School

Haha, in the last post I was talking about June gloom... fast forward five months, I guess!

I have been busy. Really, really busy. This past week I spent over thirty hours at school, and was just happy to be home yesterday and today. Sleep has become one of my new best friends.

The main reason for the madness is debate. Yes - the class I never thought I would be in. At the beginning of registration for the fall semester this year, while glancing through the class schedule, I saw it: staring up at me from the thin gray recycled page, threatening me. I quickly dismissed it until my registration appointment, at which time I somehow 'accidentally' registered for the class.

Whoops.

The first few speeches went well, but I still wasn't really enjoying it. It wasn't a necessary class for my GE or my major, and I already have my Associate of Arts in Language and Communications. It was more of a 'let's see if I can do this' type of thing. I've gotten to the point where I enjoy the class, but the more I enjoy it the less I seem to understand it. I don't 'get' it yet, but I am told that's normal. I stumbled through my first debate on Domestic Transportation Infrastructure, and I got royally beaten - but that only served to make me want to debate more.

I still don't get it. It frustrates me, makes me nervous, and coming up with logical arguments on-the-spot comes as naturally to me as flying does to pigs: but I am beginning to enjoy it. I noticed, too, that I can speak more fluidly off the top of my head in front of groups, which is definitely helpful. I've been watching the debate team at their practices to try to understand it better, but they're so far ahead of me that it's kind of more confusing than helpful sometimes. Once they had me debate with them (I'd been told that the fastest way to learn to debate well is to be soundly beaten by a much better team - and it's true), and I attempted to. Then we had a practice debate on a resolution of value (which we don't get to in class, we only have resolutions of policy), and that was hilariously atrocious. It was kind of fun, too, though. And somehow I have managed to get myself signed up for a rookie debate competition at the Fall Champs at our school. It's in two weeks. That's why I've been so busy at school - trying to understand as much as possible in the short amount of time remaining. I'm just hoping to have fun with it, I'm not going to worry about being serious competition. It's a round of four debates, and basically our goal at this level is to be as organized and clear as possible, and just talk. We'll see how that goes... I'm excited. It's one of those things that is making my stomach knot up, but I know if I don't take this opportunity now I'll regret it later.

So yeah, that's most of what's eating up my time right now - besides the reading and essays for my lit classes, which are time-intensive too. I have two essays due on Tuesday. At least I started one...

Three more weeks of school - only three! I'm happy, but I'm sad too. This semester has been my most involved at school and with people at school, and I have to say that though it was intensely busy I learned a lot - and kind of don't want to leave debate class. I've found that the classes that I suffer the most through are the ones I'm most hesitant to leave. I briefly considered joining the forensic or debate team, but I always consider those things a little too late. Ugh. Besides, I really enjoy it - but it's a whole 'nother world.

My first days on break I will probably be sleeping. My poor sleep-deprived body and mind are unresponsive to caffeine.

On a side note, there is a fly that is really bothering me right now. It's really slow: must be the cold. He zooms around every once in a while, futilely buzzing along the computer screen, and I can't seem to get rid of him. Dumb fly.

On another really random sidenote, I recently sold a guinea pig that now lives in Michigan. I think that's one of the farthest one of my pigs has gone yet. I've had pigs go to Arizona, Oregon, Arkansas, Washington, and Texas. None out of the country yet... ;)

I have also decided to paint one of my walls. It's going to be a mural of some sort, I'm still working out the details. Of course, that's assuming I ever get the time...

Well, I should probably attempt to get some sleep. Next week I have another debate! The last one before fall champs.

Today is Friday

And I love this weather. Honestly, I love overcast days, with or without rain. June gloom is fine with me :)

I got to work some more in the garden today. Bought some parsley to plant yesterday, and I need to get out there and plant my late seeds. I'm trying to get some beans in before it's way too late. Anyway, if you want to see what's going on in the garden, I've got yet another blog here for that - http://threesistergarden9.blogspot.com/

I am on here because I am procrastinating. What else is new?

I have a final due online today, a poetry final, and I am currently avoiding it. I have to write five poems that I would like to have read at my funeral, and write why and how I want each one read. I am having difficulty with poetry today... I wrote some rough drafts last night but I'm not feelin it. Poetry is so subjective, though, that if I just make it sound good hopefully it will go over well XD

This is my current art project. I still have a lot of work to do on it. The photo I'm using is very vague on the right-hand side, there's no differentiation between his face and the background, but my brain keeps trying to put one there. Lol.

