Harry Potter Thoughts

Today I went and saw Harry Potter 7 Part 2 for a second time, with my Dad and my sister.  Being more awake than I was for the midnight showing, and having seen the movie once before, I was able to give more thought to various parts of the movie, beyond the general plot lines and suspense and excitement and whatnot.

I now give you some of these thoughts, in no particular order.

-Luna's opening statement about the shell chimes ("Muggles think these keep evil away...but they're wrong."):  Love it.  Chilling in its simplicity.

-Helena Bonham Carter acting like Hermione Granger acting like Bellatrix Lestrange: Brilliant.  Simply brilliant.  I'm 99.9% sure she's my favorite actress.

-It really is too bad that child Lily's eyes don't match Harry's.

-The rotating camera / shirt changing scene: Awkward and Unnecessary.  I guess that the director was trying to get a sense of the urgency of the protaganists' task by implying that they don't even have time to change clothes after jumping from a dragon's back into a lake before discussing their next steps to defeating Voldemort, but it really just highlights the pudgy-ness of the male characters' stomachs and kind of distracts from the intensity.

-The Snape flashback sequence: Perfect.  I love how they integrated clips from the other films.  Although, the de-aging (youthifying?) technology they used on Alan Rickman was just a bit strange...it was effectively done for the most part, I thought, but every now and then he had the look of an unfortunate botox patient...

-It's too bad that the kid who played Crabbe got caught growing/smoking/selling/doing illegal things with marijuana so that the kid who plays Blaise had to step in for the Room of Requirement scene...it takes away from the Malfoy/Crabbe/Goyle vs Harry/Ron/Hermione storyline that was sort of a mini introductory version of the good vs evil theme.  Oh well.

-The Gemino Curse: simple, but horrifying, if you think about it...

-Ron's facial hair disguise: a little too Pirate-Sherlock-Holmes.  But an effective disguise, it seems.

Ahoy, Watson.

-Why don't Americans use "brilliant" as a slang term like the British do?  Let's start that...

-Voldemort's laugh is ever-so-slightly reminiscent of a sheep bleeting.  Not as intimidating as it could be.

-The girls screaming in the Great Hall when Voldemort starts speaking in their heads: brilliant.  This is the first time that the rest of the school is coming into direct contact with Voldemort, and I loved the chilling way that that moment was introduced with the solitary and unexpected screams.

-Dean Thomas got over the whole Hogwarts battle thing WAY too quickly...sitting there with his cup of coffee laughing it up just minutes after the battle ends.

-I like how you don't really see any of the main characters die, but just see their dead bodies after the fact (the ones who die, that is)...my Dad pointed it out as a complaint, but I think it's more effective this way, to just happen upon the dead with no warning, like Harry, Ron, and Hermione are experiencing.

-Are there no Hufflepuffs in Dumbledore's Army?  All the kids seemed to be Gryffindors or Ravenclaws.  And I am ALWAYS a Hufflepuff whenever I take those online "Which House Are You" quizzes, no matter how complex or simplistic they are, and so I resent that a bit.  I mean, Hufflepuffs may be somewhat underrepresented and underdescribed in the Harry Potter series, but that does not make them any less present.  Even if all we really know about them is that they're loyal and good at finding things...

Home Again

Back home again.  Spent the day 1) in the car, 2) frolicking about the Laumeir Sculpture Park with a friend, and 3) eating oatmeal and hanging out with the family.

And now I'm going to bed around 9:45, because I feel like I'm still on Eastern time, and because I am sleepy.

I also realize that I seem to be in a lull of writers' block lately.  I attribute this to two things: first, that travelling and visiting family is hardly conducive to lengthy writing sessions, and second, that I have written a blog post every day for nearly seven full months (as of Monday) and may just be hitting a lull of creativity.  Nevertheless, I will push forward with the writing commitment...even if some days (like today) I just leave you with a cop-out blog.

Loooooooooooooong Day

Today's trip felt like just about the longest car ride of my life...even though it was really only 9 hours, which is less than other car rides I've taken.

Now I'm in a hotel with the family, to return home in the morning.  And...I have nothing of consequence to write.

So long, then.

Last Day at the Grandparents'

Just a quick note to acknowledge that it's the last day of our visit to the family homesteads of West Virginia.  We set off on our return trip in the morning, and will arrive back in good ol' St. Louis on Saturday afternoon.  All in all, it's been a good trip, and as usual I will probably be sad to say goodbye.

Some quick tidbits about today's happenings: we spent the morning with my mom's family doing the country thing again, then traveled with my paternal grandmother out to Pennsylvania to pick up some old family documents (specifically, a Bible from 1854 and a 19th century photo album) from a woman who contacted my aunt via a geneology website in answer to a posting looking for documents pertaining to the Wiesner family (my great-grandmother's maiden name).  Both items are super cool, and I would post photos of them but I'm using my grandmother's computer and therefore don't have access to my photos.  I'm planning to write a post where I wax poetically about the glories of family and heritage and whatnot, so they'll show up here in the near future, I'm sure.  After obtaining the Bible and album, we drove out to Funkstown, MD where my late grandfather grew up, and saw his childhood home and the tavern that my great-grandmother ran.  The day wrapped up with a family trip to Olive Garden.

And now, I'm off to read some of The Great Gatsby (my current read-for-fun book) and get some sleep before the long car ride tomorrow...even though I will undoubtedly spend a great deal of that car ride sleeping anyway.  But I could definitely use some sleep after this busy week!

The Theatre, The Theatre....

Note: The title of this post must be read in a hoity-toity British voice.


You may now proceed.

Today I participated in the quasi-traditional Girls' Day theatre/dinner combination with my grandmother, aunt, mother, and sister.  We've gone to several plays together over the years.  My mom attended college at a music conservatory not too far from my parents' hometown, and we would often travel there during our visits to see a musical or two.  Today, we actually went to a different place: the Wayside Theatre, in a little Virginia town whose name I have since forgotten.  The theatre was charming and unpretentious, housed in a space that felt intimate yet professional.  Our seats were in the very front row, center: up close and personal.

The play that we were seeing was The Nerd, by Larry Shue.  Quick plot synopsis: The main character (Willum) is a Vietnam veteran whose life was saved by an anonymous fellow soldier (Rick).  The two have been in correspondence for years, but have never met: until Rick shows up on Willum's doorstep one night in acceptance of Willum's open invitation to come and stay with him whenever he had need of it.  But, Rick's outlandish social mannerisms (or lack of social mannerisms, however you'd like to think of it) throws Willum's life (and dinner party) into complete chaos.  It's really quite the clever play, and it got more and more ridiculous by the second.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and encourage you to go see it if ever you have the chance. You'll laugh your head off.  You may also never eat deviled eggs again.

Yum.

Part two of the day was dinner at the nearby Golden Corral, where I stuffed myself silly on an assortment of buffet fare (it really didn't look like that much food on my plate), and ate some absolutely wonderful bread pudding.  Say what you will about chain homestyle buffet restaurants, but the bread pudding is awesome.

