Hit 'em hard, let 'em know who's who

I've been mocked, slapped, and incredulously gaped at for admitting this to people, but for those of you who don't know yet, I am an avid sports fan. I spent 5 hours today flipping from the Illinois/Arizona game, to the UCLA/USC game, to the Duke/Georgetown game (blast Georgetown for falling apart and losing in the last few minutes...), then to the Arkansas/Florida game. Of those four games, only one of the teams I wanted to win actually won. Fortunately, that team was Arizona, so I didn't have to remove my trachea with a pickle fork.
But I do really love sports, particularly basketball and football. I love the rules of the games, I love identifying with and hating players and coaches, and I am even rather emotionally effected by game outcomes. If any of you share my passion, I'd love to watch a game with you, although I warn you that I am prone to swearing, shouting, and tears.

In other news, yesterday was World AIDS Day. What did you do about it? I admit that I didn't do anything, aside from tell other people it was World AIDS Day.

I'm into having sex, I'm not into making love - 50 Cent

A friend suggested that the only way I could rejuvenize my blog would be a post about "love making". I pointed out that I know everything and nothing about love making, so it would be a boring post. He thought it sounded intriguing. To keep him from drowning himself in cheap whiskey and tear, I'm recounting the conversation, but not posting about love making.

Is it ok that, after spending three and a half years working toward a teaching degree, I don't think I want to teach? I got my assignment on Wednesday, and I'm down in Kansas City, teaching science and history to kids in an "urban" high school, and I don't have a place to live, yet. Freaky. Maybe I'll be the shabby, sort of smelly student teacher who doubles as a drifter and mumbles convoluted political innuendos under my gin-soaked breath. Maybe. I think every Christian school needs one of those.

Anyways, I don't think I want to teach in the US. Maybe outside the country, or maybe I'd rather work for an organization which works at community development, of which education is a part. But after all the unit plans, explanations of my double major, focusing events, discussions on cognitive development, and classroom observations, I don't like it any more. I know it's totally cliche to have a crisis of identity your senior year of college, but I'm having one anyway. Sometimes the Man just gets you down.

I dunno. Maybe I'll just sit around and wait for the Apocalypse, since Jeff's so sure it's coming soon, anyways. Rather than deal with issues, I'll wait for the world to end.

P.S. Is it weird to anyone else that it was 80 degrees on Tuesday and there are two inches of snow on the ground this morning?

A moment, please

Even though I never once watched his show, I feel that I need to join the rest of the world in saying goodbye to Steve Erwin, the Crocodile Hunter, killed by a stingray this week. As an aside, I think being killed by a stingray is actually pretty cool sounding. Better than heart disease, cancer, or drug overdoses, which will likely do in the rest of us. Morbid, yes. True....? Maybe?

In other news, I'm back in IA after an extended summer vacation due to the wedding of a very dear friend. I've already gotten three tickets on my new car from Dordt security (because they wish they had Volvos), fallen down the Southview stairs (because my flip flops are slick), had to change my schedule twice (because I have to be done by Christmas), and gotten into a fistfight with Carl Zylstra once (because he enjoys a good spar as much as I do).

I also love being the Gen 300 TA, because I can make the lives of Reid and Ross a living hell and get paid for it. Works for me!

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain....

I love rainy mornings. They make me want to wake up early and get to wasting my time right away. Lightning keeps striking around the neighborhood and my backyard is a lake. Monsoons = the best.
Reid and I got to hang out while Sarah was here, which involved drinking diabetes juice and watching the original Batman movie. It's all we could come up with after a half hour of thinking and complaining about how most of us just wanted to go to bed. But it was still delightful.

Things to do before I get to come back to school:
- buy a car - I will have great difficulty driving back to Iowa in twoish weeks if I don't.
- paint my room - mostly white, with one blue wall, but I really need to cover up all of the feet smudges and booger marks left on there from my growing up years.
- read a bunch of books - as a part of the independent study I decided to do to avoid having to take 23 credits in order to graduate in May. I'm way behind...
- get back in shape - there's no way I'm walking back on campus without looking totally sexy. How else am I going to score a hot guy in the senior scramble?
- Wrestle a grizzly bear. Or Jude Law - the grizzly would be a challenge, possibly helping contribute to the getting in shape mentioned previously. Or possibly contributing to a full body cast and getting my face ripped off. Jude Law, however, is a pansy, and would go down without much of a fight. But then maybe I could step on his not-attractive face. Word.

