I think I stopped some time after the trip to virginia tech last time. We carved pumpkins and Mom and Amy brought me my car and Rachel and I worked on our costumes. We were fashion icons, as she was Jackie O and I was Audrey Hepburn. The boys were Scottish dudes, which was made funnier by the fact that there were real Scottish dudes there singing some song. Here you go...pictures...
The next week was really long and busy and pictureless. I finally got pictures from the Freshman who isn't a freshman from the time Julie and I frolicked in the empty reflection pond. Here's another picture! For the record, I am currently sitting here, crying over the movie Mona Lisa Smile. It should NOT make me cry. Fall break started with a Third Day concert, followed by Clemson losing to some team not worth remembering. After that was contra dancing with the hippies and men in skirts. Sunday we left for Helen, GA, where we visited the men in liederhosen (sp?) at Octoberfest, then we went on to our cabin at Vogel State Park. We hiked up Blood Mountain, the wrong way (cause we lost our trail). We basically went straight up the north face of the mountain. We froze while we ate lunch, then we hiked back down via the AT and a few other trails. We hung out after that and made s'mores and all that jazz. We hiked around the lake in the dark...such a brilliant idea. We packed up and left on Tuesday and came back to C-Town. I went to Greenville to vote and ended up staying overnight to come back the next morning. Oh, we also played in leaves on the trip. Awesome! The next three days made for an especially long week. Friday was high fiving. A group of us go out on the library bridge on Fridays from about 11 until 1:30 or so and we give high fives to everyone who comes past. I have about 80 pictures of high fiving, so I'll have to put just a few of them up here. That afternoon, Joe and I ran around on campus and took pictures of stuff and goofed off. Thus the picture of me playing in the grass. That night, I felt bad, but I went to the CCC pig picking and line dance. I learned the snowflake shuffle or whatever it's called, so I'm proud of that.
Saturday was the game. Mom, Dad, and Amy came to the game. It was a pretty good game. Very stressful, as there were a lot of close calls. We won. That's good. Julie and Rachel and I made cheesecake on Saturday night. Yum yum. This week is nice and quiet. I have a Thanksgiving dinner that some friends are having on Saturday, and I'm having lunch with a few people. Yesterday had lunch with Dad. Friday I'm going walking with Keeley. No exceptions. She can't get out of it with a crowbar and a saw. I gotta go. I'm working on homework right now and Rachel's coming to have tea with me in a half an hour.



And look! I got all of the pictures to line up in a nice row for me! Picture placement is so hard on this site. Don't know why. Not that it matters to most people, but since I like to tell my life in pictures, this is quite an accomplishment for me.

This is my official apology to those family members who might be cranky with me due to the fact that i am neglecting my blog. Sadly for them, I have to leave for class in two minutes, so yeah, no blog today. Instead, I will add the pictures of Cincinnati that I failed to actually include in the previous post. Not that anyone noticed except for me.
Some other time, cause i can't find the pictures...

Sadly (or happily?) you are not going to get a day by day, blow by blow detail of everything to happen in the last month. Sorry people. Take what you can get. The Friday after my last post, Joe and Julie and I went to G-vegas and stayed with my familia, complete with G-ma and G-pa, because we were running the Race for the Cure on Saturday. The race was fun and I met my goal of running it in under 30 minutes. Joe is crazy and ran the race twice. I got a phone call that night during the football game from a certain crazy uncle of mine who had run a 15k that morning (he's insane too...side note, sorry i didn't call you back! i kept forgetting!). That night was the (i think) Louisiana Tech game. I think. It was a pretty fun game. I mean, we beat them. That's always good. Julie and Britta and I got bored and left after halftime to go watch Pride & Prejudice. That was fun. I slept through most of it, but managed to wake up for all my favorite parts. The next week was probably very busy, but I likely don't remember it. The week of the Wake game is when we had our CSF fall retreat. Way fun. We stayed in a yurt. It was a ropes course. That picture is of me up on the high ropes course. It was a moment where I had to deal with my apparent fear of heights. I have discovered that I have several fears: unsecure heights (if i'm safe, then no big deal), drowning, and crossing without a crosswalk. Yep. The retreat was fun, and I did indeed make it to the next step. What you can't see is me walking on the two parallel wires from that last step, all the way over to the next tree. The following week was also really busy. I accidentally (I'm gonna kill you, Wes) became president of MA (material advantage). That Friday was Joe's and my 6 month, so we went to Fall for Greenville/ Fall over on Greenville/ Fall to Greenville/ Fall in Greenville to hear the bands and eat the food. There was Dr. Pepper Steak Kebobs (mmmmmmmmm). We (myself and several other people who are in CME) went to Cincinnati that weekend and into the next week for the MS&T (material science & technology) convention. It was way fun, informative (that's for mom), different, and it was a pinnacle moment in my life (that's for dad). Have a few pictures of Cincinnati...
The next week only lasted 2 days, but I had a lot of test in those 2 days. It was homecoming weekend, so I went to Tigerama on Friday night with Julie and Holly, then I went to the Gulu Walk with the High Five club at midnight. It was really cold. Ever since, I've been pretty stuffy. ESPN Gameday was in Clemson on Saturday, for those who didn't see it. I walked down to campus and saw that and looked at the floats. I screamed myself hoarse at the football game on Saturday night. We won, of course. Possibly the best football game I've ever been to. I even got my picture with the tiger finally! Except for the Carolina game freshman year, when the fight broke out and I was on the second row. Sunday was a bit quieter. My car went kaput, so Dad came to look at it and we ended up having it towed back to Greenville to the Volvo place. The week was busy busy busy. But, on Thursday, after much stress of trying to get the tickets, I finished my test and got in the car and Julie, Britta, Rachel and I drove to Blacksburg for the football game. Before you think it, I KNOW that we lost. But, it was a fun trip. We drove up and got there just in time to see kickoff. We sat in the middle of their student section, which was so funny. We learned that their guys LOVE Clemson girls. And who wouldn't? But their girls aren't very big fans of us. We got called a few things, but we mostly kept our sarcastic return remarks to ourselves and the guys in front of us who were both sober and nice. One of them had a girlfriend who had graduated from Clemson. They were nice enough to save me from the guy who really liked to play with the pom pom on my hat. He was really drunk and wanted to actually talk to me by the end of the game. We drove back from the game and got home at 5 am. Yes, that's right. 5. I ended up getting to class/work at around 9:30 the next morning. I was really lucky, because Dr. Skaar (my 8 am teacher) said that they just went to get coffee, because he didn't want to teach. Today, I'm doing laundry and stuff, carving a pumpkin with some friends, then finishing off my halloween costume. Tonight is the halloween party. Yay!
That's all I've got for you guys.

Hello, it's been a while, hasn't it?

Hello family, since most of my readers are family. Hello to the rest of you as well. It's been a while since I've posted. A bit busy, you know? I have a LOT to write about, so if you'll forgive me, I'm going to put it off for a bit longer, because I only have 15 minutes to write right now. I have tons of pictures and stories for you, so just be patient and I'll come back to the blog world soon enough. Sorry I've let you down (cause someone, I think it was auntie M, noticed my absence and said something). Anyway, I'll give you a real post soon enough. Just hold your horses!

Today is Wednesday, September 27, 2006
My to-do list was so boring today that i won't even bother sharing it with you.

Last Friday, I got to sleep in a little bit before getting up to do some homework, because I didn't have transport class. So, after my one class, I went out to the library bridge and high-fived with the high-five club. I had no idea how much fun high fiving is. SO much fun. After high-fiving, Joe and I had lunch, then headed out to the Chapmans' with Sara to go out on the boat. By the time we got started, Derek had joined us, so we rode around and just enjoyed doing nothing in particular for a while. Joe's parents got to town at around 4:30, so we went back and picked them up and dropped off Sara and Derek. We then headed toward Clemson, getting back to the Chapmans' just as it started to pour down rain. We went to dinner at Explorer's and even did some trivia while we were there. We ended up joining a bunch of Joe's friends who were there and sort-of hopped around town for the rest of the night.
I watched the parking lot at church from 8 to 10:30 on Saturday, then went to the game. I chewed a girl out for being in our section. I tried dealing with her nicely, but she gave me lip, and I wasn't about to take that. If you really want to hear the story, you'll have to ask me. I left the game early because it was hot and I was getting dizzy. I went with Joe over to Derek's parents' tailgate. That was yummy food. I took a nice long nap on Saturday evening, then got up and went to the latin party at the basement. I was pretty much worn out before the party even got into full swing. I got home pretty late/early that night.
Sunday, I got to see Jon and Jared and Richard, because they were in town for Matt & Amanda's wedding, which was cool. We went to lunch at Monterrey, where our party of 15 grew to be 31, counting Robert. Poor Monterrey. After that, I went to Rachel's to meet with her and Julie. After that, I went and worked on my take-home test for Dr. Skaar. I took a little break to go to PSA, then worked on the test again.
Monday was the day that God decided to tell me to take a chill pill. I woke up late (as in, at the exact time i usually walk out the door), but still made it to class before everyone, then I was late picking up the football tickets, but the office hadn't closed yet. I was late to CSF but it didn't matter. It seems like everything worked itself out. I also ran about 3.5 miles with Julie.
Tuesday, don't really remember much. Oh, I made soup, and there was a Keramos meeting. The MS&T is beginning to be a bit of a big fiasco, but never fear, everything works itself out. See, I learned that from Monday...
Today was pretty slow. It rained this morning, but the weather reports said it wasn't rainy, so as far as I'm concerned, there was no rain. Ha ha. I made fried broccoli this afternoon. Holly and I ate too much of it. It made us a bit sick. We had church tonight. Quite nice. I did some homework and finally figured out what was going on with the whole circle thing. Now I'm writing to my very small readership and changing my buddy icon to Judy Jetson, because Dory the fish suddenly turned into a really creepy kid today. Like REALLY REALLY creepy. Don't have a clue why.
I think it might be bedtime. I have to stop anyway, because it won't be Wednesday for much longer.

hum de dum

It's Thursday again!