As might be expected, I spent my post-buffet evening curled up in my grandfather's old green recliner and watching Modern Family on TV (the one where Cam gets sick and Mitchell is all conflicted about what to do with their Lady Gaga tickets).  Only one more full day left at the grandparents...

Going Country

I am a child of the suburbs through and through.  All my life I've lived in cookie-cutter housing developments, with big backyards and sidewalks and neighborhood pools and all that jazz.  This is, of course, excepting my sejours in cities like Paris and Dallas, when I lived in urban apartments, and my college years in Lexington, which was all historically charming with streets lined with 19th century homes.

Yeah, I'm pretty much your typical city-dweller/suburbanite.  But let me tell you this: I love me a good visit to the country.

My mom grew up as a true country kid, in a house built in the 1930s on land bordered by a creek, forests, and cow pastures.  So now, when Hannah (my equally suburban sister) and I go back to West Virginia with our parents to visit the relatives, we spend a great amount of time living as country folk.  At least, we do when we visit my mom's family.  My dad, like his children, grew up in a cookie-cutter neighborhood.

So this morning around 10:00, we piled into the van and drove out of town to my Mom's childhood home.  It's not more than a 15 minute ride (it's a small town), but it's a noticeable difference from my paternal grandmother's neighborhood...nothing suburban about it.

We pulled our mini van up the familiar gravel driveway, being careful as usual not to run over any wayward cats, and climbing out, we walked up the stone steps and across the grass to the circle of lawn chairs that are always assembled in my grandparents' backyard.  The chairs are set up on a brick patio that my grandfather put in years ago, which is now buckled from persistent tree roots, but which is just as welcoming as ever.  And armed with sweet tea and lemonade, there we stayed, for a good two or three hours, sitting in the shade and talking.  Throughout the morning and early afternoon, we left this lawn chair circle only to chase down an enormous turtle ambling through the lawn at a distance, to eat a lunch of sandwiches, Utz chips, and peanut butter pie, or to spend a moment standing by the window air conditioning unit at the foot of the stairs inside the house.

The afternoon was a bit more active.  As my grandmother, mother, and sister all settled in to watch All My Children and my aunt returned to her home next door to prepare dinner, my dad and I went for a walk around the property.  My grandparents own almost 20 acres of land, laid out in a rather strange format that is oblong and runs behind neighboring houses.  My dad and I first walked down to the creek bed, then around through the gardens and the "Enchanted Forest" where a former Christmas Tree lot has grown up into full pines, leaving a stretch of trees in nearly perfect alignment watching over a bed of pine needles that coats the ground.  We then walked behind the old trailers and up the newly added nature trail, which stretches like a grassy ribbon up the tree-covered ridge at the back of the property and weaves back down to the pond where my cousin Randy tried to teach me to catch frogs when we were little and past the beekeeping yard where my grandfather and my cousin Terry harvest fresh, delectable honey by the bucket load.  Then it was back to the circle of lawn chairs, for more sweet tea and more conversation.

Dinner was a tasty affair of KFC-provided chicken, garden-provided green beans, potatoes, and tomatoes, Cesar salad, and potato bread rolls, followed by peach cobbler (a late celebration of my Dad's 50th birthday in May), and a reappearance of the peanut butter pie from lunch and the carrot cake from the family picnic.  After dinner there was a puppet show (a birthday tradition), and then Hannah and I split off from the family to walk around a bit, and ended up taking my grandfather's tractors out for a spin around the property.  That's right, this suburbanite/city dweller hopped on a John Deere tractor and set off across the grass.  I can be country when I want to be.

The evening wrapped up with a visit to my grandfather's "museum" shed, where he has all sorts of things on display - things collected at auctions over the years, things picked up by a metal detector on nearby battlefields (before that sort of collecting was frowned upon), things garnered from my grandfather's work at the White House.  It's really, really, cool.  I personally like this "museum" because, unlike those silly professional museums, I get to touch everything.  I get to hold bayonets and guns from the Civil War and feel their weight, plop down in a chair that used to live in the White House, and dig through badges and spurs and bullets that are also from the Civil War and hold a Navy pilot helmet from World War II.  It's really a history buff's paradise in there.  Unfortunately, the time came to leave before we got through everything...but I plan to look through it some more over the next couple of days.

By the time we left, as the sun was setting in pink and orange hues over the fields and trees, I was worn out, stuffed with food, holding two bottles of my grandfather's honey, and my feet were covered in dirt.  And I was happy.  Really, truly happy.

A Day of Not Much

My day consisted almost entirely of 3 things:

1) Sleeping
2) Eating
3) Laying around.

I'd call that a pretty vacation-tastic day.

To be fair, there was a portion of the day where I helped my dad gather up a bunch of leaves from my grandma's backyard into garbage bags.  I wasn't completely lazy, and I did my granddaughter duties.  But the fact remains that I slept A LOT and ate A LOT and watched The Bachelorette for a great amount of time since Obama came on and gave an address about the economic state in the middle of the episode (thus prolonging it).  That address also made me fear for my entire economic future, including (but not limited to) the ability to pay back student loans within my lifetime, and made me strongly consider moving to Canada.  But then I just finished watching The Bachelorette and ate some pudding instead.

Now I'm off to read The Great Gatsby and go to bed.  I was actually inspired to write a more heartfelt and poignant post tonight, but I'm all sneezy and took a Benadryl not too long ago so I feel the drowsiness coming on.  That will have to wait until later, I suppose...

A Family Picnic of Reunion Proportions

The internet issue of yester-night has been solved...it turns out that my grandmother doesn't actually have wireless internet - which explains why we had so much trouble connecting to it.  Anyway, I've located the broadband cord, so we're good to go (until my battery gives out.  I managed to leave the laptop charger at home).

The events of today included all the quintessential trappings of a visit to the extended family.  In the morning, my father and I attended church with my grandmother.  My mom and sister went to church with my mother's family, but I preferred to go to Calvary UMC 1) for the nostalgia quotient, and 2) because the building is just gorgeous. It was built in the 1800s, and has one of those old-fashioned tin ceilings and stained glass windows and red carpet and all those good, classic church-type things.  It's the church where my dad grew up, where my parents were married, where I was baptized, and where my grandfather's funeral was held.  I always like to go back there when we come up for a visit, because it's just about as familiar to me as my grandparents' houses.

The service was your typical United Methodist church service, so I won't go into great detail about it (go find a liturgy book if you're super curious).  The highlight of the service, for me, was actually the children's time.  The speaker came to the front, and the pastor invited the children to come forward, and it quickly became apparent to everyone in the room that there were no children present.  The speaker muttered "oh, come on..." good natured-ly, but it was still something of an awkward moment...until, from all corners of the room, the seven teenage members of the church youth group popped up out of their pews and came down to the front, along with the pastor himself, while the congregation laughed appreciatively.  It was a small gesture, but it spoke of the solidarity of the youth with the church, and the lack of arrogance among them.  None of those seven teenagers thought they were "too good" to sit in front of the church and listen to the speaker read from The Cat in the Hat - they saw a gap, and they filled it.  I thought that was pretty awesome.