Whew, lots to get through! Hold on Iowa, I'm coming soon!

Go hippie, go wit' it

Sarah Slegers is in town, which is delightful, although the thing we've done the most so far is take naps. Which is ok with me. Tonight, hopefully, Sarah is going to meet up with Reid and Everett to go see some independent film type movie, but unfortunately I have to work, thereby missing the sexy party that will surely ensue.
Another interesting story: after a week of unusually heavy and constant rain, my mom, sisters, and myself were startled to hear a very loud *CRACK* coming from our backyard. We could not place the noise at first, but then I noticed that our hot tub was coming up out of the ground. My dad says its water pressure from overloaded pipes and saturated earth, but my thoughts? Zombies. Everyone knows they live under hot tubs, and why wouldn't they come out when their homes are flooded in order to terrorize the not-yet-dead? So far, they've only victimized other people, leaving us alone because we were so good as to host them, apparently. I was going to show you a picture, but digital camera pictures and dialup do not mix.
Sarah and I were talking about how we're going to miss those of you who left/graduated after this past year. We expect multiple visits, because what else do you have to do, now that you're out of college?

It's hard to argue when you're making perfect sense

Words to the wise:
* Don't drink spot cleaner on a dare, even if it advertises itself as "non-toxic". It will make you want to vomit on the guy who dared you. Yes, this is from personal experience.
* Don't try shoplifting from Rincon Market. You will be led away in handcuffs. Never fear, this is not from personal experience. I watched some lady learn this the hard way yesterday, after she jacked the last of our tamales.
* Always look busy or cruel on the bus, otherwise you will be hit on by drifters, preteens, and other women.
* Appreciate the music of Snow Patrol. It will make your life better.
* Read with the intent of educating yourself. It's helped me stay sharp this summer, and everyone loves a quick wit. Or maintains a bitter jealous hatred of quick wit.

Ok, that's enough of that. I went to go see the second Pirates of the Caribbean last week, which I did NOT like (yes, I said it), but I had to laugh because the number of pubescent girls, and guys, dressed like dirty pirate hookers was incredible. I wanted to run around screaming and slapping people, just to make them realize how stupid this all was.

In other news, pray for India. I have a friend on a missions trip there right now, and I pray that she's safe. But over 200 dead in those bombings is an atrocity. Pray for peace and justice.

Y'all gon' make me lose my mind...

Ah, the joys of Tucson bus-riding. After getting monsooned on during the walk to the bus stop, I froze in the AC, but at least it helped me dry off before getting to work.
For the half-hour ride, I was treated to a complete, obscenity-punctuated dissertation on the reason for gang warfare by a guy who was yelling about it to the guy next to him, loud enough for the entire bus to hear. He talked about how some guy had roughed up one of his fellow gang members, and how he was going to kill that guy, because you need to stick up for your brothers. My favorite line, however, was this, and I quote: "Those guys? F---, they ain't got shit! Now, me? I got shit." The whole ride I was really uncomfortable and kind of sick feeling, but that made me laugh out loud. Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta...
Does anyone else hate the Fourth of July, just a little. Or more than a little? I do, except I admit I'm a sucker for sparklers...

My heart knows me better than I know myself, so I'm gonna let it do all the talking

Hey kids.
Big news - I got a cell phone.
Yep, that's right. Now I'm always accessible. 520-784-3908.
If you are a creepy person I don't know and you try this number, I will find you and stomp you in the uvula. They will never find your body. You've been warned...
If you are a friend with my best interests in mind, feel free to call. Verizon calls are free, and otherwise there's nights and weekends.
I also really want jicama right now.
And I miss Nicaragua.

