fall fun (or, autumn adventures)

okay, so, fall is here, and i am absolutely LOVING it.

the trees have been changing colors, and i am amazed at how many different colors leaves turn... in fact, you could probably fill one of those crayola mega-boxes with just using crayons created from the fall colors out here. it's pretty amazing. i think that what happens out here is truly autumn... i've always felt weird saying "autumn" and always understoon fall more. however, out here, the atmosphere, the feel, even the smell... i experience it all, and i'm like... ok, so that's what they mean by autumn. a more poetic word for a very poetic season. hmmm...

once the colors change some more, i'll post some before and after pics :)

i finally got to play tennis yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yup, i was super happy.

but for today... today, we had ourselves some fall fun.

rebekah, shiloh, and i went down the beltline to make our way to robinette's apple orchard/winery.

um... ya, this place is pretty much AWESOME. we had an absolute blast. the weather today is wonderful as well (sunny, low to mid 70s) so that was just the icing on the cake. we walked around the orchard a bit, checked out the gift shop, bought our hay ride tickets for later, and then hopped in line to get some cider!!! i never knew that apple cider and donuts were a popular combination, so i decided to go for it. both rebekah and i got cold cider and a plain donut, and then shiloh got a cider slush and a slice of amazing pumpkin pie. the atmosphere of this place is sooo cool. and it smells good pretty much every where you walk.

after our super yumy treats, we went on our hay ride which was SO cool. it was pulled by two horses (ike and hooter), and we got to sit off the side of the ride, so we could swing our feet (rebekah especially likes doing that). anyway, we took the ride through the orchard and through this really neat trail where again we could see changing leaves.

after our hay ride, we got some cider and apples... honeycrisp apples. i ate one the moment we got in the car to go back home, and it was super super delicious.

it was such a good time of relaxing and having a good time--a good way to spend some time on the weekend to kind of take a break from schoolwork.

whoa, that's a lot of pictures!

good thing ultimate isn't played with metal discs :)

so it is storming outside right now. amazing. so i ran all the way from the devos communication center from my class that ended at 7:15pm to try to get to ultimate practice (which was from 6pm-8pm) but was on the lower fields (far away). i got there at 7:23pm (and i even stopped in the dorm to get my cleats). i was in for 4 points when all of the sudden, the wind picks up, and lightening starts going off all over the place. we were throwing the disc and about 4 feet from our hands the disc would blow directly left. crazy. so we had to book it back to the dorm to not get downpoured on. it was awesome.

now to what i am really excited to post about.... sukkoth (sue-coat)!!!

some of you may remember me talking about this strange word back in may when we built this funky hut (sukkah) for this awesome class. well, yesterday at sundown was the beginning of the jewish festival sukkoth... feast of the tabernacles. we saw this on rebekahs calendar and immediately decided to celebrate. as a reminder, this is one of THE most joyous festivals, and it celebrates God's faithfullness during the exile (we think... almost positive). anyway, so we quickly made plans, went to meijer, baught a numerous amount of snacks (and a substitute lulav), came back and spread the word. we set up a sukkah made of sheets in my room (with my room mates consent) and shiloh, rebekah, and i planned to sleep under the sukkah for the night. so we got the food out, spread the word, and it was SOOOO much fun. we had music going, and people would stop in to see why we had a "fort" set up, and why the food, and then they would stay, hear about sukkoth, and totally hang out. at one time, we had seven people in the room. but ya, multiple people dropped in for a while here and there.

so then later, we wanted to play pass the etrog, but we didn't have enough people. so we kind of just messed around with the two etrogs. then rebekah, shiloh, my room mate lindsey, and i all shook our lulav and recited the hallel together. so much fun!!! so here are pics from the night of partying!

and it's raining and storming, i am loving it!!!

oh, and i took my first test today (it was in philosophy) and i think i did a good job... we'll see!

bye!

post six hundred

gather round y'all, to hear the story life provideth me with today.

pe 201 was cancelled for the day creating a very open day since my only other class was theology at 2:30pm. have i mentioned that i love college schedule?!

so around 2:10, i started heading for my class. i like leaving early because there's not much traffic on the sidewalks and i can enjoy myself and walk a bit slower. as i was walking to class today, i was in this total awareness mode. there was this guy walking behind me, and he was whistling. i tried to figure out the song, but it turned out to be this random melody. i also took note of the beautiful weather... it wasn't as chilly as i was expecting, and it was wonderfully sunny. i looked down as i walked and i noticed that there was a band-aid stuck to the ground.
and that, my friends, is when it hit me.
no, not a great idea, not this huge philisophical insight, not that i had more reading to do, not this realization that would change life as we know it... none of that hit.
it was when i looked down at the old, used band-aid stuck on the ground, that a guy on a skateboard hit me.
no worries, i am totally fine! the guy freaked out and stopped to help me up, and as i laughed, i insisted that i was okay. i didn't get hit by the skateboard itself, just the guy on it.
and for the girls who may be wondering, no he wasn't cute. how great would that have been though. haha, anyway!
after going on my way, i just laughed. here i was being "aware" of these random things, and i failed to notice this guy coming straight for me on his skateboard.

and after class, i went to rebekah's room to tell her what happened, and she couldn't stop laughing... and neither could i.
so i give you permission to laugh too. :)

other than that, not much going on today... just kind of kicked back and did some work... actually reading, but here, that is work.

well... tis all for now (by the way, did you see the chia update!)