So that was the morning.  Lunch included grilled cheese and tomato soup, which has an uncanny way of vibrantly reminding me of my childhood.  Also, my grandma makes better grilled cheese than any other grilled cheese maker that I've come across.  It must be a grandma trick.

BUT, the highlight of the day was undoubtedly the Great Family Picnic of 2011.

My parents both grew up here in this small West Virginia town, and so all of my grandparents live here.  We usually stay with my father's mom, but my mom's family lives right across town so we bop back and forth throughout the week.  The catch is that unlike my paternal relatives, who have scattered across the country, my mom's entire family still lives in this area - meaning that every time we Missouri relatives show up, it's family picnic time.  Four generations-worth of family, mind you.

I'll admit, it was rather a daunting site walking up the hill to my aunt's house to the large group of people who had assembled.  In total, the number grew to 30 (I counted), and included grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins' children, friends, and neighbors.  It was truly quite a lot of people to just "come over to dinner," as it were.  But, my aunt lives right next door to my grandparents' house out in the country, so there is a lot of space to be had, and she has the gift of hospitality, so it was a very warm and inviting atmosphere.

And there was GOOD FOOD.  We're talking hot dogs, barbecue, my MawMaw's macaroni and cheese (which is amazing),  cole slaw, deviled eggs, watermelon, corn casserole - all your classic picnic fare.  Dessert-wise, there were fudge brownies, carrot cake, and potato candy...all of which I ate more of than was probably a good idea.  This is potato candy, if you don't know what I'm talking about...I'd never heard of it until today, but it is certainly something I will be attempting to create in the future, you can believe that.

I ate dinner with my sister, my grandmother (who we grandchildren all call MawMaw), my cousin Randy, and his son Logan.  Logan doesn't have fantastic language skills, being a toddler, but he is still quite the talkative kid.  Still, he didn't have much to contribute to the Bachelorette discussions (yes, my grandmother is a fan).  Logan and the other kids (six in total, all under the age of 9) spent the majority of the picnic playing in a kiddie pool and splashing each other with water (and soaking diapers wet through, which resulted in the occasional naked child while parents performed an on-the-spot diaper change).  These picnics are a lot more fun now that kids are around - it used to be that my sister and I were the youngest of the family, and we were always rather shy and reserved and therefore non-entertaining.  The evening wrapped up with a group game of Guesstures, in which three of the kids (Jacob, Chasity, and Serenity) participated the most enthusiastically.  We finally said our goodbyes stuffed and tired, and happy to have seen one entire side of the family in one fell swoop.

In fact, being around those kids tonight made me wish that we didn't live so far away that we only get to see them once a year or so.  But better sometimes than never, right?  I also snagged MawMaw's macaroni and cheese recipe, which makes the entire evening an even greater success.

Here are a couple pictures from the family festivities... :)

My mom's family - my grandparents, aunts, and uncles (and mom, of course)

Cousins photo-op (plus one kid)

Serenity and I

Hannah and Jacob

The neighbor's cat kept coming over and trying to get in the house.  It was adorable.

Technology at Nana's House

Oy.

Let's just say that wireless internet is not at its forte here at my grandmother's house in West Virginia.

My sister and I just spent the last hour messing about with every possible internet "tool" offered by our laptops, trying to connect to the wireless internet that we know my grandmother has, and which shows up as a network option, and which requires a password...but which doesn't seem to KNOW it requires a password, and hence keeps not working.  Ugh.  It's all complicated.

Anyway, I intended to write this blog around 11:00, but I've just now gotten internet access an hour and a half later via my grandmother's desktop computer (which, by the way, Hannah and I had to figure out the password for using only our brains and a short "password hint" offered by the welcome screen as it taunted us).  Since it's all late now, and I'm all frustrated with computers, and I have to get up for church in the morning...you guessed it, the blog ends here.

Sorry to disappoint!  I know I've been a horrible blogger as of late...technology problems tend to kill my motivation and eat up all my time :(

No Time to Post

I'm in a hotel room with the family en route to the grandparents' town, and suddenly the entire family seems to be going to sleep...meaning that I must do so as well.

Anyway, all I did today was sit in a car, and that's not too exciting, right?

Day

Awake
Dressed
Fed-Ex
Sleep
Awake
Post Office
Bank
Panera
Target
Sleep
Schnucks
Lunch
Vacuum
Internet
Dinner
Wii
Sleep
Sleep
Sleep
Awake
Chips
TV
Shower
Pack
Blog
Sleep.

Holy Moly, it's 2:00 AM

So much for getting the sleep cycle back on track...I actually woke up early this morning, only to wind up taking a 4.5 hour nap later in the day.  Naturally, I am therefore not a bit sleepy, and have stayed awake laughing with my sister at 1) Spice World (possibly the most unfortunate 90s movie ever), 2) What a Girl Wants (a rather charming but still hilarious Amanda Bynes movie from the early 2000s), 3) The word "shindig", and it's relevance to words not used in polite conversation, 4) The Southern Belle Butterfinger Snacker commercial, and 5) the size of Bradley Cooper's face (seriously, his whole head is basically just his face, it's weird).

Sooooo yeah.  That's why I'm still up.  Not one bit sleepy, but I have to be up fairly early to accept a Fed-Ex package tomorrow morning.  I've just realized that that is a horribly dull point to bring up, but there's really little else to talk about at 2:30am.  I probably ought to just end this here, shouldn't I?

My life sure is exciting recently.

Quitting Things

Today I quit my job.  I'm not going to go into great detail about it, but I feel that it was the right decision.  Still, it's an odd feeling - I've never quit a job before, particularly not one that was ongoing and well-paying.  My other jobs have all ended naturally, whether because I was returning to school at the end of a summer or graduating and moving across the country.  So it was a bit awkward and a bit sad, but I'm looking toward the future, and I'm excited to be able to devote myself more fully to my internship this year, which will begin next month.

Another bright side effect is that my vacation is now LITERALLY a vacation - for the next few weeks, I have absolutely NOTHING to do.  It's kind of bizarre, actually.  I'm trying to make the most of it...although lately, that's mostly just been sleeping.

I know these probably weren't exciting updates, but I can assure you that it's rather a big deal.  Off to sleep now...catch you later.

On Writing, and Reading.

I find that I really, really want to write.

"Good thing you have a blog," you're probably saying.  And it's true, this is a good outlet for me for the writing creativity to flow, letting me write about what I want to write about instead of writing about what my professors would have me write about.  And yes, sometimes I write awesome things that people love and comment on with multiple exclamation points or link to their own blog or facebook page.  And yes, sometimes I just recount my day with mildly amusing commentary.  And yes, sometimes I stare at my computer screen for an hour before deciding that there is nothing in my brain to be written, and post a YouTube video instead.

The point is, I like to write.  I like to weave words together into sentences and present familiar ideas in innovative ways, or present innovative ideas in familiar ways.  I like to make the complex simple, and the simple complex.  Writing is like painting - you begin with a completely blank canvas, a blinking cursor on a white computer screen and with twenty six letters and the occasional punctuation mark, you create something that can shake people's minds, that can move people to action and challenge their perspectives.  Words themselves are fascinating, if you stop and think about them...but it's the way that the words are put together that makes them truly remarkable.