I'll hold your heart when times get rough

Dear faithful readers -
Just so you know, this whole not-posting for over a month thing was just to test you all in your love for me. You all pass with flying colors, and I sleep well at night knowing that I have sixteen comments on this last post.
I actually haven't posted in so long because I wanted to be able to say that I got a job, and it's taken me this long. I don't know how the rest of you do it, but it took me a month to find a job in this place. &%$!@#&$.... Anyways, I'm working at a deli, making sandwiches, scooping potato salad, and dishing up casseroles. I may also get two more jobs in the next few days, one as an overnight care provider for an elderly man (which makes me a wonderful person) and one as a cashier in a pet supply store (which makes me desperate for funds).
I'm also in an early morning math class for the month of June, which sucks with a capital SUX. It's three hours of class, with two hours of homework, four days a week. Poop.
Anyways, enough about boring things. Let's talk about exciting things that have happened since we last talked:
- I had two separate conversations about phallic symbols in the space of twelve hours, neither of which I started.
- I worked yesterday with a guy who reminded me of Goldberg from the Mighty Ducks movies. Except he wasn't funny.
- I went iceblocking, which is always awesome, except when all of the grass is dead.
- I have become the Trivial Pursuit champion of the world.
- I witnessed a knife fight at a bus stop on the way home from church.
- I babysat a dachshund puppy, who was the cutest thing ever, but he kept pooping on my carpet.
- I egged Reid, Seth, and Everett's house.
- I talked to Rachel Palmer about being engaged.
- I talked to Tony Blair about being Prime Minister.
Some of these are lies, but I'm not telling you which ones. The truth is stranger than fiction. Love you, kiddos. Now I have to go to class.

And goodbye makes the journey harder still...

To whom it may concern:
I am home at last! And in the spirit of High Fidelity, I will recount the events of my trip and arrival with a couple of top fives.

Top Five Crappy Things about the Drive Home
1. Being deprived of performing the Heimlich maneuver on a kid who was choking in a Wendy's in Colorado by some guy who thought he was the man and told me he would handle it.
2. Sleeping for an hour and a half in the fetal position in the passengers seat, surrounded by truck drivers, then getting up with the sun and back on the road.
3. Almost getting lost in Las Vegas, New Mexico, which is a dirty, dirty town.
4. Rush hour in Denver after a Rockies game.
5. All of the pretty scenery was in the dark by the time we got to it.

Top Five Awesome Things about the Drive Home
1. Peter, Paul, and Mary - they're going to be my activist theme music from now on.
2. John Piper sermons
3. Watching a prairie dog waddle across the road in front of me, though I was going 80 mph and could have squoooshed him.
4. Having a story to tell about this one time when I almost did the Heimlich on some kid who was choking.
5. A Mighty Wind - the Soundtrack

Yes, now it's time for me to get a job, get registered for summer classes, and somehow afford a car.
"How many ears must a young man have before he can hear people cry?" - PP&M. Oh folk rock.

Boys speak in rhythm, and girls just lie

I was lame last night and got myself all pumped up for an all nighter, being sure to complain about it to a bunch of people so they'd feel sorry for me. And then, at 2, I got tired and went to bed, failing to accomplish even close to everything I was supposed to. Sigh. So now I have to do it this weekend. *self pity*

I just purchased myself another ID card, because I grew tired of waiting for mine to be sent to me, and it turns out that, as of this morning, I had over $214 in declining meal plan money left. So I treated four people and myself to lunch at the grill this afternoon, and I've still got like $180. So if anyone on campus wants any sort of food this upcoming week, let me know, because I've got the hookup. I want to squander this fortune, rather than letting the college take it from me quietly. So this means 'tornadoes' every night all week. Maybe twice a night. Or cheeseburgers for breakfast. Awesome...

This afternoon, instead of doing work on my papers, I made Jello jigglers, because we've had jello sitting in our makeout closet since forever. I'd forgotten how much I appreciate a well-set jello jiggler.

Does the end of the schoolyear seem more surreal than anything to anybody else?

