video break

this'll brighten anyone's day... watch, it's cute.


i love how he just starts laughing right after... so cute

myth confirmed

you know what it feels like? it feels like these little tiny pieces of ice fly at millions of miles per hour and go through your pores and begin to freeze you from the inside out. it is so so so so so so so so so so so so.... so so cold when it is 8 degrees outside, and the wind is blowing, making it -14 with the chill factor. minus fourteen. keep in mind the whole time snow and ice are blowing straight at you. weather is absilutely fascinating here. so much fun.

my hair froze on the way to class today. i thought that was a myth. nope, it's real.

in other news... jenny and i have been having too much fun on skype...

can we say, numa numa?

hoo roo

first day in review...

so here's a look back on my first day of semester number two:
8am: biology 115 (human biology)... awesome professor... she's very entusiastic, very laid back, very entertaining for an 8am class. subject seems pretty sweet... i am actually pretty excited about it. plus, the classroom is in the science building, which i have never been there before.
10:30 am: history 151... another good professor (he's actually from california). he said it's going to be a lot of work, but i think it's going to be a good class. also a new area for me to have a class.
11:30 am: education 102... this is the class i have to take in order to be enrolled in the education program. seems like a fascinating course, and the professor is quite a character. for valley students, i'd say he compares to a mr. hoekman... very strong similarity there. i got lost trying to find this place (lower gezon lobby?)... and in the process of being lost, i discovered the art department and that we have an art gallery... fancy that.
1:30 pm: creative dance. oh ya! dude, this class is hard core. the people in the class itself makes it hilarious... at the beginning when the professor took role, she asked everyone to state their year, major, and dance experience. half the class was a dance major with years of experience... and the other half was a pe major with no dance experience... quite hilarious. and by creative dance, it does mean creative dance. she also called it improv dance. anyway, we did some of it today, and i have to say that it is very interesting. i'll have to perform the routine for you guys some time. it's in a dance studio (another place i've never been), complete with mirrors and hardwood floors on which we must not wear shoes. so there i was in creative dance, wearing my striped socks loud and proud. this class is a hoot, and i look forward to seeing where this goes.
tomorrow is a very similar schedule, just swap out the educ class and the dance class with pe 204 and engl 101. good stuff.

now, on the weather front, i don't think i could say it much better than weather.com:
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAND RAPIDS HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR UP TO 6 INCHES OF SNOW AND NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO 12 PM EST WEDNESDAY.
SNOW AND PLUMMETING TEMPERATURES TONIGHT WILL MAKE ROADS VERY SLIPPERY. BLOWING SNOW COULD RESULT IN NEAR ZERO VISIBILITY AT TIMES. EXPECT VERY HAZARDOUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING. SCATTERED POWER OUTAGES ARE ALSO POSSIBLE TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY DUE TO THE HIGH WINDS.
A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED ALONG WITH STRONG WINDS... MAKING TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE. AVOID TRAVEL TONIGHT IF AT ALL POSSIBLE.

i like how its in all caps... its a good touch. and by plummeting temps, it means this. right now it is 46 degrees (everything has pretty much melted), and by tonight it is supposed to be 10 degrees. yikes. anyway, this weather stuff is absolutely fascinating... i love it.

yup yup. well, tis all for now. may your tuesdays be truly awesome.

ready, set...

i had my interview today... and it wasn't on the phone. in fact, i was expecting it to be on the phone until about 60 seconds before i was sitting at a table in johnny's talking to the interviewer. you see, i had gotten an email at 1:50 pm EST saying that he forgot to mention that he was here at johnny's. he realized there was a miscommunication and told me to come whenever. so i ran very fast and made it for an interview. i was so baffled by his use of "MST" in the email when communicating the time... anyhow, it's all over now, and the interview went well. he was impressed by my chick-fil-a experience... and about my cow-suit experience too. haha, that was a good laugh. anyway, now it's the waiting game, because he told me that he would talk with SMR and would try to get back to me soon. now, is that soon mountain standard time, or eastern standard time?

tuesday tuesday tuesday... first day of the second semester... and i've got a full schedule--16 credit hours i'll be taking. i kind of momentarily messed up my schedule by dropping a class, making me ineligible for sports because of too few credit hours... so then i went to re-register for that class (english) and it was closed. pretty much every class was closed, and i couldn't petition a class online. so i had to go to the registrar to try and get in a class (i was trying for meteorology... would count as my physical science credit, and would be amazing!) but it was filled to the brim. so i figured oh well, why not try to get in to an english class and get it over with. she tells me, 'looks like someone just dropped out of this section." yup, that was me. so full-circle ended up right where i started. i figured, i can't take all the fun classes all at once... so i am saving meteorology for next year. and i am excited. (fyi, it's the study of weather, not meteors :)
i've got quite a confusing schedule too... i've got tuesday-thursday classes, monday-wednesday classes, monday-wednesday-friday class, monday-tuesday-wednesday-friday class... i'm going to be carrying my schedule around with me for the first few weeks! and did i mention, 8am classes everyday... it's a good thing i am a morning person... but we'll have to see how long i last as a morning person... what with practice ending at 10pm or even 10:30pm some nights. yikes.
i like the day-before-class day. probably the most organized i am all semseter. you know, two pens, two pencils, paper, highlighter... you know, prepared student. then about a week in, you begin to hear, "where's my pencil? can i borrow a piece of paper?" yup... it goes a little like that. i'm hoping to make it last a little longer this time though.

and so it begins... semester two.

tootles

a note to my college friends:

go to www.alibris.com
i saved $220 on my textbooks by buying through alibris... including shipping and handling.
it's kind of revolutionary... in my mind.
this kind of sounds like a gieco insurance ad. "i saved $ by switching to gieco."
so, ya. do it.