But, even though I know that I like to write, sometimes something pushes me into an even greater love of writing - reading.  More specifically, reading something that reflects the sort of things I like to write, or would like to write, or something that is reminiscent of my own writing style.  Things like exceptionally well-crafted young adult novels, when vital themes are developed in a reader-friendly way that isn't excessively flowerly in language but possesses all the trappings of masterful storytelling.  It's when I read those things that I remember that I want to write, when I think "I can do that" in a way that isn't arrogant, but inspiring.

Writing and Reading both are beautiful, unique experiences that are capable of empowering the human soul.  Isn't it too bad, then, how sometimes the beauty of it gets hammered out?

I've been a student continuously for no less than 18 years.  In that time, I've read a lot, and I've written a lot...and I've gotten burnt out a lot.  Forced to read things I don't want to read and to write things I don't want to write, I lose the desire to read and write those things which I do want to read and write.  This blog has helped keep me more accountable to writing - there have been days where I have procrastinated 10 page papers for entire afternoons, yet spent an hour and a half voluntarily writing a blog post.  Reading is what really begins to fall by the wayside...when all your homework is reading, pages upon pages upon pages, you really don't want to read in your free time.

And how unfortunate that is...because I love to read.

When I have vacations (such as the present) I remember that I love to read, and read I do.  But during my school semesters, reading for pleasure is the last thing on my mind...even though those are the times that I could most use the escapism that a good book offers the mind.

So here's to reading: reading with the excitement of a child waving their favorite storybook in their parent's face, demanding them to read it just one more time before they go to sleep.  And here's to writing: writing with the flair of an artist than with the drudgery of an overworked grad student.

Here's to the love that goes into every well-written text and well-read book.

Explanatory Post

So last night I wrote a (not super great anyway) post, which didn't save or post properly because the internet connection freaked out in the middle of me writing it.  I didn't feel like rewriting everything, so I just went to bed instead - technical difficulties are the only excuse I'll accept in my post-every-day vow (or being in the wilderness without internet, I guess, but that has yet to happen yet this year).

Anyway, that's why there's no post for yesterday.  I'll write again tonight.

Colleen and Bobby's Wedding!

As the title may imply, today was the wedding day of two of my friends from high school, Colleen and Bobby.  I've been friends with Colleen since about 7th grade, and I've known Bobby since preschool...I never guessed that one day I'd be at their wedding.  The ceremony was lovely, and I got to spend time with Colleen beforehand in the bridal parlor, which was a nice surprise!  The reception was really well done, I thought, and I enjoyed it - despite the fact that I braved the wedding dateless.  I was adopted for the night by three of Colleen's aunts as part of the "family," and it was actually a lot of fun talking to them throughout the night.  It turns out that I was the only person from our high school that was invited, outside the wedding party.  Consequently, I spent a great deal of time sitting at the head table talking with Colleen and Bobby and Stephanie, another of my friends from high school.  All in all, it was a lovely evening.  But, as one might be expected, I'm completely worn out.  The ceremony was at 2:00, and I headed off to the reception at 5:00, and didn't get back home until midnight.  So it was a long day, but a good one!

And now, for some photos from the wedding...

The bride and I (and high school buddies)

The matron of honor and I (and old AP chem partners)

The ceremony

The first dance...Aww.

EHS friends represent!

Harry Potter Hangover

I woke up this morning with a Harry Potter Hangover.

Or, I should say, I woke up this afternoon...at 12:30pm.  Apparently I slept right through my 10am alarm - I don't remember shutting it off, though I do remember rejecting a phone call from a friend around 9am (sorry Brandi).  I was kind of shocked to see that it was so late in the day; I really expected the clock to say 10:30, not  12:30.  Despite feeling like I could sleep the rest of the day, I hauled myself out of bed, and knocked on my sister's door to announce that it was already after noon.  Since she was planning to drive out to Columbia to visit friends in the "afternoon", I figured she better know that it was already the afternoon.  Hannah lugged herself out of bed shortly thereafter, and we went to Sonic for "lunch."  Although the timing felt more like breakfast, there was nothing breakfast-y about my New York style hot dog (spicy mustard, sauerkraut, and grilled onions) and tator tots.  Which, by the way, were delicious.  

Shortly after our breakfast/lunch outing, Hannah set off on her weekend trip to Columbia, and since my mom is out of town having a girls' weekend at the lake, it was just me and my dad - which is actually really nice, because I rarely get to see my dad anymore living 10 hours from the family homestead, and it's even more rare that we get to spend time together just the two of us.  We spent our daddy-daughter evening having dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and watching The King's Speech.  It was a really fun evening!

Then Dad went to bed around 9:30, and I began to consider how best to handle my Harry Potter hangover.  Although the tiredness may have worn off, I was now faced with the fact that it was approaching "bedtime" and it felt like midday.  Since I'm determined not to get myself onto some weird sleep schedule, I decided the best thing to do would be to watch a little TV and do a little writing, and then plop myself in bed with an audiobook and listen to it until I fell asleep.  So I watched a couple episodes of Friends, wrote an email to a friend, wrote this blog post, and soon I will grab the iPod to tackle the audiobook, and hope that sleep finds me somewhere in the meantime.  

I am actually feeling somewhat sleepy now, so I have high hopes for a good night's rest.  I've gotta be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for my friends' wedding tomorrow - which I shall tackle dateless and with great amounts of finesse and grace, and for which I shall look hott (with TWO t's) in the infamous zebra dress.  Should be a good day.

I'll leave you with a couple pics from last night's premiere...observe the finished t-shirts of two posts ago... :)

Harry Potter. It Happened.

Yes, I midnight premiere-d it up with my best friend Jessica and my sister Hannah.  We arrived at the theater around 8:30pm, sat in line for about 2 hours, were ushered into the theater around 10:30, briefly met Curt Copeland of Z107.7 radio fame (it was exciting), lost a costume contest, sat through preview after preview...

...and then we watched the movie.

Then the movie ended, and we went to Steak and Shake (at 3am), where we, along with other fans, shocked the establishment with unusually large crowds for the understaffed restaurant to handle.  But we were patient, and our food was good.  Nothing like a Frisco melt and cheese fries in the wee hours of the morning.  Then we all tipped the waiter over 100%, because he was the only one working and obviously really stressed out (combined, we left him a $25 tip for a $16 bill).  Good deeds make my heart happy.

And now I'm home, and it's 4am, and I'm going to bed.  Pictures will appear tomorrow.

I'm getting too old for midnight premieres...

Arts and Crafts: Fail.

So today my sister and I decided to make some T-Shirts.

The Harry Potter midnight premiere is tomorrow night, and Hannah took it upon herself to make "Homemade Dark Mark" shirts (a Very Potter Musical reference) for the two of us and our friend Jessica to wear to the premiere.  It's going to be all nerd-tastic.