His name is Liev Schrieber. He's an actor. I really haven't drawn many actresses because there aren't really very many that I respect for their talent, many are just on screen for looks. This guy has talent, though.

Yeah, so... Tonight we are taking our first fencing lessons :) Should be very, mm, interesting.

I finished my final for Martial Arts/Self defense, that was good. I think it went well overall, I'm actually going to miss it. My 'worst' final will be the Political Science; overall it was my favorite academic class, but it's tough to wrap my brain around. The teacher was great, though, and after taking the class politics are interesting to me... uh oh.

I'm finishing up my stone carving of a hand, it's actually looking half decent. I have to finish it on Monday, though, and that is no good. Not really worried about the art final, it's pretty much common sense.

Fiction class was a breeze for the final. Just turn in all the journal assignments for the class, and an improved/added onto version of your major work. Still have to do that, but that's fun stuff. I have a character named Coats, though, and I have to figure him out more still. He's in my brain somewhere (the entire story is from a dream I had several years ago), I just have to find out where he's hiding and drag him out so I can analyze his character better. ARgh.

Religions is fairly easy too. Five one-page essays on assigned topics. We have the topics already, just have to write the essays and turn them in by next week. When anything includes essays, I'm usually ok ;) It will be interesting because the topics are pretty controversial (it IS a philosophy class...), but after taking my English classes I can pretty much put out essays no problem. For the most part. Form is easy, content is the tricky part. Eh. Oh well. I like essays and research papers much more than fiction writing sometimes - they have a point. My English professors always gave me an odd look when I apologized for being over the word count, or when I asked if I could go over the page limit. I've had some classes where they don't mind and are surprised that a student would actually want to write more than required, and some have really strict guidelines about word count limits. The limits are harder, but a good challenge for me. I can go on and on and on with argumentation (thank you Torrey, ha ha), but making it short and sweet is the tough part.

So I'd better go give those poems another try. Blech. I am considering not enjoying poetry anymore... it's not the same when you must write poetry. Plus, I'm not that great at it, so that makes it even better. I can write prose, but not free verse. Free verse messes with my brain too much and sounds terrible to me.

Oh well.

One more week to go, then I'm free! .....

I miss school already.

Fencing...

'Midterm' went ok, I think. I hope. Just a bunch of common sense art definitions.

The martial arts performance exam took all of two minutes, I think I passed... our instructor didn't tell me or my partner. He didn't even open up his notebook except to find our names. Just told us to have a nice holiday, and remember to bring paper to the next class to take notes for the final. I guess in this case no news is good news? I know I messed up a little, but I think overall I did *ok*... I've enjoyed the class. It's self-defense, but using Jeet Kune Do, which is basically fencing without the sword. I may be starting to get the hang of it after several months, which is good, because...

I'm taking fencing lessons this summer. Actually, my entire family is taking fencing lessons. I guess after my parents saw all four of us kids running around the house in heavy winter jackets, stabbing at each other with wooden dowels and plastic curtain wands, they decided some lessons would be in order. That way at least we know how to attack each other correctly, right? Hah.

On that note, here are some pics of me and J at the Renaissance Faire fencing. That's pretty much when the obsession started. J is good, too; the first time we each won a match, the second time we went she beat me 5 to 3. And let me tell you, fencing in dresses is no picnic. (I'm the one in brown and green, J's in blue)








Fun, fun fun :) Apparently, though, I am not afraid enough of the foil (sword). I ran into it a few times while we were fencing, gave J some extra points. I need to work on that...

Here are some other photos I took when we went there.



I really liked this one, I'm currently painting it (minus the fence, of course ;)

And this one is just epic - I like it a lot :) Looks like it's from a movie or somthin.


... and that's about it.

:)

And so it goes.

Weeeellll

Got the results from the photo contest :) We were at our local 'Avocado Festival' that our city puts on every year, and they had the results there.

I got first place, and J got second! Sweet! Here are our entries again -


Mine - Ginger (a quarter horse mare). Taken while riding... bareback ;)


J's - taken near Murphy Ranch park

So that was pretty cool! Since mine got first place, it will be the cover for our next city journal/newsletter.

That's all for now, I keep procratinating. I still have to write a report, write a short story, study for an art midterm (I really don't know why we have a midterm now, but apparently we do as of last week...), and study for a martial arts performance exam (YIKES).

So I'd better go.

Bye.

MAY!

I entered a photo contest.

Oh yes.