Today is 14 September 2006
My to do list is as follows:
~pray for Julie & Rachel
~grocery shopping
~turbokick with Julie at 5:15


Pretty short list today. But that is because everything was due today and yesterday.
Last Friday, I got new running shoes. Clemson men's soccer put the whup on Maryland. It was quite an exciting game. After that was a visit to the Riviera to watch Tripp's band play. Saturday, I went with Joe, Sara, Barrett, & Tripp to somewhere in North Carolina to go hiking/spelunking. I am still quite scraped up from it. I was pretty sore for a while, but it was really fun. I didn't know I had so much upper body strength as I do. After the trip, I watched the end of the football game, which we lost. Stupid blocked extra point. Sunday was church and lunch with my family, then I went to PSA with Joe. Monday was a very long and icky day. I went to turbokick with Julie and Jenna. Fun stuff. I didn't know my abs reached all the way up over my ribs. Tuesday was a field trip.

Today is Friday, September 15, 2006
My to-do list reads as follows:
~lunch with Danny
~pray for Julie & Rachel
~dinner with Lori some time
~Cube 2 at around 10

Okay, so Tuesday's field trip was quite horrendous. I mean, I enjoyed seeing the Imperial Die Casting plant, but the man who gave us our tour insulted and offended all sorts of people groups. First he made rude comments about how jobs are all going to the "far-east" with Dr Lee (Dr. Ree) sitting right there. He also made a comment about tree huggers. I also felt it was inappropriate for the vice president of the company to tell us that we should finish college so that we don't end up working out on the plant floor. And then he said that the reason you work is to make money. Doesn't he realize that he wouldn't make money without the people out on the plant floor? And really. He should not be making those kind of comments to a tour group. Oh, and the tour lasted an hour longer than it was supposed to, so I got back barely in time for girls' bible study. Bible study was lovely. It was nice to see the girls, and really fun to share about times in our lives when we've been rewarded for trusting in God.
Wednesday was rainy. Ick. No fun there. I went to the Society of Women Engineers meeting and I am way pumped about doing that. We might get to go and talk to girls about engineering at the local schools.
Yesterday, the weather was gorgeous. I got my Keramos letter. Keramos is the "National Professional Ceramic Engineering Fraternity." Basically, the CME honor society. That's way cool, so yeah. Went grocery shopping, read cosmo to Holly and Alisa. Went to turbokick with Julie. It's interesting to have 2 different teachers, because each of them focuses on a different part of the body at the end. So, with the two together, I get an ab workout AND a leg workout. I'm getting better at the whole routine though. I'm not coordinated enough for the part at the start of the turbo section yet. Last night, Joe and I had hamburgers and peas, then we sat and talked for quite a while before going running. We had to cut it short, because running after turbo was more than my legs could handle.
Gotta run, class time!

so i never finished the last post

Today is Thursday, September 7, 2006.
Today's list of things to do is as follows:
~pray for Julie & Rachel
~get new running shoes
~transport homework due tomorrow
~thermo problems due tomorrow
~run

So, since last Thursday, here's what's been going on...
On Friday, I went with Joe, Tripp, and Thomas to the First Friday Parade. The schedule I printed out 2 weeks earlier said it was at 5, but the parade was actually at 6. Strange. So we got there a bit early. I saw the Dulls with Monica and Teodora. We got to spend time making fun of all of the different cheers the sororities did (sorry Rach-love, some of the other groups had some very strange cheers. yours was good, and you also looked way hot...of course...). After the parade, I hurried home to get showered and ready to go. I had about 45 minutes to get ready in, and it's a miracle that I turned out so well as I did. Joe came over at 7:45 and we took a few pictures of ourselves (cause we looked good!). I had no idea where we were going, but it turned out that we were heading to the Liberty Hall Inn in Pendleton. It's a cute little cafe in a gorgeous old house. The food was wonderful. It was really sweet, because Joe was so worried that I'd like the place. After dinner, we went to Pendleton Elementary and played on the playground. Everyone loves playing like a kid every once in a while. It started raining very very hard, so we got fairly soaked. I went and changed my dress (hence the reason we look so mismatched in the second picture, which I think is the cutest picture ever), then we went over to Joe's and wired speakers for the party.
Saturday was the football game. I've got a lot of pictures of that, so I'm going to just post most of them at the end of this post. The game was way exciting. Clemson won, 54 to 6, against Florida Atlantic. After the game, Julie and I watched the Tennessee game, which was also an exciting game. I took about an hour nap, then it was time for the party at the Basement. Party was way fun. I got home at around 4. I got up and did some homework, then went to church. I lost my Bible, but I found it that night, wedged between my bed and the wall. Julie and Rachel and I had awesome devo time together on Sunday afternoon. It was great to get to spend the time talking and praying together. Monday was an OK day. Rachel and I went to Anderson and I got a new devo book. Then Julie and I walked perimeter before CSF. Joe made dinner after that. Yummy. Tuesday was long and uneventful. We had girls' bible study, then I went and watched Monica and Teodora for a few hours. Wednesday was class, then lots of homework, then church, then Joe and I went running and he solved a math problem for me. (yay!) Today, I went to class and all that jazz. I was almost late for my first class...ALMOST. Julie and I were supposed to go get running shoes, but she's grocery shopping and I'm trying to do homework, so that's not gonna happen. I got a card from my mommy and a card (hand drawn and painted, might I add) from my sissy, so that was pretty awesome. I'm going to eat lunch, then work on homework. Tonight, Joe and I will be working on the next chunk of Galatians. There's a soccer game tomorrow...that's all I've got.

orange is my favorite color...

Okay. Today is Monday, the fourth of September, 2006.
Today's list of things to do is as follows:
~pray for Julie & Rachel
~transport homework due Friday (originally due Wednesday)
~2 questions, chapter 4, for 319 (dr. lee) due tonight
~fix 208 homework, due tomorrow
~get burger meat & buns
~walk/run with julie at 6:20

th-th-th-thursday

Today is Thursday, the 31st day of August, 2006. 122 days remain in the year.
Today's list of things to do reads as follows:
~get barrier passes for games
~thermo homework due tomorrow
~e-mail girls' bible study
~get notes back from 210
~work heat transfer problem
~run
~diff. eq. problems due monday

I am very glad I got the page-a-day calendar. It's not huge, but at least I have room to write all of my assignments however I want. And, I can make my grocery list. Classes are going well. I take it as a good sign that I enjoy going to my Thermo class and my Transport Phen. class. It could be because I love Dr. Skaar and Dr. Lickfield, but who knows.
Saturday, we went rafting on the Nantahala. I couldn't care less if I spelled that wrong. The first picture is of our boat headed toward the big falls thing... Brandon, Jenna, Lori, Joe, Julie and myself made an excellent team...
Right up to the point of the second picture, when we went down the falls backward/ sideways. It was pretty funny. In the middle of the picture, you can see my green life-vest sliding into the middle of the boat. I ended up on the floor of the boat. On the right, you can see Jenna being completely soaked by the bulk of the falls. Lovely, I know...
On Sunday, I went grocery shopping. It was quite successful as far as grocery shopping trips go. I am currently determined to get into shape for the Race for the Cure and eventually for the Cooper River Bridge Run. It would be my first 10k. Luckily, that one's not until March or April. Julie and I are getting new shoes next Thursday afternoon.
Joe is currently teaching/ reminding me how to play chess. It takes way too much thinking. But it's pretty fun. I find it exciting to be able to think out all the different possibilities from one move. Although it eventually makes my brain hurt. On the bright side, I'm gonna kick his butt one of these days... maybe.
Tomorrow is the First Friday Parade. I'm hoping that this year's parade won't be marred by the need to airlift someone to the hospital again. For those who don't know or don't remember, a little girl was run over last year and had to be airlifted out. But the helicopter was cool.
First game is Saturday against Florida Atlantic. If we lose, our football program should be abolished. First party is Saturday night..."Club Basement." Should be a blast.
I made a clock. I would like to share it with all of you, because I'm pretty proud of it. Here you go... Have a great week!