700: have i got a treat for you!

all right my friends!!! this post, is my 700th post!!!!! and due to the fact that my major bench mark posts have always fallen at rather boring times, i was super excited that i would actually be able to provide a good... no... fantastic post for my 700th. as you can see by looking at the statues to the left, i spent my interim break in good o'l holland, mi. i am going to come right out and say it: holland, mi holds a special place in my heart... absolutely love it there.
rebekah joined me for a nice three day break staying at the brands' house, and i had a wonderful time. so lets get this post rolling... there's a lot to show and say!
mrs. brand loves birds, so she has a ton of bird feeders. this beautiful red bird hung out for a bit... doesn't it look so cool with the snow in the background?
this picture is sideways, but just look at how much snow there is... all stacked on top of the picnic table... crazy!

at night, rebekah and i took a little walk through the woods in the backyard... you can see... i like snow... even if it's just sitting in a big pile of it.
then we decided to see if the pond was frozen... although it appears that i am standing in the middle of it, it wasn't frozen solid--there was about a couple inches of slush, and lots of cracking sounds as we walked out.
this is rebekah "skating" with 'flat stanley' out on the pond. very talented.
so it snowed and snowed and snowed all night... leaving tons of snow all over the property. well, i've had a hankering to try out shovelling snow for a long time, so i asked mrs. brand if i could shovel the front little part of their driveway (we were going to need to anyway so that my car could back up and what not. but you see, i began to shovel, and i loved it. i thoroughly enjoyed shoveling snow... SO MUCH FUN. wierd, i know. but i must say that it is my favorite chore... if you even want to call it that... actually i am going to call it a hobby. so, i didn't stop at the driveway... i kept going.here is a little video tour of my snow shoveling job. what i didn't mention in the video was that i was in a short sleeve tshirt the entire time while shoveling... and it was 19 degrees out. now that's how good of a workout it was... you stay fairly warm while shoveling.

so now that the car was able to get out, rebekah and i went out to rent some cross country skis for a day. so this (sideways) picture is at van raalte farms... a place with a bunch of little trails to ski on. it was a lot of fun... more on that to come.
despite the lack of packing snow, i managed to make my first snow man... as you can tell by how big the hat and gloves are on my little snow buddy, you can tell that it is rather small... either way, he's my first snow man. and as i was making my snowbuddy, i saw this:
the sun was beginning to set. so, since we still had the cross country skis, i decided to grab them and go on the trails in the woods in the back... then i worked my way out towards the front of the property and stood out there and watched the most amazing sunset i have ever witnessed in all my life.

isn't that just amazing?????!!!!!!!! i took about a gabillion pictures of the sunset, but this one is my favorite because it has all the amazing colors and the red reflection on the snow. i'll have to show y'all some of the other pictures some time. it was absolutely breath-taking.

the next day, rebekah and i took our cross country skis out to tunnel park. after going through a great ordeal trying to get through the tunnel, we made it down to the snow covered beach where i saw the craziest things. lake michigan frozen. it's hard to fully see it in these pictures, but there are two sets of frozen waves. repeat: frozen waves. incredible. it was so fascinating, i couldn't get over it. so we skiied from tunnel park all the way down to the holland lighthouse (about 3 miles roundtrip).

here is rebekah the eskimo nomad... i love this picture. the red building is holland lighthouse.

this is on our return trip... we had a hard time smiling... couldn't quite feel our faces. cross country skiing is a blast... i hope to get to do some more of it this season.

then i decided to use my skis as a little sled and slid down the beach... good fun.
we climbed up the stairs to see another amazing view... this kind of shows the frozen waves a bit better... keep in mind, these things are more than twice my height... that's crazy tall. anyway, you can see a bit of the sand where the lake begins, the frozen waves, more frozen-ness, and then where the unfrozen part is. amazing.


this picture is funny if you can understand what happened. we were about to walk down what is usually a sand dune, so i took a step, and then my entire right leg plunged straight down, and i was over waist high in snow. that was probably one of the funnest things i have ever done.


these two dolls were in the room we stayed in... i couldn't get over how great these dolls were... aren't they awesome?!?!

so that's just about it... a wonderful couple of days in holland. and today is the calvin vs hope basketball game... it's going to be great. man, all this fun i have been having, and it's only saturday, and we have monday off!!!

speaking of monday! i have an interview with the place i applied to for a job this summer in colorado! i'm a tad nervous because it's going to be a phone interview... never done one of those before... but we'll see!

well, how about that for a 700th post!?