Our city is having a photo contest with prize money, first place will be featured on the cover of the monthly newsletter/journal. I entered two photos, my sister entered one too.

Here's one - http://forgotten-one-photos.deviantart.com/art/Ginger-colored-version-74594732

Here's the other - http://forgotten-one-photos.deviantart.com/art/Vantage-Point-109313064

So we'll see how that goes. J's was pretty awesome, too, though. In the past it seems that there hasn't been much competition, but things change...

So, classes are in full swing now. I'm keeping my head above water in most of them, though the two most frustrating are sculpture and fiction writing. ARGH. Sculpture is incredibly slow and tedious - I wouldn't care except that our teacher is often... elsewhere, so we can't really do anything but sit in class and wait for her to get around to us, which can take - quite literally - hours. I know; we timed her once.

Here's one of my final pieces, though, which I'm fairly happy with except for the fact that the head is too small... oh well. It's done, I got a good grade, I learned something. The process went something like this;

1. Model an original out of clay (~15 hours)
2. make a mold from clay original (~20+ hours) - there were 17 stinkin' pieces for mine, because I chose a complicated piece.
3. Make a cast from the mold

In the process, my plaster cast broke off its hoof, ear, and head. I fixed them up *fairly* well, though the ear still looks pretty retarded. I never want to work with plaster again. Man alive.





I like the views from the back best. One side of the face looks more realistic than the other, though since it's a sculpture it's really hard to photograph it at an angle that shows it off. The photos from the back work better.

So, I've got to go work on my story more and garden after that. Busy day ahead of me ;) And we're going to the Reniassance Faire again tomorrow! We're going with some friends and dressing up again, should be fun (and HOT, too bad...).

Tagged

Got tagged :) By http://thebeautyofthelord.blogspot.com/

What is my current obsession? Hmm... obsessions... heh... let's see. Candy. Sleeping would definitely be one... and perhaps, procrastination.

Which item of clothing do you wear most often? Jeans and a tank top or shorts and big t-shirts... I like comfy :) I love jeans, too.

What's for dinner? Well, dinner was hamburgers, salad, and strawberries. Good stuff.

What are you listening to? Hah, random music on my youtube music picks... I think at the moment it's "I Never Loved a Man", Alicia Keys, and Frou Frou. Soon, though, it will be soundtracks... I love those more.

Say something about the one that tagged you. :) Friend and fellow Christian

Guilty Pleasure? Um. Anything sweet. Lately it's been Funfetti cake and ice cream.

Favorite vacation spots? Arizona! Also, the cabins in Seven Oaks - great times.

What am I reading right now? My bible, a poetry book, a book of short stories, a religions book (for philosophy), War and Peace, Band of Sisters... see, this is why I never get anything done. Argh!

Four words to describe myself. Procrastinator. Content. Knowledge-hungry. Saved.

First Spring thing to do? Well, I guess it's a bit late... but some of the things I wanted to do were plant a garden, clean my room really well, and clean the caviary really well... my room is still a disaster zone, but the other two are taken care of. Pretty sad when the 'pig pen' is actually a lot cleaner than my room... ha ha.

What do I look forward to? Sleep, most of the time - can't seem to get enough of it between my poetry/fiction writing/philosophy/sculpture/political science/self-defense classes, teaching 4-H meetings, taking care of my guinea pigs/cat/fish (and soon two quail and perhaps some chickens), gardening, sewing, making jewelry, drawing, painting, writing, web designing, t-shirt designing, and chores... aye yi yi. I used to look forward to the summer, but actually I get very unproductive when there is no school.

I will have to decide who to tag... hmm...

Garden

Yes. A garden.

Finally.

We don't have any more sheep (gave them away a while ago). We have no more chickens (last one got eaten by an owl several months back). So, we had the pen in the back pretty much empty. A good two or three years' worth of sheep, chicken, rabbit, and guinea pig poos/bedding = super duper soil. I've started a few gardens before, but they were a lot smaller and pretty much got demolished immediately by gophers/ground squirrels etc. Somehow I managed to recruit my two younger sisters to help me... heh heh. One just doesn't have much interest in plants but enjoys it now, the other is certain she has a 'black thumb' because everything she grows dies. Ah well, we are gonna give it a good try!

Here it is March 19, right before we started working on it. It's pretty much covered in shavings (pine shavings from guinea pig cages - yes, there's a lot...)