Classes...

So, today marks the beginning of the school year. I always love starting a semester off right with a good 8 am class. Especially with Dr. Skaar.
Backing up now, I'm going to just touch on the highlights of the past week...
Everyone came back to Clemson. Yay!
I had a lovely 4.5 hour lunch with Bon-Bon on Friday. We talked for a LONG time.
Saturday was the Really Good, Really Big, Really Cheap Book Sale for the Greenville Literacy Association. We volunteered, but I still got several books, including a road atlas and Pat the Bunny. Saturday night was Taco Night. Fue muy loco. Nobody died from my cooking. We had a lot of people there, and even some freshmen (yay for Cole, Staci, David, and Johnathon).
Sunday was the big potluck dinner at church. Rachey and I hung out after that and talked about the year and stuff...Julie came and joined us and we did something i don't remember.
Monday, I cleaned and ran errands until Joe came back at around 5:15 or so. Yay for that. Needless to say, I was (and still am) very berry happy to see him. I might have missed him quite a bit. Maybe. So I helped him unpack, then we went downtown for a while to see people down there. I had CSF at 7, then Rachel and I went back to pester him. We went to Bowman for a little while, then watched some Ali G show, then we just kinda hung out and talked.
Yesterday, i went to the dentist, took a long nap with carson (the doggg), got a hair cut, got soaked in the rain, went to the block seating meeting, then to the PSA burger thing, won a $100 gift card, took a nap, and went to bed.
This morning's class with Dr. Skaar was interesting. Being that there are 8 people in there, i had better be there every time. I have class in about half an hour...we'll see how the rest of the week goes.

out of print books and mountains of clothes

So we went to the beach last week. It was just the girls. We went to Seabrook Island and were bums for the week. We did, however, take a break from our strenuous sunbathing to go shopping in Charleston. I came back from home to Clemson on Monday. Julie and I ran around and ended up watching three movies, Talladega Nights, then The Descent and Audition later at Tripp's place with Tripp, Julie, Sara, and Barrett. That shindig ended at 3:30 am...just a little bit late...
Yesterday, I cleaned and did laundry and dealt with all of the stuff I had to do. I went downstairs and saw paul our (not anymore) freshman and Fred the dog. Fred is crazy...but he's cute and you can't help but laugh at him. Later, Julie and I went with Paul, his parents, and his roommate to moe's for dinner, then watched House. Today, I got to visit financial aid TWICE. I went in the morning, but they didn't have the letter I needed to sign, so I had to go back again later. I went back again and discovered that a lady had passed out in (of all places) the room that my letter (and Will's) was in. The EMS wouldn't let them go in to get the letters, so we had to wait for about 20 minutes before they got the letters out. I went to get my books and, $450 later, I was left with "Introduction to The Thermodynamics of Materials," "Differential Equations," "Principles of Heat Transfer," and "Manufacturing Processes for Engineering Materials." One of my books is listed as "out of print"...that means that there shouldn't be a book for this class. Stupid teacher requests a book that's out of print. I went to Wal-Mart and did my grocery shopping. I also have replaced all 8 of the bulbs that were out in our apartment. There's one I haven't gotten yet, cause it's the light in our garage...I don't wanna do that one. I'm gonna go in a few minutes to the bookstore on campus to see what I can find there, then I'm gonna go empty my notes from spring semester out of my locker in the library. Sounds exhilarating, doesn't it? Tonight, Julie and I are going to go pick up Rachel from the airport. Yay for Triumvirate reunions! Should be insanity. Be thankful you won't be there...

The Trip Back from Texas: The Return of The Queen (and the Kings)

Where was I?
Oh! So the temperature started fluctuating and spiking about every 2 hours or so, so we would stop and let the car cool down a bit. I passed out in Atlanta, not long after our slightly frightening (to me anyway) jaunt down the wrong end of MLK drive/blvd/ave/whatevs. I faintly recall Danny saying something to me, and I was awakened at one point by my phone (it was Joe, enquiring as to whether or not we had had any more car trouble or something...I'll confess I was half asleep on the phone, so I want to apologize here for anything strange I may have said.). We got back to Clemson at around 2:30, and I was in bed by 3 (am. not pm.). This morning, I had planned on going to work at around 10. Then my alarm went off and I reset it for later. Four times. I ended up getting out of bed at around 10:30. It was a lovely rest. I unpacked and repacked for the beach, I did my laundry, I washed the stink of the interstate out of my hair (we had had to keep the windows down, because the air conditioner was putting a strain on the car), and I talked to Julie. We went to lunch at the China Buffet and had a good chat. We then proceeded to watch tv for the rest of the afternoon. We started out at her place, then we went to my place, where I made burgers and peas. A rather sparse dinner, but enough to sustain us. We watched 7th heaven, then she left. I'm all packed up and ready to leave tomorrow. I'll either be driving home after work tomorrow to leave for the beach on Wednesday, or I'll be leaving work when mom calls me and driving to Greenville to go to the beach tomorrow. Either way, I'm going to the beach. Yay! I can't wait to lay in the sun and do nothing for a few days.
Have a great week!

home again, home again, jiggety jig

This is our adorable matching golf team. I mentioned earlier that they came in second place.
Let's see...So we went to our classes and stuff on Saturday. My first class was a small group of five of us, all girls. We sat and discussed and swapped ideas about our girls' programs. I think I picked up quite a bit from the other ladies. My second class disappointed me, because it wasn't very well organized and I think the importance of the topic was lost in the muddle. After classes, we went to the Cheesecake Factory with Rachey and her momma. It was possibly the yummiest thing ever.
We then went (and Rachel too) with the groups from Delaware and Virginia Tech to the movies to see Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. (The second picture is of the whole group at the movies. See in the back middle? It's my Rachey!) I hardly stopped laughing through the entire movie. We took Rachel back to her mommy, then went back to the dorms. After the other groups got back to the dorm, several of us went swimming in the fountians on campus. We had to be told to get out. hehehe. We packed up the car yesterday morning and, after finding some caffeine free dr. pepper, got on the road a little before 8:30 greenville time. We were making excellent time when the fan that runs the air conditioner started making a squealing noise. Then, the temperature gauge suddenly got really really high. Anyway, we pulled off the interstate at a gas station in Bolton, Mississippi. The car smoked for a while, then we opened it up and looked at it until we had determined that we didn't know what was wrong with it. Then some guy came out and told us that his friend was a mechanic. Anyway, that guy came out and took a look at it. He said it was a broken water pump, and that he could replace it for us.
So we spent a little time at the gas station, hanging out at the picnic tables under the trees. It was more like 3.5 hours than a "little time," but hey, it works. This picture is of the guys playing Phase 10 at the gas station. After they fixed it, we got back on the road, having given up on being back by 10 or 11. We drove for about 2 hours when the temperature started spiking and fluctuating again. So we stopped and let it cool down. We discovered very quickly that the temperature spikes every two hours or so...
I'll have to finish this saga later. More important things need to be done now. Like bonding with my Ju-Bear and stuff. yeah.

Texas, day 5

How ya'll doin?
Obviously, a few days are missing.
Anyway, last time, I promised a story about the strange people I had encountered. My day on Thursday began when a 50-something man offered to give me a personal tour of Dallas (kinda creepy) after I asked him what there was to do nearby. Then, I was treated very rudely by the woman at Barnes & Noble when I asked her if they had wireless ("well it says it on the door, doesn't it? i mean, i don't know, but i'm pretty sure that means that we do..."). There was the very kind man who gave me free iced tea because he had already closed up the coffee shop. Then, there was the creepy guy who stalked me. He kept changing direction when I did and stopped and watched me and stuff. Creepy. Anyway, no more trouble from him.
Thursday night, we had an opening session, then we had a worship time in the atrium of the student center. The room has amazing acoustics, so it was really neat to hear everyone singing. We even drowned out the radio playing in the background. Bret and Summer Morris are here, because Bret is leading singing. It was really great to see them. Summer even remembered me from my first year of camp. The sessions were really nice yesterday. We ate dinner with some people from Delaware and Virginia Tech that Mooch knew. It was at this place called "Bubba's Home Cooking." How awesome is that? Anyway, It was very nice to be able to meet a female my age at this conference. There aren't many of those. We had a very long session at 7 that ran over into the next session. It was a bit of a tiring session, so Mooch and I skipped the artist who was there for the last session and got slushies instead. Today, we have two small classes, as well as the big sessions, so we're all trying to decide which class we want to go to.
That's all for now. Looks like it's breakfast time...later!

