Friday, September 29

ick... i'm sick

well, i didn't get to play tennis today because of an unwelcome situation... i've caught one of those eye-nose-ear-sinus-throat thingys... i should be a doctor, i am so good at diagnosing.
anyway, so tonight i will be finding a way to rid of this, and i have already started with my idea of a good cure...
wear green pants (that's to keep the smile going), longsleeves (that's for, well, we can guess what that's for when your nose is involved...haha), eat in'n'out (that's for a satisfied tummy), and my favorite part, golden spoon (the common cure for just about any disease).

we'll see if it works!

hooroo!!!

Thursday, September 28

don't forget!

okay, so let me just start that today was a complete opposite of what i thought it would be.

yesterday night, when i was coming home, all i could think about was how tired i was and how tired i was going to be the next day (today, thursday). and while waking up this morning at 6:00, that's pretty much the idea that i still had in my head... 'today is going to be long." however, it almost immediately changed.
I got to school at 7 and we started setting up and practicing for praise band/chapel, and i just started getting all this energy, started getting all pumped up. then we played in chapel this morning, and it was awesome... just totally awesome. that totally got me up an in a good mood, totally ready for the day. (i've just used the word "totally" a lot in a little time... totally weird).
anywho, i wasn't tired in 5th period like i usually am (cause it's right after lunch and in a time where a siesta is preferred), and we left for tennis at the very beginning of 6th period. today was our first match with the new uniforms, and they are awesome.
so today was our first league match, and it was against connoly (sp?). i played at 2 singles today, and i have to say, this set is one that just completely caught me by surprise... but not in a way you would think.
let me just set the stage a bit... i am totally not a social tennis player... i don't like to talk with my opponents. i dunno, to me it would just make the situation awkward and more complicated. my opponent, however, is what i would call a tennis social butterfly. she got the conversation started before we even started to warm-up. at first, i was trying to find a way to avoid being social, but then as the warm-up went on, i couldn't help but join in the social fun.
it threw me off, however, when she would talk to me in the middle of a game... like at 30 all in the first game, she asked me where i wanted to go to college. it kind of caught me off guard, but between games, conversation would continue, and she would make some comments during games as well. i found myself just laughing and smiling throughout the whole set... anyway, there are more details, but the main thing is that this set was so fun, it helps that i won, but still, it was a fun and funny situation that i would normally hate. we talked about careers, corn bread, and oh ya, the set was started off with a suggestion by my opponent: "lets have fun!"
fun we did have, and that's pretty much the story for my last two sets... except there was no social-ness in my last set against the #1 singles girl... it was all business :) the team won today and we still hold our undefeated record!

this got way too long, so i will quickly turn to the reason for my stories of the day's happenings.
there is a verse in deuteronomy that is called "the don't forget!" verse... and today is a day that made me think of the verse... "Make sure you don't forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today. Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—make sure you don't become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God.."
basically, don't forget God when things are going good. so, that reminds me to thank God when things are good, and it brings me to say, Praise God for today, a great day!

i hope you all have a pleasant friday! i know i will... more tennis!

Monday, September 25

you've gotta love this... i did :)

This is an excerpt from one of my favorite books that i have read lately... it is called "Killer Tennis," and it is based off of the drawings by Gary Patterson (he has done a ton of tennis comics that are hilarious..) anywho, anybody who knows tennis will find this to be quite amusing... just imagine really doing this--i've thought about giving this a try for my next tennis match :) This one is titled "The Warm-Up"

"The best way to become a Killer Tennis Player is to commit many little murders in the warm-up. Properly done, you will finish the warm-up "warm" and "up," while your opponent will remain dead cold. The moment you get on the court, throw yourself on the ground and begin doing push-ups. It's impressive if you use only one arm. It's even more impressive if you use none. Continue doing push-ups until your opponent finishes opening the can of balls.
When your opponent is ready to warm up, spin your racket in your hand a few times and study it closely. Tap the strings and casually mention that your new racket is experimental, cost over $5,000, was developed by the Pentagon, and that you are legally required to register it with the police.
As you begin hitting the ball with your opponent, find out what he or she doesn't like and do it. If she likes to hit hard, hit soft. If she wants to practice coming to net, lob. Whenever your opponent's balls hit the white line or crawl over the net, remind her she's using up all her luck. Look bored. Never give him your full attention. Carry on a conversation with other tennis players--who are four courts down--read a book, go shopping.
At the end of the warm-up, mention to your opponent, 'I'm really glad we're playing today. I'm coming back from an injury, and you know how important it is to start back slowly.'"

Don't you just love it?

This is a really random jump in topics, but this is a reall really cool rock climbing picture, so enjoy this too :)

Friday, September 22

lots has happened

i have officially finished my application to calvin! i submitted my completed applcation on monday, and everythng is sent in... so i will keep yall updated on any news that i get.
well, now that i think of it, my post title is wrong... not that much has actually been happening. the calvin app was big, so maybe that's what made me think a lot has happened. tennis is happening, but that's a given by now. the season is going well, and lets just say it can only get better.
so i saw on the news that there has been a sudden increase in the population of spiders around here... like a huge increase. you know what that means for me... keep the bug spray and benedryl close at hand.
hmmm, what else... oooo, i brushed up on my stick-shift skills and drove my grampas porsche again this past weekemd... here's a pic:
now that's a pretty sweet ride :) but not as sweet as the ride that you can see the tail end of on the left side of the picture :)

i've got a quick tennis story, but it might not be that interesting... i think it's one of those things where you just had to be there to fully appreciate the story.
we had a match at village christian yesterday, and we got out of school at 1:15 because this place is far... you could say that it is 'just past pasadena' and then some. anyway, we get ready and go outside to get on the bus, but the problem is, is there isn't a bus. turns out no one scheduled a bus for us, so after much figuring out, we ended up having to take the school van, which is an 8-passenger van.. you do the math: 12 people does not equal 8 passengers. so, eventually we came to the plan that i would take 4 other people with me in my car, and we would follow coach who drove the van. long story short, it was a fun, long, interesting ride out there.
o the adventures of tennis!

