Confessions of a Shopaholic

Last night Felisha, Leslie and I went to Fashion Valley Mall to watch Confessions of a Shopaholic. Don't waste your money!!!

First of all, Felisha and I spent the entire movie fighting off panic attacks at her amount of debt. Second of all, Hugh Dancy (the leading male role) is way above this type of movie.

I should have taken the hint when the guy letting us into the theater said that it was "such a girly movie" and that we definitely wouldn't see any guys in the theater. (There actually WAS a guy in the theater, I hope he brought an ipod or something.)

That's all I have to say about that!

Stress and other random topics. . .

Some of the greatest conversations happen around the table at Starbucks over an iced caramel Macchiato. The most recent conversation I had was with Felisha and Caily, the topic: stress! Each phase of life is stressful; it seems to fall into the category of the human condition. In looking at all the life I hopefully still have to live this knowledge is quite ominous! It seems I spend more time trying to outrun the pressures of life instead of just embracing them and enjoying the moment. I don't want to outrun the pressures of life because when stress is escaped, life is forfeited. I'd rather just enjoy the moment. My new tactic for embracing stress is simply to laugh out loud! I encourage you to try it.

This first week back to school really hasn't been too bad as far as school. Unfortunately, I have contracted some sort of illness that has settled in my throat. So far it has kept me awake two nights in a row. It is most unwelcome.

On a completely random note, I went through my parent’s computer while I was at home for spring break and I found lots of old pictures! It was fun to take a jaunt down memory lane. I thought I'd share some:

Babysitting with friends: '07

Yosemite '06

Skiing! Sophomore year

My little cousin Ryen! '05?

My first driving lesson '05

Felisha's Grandparents house Freshman year?

Seattle '07

NYC mission trip '06

Back to school

Returning to school after spring break is much more difficult than returning after Christmas break. Instead of starting fresh with new classes we, as students, are dropped into the "sludge" of the middle of the semester. We already know what to expect of professors and they already know what we are capable of. There are no excuses.
From now on I have at least one term paper, term project, test, or midterm in EVERY WEEK until finals week. Lovely.
However, with only 9 weeks left of my Freshman year of college I am determined to make the best of everything!

Time Flies

Today I managed to accomplish a nearly impossible feat: I finished my homework by 7:30pm! I am still in awe! When I finished I certainly did not want to just sit around and do nothing, and I especially did not want to start on my homework for next week. Instead, I decided to create another video. . . this one is in memory of the Greece trip. I've been thinking about it all day so I decided to make this video. (That's two in one week folks!) It is a pretty rough cut and the pictures go by quickly because I didn't want to bore you all with long dramatic pictures of ancient ruins.

Just a few notes to read BEFORE watching the video:

• As always: Turn the music off at the bottom of the page.
  
• Keep in mind that the man I'm posing with in about the middle of the video (in the tan sweater) was the owner of a pottery shop who told me that I must chose between him or his brother, as neither of them were married, and that I must take a picture with him and kiss him on the cheek. Wait, I mean cheeks! (As in plural) It was entirely awkward and I was fairly FREAKED out by this greasy old Grecian man who had a serious 5 0'clock shadow that was quite painful to "kiss!" However, the experience did give me an awesome story to write on my future blog!
  
• On a more serious note, some of these ruins were places that the apostle Paul actually walked on! I walked in Paul's footsteps. Amazing.

Past and Present

This week has been super busy. Lots of papers, midterms, reading, work, and general lack of sleep. I am so grateful that the weekend is almost here because I will be able to get some SLEEP! Hallelujah! Other than that, there is nothing incredibly exciting to report.

Leslie's Birthday!


It has been almost TWO years since I went to Greece! I can't believe it. Today I went through all my Greece pictures and completely relived the experience. I WILL go back before I die. :) I thought I'd share a few pictures:

So Funny!

These pictures just make me laugh so I thought I'd share them with you!

Weekend Madness

Ah, where do I start!? This weekend was full of excitement.