Texas, day 3

Texas rocks. Oh yeeeeeaaaah!
Currently, the three hoodlums are sitting around, drinking and throwing their sodas. Mooch just called me a negative person. Danny and Mooch got 2nd in the golf tournament today, though the story is that they would have won had there not been extenuating circumstances. We left Tuesday afternoon and went to Nash-vegas to stay with Danny's mom for the night. Auntie M and Uncle David came over to see me, so that was cool. We went swimming in the back yard, where I was pelted by every projectile in the pool. It felt good, though, after a hot afternoon in the car. We got up the next day and drove all day to Dallas. We are staying in a dorm at SMU. We went to a burger place called Goff's that overcharged us on burgers. We then discovered Dr. Pepper slushies at the 7/11 across the street from our dorm. I don't have a roommate yet, hopefully I don't get one. While Danny and Mooch got up and playaed golf today, Matt and I wandered around the area and did some shopping. More later about the strange people I encountered.

Matt would like to add that the water tastes like dirt.
Danny has nothing to add.
Mooch isn't listening to tell me if he wants to add anything.

We've got our opening session soon.

it's almost August (in 10 hours, to be exact)

It used to be that August meant the end of the summer. Then, August meant it was almost the end of the summer. Now August means that there are still several weeks left in summer.
Here's Kelsey and I before the wedding. She looked absolutely gorgeous, despite the heat. We repeatedly asked her why anyone would get married on July 22 in South Carolina. Anyway, it was raining that morning, so we were very pleased to come outside and see that it was sunny as could be. I guess we'd rather sweat like mad than be soaked from the rain. I didn't fall on my four inch heels, although the guy I walked out of the wedding with practically dragged me out. I had to run to keep up with him.
I have tons of pictures from the day. All of them turned out to be pretty darned good. Anyway, I am now come to grips with the fact that Kelsey is what she's taken to calling "an old married woman" now. Alrighty... moving on...


And here we have Amy and I, looking as cute as ever...
I have, at this point, rejected the tall heels in favor of my brown flip flops. How is a girl supposed to dance in heels like that?!

Mo is in Pascagoula, Mississippi (or, as Lori likes to say, M1551551991) this week with the youth group from Northeast. They are removing and replacing the drywall (and painting too) in the sanctuary of the congregation at which they are staying. Should be a great time for all of the kids. There are around 36 going (including adults).

I am leaving tomorrow for Texas for the National Campus Ministry Seminar in Dallas. I'm going with the boys (Danny, Matt, and Mooch). We'll be leaving in the afternoon and staying in Nashville with Danny's family, then going the rest of the way on Wednesday. On Thursday, the guys are defending our honor in a golf tournament (or something like that). Then the conference starts that night. It should be an awesome experience, and I hope to gain some knowledge from it that I can put to use in the girls' Bible study. Speaking of that, it's time to be working on ideas for the year, since we're not using a book this time. I think it'll be alright, since Julie and I seem to prefer the "whatever we feel like discussing" lessons.

Gotta run. Time to get out of the lab and run some errands.

So, this is what I tend to spend a lot of time doing: chilling. Yep. In case you can't tell, this is a photographic example of me chilling.
I get the lovely privilege this weekend of being in the wedding of one of my best friends since 5th grade. We promised each other in the 8th grade that we'd be in each other's weddings, but I didn't expect to have to hold true to my promise quite so soon. I've come to grips with the situation, though, and I am truly very happy for Kelsey and Allen.
I will be 20 in exactly one week. I always love my birthday. Who doesn't love their own birthday? I always love Amy's birthday, because it means mine is coming up soon. My birthday always signifies that the summer is nearing its end. This birthday is an odd one. Nobody makes a big deal about 20. It's got a lot more significance than we give it. My mother has been going around, talking about how strange it will be not to tell people that she has 2 teenage daughters (although, teenager always makes me think of the kids Amy's in school with, not people my age). Sadly, my 20th birthday also marks the end of Julie and Rachel's last hope for a teen mom in the triumvirate. We shall have to pass the torch on. Maybe to Holly or something like that. Being 20 is going to make me feel so old. Despite the fact that most of my friends are older than me, and a lot of them are already 21. It's an odd birthday, though, because it bears no significance.
There's Blake, who has very recently turned 27. He's unhappy about that, because it means that he is only 3 years away from being 30. Then, we'll officially label him as an old man. Poor Blake.
I'm getting off of work in five minutes and I am going to go to the pool. I hope very much that the pool will be open this time. Especially since I have no other way to find out except to drive all the way over there. Augh. I really hope it is open. It is way stinking hot here.
Gotta run!

oh, and by the way

by the way, my nails are quite long now. one of them is kinda brittle, so i had to file it down a bit, but for the most part, i'm doing exceedingly well. no desire to bite. i finally quit. yay!


mind you, i'm sure i'll bite them all the first instant that i feel any stress.

No, I don't want coffee.

I realized this morning how repetitive my life is in the summer. I went home this past weekend. As I do every weekend. We had a shower for Kelsey. It was more like a girls' night, but it was way fun anyway. She's getting married next Saturday, the 22nd. I've decided that it's okay, that I can let her go. I'm really truly happy for her. Anyway. We had our little party on Saturday. We had these cute little girl cookies. I've decided that this one looks like me.

Anyway. We had the Mercy Center on Sunday, so that was fun. I realized that I have now been going to the Mercy Center for 10 years. We pretended to have a cake for Amy's birthday (which was yesterday), since we get all of the cast-off cakes from Publix. I came back to Clemson after that. Monday, Jon came into town, which was cool, since we haven't seen him in a while. He, Mooch, Cole, Beth and I went to the Astro to see "Stick It". Yes. That's the gymnastics movie. Anyway.
Tuesday was a rather poopy day for a while. If you must know why, you'll have to ask me. Most everyone (except my roomies) was back from Mexico by then. We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean after I got off of work. That was fun. We then went over to 103H and watched tv and chatted until the all-star game. We ordered chinese. Yum yum.
Yesterday was Amy's birthday, so I went home after work and surprised her and gave her her birthday present. We all went over to PF Chang's for dinner, cause Amy loves that place. We went to church after that so I could help mom with some work camp stuff, then I went and got Amy's cake and we had ice cream cake that was as hard as a rock. I figured it out: the trick is to cut it with a knife that you soak in warm water.
Today is Rockhoppers for trivia night. That's all I got planned. Gotta go home this weekend and clean the house and change the sheets on my bed so that kids can stay in it next week. Then, I'm helping Mrs. Suzy with registration on Sunday.
Oh, and the reason my life is repetitive. Every morning, about 9:15 or 9:20, BD tells me he's going to Java City and asks if I want anything. Every morning, I say no. Go figure.

i would like to lodge a complaint

I would like to issue a formal complaint against those members of my family (immediate and extended) who have not posted on their blogs in a while. it is the opinion of the author of this blog that those who have blogs should use them once in a while. there. point made.

8:35 am...

Yes, it is 8:35 am. I am grumpy already. Wouldn't you be if you got up at 6:15 and walked across campus for no reason? I'll get to that in a minute...I've got to back up first...
my Ju-bear came to see my 2 weeks ago, so YAYYYYY for that. We had wings in G-vegas when she came...very ecclectic group that went: Mooch, Holly, Ju, Me, and the Germans. And Eric. We went to the pool the next day. (now THERE'S something I'm trying to do less of. Now that I have a tan, I'm really trying not to spend a ton of time in the sun, cause I'd like to A) not get skin cancer and B) not look like a raisin when I'm old) Thursday, we went to Six Flags. Woo Woo!!!! I'd never been. I had forgotten how much I like rolley coasters (yes, I spelled it wrong. I know, I know...). We got nice and roasted in the sun, I nearly passed out in line for Superman, and I drove in Atlanta for the first time. Party!!! I just realized how not-fun I made it sound there...it WAS fun...I promsie!
I didn't have to work from June 28 until tomorrow (the 7th), so I went home last Tuesday and just came back last night. It was nice to move a little slowly for once, just roll out of bed when I want to (even if it is 8:30 am...). I got the invitations sent out for Kelsey's shower finally, I worked on the housing list for work camp (and made the name tags), and we went to
Commerce to go shopping on Friday afternoon. We cleaned on Saturday and painted on Monday and Tuesday (it's time to paint the house...eek!). I got Mo's birthday present yesterday (her b-day's next Wednesday), and then drove back juet before church. There were 11 people at church last night. Quite the party.
I got up at 6:15 and went to the Hendrix Center for orientation (since no one else is here to go). I got there to find out that our day was yesterday...odd, since orientation starts on monday and thursday every other time. Oh well. I got my coffee, wandered back home, and I am now watching the today show...okay, regis and kelly is on now (i don't like that show)...and I am waiting until it is late enough for me to go and get my to-do list done. I have NO FOOD and a party on Saturday. I am going to clean out my drawers today. I am going to take home all of the clothes that I don't need, then I'm going to deal with all of the stuff in my closet at home that I haven't worn since I was 12. Yeah. That stuff's got to go.
I think that's all I've got...