when hidden camera's would prove to be beneficial

it's times like this morning that i wish there were hidden camera's following me.
ok, so interim is over now... i turned my paper in this morning, and i took my final this morning. after turning in my exam, i left and headed back to the dorms. my class is in the devos center, so after crossing the bridge, i usually go the back way back to the dorms instead of walking through the fac parking lot. as i was walking along this pathway, i realized that it was snowing really hard with super fat snowflakes... it was pretty amazing. and the pathway i was walking along had snow banks above knee high on both sides... so much snow! i was enjoying how big the snowflakes were, so i began to trying catching them with in my mouth. the wind was blowing pretty hard so i was trying to squint to keep the flakes out of my eyes... not working. so since i was on a pretty straight stretch of walkway, i just closed my eyes for a bit.
so imagine it: there's me walking, eyes closed, mouth open, tongue sticking out, hands in my pockets of my puffy green jacket (i forgot gloves this morning), just walking along. i'm sure i would have looked rather strange to anyone passing by, but due to the fact i was walking on the back pathway, no one was around.
you think that's the funny part? oh dear no... let me tell you what happened.
walking along, eyes closed, mouth open, hands in pockets... well, lets just say i now know that i can't walk straight with my eyes closed. instead of staying on the path, i ended up walking straight in to the snow bank and my entire body fell forward into the snow... and due to my hands being in my pocket, i couldn't catch myself. so there i was, face first in a foot of snow, laughing my head off. after managing to get up, i laughed even harder realizing that there was now this big body print in the snow next to the sidewalk. no one was walking by at that time, so i saved a bit of embarrassment.
lesson learned: when catching snowflakes on your tongue, keep your eyes open at all times... that, or don't put your hands in your pockets.

well, off to holland this afternoon... i can't wait... i am especially excited to see downtown covered in snow! i'll be staying with the brands, so seeing their place covered in snow will be sweet too.

it's official. snow-covered anything is awesome.

uh oh, too much fun.

i was curious if my webcam had special effects. well, i guess you could say that. the baby and clouds are masks... so, basically it uses my eyes and mouth to move, and the rest of the picture is just there. oh my word, i can't stop laughing when i look at the baby... it's just so... awful...so that's what a baby with adult teeth and crossed eyes looks like. as for the sky... i hope to never see that in my lifetime.

heart

"where's your heart at?"
you see, on saturday night i had to sit by a side door at the basketball game to make sure that no one came in through that door... everyone has to go through the main entrance and get a ticket and what-not. this, in addition to selling programs, is how we raise money for tennis. anyway, i was sitting in my spot, and this time i brought some reading along (i'm reading "velvet elvis" again). i didn't have to deal with too many people... it seems that most have gotten the hang of the fact they can only exit and not enter through that door. during halftime, an older guy was walking down the stairs and as he passed me, he looks at me and asks, "now, you'd let me in if i were out there, wouldn't you?" i kind of just smiled and laughed, saying, "well, no, we're not supposed to allow anyone in through that door." he straightened up, looked at me with this rather scary look and gave it to me: "where's your heart at? i looked at you and i thought to myself, well, she doesn't look like the duty-struck type... she'd let me in. but i guess not." and with that he walked away.
may i remind you that all of this hooplah is a result of a hypothetical situation... for crying out loud, he's already inside--what does it matter to him whether or not i'd let him in. on top of that, he'd seen me for a whole 3 seconds and managed to profile me as someone who is not "duty-struck."

side note: right now, my middle toe on my right foot is frozen, numb, and i cannot get the feeling back in it... it is bothering me quite a bit right now.

anyway, i just sat there, kind of in shock at this reprimanding this old guy gave me. and naturally, i began to think. i mean, come on, when you put the two factors of me having been reading "velvet elvis" for the past hour and of my hyper-active mind together, i am bound to think. so my mind got going... and of course, i didn't just sit there and ponder as to the anatomical location of my heart--for everyone knows it's on the right side, just above the spleen--but instead sat there and repeated that question over and over, as if to prod my heart to speak up and give me a few clues (by the way, you do know i'm joking about the anatomical location of the heart... they do teach us some stuff at college). so i sat at my post for a bit and wondered..."where's my heart at?" then my shift was over and i put the thinking on pause and walked back to the dorms, where once i got inside i resumed my thinking (you see, in this kind of cold weather we experience here, it is best to just turn your brain off as you walk through this bitter cold... for if you are at all thinking, or even aware of your surroundings, you just might realize that it is cold and consequently go crazy... hence, i took a little break from the pondering and mindlessly made my way back to noordy).

i haven't quite found an answer yet. and i don't plan on finding one anytime soon. but, i would like to share a little something that i spent some time pondering at the gate at LAX... i think it kind of fits in to "where's your heart at?" in relation to what has been on my mind... or actually what was on my mind at the gate. so, here ya go:

It's quite the concept… living in two places. It's quite another thing
trying to sort out and assign the label "home". They say "Home is where
the heart is," but what if you happen to find that your heart resides no
where? Although there are people and things that you truly love in both
places, your heart isn't content where it is at. A complete satisfaction,
a feel of contentment… although it may come across the mind here and again,
after much deeper reflection the heart realizes that there is somewhere (or
something) else that it desires. Some call this Green-Grass-Syndrome… when a
mind plays tricks on the mind to convince one's self that anywhere but here is
much greener. There is a key difference though. With this, it is the
mind that wanders and desires to be somewhere else--a much easier thing to
understand. However, a heart seeking for a home is something much more
complex, more confusing by far. It becomes clear when your mind looks at
two places, sees very green grass in both, yet there is still this feeling,
incomprehensible to the brain, saying that this place ain't it… it's not where I
am supposed to be. Although the head may be happy, the heart begs to
differ.
With this, I almost feel like being on a plane, between destinations,
is one of the best places to be. It's during travel that you are between
destinations and left without any confusion as to where you are in relation to
home and away.
Upon discovering a temporarily homeless heart, I've found that in order to find an answer to this home-heart issue, i must examine two mistakes: one, that I've actually convinced myself that I have to choose one place, right now; and two, the fact that I've simply defined home as a dwelling, shelter, location. Well, when you look at it that way, of course your head's going to get all messed up. The answer to "home" isn't merely a location that you return to at the end of the day... it is much much more complex than that. To begin, you simply just need to ask, "where's your heart at?" Fancy that--the answer is actually the question that got this whole mess started in the first place. In other words, what things, what people, what feelings, make your heart beat and get you all giddy? For example--tennis. I am no where
near home if there isn't any tennis to be played. And family and friends--there's no way I am going to feel at home if I can't keep some sort of contact with my family and friends. By the way… don't pay attention to the order in which I just put my examples… it's just tennis was an obvious one so it came to mind first. Anyway.
Do you see how looking at this idea of "home" first as something detached from physical location actually opens up life to have multiple, different dwellings while still having a home for the heart. Of course, things get a bit more complex when you begin to talk about locations and geography as things that you love… for example, Calvin. I love being at Calvin, living at Calvin… thus making Calvin a "dwelling home" and a "heart home." so, where that fits in to the rest of this stuff… I have absolutely no idea. And after thinking for 10 minutes, I still have no idea. Hmmm… guess I'll just have to leave that for now. Let's just work on things a little at a time for now.

And right there at the end of that sentence they called seating area 2... meaning i needed to close my computer and get on the plane. and, i don't know why the spacing is all wierd... sorry.
So i guess the task at hand is just finding what i love, eh? And i am pretty sure that that's what this time in college is all about that... well, that and getting an education... i'd say that's pretty important too.
lengthy post... i was due for a long one... it's been a while.

so... two more days of interim... then i am off on wednesday for interim break... during which i will spend the first half at my home in holland where i stayed this summer (see, it's fun to have many "homes!") ... and then it's back at calvin for the calvin vs hope game!!!!

3 to 5 inches of snow tonight... i'm so loving this mass amounts of snow... pretty amazing.

ciao

oh, and i got the feeling back in my toe... much better

SNULTIMATE!

so lately, i have been kind of getting sick of the whole interim schedule. my two biggest issues with interim and the weather this past week were this:
1. there ain't that much to do... so we end up staying inside and doing nothing a lot of the time... and by nothing, i of course mean watch tv.
2. there wasn't really much snow this past week, so there wasn't anything fun to do outside... whether it be sledding or just messing around in the snow.
today was different though... both of my grievances with interim were cast aside and made right... first, we got pounded with snow yesterday and all through the night... leaving a nice couple inch layer of snow all over the place. and second, a group of nine of us from the ultimate team got together for a good ol' game of snultimate. that's right: snultimate. snow ultimate. we headed out to the "track" and "soccer field"... which you see in the picture is actually just a big open field of snow.
i forgot to mention how cold it was. according to weather.com, it was "10 degrees, feels like minus 7." minus??? minus??? it can go minus? :) yes, it was freezing cold. anyway, the snow on the field was all nice and smooth, not walked on... a good 5 inches of snow out there. but once we got there, we ran all over it, diving, sliding, and jumpong around on it... good stuff.

we had a nice bright orange disc... making the disc much easier to see, especially during the little bit that it was snowing so hard with the wind blowing, making it nearly impossible to keep your eyes open for more than 5 seconds at a time.


we kind of weren't supposed to be there, but oh well.

so i just have to tell you my layers in preperation for the cold and windy chill factor. on my head, i've got a turtle fur head band, beanie. top layers consist of: under armor, thermal, tshirt, windproof north face fleec thing, orange puffy vest, glove liners. bottoms consist of: long underwear, knee high socks, warm-ups, snow boots. i was content... i must say, i am kind of pro at this layering thing. the only cold parts... my face, and my hands.

we look kind of weird in this pic, because we were laughing at how we couldn't feel our faces at all... making it impossible to tell if we were smiling or not... and talking felt super wierd. basically, it was like my entire face was feeling the effects of novicane. not a good time to have a runny nose :)

after we got an actual game started, it only took about 10 minutes before i was actually really warm... no more numb fingers or toes... completely content out there in what ended up being 7 degree weather. yay, my first single digit experience!
fun aspects of playing in the snow... you're running full speed, catch the disc, put the brakes on, and slide for about 4 feet. so much fun.

it was absolutely gorgeous out there while we were playing... the clouds, the sun, the snow... just so amazing when it all comes together. and you can see the difference in the snow between where we played and where we didn't... ya, we did a lot of running around :)





i must say, we were pretty exhausted after a good hour and a half of snultimate. coming back inside was hilarious too. i don't think i regained full feeling in my face until about 20 minutes of being indoors.

so, that's it for now... i've got to work at the basketball game in a little bit. there's a group going ice skating tonight, but of course, due to my past experiences on ice, i have vowed to never ice skate again... lets just say this... wrong skates, falling, face on ice, blood on ice, almost loosing my front two permanent teeth. plus, if i ever do go ice skating again, it would have to be with jenny who has probably asked me to go about 147 times in the past two years.