l*-*l

thats a cassette tape

you may have noticed...

there is a new addition to the blog.
CHIA WATCH 2007

yes. this chia kitty was given to me as a birthday gift from my amiga mieke.
so i brought it with me so i could have something to care for.

chia watch 2007 will be updated very often so that y'all can join in on watching chia kitty grow.

so i will update the picture and include a caption of the stage that the chia is in... so as you can see, the chia is soaking for 24 hours.

stay tuned to see what's next!!!

haha good stuff.

ciao

cris?

oh, and the guys on the team have started calling me "cris." that is the one nickname in all my life that i have never wanted to be called... and i made it up to this point without ever having to deal with it. oh well, it's not as bad as i thought, but still... cris??? it just sounds so weird.

man armpit hair

...
it's gross. i've decided, i don't like it.

explanation???

i suppose i can do that.

i had ultimate practice today at 3:30. and today was a stinkin hot day... 85 degrees i believe. anyway, we get to practice, do a few drills, and then we come together to split up and scrimmage. they split the teams and then declare: "shirts, and skins."

this is my second encounter with "shirts and skins," and i am just now realizing that i never told y'all my first encounter. it was last week. now, when we make teams, we usually put one girl on each team, and i happened to be put on the skins team. i gave them this look like, ya right... and to be quite honest, i went through a moment of panic. so i quickly clarified that i would be a "skin"... let me clarify, i used my fingers to make the little quotation signs when i said 'skin'. it was funny because me and the other girl just looked at eachother and were like... mmhmm, ya, right... skins.

so today was the second time we were split into shirts and skins. i was happily a shirt today, but, being a shirt, had shirtless guys defending me or i was defending a shirtless guy. and when you combine my height to dutch college kid height, you get my face and their arm pit cause arms are up and down and all around... showing off all that arm pit hair. awful... just... ya, yuck.
but even more so, just the sight of man armpit hair is gross. i decided that during a drill (some guys already had their shirts off). i don't know why, but to me, there's just something really gross about tufts of hair fully grown coming from underneath an arm.
so, ya. now you know how i feel about man arm pit hair.

and yes, i just wrote an entire post about man armpit hair.

besides that, ultimate practice was awesome. i made two really awesome scores today (set up by awesome puts by the handlers of course) and some good defensive swats... so i am having sooo much fun with it.

i best be off to eat dinner now (as if all this talk of man armpit hair hasn't made me lose my appetite).

:)

oh the things you learn at college.

scent-a-mental

well, i finally went north of grand rapids... me, my suite mate and a friend of hers went up to manistee national forrest and went camping last night. it was absolutely beautiful and a lot of fun... lots of smores :) weather was great, and this morning a family of 5 deer came through or camprground... crazy!!! by the time i got my camera out they were gone though. there was also this crazy fog blowing across the lake too... it was awesome... you know how you can see your breath when its cold? it was like that, only the lake was the one breathing... ? ...

anyway



here's something cool. you know how you've got friends that have ways of making you smile whether by saying some inside joke or poking you in the one spot that it tickles the most? i'll come back to that in a sec

last night, i crawled in to my sleeping bag (we camped tentless) and was just laying there for a bit. now, i LOVE my sleeping bag, and so as i was thinking about how much i love my sleeping bag, i started getting all senitmental and thought about all that bag has gone through... i remember when i got it. 7th grade (my first time going to REI), before the CA science trip. i remember being amazed at the hugeness of REI. and the sleeping bag, it was love at first sight. they didn't have any orange ones, so the green one caught my eye right away.

after thinking about that, i started thinking about the CA science trips and eventually made my way to high school. wilderness challenge.

i hadn't thought about wilderness challenge for a while. my sleeping bag made it through some cold nights at Jtree! so much fun. but then my thougths kind of shifted from the sleeping bag to wilderness challenge itself. kind of made me sad because i missed it so much... but then, in true God fashion, in the midst of my bout of homesickness, a huge shooting star went across the sky.

let me explain.

this is not the first time this has happened. a shooting star is God's version of an inside joke that makes me smile.

my first night on the wilderness orientation trip in wyoming, i was a bit homesick. so as i looked at the stars that night, i feebisly asked for a shooting star. and when one didn't come, it made me more upset (i know, a little demandng, eh?) anyway, so i crawled in my sleeping bag and was about to go to sleep, and as i apologized to God for making such a random request, a huge shooting star pierced the sky. it was so awesome, that i even laughed out loud a bit.

it happened a few other random times through out the wyoming trip, at random times that i was a little bummed out from being away from home... and each time it made me smile.

so, when i saw that shooting star last night, i smiled and knew, hey, it's all good.

enough of the wordy stuff... pictures below! :)

thank you

okay.
old people... are awesome.
i pretty much always meet the coolest old people. i think it all started way back at el dorado tennis center when i played tennis with Flo (see june 2005 if you want a recount of our first meeting). along the way, there has only been one old person that i've ever had a bad experience with (and that would be the old guy i nailed in the chest with one of my overheads... also at el dorado... and he refused to ever play tennis with me again).
anyway.
i went back to the fish house this morning to do some studying, and this morning before i left, i realized i had some loose change sitting on my desk, so i grabbed it because i remembered that johnny's sells those little dove promises dark chocolates for like 15 cents. i pocketed the change and headed to the fish house. i studies for a good hour or so, and on my way out back to the dorm, i stopped in johnny's to grab one of those chocolates at the checkout.
the lady working the register was the cutest little old lady. i walked up to her (since the chocolates are at the register) grabbed one, and while holding out my dime and nickel said "just one of these please."
and she just looked at me and smiled and waved her hand in the air as if to say "pssh" i just looked at her and said "really?" she smiled and waved again and said, "yes dear, you can just have it... take it... a little boost for the morale." so i said thank you multiple times and she just gave me the nicest smile in the world.
and as i walked out, i couldn't help but smile... she totally made my day. with that i opened up the little dark chocolate and read the little message... three simple words... "live your dreams."
and with that, i enjoyed my dark chocolate. when i got back to my dorm i grabbed a piece of tape and taped the wrapper to my desk--a good reminder not to just live my dreams, but to also pay it forward.
thank you, to the little old lady who made my day.