I thought I was a morning person...

So, I went to camp last week to visit. Tuesday and Thursday. Got to see the talent shows. Those are always funny, whether it is intentional humor or just strange stuff.

Went home for the weekend and got to dogsit Molly for a few days. That was fun. We went to Soby's for dinner on Saturday night for my parental units' anniversary, which is today, Juneteenth. (Shout out to them for getting married, because without them, my fabulous existence on this planet would not be possible.) Had some amazing crabcakes and some even more amazing chocolate desert (called the Devil's last course). I then laid in the hammock and threw the ball for the dog. Props for me, because I wore Carson out.

Last night, the baseball team lost to UNC 2-0 in their second game of the College World Series. Very very sad. They're not out of the tournament yet, but I don't really understand all that stuff. I let Lori explain it to me.

I am currently putting together a shower for Kelsey for the first full weekend in July. Not that we're letting her get married. Just that we're going to pretend to have a party for her.

I am growing my nails out. Haven't bitten them in two weeks. This is quite a feat for me. I have a tendency to play with them, so if I lose them, it'll be because I accidentally picked them off. I haven't had nails this long...ever.

Ju-bear is coming to see me today. (okay, she might be coming to see other people too, but I'd like to live with the delusion that she's coming to see me, me, and only me.) She's supposed to be here sometime after 5-ish. We're going to have dinner in Greenville with Holly (one of us should probably call Holly today, huh?) , probably the german, and who knows who else. We're going to Six Flags on Wednesday. It's a big thing, because I have never been there. I am a roller coaster fanatic. junkie. freak. whatever. I love the things.

I am sitting at work as I usually do, reading chapter 4, pp 86-141 of my Engineering Economics book. Woo hoo.

I went with Danny and the interns to orientation this morning (7:30 in the morning?!?!? and I thought I was a morning person!!!) to recruit freshmen to CSF. I think it was fairly successful. I mean, we are a pretty small group, so four or five freshmen from one orientation is a decent amount.

I must stop blogging and get back to freezing my buns off in the lab. Work, I mean. haha.

They caught the creepy guy who murdered Tiffany Souers. Thank goodness. I feel a lot safer. At the same time, I don't. I mean, I would have felt a lot safer if it had been the usual disgruntled boyfriend who killed her, since that would be a motivated crime. Instead, we have this random (okay, not really random. more creepy and that kind of thing. although his choice of a victim was random) guy who simply like how she looked and decided to pay her a visit. I mean, that could have been any of us. And there are still oodles of creeps just like him out in the world. I'm not quite as afraid to go out at night as I was before, but now I can't help but think that there are lots of other creeps out there, and one of them might just decide he likes my looks. I'm on the hunt for pepper spray. If anyone knows where I can get some without going to a gun store (I hate guns and gun stores give me the creeps), I'd appreciate it.

In other news...

I have started running again, 7 am every morning but weekends. I'm not going very far yet, but I hope to double my distance by the end of the week (or at least I think it's doubling...I'm a rather terrible judge of distance). I run, then I come back and do some crunches while I rest.

I now have a tv bigger than my computer screen. (partay!) All you people who have been bugging me about that for ever and ever and ever can now celebrate the change and get off my back.

I have two birthday presents to buy, one party to plan, and I had better start working on a graduation gift for the little stinker I call my sister (I guess I DO have a year...but I probably ought to start now...).

Joe is in california now. He's moving into Cal-Tech today. Or at least that's what the schedule I read aloud last night said.

I made some earrings this weekend. They're really fun...they're brown beaded loops (all different beads). They're way cute and I think I'm going to quit school and become a jewelry designer. Maybe Tiffany will hire me? Or, maybe they'll send me free jewelry...Hey, a girl can dream.

Mooch invited himself over (I didn't really mind, but I wanted to say that anyway...) for dinner last night, so we made spaghetti and sauce with italian sausage (mmmm! my favorite!). I'm having leftovers for lunch today. Yum!

I'm considering making chicken fried steak for dinner tonight. And maybe mashed potatoes. I dunno. Maybe I should pace myself and make that stuff next week. It'd be good with green beans...

I am going up to PBC this week (superweek, baby!) with Mooch and Jill to visit (although I'm not so sure Jill knows I'm coming...oh well). We are currently planning on going Tuesday and Thursday. I always love going up to camp to visit. I may bake some brownies to take up there, but I'm not sure I have any buddies to give them to. Maybe my lizzie will be there. I haven't talked to her in a million years. Okay, so I saw her at Winterfest. This year. Anyway, we're going up there to visit, and hopefully we'll be there when Danny preaches. I would go on Wednesday, but EVERYONE goes on Wednesday. My entire youth group is going on that day. Oh well...

I have officially run out of stuff to talk about. Have a good week, everyone!

Just so you know...

Just so you know, I am officially having nightmares, thanks to the millions of people who are constantly telling me to be safe while I'm in Clemson. If it has crossed your mind to tell me to be safe, please don't. I don't need to wake up too terrified to move any more. I need to be able to walk up and down the stairs at my apartment without constantly being paranoid that someone's going to get me. I need to NOT have to plan my days around the sun going down. It would be nice to be able to walk to campus in the DAYLIGHT without being slightly freaked out. I would like to no longer be paranoid that I didn't lock the door (but I always do). In summary, stop telling me to be safe. Stop asking me about the poor girl. Stop telling me what you heard on the news (I've seen it all anyway, although I should really stop watching the news too.). I don't need to hear it any more. I promise that I am sufficiently cautious enough for six or seven people. I want to sleep easy again. Thank you.

Seeing how it has been a while...

(+) Upstate Shakespeare Festival
Last day I posted, I went to see Macbeth at the Upstate Shakespeare Festival in Reedy River Park with Joe and my family. That was quite good, considering it is a slightly unprofessional and entirely underbudgeted production.

(+) Church Sunday, (-) being asked "are you home for the summer?" for the 4 trillionth time
Went to church that Sunday and saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while. I am, however, getting sick of being asked "are you home for the summer?" and having to explain myself. More on that later...

(-) the dungeon
Monday, started up working in the dungeon. It's always cold in the dungeon. I had a longsleeve shirt that day. Not warm enough.

(+) the pool
Left there and went to the pool with Joe to reward myself for having not been able to see the sun or feel my toes all day. That was fun. We accidentally match, because we both have a sort of aqua blue color to our bathing suits. It's kinda funny, but mostly just sad.

(-) the dungeon
Day 2 in the dungeon. I brought a sweatshirt this time. My toes froze to death. I brought The Producers and watched it on my laptop. That slightly improved it...slightly.

(+) the pool
Pool again. Oh what fun. Yay for the sunshine!

(-) the dungeon
Day 3. Brought socks. Watched Harry Potter (3) on that day. Things are looking better.

(+) the pool
Went to the pool yet again. This time, with Lori and Allen too.

(-) the dungeon
Wore socks with flip-flops. Watched Casanova this time. Terrible movie. Don't see it.

(+) the rain
Walked home in the rain. Storm. Hurricane. Whatever...I was drenched from head to toe. My computer was wrapped in a garbage bag, so I decided to enjoy the rain. I must say, enjoying the rain makes me giggle. I was completely drenched. I had to get Shea to bring me a towel so I could take off my clothes on the porch (no one was around! I swear!) so I could go in the apartment.

(-) joe's car
Joe's car died. Fun stuff. Not. The people told him it was his timing belt and that they'd have it done either Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. He was supposed to have left Friday morning, but that was not going to happen, obviously.

(+) P. F. Chang's
We went to Greenville for dinner with Joe. It was yummy. Had ice cream afterward. Also yummy.

I had a whole bunch of stuff written after this, but my computer decided that it should close the window I was working in, so I'm just going to write in paragraph form, because I'm really cranky. Seriously. I was almost done!