The problems arose when Hannah and I got just a tad too ambitious in our T-Shirt creation efforts, and wanted to put a quote on the back.  We were going to just get some iron-on letters, but we would have had to buy something like nine packs in order to have enough "N"s.  So, instead, we got some big iron-on sheets and printed off the words, intending to cut out each letter individually.  This was already a STELLAR idea (sarcasm), and it got even better when we realized how tedious it was to cut out each letter.  But things were still going well...until Hannah realized about an hour into cutting out letters that she had neglected to tell me to peel the backing off first, making it impossible to iron on the letters without peeling each letter apart individually...which is impossible to do after they've been cut out.

Happily, out of the three shirts we're making, the victorious one is the one that we're making for my friend Jessica, so at least our failure has only affected ourselves.  The new plan is to go buy more iron-on stuff tomorrow and change our technique to be more creator-friendly.  Hopefully we'll have more success...gotta look all Harry Potter-tastic for the movie premiere tomorrow night!

And now, for your enjoyment, some evidence of our struggle...

Contemplating our efforts

The face of defeat

Defeat soon gave way to hysteria

Tune in tomorrow to see the finished product...since I'll be at the movies until like 3am, don't expect a super-long post, but I'll definitely try to throw a photo or two up here (if I remember in my delerium).  I hope you're doing equally nerdy things in the name of Harry Potter!

Sinister Ice Cream, and the Best Sandwich I Ever Ate.

Before we get started, I would like to point out that my hair does not, in fact, actually look like Peter Brady's snazzy 1970s 'do.  Here's some proof:

There now.  Told you I was overreacting :)

The big story of today is that I got together with my friend Nick for dinner.  Nick, like my friend Ashley who I visited three days ago, is one of the middle school buddies with whom I still maintain a friendship, despite the fact that we only went to school together for a year, 10 years ago.  Typically, Nick, Ashley, and I all go out together, but since Ashley's in Springfield for the summer and Nick is in St. Louis, the middle-school friend gatherings have been doubled.  Although it'd be fun to all be together, this DOES have the bright side effect of giving me multiple opportunities to go eat yummy food at fun restaurants!

Today, Nick and I ventured off to a restaurant that neither of us had been to before - or even heard of, for that matter!  Our destination: The Fountain on Locust, an old-fashioned soda fountain/ice cream parlor in downtown St. Louis.  Nick found out about it in some sort of "Best of St. Louis" magazine, so it was bound to be good.  

The restaurant did not disappoint!  Immediately walking in, we both uttered an audible "Whoa!"  The Fountain doesn't look like much from the outside - just an unassuming white building on a deserted and somewhat barren street.  But as soon as you walk in, you are bombarded with bright blue walls with light yellow arches springing up from a mahogany bar.  As Nick and I were gaping at it, we heard the hostess say, "This must be your first time here!"  "Yes!" we answered, and she led us off to a wooden booth in the corner, and handed us some menus.  

Unassuming Exterior...

Awesome Interior!

After some deliberation, I decided on the Hot Roast Beef Melt, with a Stutz salad on the side.  People.  It was quite literally THE BEST SANDWICH I have ever eaten.  EVER.  And the salad wasn't too shabby either.  

To give you a picture of this best sandwich ever, here's the menu description (pulled from their website): "Savory roasted Certified Angus Beef with melted white cheddar, rosemary grilled onions and tangy house-made horseradish sauce on a baked baguette."  The salad included "plump mandarin oranges, walnuts, and goat cheese on baby spinach with a creamy marmalade dressing."  Here's some photographic evidence:

 As soon as I bit into that sandwich, I suddenly had a great desire to swear.  And if you know me at all, you know that I don't swear...THAT is how good that sandwich was!  The homemade horseradish sauce, so creamy and rich, just oozed out of the middle of the sandwich amid globs of melted cheese, and the roast beef was tender and flavorful.  I LOVE roast beef sandwiches, particularly of the melted variety, and I've eaten many in my 23 years of existence, but there is no question whatsoever that this is the best one I've ever eaten. If you are in St. Louis, or if you are ever in St. Louis, it is necessary that you eat this sandwich...and, if I am around, it is necessary that you take me with you.

But, you will recall that The Fountain is also an ice cream parlor.  Therefore, the sandwich was not the end of the meal...

Despite the fact that the desserts were about the same price as the entrees, they were just too good to pass up!  Nick chose something called the Sweet Annina (named after the daughter of the family who runs the restaurant) - it involved orange sherbet and raspberry sauce and hot fudge and the like.  It was pretty.  

But I went for something entirely different...something daring.  Something dark.

I chose the Dark and Sinister.

The Dark and Sinister is an evilly tempting ice cream creation, a "tall glass coated with hot fudge, filled with Zanzibar chocolate ice cream, topped with marshmallow sauce, whipped cream, and a chocolate coin."  Heck yes.  That's my kind of ice cream, right there - chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, and marshmallow.  And whipped cream.  Because you've got to have whipped cream.

It was, in a word, delicious.  Everything in it was homemade, with the exception of the ice cream itself.  But, about halfway through the very tall glass, I began to realize why they call it "sinister" - I could hardly finish it!!  The chocolatey-ness nearly threatened to destroy me, but I persevered.  And I ate that WHOLE thing.  And I'm proud about it.  It is a feat worth recognition.

Victory.

So to recap: The Fountain on Locust = Awesome.  Awesome food, awesome ice cream, awesome atmosphere.  And, of course, it doesn't hurt to have an old friend as your dining companion!  All in all, it was an evening well-spent :)

Will The Real Peter Brady Please Stand Up?

I got my hair cut today.  And, as generally happens when I get my hair cut, I had a minor panic.

In case you don't know (and I don't see why you would), I really, really dislike getting my hair cut.  The prospect of making small talk with the stylist is not something I particularly enjoy, and I always feel that I'm not good at explaining what I want my hair to look like, and fear that it will look ridiculous.  These two factors, along with the ever-present factor of being busy with other things, tend to make me procrastinate getting my hair cut WAY past its due.  So, if you've been wondering why I seem to be wearing my hair in a ponytail all the time, that's why: because my hair had gotten to the point where it was so long and thick that it was completely unmanageable in its natural state, and took forever to straighten.  And I live in Dallas, and it's hot.  So ponytail it is.

However, being on vacation, I have an abundance of time to get my hair cut.  And so off I went to the Custom Cuts today.  I've never been one of those fancy beauty parlor girls for getting my hair cut.  On the contrary, it's $20 haircuts all the way for me.  Great Clips, Super Cuts - those kinds of places.  Since I don't do the whole hair coloring thing, this isn't ever really a problem.  My hair always turns out just fine.

BUT...there is a "but."

Since I am the queen of hair cut procrastination, my haircuts always turn into unnecessarily dramatic affairs.  Although I've had roughly the same haircut for the past 3 years, I can never just ask for a "trim," because I've put off the haircut to the point that I need at least 1.5-2 inches taken off.  And that can be a DRAMATIC change.  Furthermore, my hair is super thick and wavy and likes to portion itself off into chunks, which can lead to a misrepresentation of the actual haircut immediately after the act of hair cutting.

And that is what happened today, when I arrived back home and looked in the mirror to see Peter Brady staring back at me.

