wary of the height and very much afraid I would fall and die. But I didn't.

I would just like to say that staying up until 3 a.m. to talk to an amazing friend that you haven't talked to in forever, is DEFINITELY worth it!

Ok... off to do something else.

2003-10-26T14:43:00.000-05:00

I would really like to write about my weekend, but homework awaits... perhaps that will be a study break later today.

2003-10-17T13:35:00.000-04:00

It's done. Finished. Over. Only two midterms left.

2003-10-15T19:27:00.000-04:00

So, I used to be really good at HTML. I didn't have much of a life in middle school, so I'd play around with programming. I was just looking at the template on here, and it's all in HTML. I felt utterly lost. Once upon a time, I would have known exactly how to change stuff around and make this exactly how I want it to look. Yeah, I've lost all that.

2003-10-15T19:15:00.000-04:00

*sigh* I need to become better at coming up with a thesis. I have no problem memorizing and understanding whatever I'm given, but when it comes down to tying everything together and finding some underlying theme... my mind goes blank, and all coherent thought disappears! This would be the situation I found myself in last night as I studied for my Civil War history midterm. I knew the information. I understood the information. I could explain all the separate causes that led to the Civil War. When it came to linking everything together, however, I couldn't seem to get a good grasp on anything! I'm pretty sure that my thesis that I used this morning was weak. It was ok, but weak. Plus, I didn't get finished. Some day, I am going to get GOOD at writing essays under pressure. Until then...

It's beautiful outside! Apparently, nature finally decided to start acting normal, and we are actually having an autumn! Much better than the deal where it went from 80º to 40º in a week and a half!

Now, in an attempt not to procrastinate on studying, I am going to finish Uncle Tom's Cabin (oh, wait, the fact that it's not finished yet indicates that I ALREADY procrastinated...) and study for part two of the exam which is kicking my rear. Gotta love midterms...

2003-10-13T14:04:00.000-04:00

A continuation of what was on xanga.com/siberian_lizard