The angel opens her eyes

I was rebuked for not posting in a long time. So, instead of standing up for myself and asserting that I have too much to do to waste my time with posting, I'll just cave in and post.
I took one of those online, very empirical and conclusive quizzes to assess my personality, and it turns out I'm an idealist. No big surprise here. That's most likely why I hated the stigma of doughnuts in the Justice Matters tent this past week - don't bribe people to participate with doughnuts! They should care about these things because they are important, not because we're giving them tasty treats! Anyways, I think that's why I'm also struggling this semester. This semester, more than any other, I have felt very much that I'm just working for a grade right now. I'm not in it to learn, to better myself, and to enjoy the knowledge I'm gaining. I'm just in this to keep my grades up so I can keep my scholarships so I can continue to afford to go here. And not only am I an idealist, I'm an idealist in the Education department, which means I am now living a teacher's worst nightmare. The last thing teachers want is for their students to be performance-driven, working only for the grade. So it's frustrating for me, and I don't know how to snap myself out of it at this point in the game. Sigh.

On a different note, here's a picture of me and my sisters on our trip to Michigan this summer. I love my sisters, and I miss them a lot. Sara is thinking about spending most of the summer in New York with a friend, which I think would be a great opportunity, but it would also be sad.
On a final note, I helped the kids in my lab kill chickens for dissection on Wednesday, and it was pretty awful because one of the chickens refused to die, even after being swung around in circles by his neck (an attempt which got me covered in chicken sh*t). So the kid grabbed a dissecting knife and chopped its head off. It was pretty graphic and violent, but at the same time entertaining. Is that twisted?

Hello Ohio

Tonight I am home alone. I've been told that being home alone, doing homework, on a Friday night is a sure sign of losership, but I'm kind of enjoying it. I'm listening to Over the Rhine right now, in honor of Katy. Before that, I listened to Carbon Leaf, in honor of Rachel. And before that, in honor of hundreds of years of Spanish tradition, I listened to Carlos Montoya lay down some sweet Flamenco guitar tracks.

This upcoming week is Passion Week, which is my favorite eight days of the year. No kidding. Better than Christmas, better than the first week of summer, better than Spring Break. Not because it's necessarily ice-cream-sundaes-and-balloon-animals fun, but because this week is so important to the Christian faith. While I know I should be thinking about these things year-round, the Lenten season and especially Holy Week is when I refocus, remembering the agony Christ suffered, but even more the glory He claimed and promises me through his resurrection. I don't let myself get bogged down with the debate on campus about having Good Friday off, because I can observe Holy Week while I'm in school, and (not to slight the beliefs of anyone who reads this) I think that too frequently this debate is voiced mostly by people who just don't want to have school any more than they have to. But I am excited about this upcoming week, and I hope that you will all be especially mindful and reflective about the life of Christ and his sacrifice which assures us salvation and eternal life.

On a somewhat related note, during Praise and Worship the other night, I sang the line "Jesus, you're all this heart [referring to my heart] is living for." I sang it once, then couldn't sing it anymore, because it's not true. I live for many other things besides Christ and His Kingdom. While this is something that is worked out through sanctification, is it something that we can really sing? None of us will reach that point in this lifetime. I don't know, any thoughts would be welcome.

The tone of this post is more sober than usual, for which I do not apologize. But if any of you need some zany observation or experience to make this a complete blog-reading experience, In zoology the other day, when my students were dissecting fetal pigs, I felt something on my shoulder and turned to see a somewhat distorted pig face smiling at me. One of the students had completely skinned his pig, taking the skin off in one piece, and was displaying it like a hand puppet. After a little internal freakout session, I told him he should become a taxidermist. He responded by saying he wished he could tan the skin and make pig leather out of it. He was dead serious. Oh Iowa.