have a wonderful weekend everyone!

from blue skies to snow in my eyes... all in one day!

there were some amazing blue skies and beautiful clouds hanging out today. and just now on the way back in from dinner, it was snowing soooo hard (with HUGE snowflakes) that i had to squint as to not get snowflakes in my eyes. i love it.

my tennis world just crumbled.

i've been watching since 5 in the morning.
had i not had a presentation at the beginning of class this morning, i just might have skipped the first part of class.
roddick had his match. as i walked in to class, the score was roddick's 1 set to the other guy's 2 (roddick won the second set).
at 10, we had our half our chapel break, and i bolted out of the class to the nearest computer... 5 all in the fifth... roddick had won the fourth set, and they were now in the final set. then me and my friend who is on my tennis team and in my class remembered the tvs in the lobby. we turned them on. roddick was serving, down 6-7 in the 5th. love-15. love-30. 15-30. 15-40. this was the fifth match point for the other guy. realizing this guy failed to win on four other occasions gave me hope. then roddick served, the rally began, and the ball headed to roddick's back hand. shoot, this can't be good. sure enough, roddick's cross court backhand went wide.

it's over. third round, roddick's out.

:(

guitar hero

well, it's past midnight, and the contest is over. the results:
in my slippers and argyle socks, i won the women's bracket (the women's bracket was played on medium... so, for those of you that know me... ya).
i watched the men's final... intense. they played the craziest song on expert, and this guy hit over 800 straight notes. yes, he is crazy, and has no life outside of guitar hero.
so then i had to play him, and i asked for mercy, so we got to play on hard. i lost to him by 1%... he had 94, i had 93. but that's okay, cause had it been expert, i would have been like, 2%.
my prize? a calvin frisbee, a calvin water bottle, a big hershey's chocolate bar, a bag of mints, and... my favorite... and umbrella that has a button to open it, AND to close it... dude, sweet!
welcome to the jungle was one of the songs i played... i dedicated it to you, chrissy :)
and there was a raffle with the tickets we each got for door prizes... and i thought of rachel: "ya, i'm pretty good at these."
so, good, but late, night.

see the productive and life-skill-building things we do here at college?

on my next resume:
Any special skills or achievments that make you qualified for this job?
Yes. Guitar Hero Champ 2008.

i see skies of blue...

today was absolutely beautiful... the sky was an amazing blue. it's really neat how in living here, and experiencing this weather, makes certain types of weather so noticable. for example, in california, skies are often blue and partly cloudy or cloudy. not much variation in what you see. usually a nice day in california is nice because it is warm. well, a nice day in michigan during this time of year is a day where you can see the sun... and if you're lucky, some patches of blue sky. i mean, when you see clouds and gray almost everyday, of course it's going to catch your eye if all above you is this amazing blue-ness. well, that's what i woke up to this morning... and this first picture is a little glimpse of what it looked like. what i love about this picture is that you see the sweet blue sky, the wonderfully green tree, and the white snow (of which we don't have too much of right now, as you can see) on the ground. although cloudless days are a bit chillier... high 20s, low 30s... it doesn't take away from saying it's a beautiful day. the chilliness makes the day crisp, and the sun makes the day happy. so, to contrast with this sky, i have a picture from last week... this is from when i was walking across the beltline to get to my class. as you can see, quite a bit more snow... and look at the sky... that's at 10:00 am. not to bright out, eh? but it's okay... it makes every day a hot cocoa day :)

and here's just another shot of some snow on this tree... i am kind of in love the way snow piles on a tree... there's just something so beautiful about how snow lines every contour of a tree... it's like visual poetry, or art, if you ask me.

things coming up here... tomorrow night is the guitar hero tournament... i am pretty excited about it. i'll let you guys know how that goes.

i picked up my ticket for the calvin vs hope basketball game! it's on jan 26th... i am so stoked! and to think that last year i watched it on tv... it's going to be so fun to be here... i can't wait. our tennis match vs hope isn't until april 17th, but it's home and it's going to be fun. i love rivalries!

tennis... roddick kicked butt last night... and sadly for davenport, so did sharapova. i woke up to watch a bit of the match (4am... tv on mute, didn't even wake my room mate... ya, i am good... and slightly crazy). anyway, when lindsey lost, i did cry a bit. arg. but then andy won... and i smiled.

alright... so that's it for now. hope all is well.

ciao

g'day

last night, the fun began. australian open, first day, first round. i watched justine henin, davenport, and roddick all in one night. i ended up watching 5.5 hours of tennis last night. wow. i just did homework while i watched. you see, andy's match didn't start until after 10pm. davenport's did as well, so i got to watch both matches at the same time. although davenport had a bit more of a struggle, they both won... yay!

i just got done going through and checking out all my professors for next semester on "ratemyprofessor.com". pretty sweet site--my first time checkin it out. so, all of my profs have really good scores, except for my education 102 class. a lot of students said he wasn't a great prof... easy, but not good. they also warned about the class being boring. oh well, i'll just have to see for myself.