Okay, came back from changs and played a crazy card game with Sara and Barrett and Drew and Mickey. Then we went to see X-men 3 at midnight with Nick and some other people. Nick had been sitting in line for over 2 hours. There wasn't even a line at that point.
Friday, went to work, watched Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid. Love those movies. Left and went to Greenville that evening with Joe and my family to celebrate my mom's birthday (which was the day before). Went to the Drive game. Saw the fireworks after that. They were way cool.
Saturday, got up early and went to see Joe and say goodbye before I went to greenville. That was sad, but I had warning, so I was better prepared for it. Went to Greenville and went with my family to Knoxville for the mostly-annual May/June birthday party. (a huge part of my family was born within those months) We swam and made stepping stones for G-ma's backyard. Talked to Joe and learned that his car would not be done until Monday. Church Sunday morning, got to hear all of the people who are so glad that I'm alright, what with the girl who was strangled in Clemson. I also have decided that I am simply going to say "yes" from now on to any person who asks, "are you back home for the summer?". Went back to Clemson and went to the pool with Joe, swam around a bunch, then went back to my place, where I decided to cook dinner for him and for Mickey. We played Uno later and I kicked his butt in both games. We then went to greenville at 12:30 to pick up Rachel. She stayed the night with me, as she was frightened of staying at her apartment complex, due to the murder. Monday, went to work. Went to the apartment, found out Joe's car was officially dead and that the plan was for him mom to come get him tuesday or wednesday. Went with Rachel to wally world, got a few movies, then went with her and joe to matt's parents' house, then to Matt and Derek's apartment. Tuesday, went to work. Started watching the Sound of Music. Went home painted my toenails. And my band-aid. Joe called and said he'd be leaving in the next hour. Kinda sudden, eh? Yeah, so then I went over there and said goodbye. A bit more sad this time, since it was so sudden. At least Drew was kind enough to take him all the way up to Cincinnati, so his mom didn't have to come get him. Went and saw Rachel a bit after that. We went to see Failure to Launch at the 'stro. That was a cute movie, nice and girly. She left early yesterday morning. Yesterday, I came to the dungeon, watched the rest of the Sound of Music. Then I turned down an interview with the Today Show and went to Greenville to go shopping with mom. Got a really really cute dress. It's white, with a black pattern that ends just before the end of the dress. It's for the wedding we're going to on Saturday in Charleston. Stayed at home last night. That was nice. Then, I came back and am sitting in the lab again. I'm gonna run...I've got a sandwich calling my name. Later!

busy busy busy

Well. It's been a while, hasn't it?
I've got way too much to follow the usual +/- system. WAY too much.

So exams ended and were promptly followed by two of the most insane days ever. That Thursday, went with Joe, Rachel, and David to the dam to swim and stuff. We ended up walking all over these pointy leaves that left my feet fairly mangled. Oh, and the cut on the side of my foot? The story is that some boy (Joe) lured me into the woods and forced me to scrape my foot on the dam. Okay. Then, we went to get free slushies at the Palms and btook Rachel's car "mudding" (sans the mud). Oh, and we went down roller coaster road. That was pretty crazy. Friday, Rachel and I tried to outdo the previous day. So we got free slushies and drove. We ended up finding a place to walk around in the water a bit, so we did that for a second. Then, we drove by some really big houses and the Oconee Nuclear place. We took pictures of the entire day. Lots and lots of pictures. We went through Salem (not much there...) and ended up at Whitewater Falls. That was really pretty. It started raining, but we decided to just get wet. We peed in the woods in truly ladylike fashion. When we left, we decided to go to the Beacon for dinner, because we were really in the mood to clog our arteries and die. So we did. I felt it was important that those who hadn't ever been there (Joe and Rachel) experience the greasy wonder. Saturday, Rach and I had breakfast at cracker barrel and then got slushies and went to greenville to meet Ju-bear before Rach left. Stayed at home that night, then headed back to Clemson after church. Packed and hung out with my Ju-bear and all that jazz.
Got up nice and early to go to Cincinnati with Joe. Long drive. We stopped in Knoxville and ate lunch with his friend Molly and her boyfriend (forgot his name! sorry!). We got there at around 5-ish, and I met Joe's brother and dad and Tootsie. We went to the zoo on Tuesday. That was way fun. I was able to momentarily tackle my fear of reptile houses. We also we went to his bro's band concert and got some really really yummy ice cream. Wednesday, we went to...hmm...trying to remember. Oh, we had Skyline, then we went to Columbus that evening for his sister's choral concert. Had a slumber party with her that night while Joe stayed with his friend Sam. That was way fun. Thursday, we came back and had some pizza (don't remember where) with Leah and Scottie (I think I got that one right. I met so many people it isn't even funny). I think that's the night we went to the Reds game. That was also way fun. Met another bundle of people whose names I don't remember. Turns out I'm a bigger baseball fan than I realized. Friday, I found out that Papaw had fallen and broken his hip and was having surgery that afternoon. It kinda left me upset, but I was still fairly confident that he would be alright. We went to the mall to do some mothers' day shopping, then went to dinner at Montgomery Inn. Yu-u-um. We left Saturday morning. As soon as we pulled out of his driveway, my phone rang. My mom was calling to tell me that Papaw had passed away that morning. We were heading to Texas the next morning.
I think I'm finally okay after yesterday. We came back on Tuesday night and I spent most of Wednesday feeling completely anti-social. It's really hard to express all of the things going on in my head about this.
Yesterday, went to the pool, then out on the lake, then back to Joe's to grill out burgers and corn and pineapple. Yuuuuuum.
I think I'm out of things to say. yeah.

my love affair with the big man on campus: a memoir

Seeing as how coop is gonna make several appearances in this blog, I feel it is necessary to entitle it for him. He being the big man on campus.

(+) MEs rock
Let me tell you. The MEs throw quite the party. If I were a drinker, I'd live for that party. Since I'm not, the pizza and company was pretty stinking good too. That's what I did Thursday evening. Made stir fry with Joe after that. Yum yum. I ate quite well that night. And the rice? We just won't talk about that. Made plans for summer. Should be qute a fun beginning and a fun end too. Goin to Cincinnati (gosh, i forget what he calls it...). Maybe (??? still up in the air ???) going to the beach. Those should be fun.

(+) turning in projects
YAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! This is me being really excited that I have officiall turned in my projects as of Friday at 12:30.

(+) breathing
I got to breathe again. Ironically, it was at cooper that I chose to take my break. I colored and looked things up. I've decided to go see Ju and Rach at the end of the summer, when Rach gets done with her internship, so we can go to Boston to see the Body Worlds exhibit. Check this out. I'm warning you first that it has graphic pictures of dead bodies. As art, of course.

(+) free food and lots of cups
Picnic on bowman. Carnival or something. All's I know is that Harcombe was serving free barbecue dinner. And they gave us cups. And I ended up with four cups to add to my high class crystal collection. That was a nice break for Rachel, Joe, and I.

(+) Y.A.P.
Then went to the Campus Crusade picnic. Oh, Y.A.P. stands for yet another picnic. Sort of like YAK. hehe.

(+) percussion
Mad props for the percussion ensemble and the steel drum band here on campus. Went to their concert with a whole orgy (stole that word off of Rach) of people.

(+) C is for Cookie
Baked chocolate chocolate-chip cookies Saturday morning, because I really didn't want to be studying yet. Took some to Joe for him and his roommates. Then took some to Julie and Rachel, and took some to the picnic for the 103H guys. I figured that if my mom was bringing me cookies, the least I could do was share the love and give everyone "exam week care packages". Rumor has it that my cookies were pretty darned good.

(-) B is for bad moods
I was in a foul mood that afternoon, after I delivered cookies. One of those moods where I wanted someone to provoke me so that I could fight with them.

(+) Y.A.P.
Went to YAP. This one was for Jon, over at the Fields' house. They had lowcountry boil and crab legs for dinner. Holy moley. If you haven't had either of those, you're really missing out. Really. On the (-) side, it meant that Jon was leaving. Phtbbbtttt! Also, a big phtbbbttt to him for over-scheduling our lunch that was supposed to happen today. BOOOOOO!!!!

(+) china people rock
Chinese food with Rach after church on Sunday. Got to-go boxes and filled them up and took them to the library, where we promptly held "operation: grab and go" to get chopsticks from the sushi people in the snax and stacks.

(+) creepy matching rocks too
Rachel and I matched Sunday. I actually changed for it, but I had intended to put on the outfit that Rachel had on at church when I got home, because I felt like looking cute at the library.

(-) coop!
If coop had a song for me, it would include the lines:
I ain't only here cause I want ya body
I want your mind too
Interestin's what I find you

Thank you Black Eyed Peas for expressing Coop's desire to drain my brain. Seriously. He's got it bad for me. We were really getting hot and heavy that afternoon. Stayed there studying until 8:30, when Ju and I decided to leave.

(+) making curfew
I got to bed by 10!!!

(-) statistics (+) is over!
8 am exams. Whoever came up with them should definitely be shot. Seriously. On the bright side, I no longer have to suffer through statistics. I am actually looking forward to next semester's classes. It's so much more interesting sounding than boring curriculum classes. You know, just to satisfy your advisor.

(-) coop
Seriously. We have a thing going on. Sadly, creepy old guy was at the library, and that discouraged me from having my affair. So, I went home.

(+) my back porch
I ended up out on my back porch, laptop on the tv tray, sprawled out on my lounge chair, totally loving South Carolina weather. Oh yeah. I was studying too.

(-) 8 am statics (+) rocked it in less than an hour
Took my statics test this morning. Totally rocked it in a little under an hour. I am the woman.

(+) taking a nice long break with my rachey poo
Went home and proceeded to not do anything. I watched Tiara Girls and My Super Sweet Sixteen with Rach. We definitely are angry with the little brat who was having her Quince on the show. What the crap. Who gets mad about centerpieces (both of which were ugly)? And seriously? What 15 year-old needs a diamond studded Rolex?!?
After that, we went and had lunch over at coop's while these strange women set up for an event around us. Really. They didn't seem to care that we were there. How odd.