later that day, in my history of PE class, i needed to find out when my exam was because i was in the process of figuring out when to book my flight home for christmas. i have a total of 4 exams, and exam week ends on fri december 14th. i checked all the syllabus (syllabi?) for my classes to see when my exams were. only three of them had the exam dates on them and they were two on tuesday, and one on wednesday early afternoon. so i was like, hey, if my pe exam (the one i didn't know) was anytime before that wednesday afternoon one, i could fly home on wednesday night!!! so i got to class and walked up to my professor to ask him, and he looks and tells me "the 14th." and out of a bummed shock, i said, "friday??" but without me saying anything else, he whispers to me, "hey, i can let you take it earlier if you like... i normally don't, but i understand." 'understand what?' i thought. i didn't even mention what i was trying to do. so he was just like, don't mention it to anyone in the class, but we can arrange that.'
i was in shock! so i called my dad right after the class, and it's booked!!! i am flying home from calvin on wednesday night, the 12th!!! and i don't have to fly back to calvin until jan 2nd... meaning...
i'm going to be home for three full weeks! now that is what i call a christmas break... three full weeks.
thank you to my professor!

good stuff, eh?
and with that, it is the weekend.
thank you Lord!

hmmm
that's it.

WAIT! no it's not!!!!
two things. whenever i hear something clever, i always write it down and hope to use it wihle writing in fiture posts... however seing how i don't see how i could use this in any of my posts, i am just going to say it:
the southern end of a northbound horse.
hee hee

AND

my PE prof was talking in class today about calvin's first dance and how when his dad went to calvin, dancing was still not allowed. but when my prof went to calvin was when they had their first dance. they had it out on the tennis courts, and it was called "the tennis ball!"

how incredibly stinking fantastically super-dee-dooper-ly awesome is that!?!?!?!

the tennis ball!!!!!!

i would most positively go to any dance called the tennis ball that took place on the tennis courts.

how awful would it be if my prof was just pulling our leg, and i am just to obsessed with tennis to refuse to see the sarcasm.
i think he was telling the truth.

i will leave it at that.

hooroo my amigos.

a good day doesn't have to be a friday

and i would like to subtitle this post: "connect four".

fantastic day today... filled with good stuff. so i am going to tell it all, and it might get long, but hey, i was a good day.
not that good days are rare or anything, it's just that today was exceptionally good :)

first of all... 7:30am, had a waffle for breakfast (as usual) so when you start your day off with that, it's already good. went back to the dorm, got ready for the day, and then figured out what i wanted to do with my time before class (which was philosophy at 10:30). so i decided to take some homework/study stuff down to the fish house, grab a chai latte, sit down, and get some work done... i was there for about an hour and a half, and it was some really good study time... i like studying there. so then i went to class, and after class had a quick lunch. and on my way back to the dorm from lunch, i realized how absolutely beautiful the weather was (low 80s)... sun shining, breeze blowing... and the commons lawn was calling my name. so i ran back to the dorm and called shiloh to see if she wanted to go down to the commons lawn with me and do some work and/or nap. so we went and got all settled in, and it wasn't long until shiloh realized she grabbed the wrong book--so she left to go back to her dorm. this is where connect four comes in. so i was just laying there reading the phaedo (one of socrates' dialogues) when angela walked up (the gal i went kayaking with this summer and who's allison's cousin--connection one). it was so great to see her, so she sat and ate her lunch/worked on some homework with me. but i have to do a bit of back tracking. last week, when i was talking to biz (my super cool RA) about some random stuff, and she asked me if i knew who angela was because according to biz, we just had to meet. so i laughed, and i was like, ya i know who angela is! so it turns out that angela was biz's RA (connection two). so back to today, when i was hanging with angela, she asked me what dorm i was in... so when i said third noordy and was about to mention that biz was my ra, angela flipped because i was on biz's floor. she was like, if i could've chosen to put you on any floor, i would put you on biz's floor (connection kinda three)! so it was hilarious, and we couldn't get over all the connections going on. so we had a fun time talking (and studying, of course). and then biz actually came along a little bit later too... so much fun. oh, and connection four... i dunno. i just wanted to say "connect four". so there isn't a fourth connection.
anyway, so that was a lot of fun... so shiloh and angela left for their classes, and i left to go back to the dorms where i got a call from jenny! so me and jenny talked on the phone for nearly an hour!!! that was a lot of fun. good times.
then after the phone call, i took a 1o minute nap. delightful.
after that, off to ultimate practice which was til 5:30pm, which at that point i ran from practice to the dining hall to eat a quick dinner (consisting of a bowl of cereal) and then about 10 minutes after getting to the dining hall, i was running out and up to my room to grab my unicycle and go off to my communications class. so i had class, then i got back to the form and we left for our floor date about 5 minutes after i got back.
we went to "buffalo wild wings". this place is awesome... amazing wings!!! (father, i will talk to you about it later).
then i just got back about 10 minutes ago and have been typing up this post.
what a full and fun day!!!!
and now...
i am tired.
and i am gonna sleep.
and tomorrow morning, i am gonna wake up, and start my day off with a waffle again...