At first I thought it was Greg Brady, but upon further observation, it was definitely Peter.  In any case, there was something very distinctly "1970s teenage boy" about it.

Not trendy.

"MOM!"  I shouted...

"Yes?"

"Look at my hair!"

"It's cute!"

"I look like a guy from the 70s!"

...silence.

"No, not so much..."

...from upstairs: "I WANT TO SEE THIS!!!"

That would be my sister.  I walk up the stairs.

"Look,"  I say.

Hannah is silent.  Then there's laughter.

"I KNEW IT!!!!" I say, frantically starting to push my hair around, running my fingers through it in every possible direction.

"No," Hannah protests, "it's only because you pointed it out.  It really doesn't look bad."

Over the next twenty minutes, I asked Hannah about fifteen times, "Are you sure it doesn't look bad???"  Finally, determined to look like the lovely young modern woman that I am and not like a pubescent 70s TV actor, I heated up the straight iron and set to flattening my unruly hair into a more sleek and sophisticated version.  With some help from Hannah on the back portions (amidst more "ARE YOU SURE IT LOOKS OKAY?"'s), and a great amount of brushing, and about an hour of not looking in the mirror, I was convinced that, no, my hair did NOT look awful, and no, I did NOT actually look like Peter Brady.  In fact, I think it's quite cute.  At any rate, it's much more summer-friendly than the bushel of hair that had grown atop my head over the last few months.

And so, my friends, I can promise you that you will not be embarrassed to be seen with me the next time we get together.  To give you a more realistic vision of my hair, it's shoulder length with long layers and some face framing layers.  In fact, it's not that much different than my hair has been for most of this year, but with somewhat shorter layers toward the front.  I'd post a picture of my hair, so that you can see it's non-Brady-esque qualities, but it's after midnight and I'm typing this in bed and my hair is all smushed up against a pillow and therefore not at it's finest.  Besides, some things are best left to mystery...

As long as those mysteries don't involve the story of a man named Brady...

J'suis Fatiguee...

I'm so tired.  It is necessary that you know this, dear reader, before you read any further.

Generally, when I'm tired, I don't write much on this blog.  Right now, it's 12:53am.  Therefore...I'm tired.

But today's tired spell, unlike those brought on by extreme bouts of seminary, came about through many, many good things.  It is the aftereffect of going to church with my sister, eating lunch with my family, running all over west St. Louis county with my best friend of twelve years, eating Thai food (followed by FroYo), and a long (and great) phone call in the evening.  At this point, I could have easily gone to bed, but instead spent two more hours talking with my sister, making dinner plans with a middle school buddy for later this week, watching silly YouTube videos, and taking a shower.

Oh, and writing this blog post.

But since the writing of this blog post is now the only thing standing between me and glorious sleep, I think I shall end it here.

Until tomorrow...

Road Trippin', Part 2

Waking up bright and early to the crack of sunshine peeking into my hotel room through the slightly parted curtains, after an unusually restful night of sleep, I was ready to continue my journey across the Midwest.  Somehow, I viewed this trip as less of an ends-justify-the-means excursion necessitated by the considerable distance between Dallas and St. Louis, and saw it more as the first part of my long-awaited vacation (hence all the random roadside stuff from yesterday).  Still, it was kind of hard to pull myself out of that king-sized bed with the extra-comfy sheets (Hampton Inns know their bed linens)...but after a leisurely breakfast of biscuits with jelly and cartoons (yes, I am 23, thank you for asking), I hit the road again.

Once again, I discovered the wonderful ability of audiobooks to minimize the monotonous lull of boredom that the plains of Oklahoma are capable of producing.  Getting into the story, it felt like no time at all before I made it to Springfield, MO...even if my eyes were burning and my head was pounding from driving virtually non-stop for three and a half hours.  Pulling into the parking lot of a local Wal-Mart, I was excited to see my friend Ashley as she arrived to pick me up and take me to lunch.  Ashley is one of my friends from middle school, with whom I continue to maintain a strong friendship despite the fact that we only attended school together for one year, ten years ago.  Anyway, she lives in Springfield now, and since I pass right through Springfield, we made plans to go to lunch.

This was possibly the best plan we've ever come up with.  

Usually, my road-trip stops include rest stops and fast food - the kinds of stops designed to take a minimal amount of time and get you back on the road as soon as possible (thereby not providing much real "rest").    But, armed with the excuse of having lunch with an old friend, I took a good two and a half hour break.  That's a REAL rest stop.  Ashley took me to this family-owned Italian restaurant called Bambinos, which is hidden away in the middle of an old neighborhood and which serves up a FANTASTIC Greek pasta - penne, feta cheese, some fancy Greek olive, spinach, roasted red pepper.  And bread with olive oil.  I love places that let me dip bread in olive oil.  After a great lunch and great conversation, we went and got frozen custard at Andy's (a favorite of Springfield-ites, so I'm told), where I ordered a "small" peanut butter and brownie concrete mixture, but it was really the size of a generous medium soda.  In true frozen-custard-establishment style, we sat on the curb leaning against the building, eating our ice cream and dodging bugs and laughing and talking about our lives.  It was all fantastic.  But, of course, all good things must come to an end, and eventually I bid Ashley goodbye and hit the road again for the remaining three hours to my family's home in St. Louis suburbia.

The rest of the trip passed uneventfully.  I listened to the audiobook the whole way (pretty sure audiobooks are my new favorite thing), and eventually made it back.  Something did hit me as I approached my family's home, though - Missouri is beautiful.  Really.  It's gorgeous.  Driving up through the twisting hills, covered in leafy forests with glimpses of valleys flashing between the trees, I realized that I grew up in a beautiful place.  My childhood home is in the suburbs, certainly, but on the edge of the suburbs.  These hills, I realized, are like a part of me...just seeing them, and driving through them, is like my past embracing me as I return for a brief visit.  Even though it was hot and humid, I rolled down my window as I drove through the twisty stretches of Highway 100 through Grey Summit, I extended my left arm to its full length out the window, feeling the hot air pushing back at me.  And I felt that intriguing dichotomy that is the present come over me, that focus on the future that is inextricably tied to the past.  We live our entire lives in the present, and yet the presents become pasts and the future is nothing more than a series of presents that have yet to be lived.  And we fight our way forward, surrounded by our hopes and our memories like I was surrounded by those hills, pushing against obstacles just as my arm cut tirelessly through the air as I sped down the road.

And as I arrived home, fully cognizant of my past and enthralled with the possibilities of my future, I found myself happy to be in a place where time comes together, where past and present meld together and the promise of the future shines brightly out of the corner of my eye.  

Road Trippin'

I find that there is nothing quite like heading off on a road trip to de-stress the mind and rejuvenate the soul.

At least, in my opinion.

I've always liked travelling, and after a particularly stressful week (like the final week of an intensive Greek course, let's say) it's always a great feeling to know that the only thing you're expected to do is to sit, drive, and think.  No homework, no meetings, no working...just driving.  There's nothing like it.

And so, after conquering my Greek final and packing up all the necessary clothes and DVDs and such, I happily set off on the first leg of my journey home, a four-hour trip from Dallas to Muskogee, OK.