(+) one more test left!
I have one more test left and two days to study for it. I am SOOOOO ready for the end of this.

oh where, oh where has my little brain gone?

So, after reading my most recent post, I have found that it has been a week since I last posted. I am sitting indian-style in my big chair at work right now, working on a Javalanche, and wanting to scream. I probably look quite intelligent to anyone who comes in here, because I'm typing away on my computer and I have my reading glasses perched on my nose. I would like to offer my apologies for the current state of my brain. I have so many +/- points that I'm just going to write about them underneath each one. Please forgive any rambling or nonsense that I may write in the next few minutes...

(-) jon is leaving us!
boooooooooooooooooooooooo! jon seems to have it in his head that he needs to go off to tennessee and teach. silly man.

(+) playing frisbee
yay! laura's getting better at frisbee! i got to go throw a frisbee around on bowman with joe and sara last thursday.

(-) sara has it in for me
SOMEBODY was aiming for my knees and left me with a huge bruise on my right knee. mind you, it was mostly due to my inability to catch.

(+) rockhopper's
went to trivia night with joe and ben. that was fun. haven't been there in a while.

(-) friday
had to go to class. well, didn't HAVE to go to class. but still. class is poopy, on the (+) side, i got to play personal stalker to the high five gang. i think walter's getting suspicious of my reasons for being out there. haha. Robot made an appearance. it was very cute. oh, and some guy bought them a pizza, from which i took the liberty of having a piece.

(+) MTS
went and watched LOST with joe-bo after calculus. had firehouse and mock turtle soup after that. got to see my rachey poo there, with her roomies. not to mention my teddy grahams was there. yay! (oh, and a few other kiddos from reeferside, but i'm rather partial to my grahams) he's coming to clemson next year, so i've made him promise to talk to me and stuff.

(+) wallace and grommit
went back and watched wallace and grommit. correction: went back and slept through the second half of wallace and grommit. i still don't know what happened to the were-rabbit. it upsets me.

(+) cleaning
i cleaned my desk saturday morning. this is an accomplishment, because to do it, i had to put up all of my clothes so that i could get to my desk. i can actually put my computer on my desk now!

(+) ihop and wally world
went to ihop with my two lovers and had the most amazing pancakes and the most amazingly slow waitress. then, we went and got julie's tarrrs rotated and killed time at wal-mart. fun fun!

(+) csf banquet
banquet. yeah. 76 pictures in the slide show were mine, in case you weren't counting (cause i was). it was fun though. mom and amy came to see me. made me happy. brought me some incredibly cute pants. and some cookies. more about the cookies later.

(+) finley
made it to the party in time to see finley play. (they were pretty darned good, as far as i was concerned) that made me happy, because i have a bit of a thing for the bass player. he's pretty darned cute...

(+) house-house party!
time for some techno, baby! yeah. had to have the whole house-house thing explained to me...so yeah, the first house is referring to the type of music, known as house music. there you go. party was pretty stinking awesome, as their parties have tended to be (of the three i have attended). lots of glow sticks and wiggling around. it was strange though, how many random people showed up for the second half of the party. anyway yeah. it was a blast.

(+) my outfits this weekend
dadgum. i was on a roll for looking good this weekend. if i do say so myeslf. i thought it was worth commenting on.

(+) laying in the sun!
got to lay in the sun with my ju-bear. woo hoo! it was hotter than blue blazes, but who cares?

(-) projects
got three projects due tomorrow...icky icky poo

(-) monday hysteria
flipped out on my mom's answering machine about all of the stuff i have to do

(-) twice
and again when she answered the phone. i told her i think we were going to need more cookies.

(-) missing csf
i don't like missing csf. it makes me unhappy. i had to study straight through. got in a full 7.5 hours of library time on monday.

(+) pizza?
my lovers rock my world for bringing me pizza from csf. yes, that means that i DID eat that night.

(-) tuesdays...annotated schedules and calculus tests
tuesday i made a schedule of my week, because i kept forgetting major projects. it stresses me out to read my own schedule, but i think somehow i'll make it through. i had a calculus test tuesday afternoon. i hate not knowing how i feel about a test.

(+) mom, ben, and jerry
mommy brought me cookies, cause i DEFINITELY needed more cookies. got to sneak into line with joe and ben and mickey over at free scoop day. that really made my day. chocolate fudge brownie. yu-u-um! helped me get back my energy before i went to the library.

(-) my love affair with cooper and (+) moe's!
i am runing away with cooper. he and i are inseparable and we are madly in love. we have late nights all the time lately. on second thought, if i hole up at cooper's, people tend to feed me. tuesday evening was moe's for me, rachel and joe. (props to him for getting it for us) and, it only cost $2 for all four meals (i had two...pig i am). i think my mom says that joe gets a few points for that and a few more points for walking me home.

(-) EG final and (+) no more Clarence!
took a final on wednesday. good news is, i never have to go to clarence's class again! he was starting to scare me with his random yelling and the like...

(??) spacing out for the rest of the afternoon
i spaced. couldn't do anything. actually got my powerpoint done, but that was about it. stared at my computer screen for like an hour. yeah. i'm not kidding.

(-) my alarm this morning and (+) really cute pictures
my alarm scared me this morning. the volume had been turned up a little bit loud. i jumped out of bed to turn it off and ran into my desk. forgot that the little writey thing had been pulled out...oops. anyway. that turned my screen on, which allowed me to see that i had a winkey frog message (hehe! i have no idea why i like those so much) and some e-mails. that made my day a lot better. especially since one of them had the cutest picture in the world attached to it. yay!

now i'm at work (-) and i just had some of my awesome chicken noodle soup (+) and i have done with my statics classes (+) and i am about to get back to work on some projects (-). on the (+) side, i have a steady stream of people coming to visit me today. yay!

thirsday, thursday

it being thursday morning...

(+) climbing a tree!
(+) snl reruns
(-) feeling poopey
(+) adventure runs and the like
(+) playing dress up
(-) work

so, let's start by celebrating the fact that I climbed my first tree tuesday night. i concede that it was an easy one (lots of branches all low to the ground). but still... i climbed it! it was during a walk with rachey-poo... a very very strange walk, complete with people staring as we climbed the tree, rachel squealing in the library, hugging a tree, rachel running into a tree, holding hands (it was dark and scary!!!), and seeing how many h-words we could fit into one sentence: the horrifically high homosexually haunted hill headed home to the hot heart of heinous hades has horrible holes hidden in heavy hollow heads... (do i really have to go on?).

i watched an old snl with will ferrell and tracy morgan and the like. i love tracy morgan. i was very sad that there was no brian fellow's safari planet. at least there was celebrity jeopardy...

woke up yesterday morning and felt poopey. i had a sore throat and got a little bit of a fever during class, but luckily i got much better. i have determined (after much argument with my mother on the subject) that the sore throat is, in fact, the result of a whole lot of pollen.

went on an adventure run with julie. sort of. see, the key to an adventure run is to make split-second decisions about where you want to go. i can't help it if we decided where to go before i ever changed to run. on the bright side, i am completely done with my spring and summer shopping! yay!

ended up becoming part of a slumber party at julie's, which ended up with jenna using us like life-sized barbie dolls. i have to say, i rather like playing dress-up.
and MAN did i look good!

i rolled out of bed this morning and went home to tame the mess on my head that happens whenever i sleep on wet hair. then i came to work. way less fun than playing dress-up. yeah.

tomatacado sammies and the like

while i was realizing the fact that i can count on one hand (with room to spare!) the 4 people who have read my blog, i realized that i have failed to mention a glaring new part of my life, that i do, in fact, have a boyfriend now. one who happens to be 25% of my readership (or 1/4, whichever you prefer). funny word, boyfriend. think about it. it is a compoud word, the roots of which are "boy" and "friend". it seems to me that this indicates a platonic relationship. i mean, you've got "boy", an obvious word, since joe is, in fact, a boy. then you've got "friend". that's where i get befuddled. the word friend indicates to me a type of relationship where you go to the playground together in kindergarten and you paint each other's toenails and you gossip about all of your other "friends". seems like an utterly platonic connotation altogether. i wonder why they (whoever "they" are) chose that term in the first place. probably because it goes so well with "girlfriend".