lets see where the waffle takes me tomorrow :)

nostalgia

so tonight was the hope vs calvin volleyball game!!! it was such a good match... super close. it went 4 games with calvin winning the last 3. it was pretty even the whole time... so much fun! it was pretty funny because we realized that this was our first time rooting for calvin as our home team... the words "go valley" fought to escape my mouth so many times out of habit, but i caught myself and instead managed a "go calvin!" fun transition.

and as i watched the volleyball game, it reminded me of one thing that my life was lacking that i usually did this time of year... layout the volleyball uniforms after they got out of the wash/dry. the days of t.a.-ing for pe :)

and as if valley didn't come to mind enough during the v-ball game, we went back to my dorm and watched the senior video (the full one that rinks made this summer) since rebekah's mom mailed it to her. so we all watched it, and the word i come up with is "nostalgia". i am not 100% sure on the definition, but i am pretty sure that is the word i want to use. while watching, i didn't get homesick or tear up or anything, it was just kind of like, oh, those are good times, and "i remember that!" and "oh my gosh! look at us!" (by the way, the "gosh" is now being said with a full blown michigan accent... along with many other words). so it was fun... and i am glad it didn't make us all sad... we were all in a good nostalgic mood :)

lets see... there was other stuff i wanted to say.

hmmm... i can't quite think of it, so i will leave it at that.

ta ta my friends!

warm spell

so we have been getting this wonderful bit of warm weather... got up to 84 degrees yesterday! it was absolutely beautiful. i took advantage of the sun and warmth and unicycled to class again yesterday... i'm telling you, that thing is one of the best conversation starters in the world... and it's hilarious when i lock it up at the bike rack next to five other bikes... it looks funny :)
it's supposed to stay at least in the mid to upper 70s through next week, so it's going to be awesome.

anyway, what have i been up to lately... classes, of course... they're going well for the most part... theology is definitely the most confusing/boring of my classes. the reading is insane. but PE, communications, and philosophy are going well.

tonight is the calvin vs hope volleyball game, so a bunch of us are gonna go see it... i am so excited! it's going to be great.

and we got a general schedule for ultimate frisbee... basically, we go to a lot of tournaments and play other colleges there. only one tournament is actually close, and we'll actually be travelling to ohio (at least twice) and kentucky for some tournaments... two places i have never been! and then for family weekednd (oct 19/20, which i believe is when my parents are coming out???) we're setting up a game to play probably against hope (they're not good, so the captains said they'll make us look even better for the family). haha
anyway, so ultimate is going great.

tennis on the other hand... i still haven't played since that one time i played with the girls on the team... i am getting really antsy, but no one can play or no one wants to go out to the gainey complex to play... icky

okay, well, i've got some reading to do, so i must be on my way.
ciao

quick update

happy national singles awareness week!!!

i made the ultimate frisbee team!!! so a total of two girls made the team... this is where having grown up with three older brothers comes in handy.
i am so excited... we have practice today... practices are so much fun.

i'll be sure to keep y'all posted on what goes on with ultimate.

later

not so typical college student

meijer was having a sale on adult fleece onesies (how in the world do you spell that... i think i will just say one-Z) complete with footies and decorated with clouds.
there was no way i would pass that up.
so after getting back from meijer that night (a few of us were at meijer actually) we had a little movie night and watched little miss sunshine while i made the posters for my mum's bday. anyway, the oneZ was a hit with everyone on my floor. and i forgot that there were open hours that night, so, well, ya... other people thought it was pretty funny as well.
then shiloh and i got to hyper, and we started doing really random things. so i grabbed my unicycle, and we started out in the hall (as you can see in the pic) but then eventually made our way outside... yes, outside, on a unicycle, in a oneZ. did i mention it was freezing cold???

so that's a bit of the fun we've been having lately. not the typical stuff, but fun none-the-less.

and i've devised a theory that we don't really have weekends... just days without classes, giving us more time for studies and whatnot. and of course, tons of fun.

yesterday was last day of ultimate frisbee tryouts. i should find out either today or tomorrow whether or not i made the team.. i'll keep y'all posted.

we're supposed to hit a little warm spell the middle of this week... we'll actually hit 80 degrees hopefully for three of the days!!!

and wednesday i'll experience my first hope-calvin game in person... girl's volleyball game here, so that is going to be super fantasticly awesome.

well, i can't think of much more that i wanted to write, so i think the post ends here.
ciao for now.

oh wait.. i remembered something else... about pe 201. so we started reading out of our text books about ancient cultures and pe and athletics and stuff... and guess what....
plato and socrates held views on physical education and talked about them in plato's dialogues and "the republic". i was so fascinated by all the philosophy behind physical education, and it sounds weird, but it is really cool. all the stuff with ancient greeks and romans and how athletics and pe were viewed and used in their cultures... and even the whole debate education through the physical and education of the physical. it's really sweet stuff. and also the early and origianl olympics, and how women held their own games... i could go on and on with this stuff. he assigned 45 pages of reading one of the nights, and he said we could just skim it if we wanted, didn't really nead to read all of it (he's a pretty chill professor), but i started reading--it started with plato and socrates and aristotle--and i got so in to it that before i knew it, i actually read all of it.
pretty cool

anyway

i will stop there.

ciao

and congrats to davenport who won her first tournament back on tour!!!! knocking out two top ten players along the way

bday surprise

so i got some people to help me out and hold a few signs... it took a bit of scraping to find enough people, but in the end it worked out.

happy birthday to my mother.

for those who don't know, there is a webcam on campus that you can watch and stuff.

more fun to come in the winter :)

nap

i have recently taken up the hobby of napping in the afternoon, so when i came across this article it made me laugh... what people will do for a nap these days!