Lately when I go on road trips, I always start off by listening to The Band Perry, because there's something about singing one's heart out to country music that makes road trips even road trip-ier.  This CD was followed by Jason Mraz's "Mr. A-Z" CD (circa 2005), which I like to listen to on extended trips if for no other reason than to prove to myself that I still remember all the lyrics to "Wordplay."

"You folks goin' past Tishomingo?"

By the time I got through these two CDs, I started to get hungry for lunch...unfortunately, Middle-of-Nowhere, Oklahoma doesn't offer a great variety of restaurants, so I had to wait about half an hour after the hunger point before I found a place to stop: a McDonalds in Atoka.  It wasn't the most pleasant of experiences...I got the evil eye from a woman in the parking lot because I drove the wrong way down the lane (my bad), then nearly slipped about 25 times inside the restaurant because the employees had chosen that precise moment to mop the floor (their bad).  If you know me at all, you know that I don't do well with water on tile flooring.  Also, the service was rather slow...overall, it was just not the best fast-food experience.  But then, on the way out I saw a sign for Tishomingo, and I hear people sell their souls to the devil on crossroads near there, so maybe that has something to do with the negative experience (O Brother Where Art Thou, anyone?  Refer to the YouTube clip at the end of this post if you don't know what I'm talking about).

To help pass the time, I downloaded Looking for Alaska, a young adult novel by John Green, in audiobook version from iTunes last night.  Actually, I downloaded an E-Book, then spent half an hour on the phone with my tech-savvy sister trying to figure out why it wouldn't play before discovering that an E-Book and an Audiobook are not the same thing (which I knew, of course, but I didn't realize I had downloaded the E-Book version and not the audiobook).  Anyway, I've never done the audiobook thing, but now I am a HUGE fan - it made the time pass SO quickly!  It also got me all inspired to start working on my book again (for those of you who don't know/forgot, I started writing a young adult novel in January, but it fell by the wayside due to homework and general school stress).

Finally, I got to Muskogee and checked into my hotel.  Shortly thereafter, I realized I left my iPod haphazardly strewn across the passenger seat of my car...and even though crime rates are low in rural Oklahoma and my 2007 iPod Video isn't the most enticing piece of technology, I still didn't think it was a good idea to advertise my semi-valuable mp3 player to the parking lot passerby.  So, I went downstairs to get it from the car, passing an elderly gentleman as I exited through the front doors.  Immediately thereafter, I realized I hadn't brought my car keys, and did an about-face back through the door, catching myself behind the slow-moving old man I had just passed as he tottered along through the lobby.  I respectfully slowed my pace and walked behind him; I always think it's rude to just rush around old people.  Suddenly, he stopped at the sight of a preteen boy rolling a luggage cart about 20 feet down the hall; consequently, I stopped as well.  At this point he glances back at me, and I smile politely.  Eventually the luggage cart boy passes, and the man continues, and I continue as well.  It then became apparent that I was going to have to take the elevator with this man..."Great," I thought, realizing the increasing awkwardness of the situation.  We get on the elevator, and he says to me "I guess you only really have one option..." extending his hand toward the buttons, then looking confused as he discovered that the hotel has three stories, not two (giving me two options of floors to inhabit).  I smile politely again, saying "2, please."  We ride up in silence, until we reach the floor and I hasten off to my room, where I grab my car keys before running back down to the lobby, out to the parking lot, and, having retrieved my iPod, return into the elevator.  The door opens at the second floor, and I nearly run headfirst into a luggage rack blocking my exit - manned by none other than my favorite recent acquaintance, the slow-moving elderly gentleman.  I flash him a smile and a quick "hello again!" before scurrying off to my room.

That was a lot of awkward to cram into 15 minutes.  But it didn't end there...during the commute to the parking lot I almost ran into a man exiting his room as I flung open the adjacent door to the staircase, and later two guys slightly older than myself came knocking at my door and were shocked to discover that I was not the friend they were looking for.  I've stayed in many hotels in my life, and have rarely had so much interaction with the other guests...except for hostels, of course, where the bunk-bed setup naturally makes you bffs with everyone else in the room.

I spent the evening lounging about the hotel, talking to friends on the phone and watching Harry Potter movies on TV.  I also ventured out to explore some of the Muskogee sights, including the castle (yeah, castle) and cowboy furniture store...sadly, both were closed, but you can see the photographic evidence of their strangeness below.

I make my valiant return to Missouri in the morning!

A Medieval Castle, Oklahoma Style

Typical Oklahoman Roadside Sight

The store was closed, but I liked the slogan

Oklahoma is known for their pirates, of course...?

Stereotypical Southwestern Decor

And in case you didn't know what I was talking about with Tishomingo earlier...

The End is in Sight...

It's true!!  It's true!!  Tomorrow I have my Greek final, and then it's officially vacation time!!  Although, seeing as I spent most of the day napping, watching Practical Magic on DVR, talking on the phone, and eating Chipotle, I was practically already on vacation.  Ironically, I'm less worried about the final than I was about Tuesday's test...it actually seems fairly easy, strangely enough...

In any case, tomorrow I'll be headed off to good ol' Muskogee, Oklahoma for the night, then onward to St. Louis the next day (with a side trip through Springfield for lunch with an old friend).  It still feels rather unreal that I'm travelling tomorrow...for one thing, I haven't packed at all.  That's on the post-final agenda.  It's only 4 hours to Muskogee, and since the only person I plan on seeing there is the Domino's delivery guy, I'm not in a big rush to head out of town.  

Still, I can't believe that my Greek experience will be over tomorrow morning!  As intense as it has been, I can truly say that it's been my favorite seminary class so far, and while I won't miss the homework, I will miss the class!  

See you in Oklahoma :)

Hectic Day, Great Night

Short post, because it's late and I really ought to get to bed:

Today = Hectic.  Because of Greek.  As usual.  Lots of hours, lots of tiny letters, lots of complex translating, lots of tediousity.  (Note: tediousity is a brand new word I just made up.  Please introduce it into your daily parlance at your earliest convenience).

Tonight = Great.  Why?  Because I had a second date that went fantastically :)

And that's it from me tonight.  Until next time!

Spoiled

Today I discovered how spoiled I have become in my foreign language studies.

Take French and German, for example.  For each of these languages, I had a pocket dictionary at my disposal.  In the case of French, I also had a bigger Larousse dictionary and a Bescherelle verb conjugation dictionary to reference when working through things.  These were all very helpful, but the tool I used the most (much to the chagrin of my professors, I'm sure) was wordreference.com.  Unlike online tools like Google Translate, WordReference doesn't translate entire phrases, but just acts as a thorough online dictionary.  Type in a word, get several possible translations back.  Easy.  If you don't understand a word, it takes all of about 5 seconds to figure it out.  In fact, I still use WordReference frequently when I'm translating letters and such for my job.

Here's the problem.  Ancient Greek doesn't have an online translator.

And that is really, really not cool.