(-) statistics
(-) biomaterials
(+) lunch with mom and mo
(-) class class class
(+/-) soup/julie being sick
(+) apple pie
(+) csf
(+) silly little me
(+) RENT
(+) lunch
(+) random drives
(+) the great outdoors

the plusses have it. it's been a good two days.
statistics and biomaterials were both droll and long yesterday. neither of the classes made me want to be there. i can really feel the end of the semester coming around.

got to have class with mom and mo. that was quite enjoyable. mo took a campus tour yesterday. i'm trying so hard to stay out of her college decision, because i know i'll probably affect it in a bad way, make her want to do anything i'm not. i don't mind if she doesn't come to clemson. i just want her to stay closer to greenville than harding, cause that's way to far for me to have to drive, and i thoroughly intend to visit my sissy as much as i can. on the bright side, there's still a year before she has to decide.

more classes. also boring and slow.

i got to make yummy chicken noodle soup yesterday. the bad part is, i was making it because julie was feeling badly. at least it made her feel better.

had some of my apple pie yesterday, as did holly and joe. the consensus is that it was a fairly good pie, although i wasn't thrilled with it. i've made better ones.

csf was good. everyone seemed to be in a stupor. joe came and got to see what it's like, so that was good, even with everyone completely spaced out.

i'm such a silly girl. that's all i'm gonna say. you can ask what i mean. i probably won't tell.

i watched RENT before classes this morning. love that movie/musical/soundtrack. doesn't really matter, i love it all.

had lunch with jon and danny today. always an enjoyable time.

after calculus, i came back and went on a random drive. i ended up at old navy ( i almost always do. old navy or target, usually). got myself a few new shirts. yay! they are way cute.

studied outside. it's funny. my allergies are terrible. i know they're terrible. yet i can't be swayed from being outside at this time of year. there isn't much that i love more at this time of year than a sunny patch of grass. pollen-free grass is always a plus.

i gotta go. i have to feed myself so i can go play cheerleader tonight. not to mention go on a walk with my rachey-poo.

;)

yeah, the title...i'm making myself a tomato & avocado sandwich. it's going to be so good!

going for a record...

i went for a record for number of trips to and from g-vegas in one weekend. my weekend, in short (actually, this will probably end up being really long)...

(?) jury's still out on "thank you for smoking"
(+) coffee underground
(+) the incredibles are incredible
(-) being incapable of sleeping in
(+) greenville, take 2
(+) spill the beans
(-) trying to decipher a Bio-E article
(+) frisbee golf
(-) pollen
(-) oversleeping and people scaring me
(+) greenville, take 3
(+) lunch today
(+) double scoops
(+) apple pie
(-) still trying to decipher the Bio-E article
(+) texas dr. pepper and hippie earrings

went to g-vegas on friday night to see "thank you for smoking." i haven't decided if i like it or not. it was funny, but there was so much that was strange that i'm just not making an opinion about it.

coffee underground after the movie. they have really good chicken salad sammiches. i highly suggest them.

watched "the incredibles" after we got back. that is a really cute movie. got home at around 4 am, due to a certain boy who will remain nameless, won't he joseph?

woke up at 9 am. what the heck? i couldn't sleep in if my life depended on it. i must not be normal (yes, i know we already know this one). it really irritates me to be unable to sleep in.

went to g-vegas saturday so i could give my shoes to kp to get them dyed for the wedding. my house was in uproar. seriously. they've moved all of the furniture. ALL of it. i also have been deprived of half of my closet. it's not really a problem since i don't really use it too much, but it's really the principle of the matter. oh well...

joe and i went downtown after the shoe swap and wandered around. greenville is really getting to be a great place. there were tons of people down at falls park. kids playing in the water. it was great. went to spill the beans and got my favorite ice cream: chocolate with dark chocolate chips, brownies, and pecans. yum yum yum. anyway, it was a lovely way to spend such a nice day. and the company wasn't so bad either...

came back and started to read an article for biomaterials class. read the first page 15 times. made no sense.

played frisbee golf with joe, ben, and david. that was funny, because i'm terrible at it. that whole distance thing is a bit beyond me. i'm working on it, though. my aim has improved, at least. went to bed around 2. my sleeping habits have gotten a bit strange lately. usually, i'm in bed by 12 (not because i'm sleepy...simply because i've run out of things to do in a given evening and i choose to go to bed), but i've been staying up until 1 and 2 (and occasionally 7:45) in the morning lately. it's not like it's a bad thing...i just happen to have noticed it.

i hate pollen. i really don't like it. i LOOOOVE spring. i hate the stupid green stuff that comes with it. it means that i can walk outside for two minutes and be unable to breathe. usually there's some sniffing involved, which is way hot and stuff. just wanted to make my stance on pollen known.

i overslept this morning by about an hour. only reason i woke up was the lutheran church's bells at 9. i saw the clock and flipped out, since i had to be ready to go at 9:45. i was almost ready at 9:43 (not that i looked at the clock or anything...), so i went to dry my hair and asked shea to let joe in when he got here, since i wouldn't hear him. i spaced out doing my hair, so imagine my severe surprise when i glance left and joe is standing (looming...lurking...) in the doorway of the bathroom. i was so startled that i screamed like i've never screamed before, dropped my hairbrush in the sink and sank into what you could call the fetal position. it was basically me being so freaked out that i had to sit down to gather my wits. yeah. joe is such a scary person.

went to g-vegas AGAIN (yes, that's three separate trips this weekend) for church and lunch with my family. joe went with me and got to meet my family. that was fun. church was a lot of saying hi to people i hadn't seen in a long time and introducing joe to them all.

lunch was yummy. salmon, mac and cheese (got an entire pan of it to bring back!!!), salad, deviled eggs, rolls, and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. thought i'd make you hungry by telling you that.

came back, decided not to have girls' Bible study, got double scoop ice cream cones with Julie instead. laid around and ate chocolate bunnies after that. good times.

made an apple pie. i have realized that i have been slack. i baked with such a vengeance last semester, but i have hardly made anything this semester. maybe i'll pick up again next semester. i really love baking. i just haven't had the time this semester. i could really go for some of my chocolate chocolate chip cookies right about now.

spent another 3.5 hours today and FINALLY figured out the gist of the biomaterials article, got my mini-essay done and am currently writing this. i might should go to bed soon.

got some Texas dp's from momma. good stuff. should be sold in clemson. i love that stuff. it spoils me and i can't go back to the regular stuff. also acquired some insanely large and heavy peace-sign earrings that are tye-dyed enamel with gold foil in the enamel. they are heinous, but way cool because my dad got them at woodstock in '94.

okay. probably going to bed soon. thankfully no tests this week...

Fr-Fr-Fr-Friiiiday!

for today...
(-) statistics class in general
(-/+) watching vascular graft suregery
(+) playing with a pig's heart valve
(+) seeing holly and eric
(-) finding out that my room is being changed
(+) the high-five-ers
(-) calculus
(+) laying out with my favorite ladies
(+) what i'm doing now

So statistics class was, as usual, horrid. Don't you hate it when you go to class with everything the teacher asked for, but you get there and they could swear they asked for something else too? Especially when he insists he mentioned it, even though every student is disagreeing with him. Yeah...and then there's the genius who thinks we should have our final replace our last test grade. What final has ever been a higher grade than the tests?!? Stupid boy. And because he's louder than me, that is probably what will happen. Did I mention that I think he's a stupid boy?

On a whim, I started taking count of the ratio of guys to girls in my classes today. Here are the results: statistics was 5 to 1, bioE was 1 to 5 (because the other 5 guys weren't there), calculus was 8 to 1. You could say I'm in a lopsided major. Or, that my classes are majorly lopsided.

In BioE, we watched a vascular graft surgery. It was really cool to watch (they staple the collagen graft to the actual blood vessel with these impossibly small staples) until they shoved a rod into the incision at the ankle and wiggled it all the way up the leg to the opening at the groin. NASTY!!! There is something majorly unapetizing about seeing something wriggling under the surface of the skin. On the up-side, I got to play with the heart valve of a pig. It was stitched into a dacron (it's a fiber...a polymer) sheath that works as a scaffold to support the chordae tendoneae (the tendons that pull open the valve). The valve is then stitched into a human heart, provided that several undergraduate students have not handled it first. It is much more biocompatible than a mechanical valve, but it has a tendency to calcify. Anyway, I got to play with it. I kinda smelled like formaldehyde for a while afterward. It was really little.

Big fat YAY!! for seeing Holly and Eric in the library. It has pretty much become a part of my Fridays to see them there.

I got a call from my dad telling me not to get too upset if my room is in total upheaval when I get back (he didn't use that word, but I like it...upheaval). Apparently mom is getting my dresser and I'm getting the dresser I had when I was little. The dresser that is the reason that I got the new one in the first place. Because it's tiny. I'm getting the other dresser too, another smaller one, but I'm still perturbed by this. At least my desk is finally gone!!!

Went to lunch with Joe and Rachel. That was fun. Went and colored a poster for the high-five guys while they did their thing. It was REALLY hot on the bridge.

Had to go to calculus after that. BOOOO!!!

Got to lay out with Julie and Rachel after class. That was nice. I am getting a nice little tan. Not too much, just enough. Just enough to say that I have a tan.

Currently, I am sitting in the most awesome deck chair ever, out on the porch. It's a bit polleny, but not too bad out here. Don't know the plan for tonight yet... Don't know that I really care that I don't know.

Oh yeah... had a lovely date with Joe last night (that gets a ++). hehe. yeah.