The Most Innovative Ways to Nap - AOL Money & Finance

preview

well, on the way back from breakfast just now, i found a cool little something on the ground.

this is a little preview of what's to come.

i love how you can see the green by the main veins and then a little bit of yellow/orange, and then red. that's some pretty sweet fall action in process.

and just thought i'd add, as a summary of my day yesterday: i unicycled to my class in the devos communications building. so much fun :)

love this song

I really like this song by The Afters... great song. you'll probably see me post this again in another four years :)

Someday I'm gonna go out to the country
I'll drive til the highway ends
Chasing after picture perfect sunsets
To take away my breath
I'm tired of living in the city
The world's got me tied on a string
Wanderlust has overcome me
Like Lewis and Clark I'll dream
There's a million different ways to go
Only God can know where I will call my home

Love lead me on
Where no one else has gone
Faith keep me strong
Love lead me on

The open road can be so lonely
I'm longing for someone to love
If only I could share my new surroundings
Open the doors above
There's a million different ways to go
Only God can know where I will call my home

Love lead me on
Where no one else has gone
Faith keep me strong
Love lead me on

pinky problem

take a look at this:



maybe i have an extreme case here, but i want you guys to try it to... try bending each finger, one at a time, at your middle knuckle. as you see in the little clip above, i cannot move my pinkie (have you ever tried spelling that word??? spell check says it is spelled that way) without my ring finger mimicking it's exact movement. if i go slow, if i go fast, it's all the same. and if i hold my ring finger and then try to bend my pinkie, my pinkie can't move.



i noticed this in the middle of LOFT the other night. i don't know how it came about, but it did... so i sat there, over and over, trying to keep my ring finger from moving when i bent my pinkie at that knuckle. i couldn't do it.



and for the sake of this post, i hope all of you have the same pinkie problem that i do.

so there are two ways you can look at this problem. one, you can look at it from the point of view of ring finger, or you can look at it from the point of view of the pinkie.

lets start with ring finger... lets call it Ricky.

Ricky is a pretty cool kid... goes to Calvin college (cause that's where cool kids go, of course), and on his own is a pretty strong individual. makes his own decisions based on his thoughts and beliefs and "bends" on his own accord (this is where you look at your hand and demonstrate the ring finger moving all by itself). but then ricky meets petey (the pinkie). petey... well, he's not so cool... (the rare exception to the cool status calvin students hold). but ricky and petey become friends anyway because, hey, petey knows how to have fun. but you know what, the more ricky and petey start hanging out, the more things start to change. pretty soon, whatever petey does, ricky does too... and although ricky notices it, he can't really stop it (and if you haven't already, look to your hand and demonstrate the pinkie moving as the ring finger helplessly follows the same movement).

the bible warns us about yoking (2 corinthians 6... check it out). and even when you know what a yoke is, sometimes that visual still doesn't work because you don't understand how it feels. but you know what, i sure feel that when i am moving my pinkie, my ringfinger is pretty much yoked to it. and i think that we need to not only be careful about who to be yoked to, but what we are yoked to.
now. there's nothing wrong with getting to know petey pinkie... hanging out with petey pinkie. but, when you start ditching your beliefs and ways for petey's ways is when you are going to fall in the trap of yoking and taking up that lifestyle as well.

try something for me (if indeed you are one of those who have the pinkie problem like me). grab hold of your ring finger, and hold it in place, firmly. now, try to bend your pinkie at that same knuckle as earlier. if your pinkie problem is as serious as mine, your pinkie does not move at all... i am serious, not AT ALL. maybe try your left hand... i dunno, i think i have issues. however, as i have asked people to perform these things for me, i have found that most people don't have it as extreme as i do.
but
imagine that your pinkie doesn't budge like mine doesn't budge...again, for the sake of this post.

now go back to ricky and petey. say instead of completely "yoking" himself to petey, ricky got to know petey while still holding fast to his own faith and beliefs. eventually, who knows...petey might start to take after ricky (go ahead, demonstrate it on your fngers, and hold your ring finger "fast"). yet another reason not to avoid "petey" but to know them while not yoking yourself... because we are not just called to not conform, but we are also called to be a light (check out matthew 5)... and one way we can do that is how we live around others.

on that note, i will make a quick statement from the point of view pinkie.
we have seen that the pinkie is an influencial position to hold.
so my challenge... as a pinkie, spread the joy and the love...
look at this video for an example. pinkie is very happy, and when pinkie is happy, pinkie "dances"... and when pinkie "dances", see what happens to the other fingers??? they can't help but join in the "dance." so if you have never seen a happy pinkie, this is what it looks like... complete with shiloh saying "happy pinkie".