Things I learned this week:
- there is such a word as co-opetition, a combination of the words competition and cooperation, and I don't think that it is actually possible. In fact, I kind of expect the word to implode from internal contradiction, eventually.
- I have a "gang-bangah butt", according to Sarah. No ghetto bootie for me. Nope. I'm straight up gang-bangah. Word to all my boyz.
- there is someone on campus with all three Nickel Creek albums on his/her iTunes, and I love him/her for it.
- I'm much worse at pool than I thought I was.
- I apparently have a high tolerance for very little sleep. As evidenced by my being up for no reason at 1:30 AM after getting about 4 hours of sleep a night all week.
- Katy and I are funny, funny kids. Because our ed psych brochure had pictures of Richard Gere and Jennifer Grey (the actress from Dirty Dancing and Ferris Buehler's Day Off) on the cover and a clip art picture of a cactus inside with the caption "Discipline Plan(t)". Probably we aren't funny at all, but it sure seemed like it at the time.
- I am once again in love with college basketball. Nothing like a #1 seed being upset by an #11 seed in the Elite Eight to get your heart pumping.
- Neo-Marxism is really different from the original Marxism.
- there is nothing so boring that a well-placed exclamation point cannot liven up. (!)
I think I'm rambling now. I must be tired. Night, munchkins!

Jesus walks with them...

I find this picture kind of ironic because I hate pirates. But ninjas would never let there be lame wooden statues of them standing around San Fransisco, so my options were few.
This part of the semester is always really lame, because it's all work with the only thing to look forward to being saying goodbye to everyone. Hot. I still have two papers way overdue that I keep thinking about but not really working on. I blame my tuberculosis. Is that acceptable?
Tonight was our home concert to wrap up our two weeks of Choir Tour. I had a great time getting to know some people better and learn to really appreciate them, but I also had far too much time to learn how much I really dislike some of the dipwads (for you, Kathlyn) in our choir. I think that makes me a big jerk, but there's something about being ill and confined to a bus that makes me really know how to hate some people. Especially people with fluffy, digusting blonde afros or young women desperate to score a man any way they can. On the bright side, I'm one half of the Championship Rook Team. Still undefeated, which means it's a good thing that I am NEVER playing Rook again. It was the trip of a lifetime, but I'm glad it's over and I have my own space again. Here's to introverts!
And now I'm going to hit the hay, because I have to be up in not too long to set up a Saturday morning lab test for my sunshine children in my Zoology lab. Oh happy ones, how they will love this test!

What does it take to get a drink in this place

I'm wrapping stuff up around here before heading off on Choir Tour with the Dordt Concert Choir, which will hopefully be featuring my awesome overtones, if I can get over being so congested. I would complain about the two papers I have to write yet before going, but you guys don't care about those and I decided I'm just going to email them to the prof over break anyways, instead of killing myself trying to get them in now, so I won't complain about those. I could complain about how much of a mess our house is and that it needs to be cleaned before leaving, except I can't really complain when I am a major culprit for the mess. I could complain about not being able to sleep in EVER, but I like mornings, so I won't complain about that either.
One frustration I will voice, though, is my limited knowledge. I know that I strongly support social justice and ending poverty and all this stuff. But in Gen 300, when I try to vocalize these convictions, I don't have the knowledge of how government programs or private businesses really operate, so my ideas come across sounding transcendently idealistic. I guess I shouldn't complain about this, but should get to work building my knowledge.
We have very little food in the house, so it's been kind of funny figuring out what to make for dinner every night. Last night we had cheese pizza with green onions and spinach. I could have sliced a hot dog over it, or maybe some carrots, but I decided that was just too weird. So we ate our onion pizza plain. I wonder what tonight will bring...
Love and grace to all of you. For those of you I'm not seeing, have a wonderful week and a half. For those of you I'm going to see, I'm excited!