i've got an Aesop fable for y'all.
there was this fox, lets name him Frank, and he found this steak and was super excited about it. you know, a nice juicy steak, who wouldn't get excited. anyway, Frank starts back for the fox hole, happily holding the steak in his mouth and strutting his stuff. as he passes by the river, he looks in, and lo-and-behold, there is another fox with a steak! well, Frank takes a look at that juicy steak that the other fox is holding and decides to steal it. when he opens his mouth to grab the other steak, his steak falls in to the river, and then all he sees is what he was actually looking at all along... a greedy little fox with no steak at all.
that's a good one, eh?
i think if Aesop went to my school, we'd be best friends. i like his stories.

hooroo

you know

okay, quick little post... i read a little transcript of an interview with sharapova at the australian open asking if she was ready for the tournament. as i read, there was this little phrase she kept on saying. "you know." this was a direct transcript, so it had her answers, work for word. and in a matter of 15 short questions, she used the phrase "you know" 45 times. 45. 45! she averaged two per sentence! i noticed this type of thing in her interviews on tv... but i never realized it was to this extreme.
i'm sorry, i am being mean. but, it bothered me.
if i ever say anything 45 times in one post, you have my permission to get annoyed and tell me so.

sunday sunday sunday

now you see it, now you don't. man, the snow just does not want to stay around very long... we got a bit a couple of days ago. i woke up to a very nice, but thin, layer of snow but by the time the day was done, the snow was gone. hmm, hope it comes back soon.

adventures of the past few days... tennis has been dandy, class has been good... the free time though... boy oh boy is there a lot of free time; and when there isn't any snow on the ground, you can't really go out and play in the snow. there was quite a bit of slush for the last part of the week, so that makes it gross out side... and then it rained, so you can't do anything outside. it can drive you to the point of insanity if you find yourself sitting in the hall on a friday night for two hours without anything to do. me and another girl on my floor just sat there. my roomie is gone for the weekend, and others had practice and what not, or were just too lazy to move. however, around 9:30pm, we managed to scrape up a few of us to go to barnes and noble... it was fun. this barnes and noble actually has a mongo section called "the sale annex" where they sell a ton of old used books. i spent some time in the sports section checking out all these amazingly old and awesome tennis books... soooooo old. i ended up buying two... one is the fireside book of tennis... and for an idea of how not-recent this books is... the only types of rackets that existed when it was published were wooden. its a sweet book.
but... there was this one book that almost ruined tennis forever for me. i am dead serious. i felt that reading this book endangered my love of the game. it was a book composed of all these old writing by sigmeund freud (however you spell his name) basically saying that tennis was supreme. it was entitled: sex as a sublimation for tennis. appearantly, freud was obsessed with two things--well, the very two things in the title. i don't know why i even bothered browsing through this book... i picked it up because it said tennis on it, and i just thought it was humorous... until i fell upon a page that i shall never set my eyes upon and read again. and i must just leave it at that.
anyway, after we got back (very late) from the book store, we hung out in my room and watched 'meet the robinsons.' again again again... amazing movie, you must see it. do it.

so, moving on. today i made a trip to joanne's and target... got some yarn and paper (probably two of my favorite things). i hung out here, took a nap... byt the way. i am kind of obsessed with the show friends. my suite mate owns seasons 1 through 5. i have watched seasons 4 and 5... and i have heard that someone else on my floor owns the rest of the seasons. before i move on to season 6, i think i want to watch the first three. but yes, i absolutely love this show... it's just so great.

here's the great stuff, though. tomorrow, sunday, begins the wonderful time of the australian open!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yayayayaya. i am so super dee duper dee excited cause we get espn2 in the dorms (actually, we get espn, espn2, espn news, and espn classics... i know, crazy... all that, but no disney channel? gee wiz). but yes, it begins, and here are my picks for this year (actually, more like hopes): for the women: lindsey davenport... currently 18-1 since her comeback at the end of last season, and has won 3 of the 4 tourneys she's been in since her comeback. match to watch: 2nd round... let me emphasize: second round...will be maria sharapova vs lindsey davenport. all i have to say is sucks for maria, cause she's gonna be in tears (and out of A LOT of points) after she is found defeated in the second round. i believe this will be on either monday or tuesday night. anyway, that's my pick for the woman champion.
and, for the man champion: duh, andy roddick. for as long as he plays, i am always going to root for him. i can feel it... it's gonna happen... this is it. at least, it better be, cause i am tired of rooting for a lost cause. but i guess that in this day and age, if your name ain't federer, you are a lost cause.

wow, i just spent a long time talking about the AO... sorry folks... not many of you are tennis fans, but hey... for the tennis world, these next two weeks are huge!

to be quite honest, nothing quite exciting has been happening lately. i do promise, however, that once something exciting happens, i'll let you know. k?

k.

bee tea double you

by the way:
our dorm is having a video game tournament competition thing.
i am entering in the "woman guitar hero" bracket (why there is a seperate woman and man bracket, i have no idea... in fact, i am a bit insulted).
the competition is next thursday... and i am gonna kick some serious @$$.
haha. kind of scandalous there... is that my first bad word on the blog? i think so.
sorry. but 'butt' didn't feel sufficient.
jenny should know why.
eessssssss

anyway, i seemed to fall short in that ping pong tourney, so i hope to redeem myself here. time to begin some serious training.