so that's it... i dunno why, but for some reason i am feeling a bit more "iffy" about this post... maybe cause it's not necessarily applicable to all (rebekah *cough* who can bend her pinkie independently of her ring finger). but bear with me, as i am bound to put out a few random posts that, well, are random.

thanks for getting through this one.

ciao

new words and socrates

i mentioned earlier that there is a lot of reading. in my theology class, the textbook is actually a draft of a book that he and two other professors are in the process of writing.
they aren't the best writers. however, in reading the textbook, i have learned two new words (actually, there are tons of other words in the book i have never heard of before, but these ones are different). when i first read them, i was kind of like, oh, thats an interesting word. but then the author used it again... and again... and again. i still dont know what they mean, but i thought i would share the words:
insofar... isn't that just three words smashed together??? why? i don't understand how that word came into existence.
fledgling... now that's a fun word. don't know what it means, so you might see me randomly stick it in one of my sentences for no reason at all.
speaking of stick.

last night, i went to bed (at 10pm... who says college kids dont get enough sleep???) to be awoken at 11pm by this annoying sound coming from outside. there was this random kid, walking back and forth while talking on his phone on the walkway behind noordy. and as he walked, he kicked a stick... back and forth, kicking a stick, about 20 yards each way... it was loud. very loud. and i am the type of person that gets really annoyed by repeated sounds at irregular intervals for an extended period of time (for the ponderosa people, like tina the dog who lives behind jenny... when that thing gets in it's barking spell in the middle of the night, i want to do terrible things). so after about 20 minutes of this happening (and me not being able to fall back asleep), this rage built up inside of me... and i wanted to yell at this guy from the window. but i didn't, isntead, i went to my suitemates and told them my situiation, and they too were annoyed by the stick (although they were not sleeping)... so, without hesitation, one of them calls down to the guy out the window, "excuse me! the stick is really loud... could you stop!" and he stopped.
and i went back to sleep. i've got some pretty sweet suite mates.

now for socrates. i'm reading the 5 dialogues of socrates (written by plato since socrates never actually did write anything down... just his followers did). anyway, i am loving it. i was worried it would all be way over my head, but it's just the opposite... it's making complete sense, and even better, i am loving it. socrates is a genious. and he's hilarious. he asks someone a question, gets someone to make a claim, and then asks a series of questions leading the other person to contradict himself in the end... he makes fools out of people.
too bad he was put to death for it.
but seriously, he's pretty cool. and he was really old when got into all this philosophy stuff. so i am just imagining this old guy (who is said to be actually weird looking) walking around athens and asking questions to random people. that's seriously what he did. he never answered questions himself... just asked them.

so that's it for now... i've got ultimate practice today, excited for that. absolutely loving it!!!
and on the tennis front, stuff kind of starts in october, but most of the girls have been hitting a bit now and then, except they keep on playing when i have a class since no one else has a night class...
although i am enjoying that night class (communications and culture).
i am pretty much enjoying all my classes. in a little bit i am headed off to PE 201... he said today we are going to talk about fighting and maiming today (as in ancient cultures) and then on friday we are going to watch fighting and maiming.

hope all is well.

hooroo

why, hello there michigan weather

september... some of the hottest times of the year back home in good ol' B-Town.

september... i just checked the weather forecast.
yesterday, was super hot... we were sweating just from walking around. this morning, i woke up cold... and walking to breakfast, i was super cold. it also rained today... actually, it's raining rigt now. a few of us californians here have been taking notice to the weather. honestly, today was one of those rare and random winter days we get back in california.... the little bit of winter that california gets, is happening here at calvin, now...
as i said, i checked the forecast.
for the next 10 days... we'll get as high as 70 (and that's only on one day) and as low as 40.
this is going to be fun :)

classes are going well... i'm actually staying ahead of the game... so stress level is very low. lets hope i can keep it that way.

correction

back on aug 23rd, in my re-ing post, i mentioned the book of ruth.
i was entirely wrong... i meant to say, the book of esther.
my bad... for some reason, i mix those two up quite often.

chaos day 2007... buzzzzzzzzzz

getting painted up for chaos day...
this is my RA, Biz...

working on the intimidation...
third noordy... best floor in all of calvin!!

our dorm mascots, petey the turtle and then the bison... i don't know his name.

this is one of the guys from our dorm, his name is Cloud. anyway, he did some crazy stuff with fire.

one of the relays... handling a volleyball with a hockey stick relay.


our group didn't do anything exciting... in fact, it was basically a geography quiz. we did the 50 states and others in our group did things like land masses, bodies of water... and so on. nothing exciting.. hence no action shots.

some guys working on one of the quizes.

tug of war. in the first round, it was SO awesome... we were about 4 inches from losing, and then we came back and won!!!
this is all of NVW celbrating after placing third for chaos day's events
suitemates and room mate.

here are two videos... one is of one of the competitions... whoever got the most people through the hoop in 4 minutes won. the second is from when they announced that NVW placed third... ya, we went pretty crazy!

so, after chaos day was ultimate frisbee tryouts. now, this is pretty awesome... i had soooo much fun. ultimate here at calvin is pretty intense, and pretty serious. its not an intramurla where there are multiple teams within calvin that play eachother... there's a varsity team, and they play other colleges. last year they made it to nationals, and this year they plan on winning it. last year they had no girls on the team. this year... well, lets just say that they were impressed and a few of the returning members assured me that i had a very good chance. there's another girl i met at tryouts who is pretty much same level as me, so hopefully we'll both make varsity.