Crimson and Clover

Tonight, after an international meal featuring peanut butter soup by Katy, Sicilian Lent Bread by me, hoo-moose by Katy again, and German chocolate cake by Reid, watching Dave Chapelle and learning all about black people ("Is pimping easy?" "Hell yeah..."), we played MASH to find me a husband and a life. Yes, MASH. We are in junior high again. It was between my secret crush, Chad Nibbelink, Marcel Visser, Reid LePage, and Elliot De Wit. It ended up being me and Marcel in an apartment with a Saab, but I deemed the game null because we ended up with zero children. I can't be perpetually barefoot and pregnant if I'm not going to have any kids. No good.
In other news, I woke up at 9:15 this morning to pop the heads off of grubs looking for salivary glands to stain and squash in order to find giant chromosomes. If this sounds gross to you, you're right. I just threw up on my keyboard writing about it.
In other other news, L'Abri encouraged me, as it did Ross, Reid, and Jeff, to make a better effort at embracing popular culture in order to have a better platform from which to open dialogue with postmodern people in our popular culture. God is already there, we need to recognize Him and show Him to others who already understand the context, but did not previously recognize God as being the underlying power. That all sounded pretty amorphous. Maybe this is why I don't post very often.

In an octopus's garden...

The best things ever about the past week-ish:
- Sarah has agreed to let me use her car, so I don't have to bike across town on icy roads with flesh-freezing winds beating me in the face. Oh Sarah, you sweetie poophead!
- Matt Kunnari has an album of The Streets. I like The Streets.
- I got an overtones solo for the Concert Choir tour. I am so hot.
- Despite my best efforts, I actually have some talent in the realm of pool, as in billiards, but I feel dumb calling it billiards.
- Elliot De Wit and pinatas.
- In lab this past Wednesday, I loved teaching. And the Phylum Cnidaria.
- I've started loving Coldplay.
- Andrew some-Dutch-last-name played a bass guitar routine done by the bassist from Metallica, and while my knowledge of Metallica is still rudimentary, the routine was pretty awesome. The judging for the talent show was not one of the best things ever about the past week-ish.
- A homeless guy assured me that I would be a great teacher some day as I poured him a glass of milk.
- Sarah called Katy and I "poopheads" for making up crap about Boston. It's still funny.
- I made bread by hand, from scratch, for the first time, and reaffirmed my desire to be domestic someday. Screw the Women's Lib Movement. I want to be perpetually barefoot and pregnant.

cold hard b****es

Kathlyn Joy just had a moment of genius, and expressed this sentiment:
"More people should like fewer people."
I agree, Katy. There are lots of times when I don't like people, and I think things would be more realistic and less sugar-coated if we all admitted that we have trouble liking lots of people. So do we need to bother? I put to you that we do not. Take THAT Education department.

I often make "what the HECK?" faces at the students in the fifth grade classroom where I'm student teaching. So far they've handled it pretty well, but I'm afraid I might hurt one of them some day. I'm not sure that changes anything, though.

I want to go on a road trip to Vermillion, SD right now. But maybe I'd settle for curly fries from Hardees.

I'm at a place called vertigo

It turns out I'm the most pathetic weakling on earth. I have to bike across town to do my sixty hours of student teaching at the Christian elementary school, and it just about kills me every time I go. I end up getting off the bike and walking about half the time. Yesterday, it was gusting at 50 miles an hour into my face while I was trying to bike up a hill, and Mrs. Zylstra (wife of Prez Z) almost hit me with her blue PT Cruiser. Then I wiped out on a frozen puddle. I like the work at the school, but getting there and back is pretty much hell. What I wouldn't give for a bike with a few more gears. More than one, at least.
Last Saturday I had the opportunity to meat Ephron, one of the guys who goes here from the Caribbean, because I was walking back from the grocery store with my bags and he saw me and offered to help. It was the best part of my day.
Question - which are more frickin' awesome: ninjas or pirates? I think the answer is pretty obvious, but I'm interested to hear if anyone else has an opinion.

New Year's Resolution

Usually I don't make resolutions, because I'm bad at keeping them. I realize it's a little late to make one now, but who cares? I've decided I'm going to, as frequently as I can, wear blaze orange. It's my new favorite color, thanks to a shirt my sister didn't want and a sweatshirt Brielle left here. If anyone has any hunting gear or crossing guard wear they don't want, give it to me and it will be worn proudly.
Question: Are you wearing pink today? You'd better be!