So instead of typing in my query and getting a translated result back in 0.365 seconds, I have to spend anywhere from 5-10 minutes searching for unfamiliar words in the giant lexicon, the back of my textbook, or the back of my Greek New Testament, in the "dictionary."  That's 5-10 minutes PER WORD...and the Greek words that I don't understand are plentiful.  The time adds up fast.

The problem with all this is that you have to know the "lexical form" to look up the word...which often doesn't look anything like the word you're trying to find, because Greek has like 50 different spellings for practically every word in the language, depending on its usage.

Say you have the word "elelutha" in front of you, for example: to ascertain its meaning, you need to know to look up the word "erkomai."  And those don't look the same, now do they?  And that's even one of the easy ones to remember...

And of course, you get all the Greek characters involved, so in the time it takes you to find a possible definition you've forgotten which word you were trying to look up in the first place, and have also probably lost your spot on the page.  And of course, by the time you find your spot on the page, you've lost your spot in the lexicon.  It's a vicious cycle.

So while I was working on Greek for a whopping 11 hours today (to be continued for another 1-2 hours after I post this), it dawned on me how truly spoiled 21st century language-learners have become.  We can have everything on modern languages at the click of a button, and it's REALLY nice.  Even the magical analytical Greek lexicon, which lists words in all their forms (and which I discovered in the library today), still takes awhile to get through, and really only adds another book to the pile.

And so I admit it.  I've become spoiled in my foreign language pursuits.

So now, three days from the end of the course, I've begun to realize why the nickname around seminary for my summer Greek intensive course is "Suicide Greek."  As I told my friend T.Wes in the library today, if something goes wrong with my salvation and I wind up in hell, I'm pretty sure you'll find me at a dimly lit library table, under a stack of Greek lexicons and scattered with scratch paper.

Only three days, two tests, one quiz, and translating all of 1 Thessalonians to go!

Garh.

That's the sound my life is making today.

I've been working all day on Greek stuff, and somehow I haven't gotten ANYTHING done...apparently four days of having company and therefore barely touching Greek homework was enough to knock every bit of my knowledge of the language out of my head.  NEVER have I had so much trouble with Greek homework, and as I'm entering the last week of class (complete with two tests), it's truly freaking me out. But try as I might, I can't make sense of things...just looking at my Greek homework makes me sick to my stomach.  I'm at the point now where I think I just have to give up, and hope that being in class for four hours tomorrow will jog my memory enough to make it through the week.

Essentially, I think I need to get back to my routine...it's like I've been living in a parallel universe of my life for the past week, and it's gotten me all messed up.  I feel like I had things well in hand until about the middle of last week, and now it just feels like a race to the finish line.

I also have to figure out how I want to renew my lease for next year, which is also stressing me out since I haven't the slightest idea what my plans will be post-graduation, and don't know how expensive a 10-month lease would be compared to the (already more expensive than my current lease) 12-month lease I was quoted.  I'm hoping to go and talk to the office tomorrow, if I'm back home in time after the afternoon study session I have planned with some classmates.

Oh, and I need to set up my mail to be forwarded while I'm gone.  Can't forget that.

In the meantime, I keep eating a bunch of random junk out of boredom/frustration, and I suddenly have an overwhelming urge to drive to McDonalds or Raising Canes and acquire some kind of fried something.  I also have the urge to crawl under the blankets in my bed and hide from everything.  Neither of these options seems super productive either.

Let's just say that I'm ready for a vacation...and even though I feel like I need a week and a half to get everything done, I'm still kind of relieved to know it's only 4 days away...

The End of a Long Week

It may be the beginning of the week, but to me it feels like the end of a very, very long week.  I saw my friend off to the airport this afternoon for her return flight to Houston, and was finally back to reality.  I went to Bible study tonight, as usual, and spent the rest of the evening eating random junk food and watching TV, and generally just letting out a big sigh of relief after this past week.  Don't get me wrong, it was a good week...just long.

Sorry my posts have been less than thought-provoking lately...I promise to step it up again soon!

Shopping Daaaaaay!

Today was all shopping-tastic.

After a great deal of deliberation concerning how to spend the day, Kelli and I decided to shop.  A lot.

The first stop was Half-Price Books, and as usual I did not leave empty handed (and neither did Kelli).  My personal purchases include two DVDs (Dreamgirls, which I've never seen but have wanted to see, and Shrek 3, which I secretly love a whole lot), and a "Teach Yourself Tagalog" CD-Rom/Audio CD program...because it was only $10, and I figured knowing even a bit of Tagalog might not be unhelpful when I'm working at the Filipino church for my internship next year.  Besides, I like learning semi-obscure languages in my free time (cough cough, ancient Greek, cough)...it's one of my more nerdy hobbies.

After a quintessential Tex-Mex lunch (enchiladas, anyone?), we ventured on to the Dallas Galleria, where we watched people ice skating and poked about various shops.  I also snagged two pairs of faux pearl earrings for 47 cents (total) at Old Navy...they had a gazillion pairs, someone must have messed up an order.  In any case, they were originally marked at $6, and pearl earrings match practically everything, so that was a very victorious moment.  We then had a quick venture through Big Lots, where I avoided buying anymore cheap movies, and returned to the apartment, completely exhausted.  After laying around for a bit and eating dinner, we ventured back out for Cold Stone (yes Mom, I finally used that gift card you gave me...).  We wrapped up the evening by watching Last Holiday.  Good times.

So all in all, a fun, if somewhat tiring day.  Now I'm off to bed, then it's church in the morning, spending the day fantastically, and then Kelli's off on her return flight to Houston and I'm off to catch up on the work and Greek translations that have fallen by the wayside over the past week/weekend.  Things got crazy from about Wednesday on, and I need me some catch up time!  My Fourth of July is looking less celebratory every day...but I might be okay with that.  I can't believe I only have one more week of my summer classes!

LOVE and HAPPINESS!!!

Today was the long-anticipated wedding day of my friends Emily and Jin!  The ceremony was absolutely beautiful, as was the reception...both were very simple, and yet extremely elegant and classy in their simplicity.  Emily and Jin met on a summer project mission trip in Santa Cruz, CA that I also attended in 2008, and a few other people from the project were at the wedding, in addition to my friend Kelli and I (and the bride and groom, of course).  It was great to catch up with them, and so fun to sit with them at the wedding and reception, since we knew Emily and Jin from the very moments when they first met that summer in California.  We joked that we should have had a VIP table, and our names in the program as "the people who brought them together"...even if technically, God brought them together.  Whatever, as their former roommates and Santa Cruz friends, we should still get some kudos sent our way.

All in all, the whole affair just oozed with happiness.  Emily was absolutely beautiful, and Jin looked so happy to see her come down the aisle, and all the decorations and music and things were just adorable and wonderful.  It was truly lovely.

Here are some pictures from the wedding...so you can see the adorableness as well!

Emily and Jin saying their vows

The new Mr. and Mrs. Lee!

Presh.

Kelli, Chadwell, and I at the reception

Chadwell and Jeff (from the Santa Cruz project)

Santa Cruz represent!

Seeing the newlyweds off with sparklers.  It was slightly terrifying.  But cute.

So yay for happiness and love!!!  And yay for weddings where these things come together beautifully :)