i am so excited... i absolutely love the intensity and competitiveness of it... and we wear cleats!! i haven't worn soccer cleats since 8th grade... and i love soccer cleats. and the sprinting... i miss it, so it was fun sprinting down frisbees (and diving!). so we had a two hour practice yesterday, and i've got another practice tomorrow. sooooo much fun. oh, and we learned the forehand throw, which is essential for ultimate, since you pretty much only use a backhand throw for puts (kick off)... and now my forehand is better than my backhand (sounds a lot like another sport i play).

and then today me and my room mate had a good time finding a futon... goot room mate bonding. so now we have seating, and hopefully now people will come and sit and be our friends!

sweet stuff. well, i haope your weekends went well.

what a night

okay, so we had battle of the bye tonight after dinner and before we left for celebration on the grand. battle of the bye is a quick competion to see who gets a bye in the first round of chaos day (a huge day of competitions between all the dorms... go NVW!) so we all have dorm tshirts and stuff, and this year, NVW is the hive, so we have a bee theme going on. and our motto is "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

for battle of the bye, we had to carry our dorm pres on a mattress in a race... we're the team in yellow: aka, the team the dropped the mattress... twice.

so after that, we headed for downtown grand rapids (which i think is really cool) and went to the bridge to watch fireworks... the fireworks were awesome, and the bridge was super crowded with people. in the middle of the firework show, as we were all seated on the bridge, a random downpour came down and soaked everyone... luckily it stopped, and the finale was incredible... some of the loudest firweworks i have ever heard... pretty cool.

and then, we got back... at around 11pm. and so some of us went to the phish house (the coffee shop here on campus) which is probably one of my new favorite places... really good chai tea latte and really cool atmosphere, open til midnight. so we went, and there was nobody else there, so we had ourselves a good time... and the fun continued for quite some time afterward since we had the caffiene waking us up a bit.

chaos day is tomorrow!!! so excited... and ultimate frisbee tryouts!!! i'll share more about that tomorrow, but i am SOOOO stinking excited for it... you'll see why!

oh, and i found out who amanda keesanhugh is! finally.

PE 201

ok.
it's about 1pm here right now.
here is my day thus far.

as we do everyday, rebekah and i met at 7:30am to have breakfast over at commons. we've been celebrating national waffle week by having waffles for breakfast the past few days. on the way back, i noticed skies were gray, and the temperature was cool... topped off with a good amount of wind. so after hanging in my dorm for a bit, i went for a run on the track... perfect running weather. as i walked back to my dorm, i saw my squirrel friend simon (he's the one with a missing patch of fur on his butt) digging holes and either burrying acorns or finding them... i just stood there a bit and watched him... so awesome.
i had class at 11:30, and i was super excited because it was my pe 201 class (history of pe, rec, and sports) and its a mon wed fri class, but we didnt have it on wednesday cause the prof was out of town. so, i took advantage of the cold weather and wore my new cords today :) along with my otter tshirt that says, "i know, it's tough"... i was very happy :) kind of have a retro look going :)
so, i headed off to pe 201... and this is what i have to say...
AWESOME!!!! oh my goodness, favorite class by far... and the prof is absolutely hilarious! so much fun, and the whole class (minus two acounting majors) is filled with pe, exercise science, rec, sports management, and so on majors. we had a ton of fun in class today. the semester is really awesome, and i am really excited about the research paper, and then we do two movie reviews where we choose a sports movie to watch and write a one page paper on it.
i can't wait til monday. so much fun.
and, it's been raining since the end of class.
so i have class at 2:30 (theology) and then tonight is celebration on the grand. we're all going to the bridge in downtown and then watching fireworks over the grand river. pretty sweet. i'll post pictures from it either tonight or tomorrow.

that's it for now!!!

wait:
amanda keesanhugh: WHO ARE YOU!!!

new car smell

second day of classes is done.
so today, since i didnt have my pe201 class (which is usually at 11:30), i only had rel 131 (theology) and that wasn't until 2:30. that's my class schedule for mon wed fri. when you wake up at 7am, that's a lot of time til your first class. i got all my homework finished by 10am today... for tomorrow's classes and the next day's. pretty sweet. i finished that tolstoy book, and it actually was a pretty good story, just really hard to read. so i am really liking my schedule (though i am sure it's going to get tougher).

so here's my little story for today.
some of you may remember when i first got my license and started driving. and then also when we first got the honda cr-v (affectionately known as Hans... that's the name jenny and i came up with on the way out here... i think it was somewhere in nebraska that this name came up.. should explain a lot.) anyway, when i first started driving on my own, would always get this goofy feeling... just so excited that i was driving, and get this big grin as i turned on the car and shifted in reverse to back out. or even just driving along, listening to the radio, i was very aware that i was doing this awesome task of driving, and enjoying every moment of it. and, i have to admit, even today when i walk up to my car, unlock it and hop in... i still get that exciting feeling and grin. there are these elements to this now-common task that i just absolutely love.

so now, class ended at 3:20, grabbed my backpack, pulled out a little snack i had packed for after class, and walked across campus back to noordeweir... passing people playing frisbee on the commons, other people walking to and from class, seeing a little crowd in johnny's... and i am walking to noordeweir in this awesome weather, eating teddy grahams, wearing my backpack, and that same goofy feeling... you know, the feeling that makes you stand up a bit straighter, grin, and say, hey, i'm a college student... i'm a calvin college student... and i'm walking to my dorm, on 3rd noordeweir... and i just got done with class... a college class.
same goofy feeling as with my car... same grin... same great feeling.

so, if y'all are wondering if i am enjoying this whole college thing, i think that should cover it.

i'm going to go play tennis with a few girls at the gainey complex in a bit... i am so excited to play, i haven't played since i moved in... an entire week and one day!!! and then when i get back, it's all about andy roddick vs federer tonight (which was part of my incentive for gettting all my work done this morning).
i'm trying to stay positive, for andy's sake.

hooroo

too many syllables

UPDATE: i just went to 'cokes and clubs' after my class to sign up for some clubs: ultimate frisbee, CVN (calvin video network), and the rock climbing club. sweet.
then i went for a run... even sweeter.