This is the sound of settling

Back in classes!
Since I've got little else to say, I'll give you the run down of classes, everyone's favorite, I know:
Historiography - This class is going to kick my butt. Keeping up with reading will be a miracle in itself, but I already feel intellectually destitute trying to keep up with what Krygsman is saying, and it's only been two classes. Plus I have to read City of God by St. Augustine and write a 4 page report by the 26th, and I don't own the book yet. Rock on.
Applied Ed Psych - This class shows promise, especially since I enjoyed my first ed psych class so much, but we haven't really done too much yet. Today we watched a movie about 13 year olds having sex, so maybe that's a sampling of good things to come!
Gen 300 - This class, I've already decided, would be a lot better if there weren't 117 other people in the class. The issues that come up are going to be important and controversial, but when 5/6ths of the class is comatose, reviving only long enough to think less of those of us who speak up, it's more obnoxious than provocative.
Medieval History - I have high hopes for this class. There's a high percentage of underclassmen, so it's not so transcendentally academic as some history courses can become. And we get to watch movies like Braveheart and Monty Python and the Holy Grail during class.
Education 267 - This class has some long, drawn-out, jargon-filled name that I don't remember, but it's basically about high school and curriculum design. Despite initial reservations, I think it might actually turn out being ok. Today we talked some about the need to turn the entire educational system upside down. I can roll with that.
Teaching Science: Methods - I am more excited about this class than I've been about any class ever! It's my first night class, which set off alarm bells at first, but after going the first time, I'm so excited to teach. The guy who's teaching is so realistic and practical, funny, and original. If it sounds like I'm in love with him, it's because I am a little. Too bad he's married with three children, eh?
Concert Choir - We are going to kick some major a** this semester. We have about 7 gigs scheduled all over NW Iowa and Omaha, plus we're touring down in New Mexico, SoCal, Colorado, and, YES, the AZ. I sort of get to go home for break, even though we're on tour! I'm excited to show off my corner of the country to my friends who have never been. Plus, we're singing some of the most amazing music I've ever experienced. Hot.
Student Teaching-60 hours - Hopefully this happens. As evidenced above, I don't have a lot of space in my schedule. Plus I don't have a vehicle, so I'm stuck with working at a school that's within walking/biking/bobsledding distance. Here's hoping! If it doesn't, I'll use my womanly wiles to persuade Dr. Sewell into letting me take History of Calvinism.
Question for this post: Can you dance, like actually dance? I sure can't, and after just watching Save the Last Dance, I really wish I could. And that I had a black boyfriend, because that could be hot.

I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail

1. I am back in the States. My trip was FAN-FRICKIN'-TASTIC. I really don't know how to put it down in a post, but it was beautiful, funny, hard work, and relaxing, while also being a huge eye-opener to suffering and poverty in the third world. I will never be the same, I can safely say that much. I'm planning on setting up a webpage with pictures and commentary so people can get an idea of what I did in Nicaragua for two weeks, so I'll put that on here when it's set up.
2. There is a huge pile of dishes on the counter. I think it's been there all break, which, I admit, is pretty gross.
3. Brielle and Matt are now married. This is really happy, but at the same time sad, because I think all three of us remaining roommates will admit that Brielle was the social hub of our room. And the resident art major, so Katy will have to step up her work to redecorate our room. Maybe I can take some crayons to the walls as a way of helping.
4. It's lightly snowing here, and much colder than either Arizona or Nicaragua was even close to being while I was down south-er.
5. Classes start on Tuesday. I think I'm actually ready. I will be officially ready once I get all of my truly foul-smelling laundry done, and tackle the dishes. And register, because everyone knows that if you don't register, you will officially die at the hands of Ken Boersma.
6. I'm going to work at becoming a Metallica fan because Tom Dykstra told me to. I do what Tom says.
7. I miss my sisters. And parents.
Question: what's the big deal about New Year's Day? Every party I've been to I feel like a doofus yelling "Happy New Year" and throwing stuff in the air. Resolutions are something, but what's the big deal about making them on January 1? I dunno, the best feature I can pick out about New Year's Day is the Rose Bowl. Which is a great feature, but it doesn't have much to do with the holiday.