speaking of tennis, i am off to play!

hooroo

Monday, September 11

to the masses...

well, i just saw that my mum sent out some kind of mass email (i don't know what size mass) telling people to go to my sight for "fun, laughs, and wholesome teenager insight." well, none of that is guarenteed, but i thought i would just welcome those of you who actually came to my site-- and thanks to my mum for the advertising... i think.

enjoy

Saturday, September 9

strap on your helmets... it's time to go bowling!!!

disclaimer: we are trained professionals and know what we are doing... do not attempt this on your own...

ok, so it's friday, we just got done with our first week of school, and our minds aren't in the most intelligent state. wanting to do something more than just stay inside and watch tv, we came up with an idea. now, what do you get when you put a helmet, skateboard, and ten empty arrowhead water jugs together in the hands of jenny and me?

i'll tell you: you get a potentially dangerous, completely hilarious, and really awesome round of bowling.
yes, we are 17 years old, yes we are seniors in highschool, and no, we aren't "on" anything. we're just... well, we're jenny and cristina... do i need to say much more?

here you see me preparing to go down the lane (jenny's driveway). it was nice to be able to push off the garage door for more speed. this was an earlier run where we started off with a bike helmet.
eventually, we changed to my rock climbing helmet because it had better "feel" and looked better in the pictures. this is me making an attempt at a strike... i think i left two standing on this attempt.
jenny was actually the first to try it, and she did very well, although she too failed to get a strike down the driveway lane... check out that form though!
there is nothing more fun than the plow into the bottles... the noise, the randomness, and the imagining of the thoughts people are having as they drive by and see someone plowing through a bunch of water bottles... every bowl provides complete satisfaction and unstoppable sore-stomach laughter...
after about 5 tries each down the driveway lane and no strikes, we decided to take a more traditional approach... actually bowling the person into the bottles... in other words, grab the feet, push and run fast, let go, and watch them plow through and knock 'em all down!
every time we did it this way we got a strike... we were actually pushing really fast, and it was kind of scary, but in the end it was just plain hilarious!

jenny was transporting some of the bottles from my garage in a very unusual fashion... but then again, everything we did was unusual. we actually spent an hour of just going down the driveway and plowing through, and then setting it up again and then doing it all over... then bowling eachother at the bottles, and then setting up again. we had so many people that drove by and slowed down to see what we were doing... it was so much fun... what a day!

but remember, the only thing that made the fun possible was the fact that we were safe and wore our helmets!

Thursday, September 7

lets celebrate some "firsts"

All right, so labor day has passed and we all know that the first day of school has come and gone. my first day was yesterday, and let me tell you... we jumped right back in to the swing of things so it feels like we have been back in school for a while. i've got a great schedule filled with things like AP calculus, economics, environmental science... these classes are actually fun. environmental science makes me want to chain myself to a tree and keep the forrest from being chopped down. anywho, i'm also taking photography, and that'll be fun as well.
okay, next few firsts: we had our first praise team practice yesterday before school... it was so awesome, and i am looking forward to our next practices. we had our first tennis match on tuesday, and we had our first victory today! today also held my first bagel this season :)
another exciting first: i wrote my first college essay yesterday! i've been working on my application to Calvin (i'm doing early apps) and i have completed one of the two essays... yup, definitly exciting!
well, what a week! that's all for now though... i've got some homework to do!!!!

hooroo :)

Friday, September 1

no title

i was too lazy to think of a title, so this post doesn't have a title.

so today was a pretty fun day. the day started out with a bike ride to the beach with the entire tennis team! although we didn't very fast, it was still a lot of fun to be riding with a bunch of people, and i'm sure that people passing by on their bikes thought we were a funny looking bunch... we were a mixture of road bikes, mountain bikes, and beach cruisers. after making it to the beach, we ate at 'river's end cafe (it's right at the end of the riverbed, hence the name, 'river's end')
and speaking of tennis, our first match is on tuesday at home. it'll be a scrimmage, but i've been waiting for tennis season to start ever since i lost my cif match last year... seriously, it's all i have been talking about all year. this season will be fun, and hopefully the ol' saying "time flies when you're having fun" won't be true for tennis season. i don't want it to go quickly.
in other news, school starts on wednesday... wow. that ol' saying was definitly true for this summer. SO MUCH happened this summer... starting with dunamis (amazing), to palm desert, to my friends leaving for guyana, to hawai'i (awesome), to mammoth (fishy... in a good way :), and then to ending the summer with tennis season starting. plus all the stuff in between, like our house finally being finished and my sweet super-awesome room being completedas well! mucho tennis, some bike rides, mas tennis, oh, and guitar stuff along with a little golf, and some filming jobs... but, take note!!! are the words, "summer homework" anywhere in the lists above? NO! and no, it's not because i had summer homework and i have just been puting it off until the day before school starts like most of you would guess... it's because it was my first summer in the past 3 years without it.
so, now i can look back on my summer and finish it by saying that i have been blessed with a filled summer and that this summer deserves the rating of an especially big smiley face
:)
hooroo