• We'll start with Friday. . . my last class was cancelled and so my weekend started at 10:30 am. I could get used to that in a HURRY! In the evening I went to the cheesecake factory with a small group of girls to celebrate Leslie's birthday. I ordered Chocolate brownie Sunday cheesecake and WOA it was rich!
• I house sat for a family friend/Professor here at Point Loma. She has an AMAZING house! It's like a museum of modern art. . . that can be lived in. Totally awesome. Aurora spent the night with me so that I wouldn't freak out by myself and we made a giant cupcake! (There is a picture of it toward the end of the video in the previous post.)
• Saturday included homework and a few trips from campus to the house and vice-versa. I got a LOT of exercise. It was great! In the evening I had a movie marathon with Sarah, Trisha, and Felisha. We watched: Juno, Forrest Gump, and We Are Marshall. . . those last two are SO SAD. My face was practically a balloon by the time I went to bed. It was sob city.
• Sunday was full of homework and studies because midterms have arrived! oh boy.

Well for some reason I feel like I'm lacking skills in the communication department right now. It's probably because it is currently 1:53am and I don't think I'm functioning at maximum capacity! So I'm going to go watch Get Smart until my shift ends. I had some contemplations to share with the world today, but they seem to have abandoned me at the moment so I guess I'll just have to write them down later.

Video

About 1:00 this afternoon I was struck with the inspiration to create a video. I think it is largely because I don't really want to study for my literature midterm. ICK!
So I threw together this video of fun events from the last two months. (Don't forget to turn the music off at the bottom of the page before playing it!)

What a glorious day!

This semester I have classes that start at 7:30 in the morning! I officially hated myself for the first 2 weeks because I am by no means a morning person, but now that my body has adjusted to such an abnormal schedule (for me) I find that mornings brighten up the day! (Literally!) There is something refreshing in waking up at the beginning of the new day instead of in the middle of it. I have come to appreciate sunrises almost as much as sunsets and the brisk walk in the morning from my dorm room to class -- as long as it's not raining. I feel like God created mornings to be something special between Him and His children. Sometimes I think I can audibly hear Him say "Good morning beautiful!" What a way to start the day. . .

Contemplating Love

My mind has been swarming with ideas about Valentines Day and how to incorporate it into a blog entry. Some possible topics are:

1. Renaming Valentines Day to Singles Awareness Day.

2. The media's amazing ability to hype everything up and turn a day of love into a day of material.

A few other ideas have popped in and out of my head as well, but when it comes down to writing. I just don't feel like writing about love. At least not human love. . .

I want to live my life with God as my first, and most important love.

That's all!

So here I sit. . . . like a bird in the wilderness?

My grandma sings that song every time there is an awkward silence. "Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness. Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness. . ." I think you got it. So I guess the point of the title is to explain that there is an awkward silence in my mind. I'm thinking everything at once, and nothing at all. That could partly be caused by the grande-iced-caramel-machiato-with-an-extra-shot that I got from Starbucks at 9:00 PM, but it could also be because I feel a hurricane of emotions: contentment, concern, wonder, excitement, nervous energy, calm reassurance, and nonsense. I'm sure that didn't make any sense to you, it hardly makes sense to me, so don't feel bad!
Sometimes I wonder why God made us each unique. While it definitely shows his masterful artistry, sometimes I wonder if we were all the same, wouldn't it be so much easier to help each other out? Sometimes I'm at a loss when it comes to compassion and love. At times my own self-consciousness keeps me from selflessly loving others. I'm not so sure I'm okay with that.
Also, the acoustic radio at last.fm is the bomb, and it just stopped working. So now I feel like my world is falling apart! No acoustic radio!? You've got to be kidding me!
For the record. . . I had an entirely surreal experience today. I was simply doing my philosophy homework which is reading, of course, and I was writing a reflection paper. Suddenly, I felt like I wasn't thinking in a language. I really felt like my thoughts were in tongues because I had NO WAY of putting them on paper! It was incredibly irritating.
Another random fact: I think caffeine stimulates the imagination because I am suddenly deathly afraid of the dark. And that's bad. Because I'm sitting in a booth. In the middle of the night. In pitch. Black. Dark.
Creepy.

B-e-a-utiful!

The beautiful San Diego Skyline.

Last night my Uncle Bob (fondly called Yoda) took Felisha and I out to dinner and THIS was the view from the restaurant. SO AMAZING!!

This week will be action packed that's for sure! I have a test, a quiz, and 3 essays due in the next few days besides the normal reading. EEK. I'm also looking forward to seeing my aunt and cousins tomorrow, and my mom and brothers this weekend. (Reid's going to get a taste of college life .) I am currently at work trying to finish up some homework and be kind to all the people who simply drive by the booth and roll their eyes at me. grr

Only 37 minutes until my shift is over. woooh