:)

a slushy accumulation of less than one inch

that's the forecast for tomorrow... however, it sounds more like a re-cap on the day. it sounds so, i dunno... like, ugh, ick, nyah... all of that. i mean, so disappointing--slushy isn't good, and less than one inch? well, that's just a sign of not being enough... come on, can't even make an inch?
actually, my day wasn't that bad... it was just this one thing... totally upset me. in fact, i am kind of surprised it upset me so much. this is what it was: my professor ripped apart my reflection paper. not literally, of course (not possible since i emailed it), but with her own words and digital comments. ya, they can do that now... they highlight a sentence or word and then can attach this comment thing to it. now we don't have to worry about not being able to read professors' handwriting. anyway. not a single good comment... she basically said my entire paper was awkwardly phrased and that she had to repeatedly read things because she didn't get them the first time around. she didn't like my brevity, but in my defense, this was a 1.5 page reflection paper... reflection paper... on about 18 pages of reading about testimony. she didn't like the fact that i didn't go in to detail, but i am sorry if i don't want to go into details about personal stuff. finally, to put the cherry on top, when putting her last few cents in at the bottom of my paper (as all profs do... you know, the summary comment right before they give the grade... basically their final opinion), she spelled my name with an 'h'. normally it doesn't bug me, but when you add it all together, it's big. kind of made me laugh though... cause my academic advisor made a big deal about people not spelling my name right (she has the same problem with her name) and that i should always correct people. she herself actually sent me a second email after she realized that in her first email she spelled my name wrong. anyway. ya, that paper kind of gloomed up the day. man, the day after i decide to write a book sometime in my life.
but.
tonight, i am gonna right such a great reflection paper that she'll think i plagiarised because it is such a step up from the last "incoherent and awkward" paper. yes, that's what she said. but i am SO over it.
hey, so i just got my calendar for 2008 (of course, it's tennis themed), and i need to put everyone's bdays on it. is it awkward to ask for bdays? well, i seem to be having luck with awkwardness today, but i am gonna ask anyway. i would like to write them in my calendar.

ok? ok.
ciao my friends

repeat for emphasis

by the time i am 50. in my class, our prof had us spend 15 minutes writing a list of things that we want to have accomplished by the age of 50... things we want to have done, things we want to be, things we hope to do. 15 minutes is a very long time, and as i spent more time thinking, i realized i've got 32 years to fill... so i got a bit ambitious. i kind of surprised myself... there's this whole other person inside of me that wants to do stuff. i'd like to share somethings from the list...
-top of the list: i want to have graduated from college (if i haven't graduated by 50, there's somethng seriously wrong).
-i want to have had a job, of course... actually, a few jobs. there's teaching, which most of you probably know... however, there are others. one of my biggest dream jobs--dead serious--is to be a mail carrier. if i can have that job for some time, i would be very pleased. i've toyed with the idea of being a flight attendant, but the uniforms kind of suck. although the traveling would be nice.
-speaking of travelling... i think 50 states ticked off by the age of 50 is a neat deal. at least a day and night in each state. although flying is sweet, road trip is the way to go. i hope i never have to go to nebraska again, though.
-make a movie and enter it into a film festival. hopefully some sort of a comedic documentary that exposes how life itself is funny... and there are characters all over this world. idea in the works: road trip across america to rei used gear sales... there are some stories to be told in the wee hours of the morning by the die-hards that wait in line for hours... haha, we'll see.
-summitting is another thing i'd like to do... i'm thinking denali... but we shall see.
-write a book. i dunno, we'll see about this one. maybe i'll literally just write a book, photocopy it, and give it to you guys. but seriously.... i think i'd like to some day... there's a lot to be said.
-this one is fun, and i hope to have ticked off my list by the end of this summer: skydive. i'm super excited for this one.
-these ones are "i better still be doing this when i am 50" ones... tennis (duh) unicycle (i'll make it happen) and, if it blogger can last, blogging on this very blog. wouldn't all that be awesome?

so those are the major ones. it's weird, cause i have never quite thought ahead to stuff i wanna do... and my prof had a really good explanation for this exercise, but i can't really explain it myself... basically, goals are good, and aspirations are awesome. if we don't write 'em down, who knows, we might forget. it also allows us to dream big, ya? and, in my case, you realize things that you never thought you wanted to do before, and learn a bit more about yourself.
i encourage y'all to make a list.

do it... do it.

...and, I know i put the song "little wonders" up on my post a few days ago, but i think i want to put up the lyrics... so there. and i would like to know... has anyone seen "meet the robinsons" yet? cause you should. don't make me come over there and put the dvd in your dvd player myself and chain you to the sofa. cause i will. anyway, the lyrics:

Let it go
Let it roll right off your shoulder
Don't you know
The hardest part is over
Let it in
Let your clarity define you
In the end
You will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours
These small hours
Still remain

Let it slide
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine,
Till you feel it all around you
And I don't mind If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by
It's the heart that really matters in the end

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Time falls away
But these small hours
These small hours
Still remain

All of my regret
Will wash away somehow
But I cannot forget
the way I feel right now

In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate
Time falls away
but these small hours,
These small hours
Still remain

i almost died today

EDIT: this is an amazing song from the amazing movie "meet the robinsons" (see it... now.. go to blockbuster, rent it, watch it, love it... trust me). anyway, i love this song by rob thomas, so i put the music video here so y'all could listen to the song. enjoy... now, for the rest of the post:


okay, maybe that is a bit of an exageration... let me rephrase that. i almost had a serious head injury today.