...

first day of classes... wow... is today actually here?
my goodness, it was almost like i hit the ground running, but forgot to run... but in a good way... does that make sense?
so woke up nice and early to have breakfast (which my suitemates dont't understand since my first class isn't til 10:30 on tues and thurs) and got back to the dorms to get ready to go to convocation. it wasn't anything special... although, it was kind of funny to be back in the "freshman" position where you're the new one and everyone is looking at you. so i booked it to my philosophy class (which started at 11:00 because of the special schedule) after convocation. so my prof for this class is cool, but after going through the syllabus, i was a bit intimidated. so we've got 6 books we're reading in this class (one of which i have to have read by thursday... 12 chapters long... but i'll get to that in a second). and one of them my prof says is really really advanced philosophy literature... he says his colleagues think he is out of his mind for assigning this book in an introductory philosophy class... it is by keirkegaard, and i am not looking forward to it. anyway, we also watched a bit of the italian job in class because my prof owns a mini cooper, so he wanted to show a mini cooper clip from the movie.
so after class, i had lunch and decided to get a head start on the reading since my next class wasn't til 6pm. so i read the first chapter, and i want to give you an idea of what i am reading, and the kind of names that are in this book... it's by tolstoy:
"Fyodor Vasilyevich vehemently denied that it was the subject to their jurisdiction, Ivan Egorovich clung to his own view, while Pyotr Ivanovich, who had taken no part in the dispute from the outset, glanced through a copy of the News that had just been delivered."

that's just the first sentence. one funny thing though... there are two characters in this book who have the same last name as two tennis players i like... ivanovic and golovin. otherwise, this book is insane... i fell asleep after getting through the first chapter, and then woke up just in time for my appointment with health services to go get my TB shot. so i got my shot out of the way, i also got my car all set with a parking permit, and i am still in the process of figuring out mail services. i've been waiting on two packages that were supposed to come last week, so i think i am going to go to mail services and figure it all out.

i've got a while til class, so i am going to get some more reading done.
andy roddick vs roger federer tomorrow!!! the more i read now, the less i have tomorrow, and the more time ihave to watch roddicks match... did i mention i only have one class tomorrow at 2:30pm... my prof for my history of pe rec and sports class emailed the class saying we wouldn't have class tomorrow... sweet.

hasta luego

a couple of pics...

so here's the pic from me unicycling around the commons... twas a lot of fun!

and here is tippy contacting me through skype. he is technologically savvy ... and absolutely adorable. he's actually looking right at the webcam (whether or not there was a piece of meat dangling behind the webcam i do not know).

yesterday was a lot of fun. shiloh and one of her friends came along with me to mars hill yesterday, and i finally got to hear rob bell speak. and it was an awesome service.

afterward, we went down to saugatuk with one thing in mind... tattoos. okay, henna tattos. i tried telling my parents i got a real one, but they didn't believe me for a split second. shiloh got the same thing on her wrist, and then her friend got his name on his arm. the guy giving us the hennas was israeli and was surprised to see us asking for something in hebrew, so we had some good conversation, and he was so happy to see that it was something in hebrew (which he speaks and writes) so he gave us all discounts. how awesome.

and then last night there was LOFT (living our faith together) which is a night chapel service that's really cool. and after that, we had another movie night in rebekah and franny's room (we wathched "she's the man"... hilarious everytime).

yup yup, so that's what i've been up to... ciao for now.

quest is finally over

what a day today.
college life is tiring... and classes haven't even started yet.

today's motto: learn to unicycle--make friends.
so, after dinner today, i decided to give my parents a little treat and go unicycle for them at the webcam. rebekah, shiloh, sarah, and franny tagged along and some of them called their parents too. i was just going to walk over to the commons to where the webcam was, but due to some peer pressure, i hopped on the unicycle (and completed two right turns!!) when i hopped on, people just stopped in their tracks, looked at me, smiled and were like, "ya! that's awesome!" so i was laughing the entire way. so we got a hold of everyone on the phone, and we all waved to the webcam and stuff. my parents got to see me unicycle as i unicycled around the commons. it's a pretty tough path... really hilly. so, on the way back, i insisted on walking...
however people stopped me as we walked by, and were like, "whoa, can you ride that?" i'd just laugh, and tell them ya. and then they would ask me to ride it for them... and as i did, seriously, they were in a bit of awe.
and to be completely honest--- it felt good :)

so, unicycles=friends.

and to top of the very long day, a dance on the front lawns. super late, lots of music, LOTS of people... so crazy. so i am exhausted.

and i am ready for a day off tomorrow.

i will post some pics tomorrow.

oh, and in the tennis world... today was my day: sharapova lost!!!(3rd round) and Andy roddick won!!!(also 3rd round).
all is right with the world.