that's better. now for the story.

walking back from class in the devos center with my friend, i was in a bit of a hurry because i had to be ready by 12:15 for tennis practice and class gets out at 12. we were almost back to the dorm, and we were commenting on how the snow was all gone. as we walked by the sand volleyball court, my friend went to check the sand and see if it was soft, so i stood there and waited. indeed it was soft, not to bad, and so just as i went to take a step to get going, we hear a loud crack. i just stood there, froze... and a milisecond later, i branch about a yard long and about 5 inches thick flies down straight in front of my face, inches in front of my nose. it fell with a loud thud and i just stood there staring at it. had i taken a step a second sooner, i would have been in a world of pain. that thing was huge. ya, i am pretty glad i didn't get konked on the head by that thing. although my friend insisted it would have been hilarious had it happened (without injury, of course).

so that was exciting. i also had tennis practice today, which went pretty good. have i mentioned that it is warmer here than it is in bellflower. actually, right at this moment, we have the same exact temperature at 62 degrees. fascinating. i want the snow back, though.

well, 'tis all.
advice for the day... if you hear a loud crack and you are standing under a tree, don't move, and definitely don't look up.
hmm, i might have to get my helmet out.

in the words of mr. mcenroe

"are you serious? are you kidding me?!!!"
the weather here is blowing my mind. all white and snowy when i returned to good ol' michigan on wednesday night... a few beautiful (and very cold) blue-skied days... and now... today a high of 54?? and a high tomorrow of 62????????
62.
that's california weather.
crazy!
i woke up this morning to find that almost all the snow has melted... so sad! i rest assured, however, to know that just like our governator, the snow is saying "i'll be back." after all, it is only january.

interim is so much fun. first off, my class i am taking is called "theatre, faith, and identity." it is not a theatre class in which we will be acting out plays, however we will be watching a lot of them and reading a few as well... and out of all the plays, i only recognize one of them (death of a salesman), meaning i'll get some new stuff. plus, the professor is awesome... she's a total theatre person, so she is very interesting to listen too... not boring at all. and... the biggie, not a lot of work at all. all of that put together equals a fun three weeks.

last night a group of about ten of us from the floor went out to this mexican resturaunt called "la cantina" for a gal's birthday. it was some good fun. i didn't have too high of expectations for the food since pretty much all the mexican food out here hasn't even compared to the mexican food in california, but i have to say that my tamale was not that bad... i rather enjoyed it (especially since i had guacamole with it!)

so tomorrow is a big day... tennis season starts! i am so glad to get back on the courts... i only got to play three times in the three weeks i was in CA, so i am eager to get my racket swinging and my feet moving. it's also nice because no one on the team went anywhere for interim, so all 10 of us are here for the practices. should be a lot of fun.

my new experience for the week: some of you may remember my love of the chore of washing my car. well, that's not exactly something i can do right now, seeing how cold it is and everything. but on thursday afternoon, i had to move my car back from the parking lot across the beltline to the parking lot i am supposed to park in behind kh. so i took a little walk and went over to move my car and get it running a bit.. after all, it had been sitting in the cold for the past three weeks. i arrive to the parking lot to find my car covered in snow... a six-inch blanket covering the top, windshield, and hood... and spare tire in the back. it was awesome! i wish i had my camera on me... but i decided to get to work and get that snow off... and that's exactly what it was... work... tough work! i had my little scraper/brush to help, but i wasn't wearing gloves, and i was standing in the shin-high snow that surrounded my car as i did so. when i was about halfway done, i couldn't feel my hands or feet so i decided to take a break inside my car and get the car started and running... started up on the first try (such a relief). i left it running a bit and finished up taking off all the snow. i ended up spending a little over a half-hour clearing the snow off my car! i actually kind of had fun, minus the fact that my whole body was numb from the cold. when i got back in my warm car, i just sat there for a few moments... and slowly, my fingers began to warm up. i began the thawing out process that i am oh so familiar with now... the same process that happens when you walk in to the warm dorm building after walking back from class... basically, it burns. i mean, frozen fingers out in 20 degree weather finally begin to warm up in a 70 degree something car... ya, it burns. it is a crazy feeling... not really painful, but definitely a burning feeling. then moments later, my face begins to burn too, and pretty soon i am all thawed out. it was a fun time.

that's pretty much the update for now... not much else is going on.

new year, new look

sweet icicles!!! so whoever told me i hadn't seen nothing yet when i posted that pic of the first icicle i saw was right. some of these icicles are like a yard long!
well, my roomie and i got bored with our set up (and also gained a tv and dvd player that lindsey got as a christmas gift) so we decided to rearrange our room. we figured a new year deserves a new look. and i must say... it is THE sweetest spot. i am no longer under a bunker, and my bed is now bunked on top of lindsey's. oh, did i mention--we decided to rearrange our room at 10pm last night. ya, a bit late. anyway, it was so much fun trying to figure this all out. now that there is a tv in the room, i have hooked my xbox 360 and busting out the guitar hero. so here is a little video tour... pardon, there is still a bit of a mess because we are still figuring stuff out. enjoy.

back

i arrived at LAX at sunrise, and i landed in GR as the sunset. good stuff.