Here it is once we got a portion of it turned under and our pathways marked out. It took a good several hours' work with the three of us. We found a volunteer tomato plant and put it in a new spot. We'll have to wait and see what kind it is!


Since then we've put in a lot of new things, though most are still pretty small. We planted a lot of seeds, but we were using old seeds and a lot of them never grew. So, we bought some seedlings and newer seeds and got to work. As of today (May 2) this is what our garden looks like;


I planted
- Tomatoes (1 mystery volunteer plant, 1 'Sweet 100', 4 'Brandywine' beefsteak, 4 plum)
- Radishes (they're black instead of red)
- Spaghetti squash
- Zuchinni
- Yellow wax beans
- stringless Green beans
- Onions (hah, actually, one onion...)
- Anaheim chili peppers
- Leeks (kind of random, yes.)
- Pumpkins
- Honeydew
- Corn (28 seedlings so far)
- Carrots (just planted)
- Cucumbers
I still have more spaghetti squash, radishes, beans, and basil to plant, and anything else that comes up.

J planted;
- Arugula
- Spicy salad mix
- Spinach
Some of the stuff grew, but it's really bitter. The roly polies keep eating it, and J's rabbit loves it, so at least something eats it... she has been waiting for eggplants, too, and just bought some seedlings today to plant. She also bought a mix of fancy sweet pepper seeds to try.

R planted;
- giant sunflowers (edible seeds)
- watermelon
- cucumbers
- snapdragons
She wanted to start out with only these things, quite an interesting combination. The cucumbers are flowering already, baby cucumbers EVERYWHERE. She planted some canteloupe seeds, but, um... forgot to water them. So, she might buy some seedlings a little later on. Being able to actually see a plant helps you remember to water it.

Here are some of the plants

March!

Hah, well, it's been a while since my last blog entry.

Typical.

School is in its fifth week, and I'm loving it for the most part.

The self defense class (Jeet Kune Do/JKD) is fun, I'm enjoying it now. The first week or so I was mostly just trying to keep up and pretend that my muscles didn't feel crippled, but now it's more fun. I still can't do all the stuff though, mostly the pushups... we do 80 pushups per class, ridiculous. I try, but... heh, maybe by the end of the class I'll be able to do them all. My knee only gave out once and hasn't since, so that's good. Even then I was able to pick myself up and just keep going. The kicking, though - oh mannn. I could hardly walk last week, my hip was dead. It's better now, but I hope I don't have to do that much kicking again. It's an intense class, but I do enjoy the challenge of it now. I'm pretty flexible after all, too.

The sculpture class is going well, too. We're making the mold out of plaster so we can make a cast of our model that we made out of clay. Mine is a horse (surpriseNOT) lying down. It will need seventeen pieces, and I've only made four in the last week. I have two weeks left I think to finish all the rest. It will be a close finish...

The political science class is entertaining but depressing. The teacher rambles and goes all over the place and can be very random, and it's interesting and fun, but when it comes to actually trying to remember anything... the teaching is too broken up for my brain to get it. We had our first test, which I studied for for several hours and felt confident about before I took the test, but now I feel like I bombed it. The first test is always telling though, to get a feel for how serious the professor is, what his grading style is, and how much leeway he gives you on answers (some teachers like it when you answer really elaborately on questions and give more information than was necessary, and some think you're being a show off or cocky if you do). Ha - I wasn't being a show off, I was trying to make up for the questions I had NO clue over. I love teachers who give you the general subjects to study, and then pick questions for the test from some of the most random sidenotes they gave during class. Argh. I will find out on Thursday...

The writing class is interesting. I love it, and I hate it. I love that we are learning to share our work and give/get constructive criticism. I hate reading my work out loud, but that's just how it goes. So far I've done ok, I think. I hate that all the 'contemporary fiction' we are studying seems to view profanity and infidelity as the best subjects for writing. Meh. I have kind of just stopped reading some of the assignments. I was going through our book of short stories, and there are some neat stories in there that were never picked for assignments, it seems we just got the dull or trashy ones. It depresses me, to me it's not fiction or literature; it's garbage. I might write more on that later, but for now I just am trying to get by without reading the stories. It makes me wish there were more professors out there with different views. That will be me in five or six years, God willing.

The poetry class is confusing. I can't really ever be sure of what the assignment is asking for, and by the looks of it, not many of the other students can either. It's a fun class, but I must admit I think free verse or most poetry forms that are not form (rhyming) bother me. If it's beautifully written, that's ok; but I guess I just have read too many amateurish poems that use free verse to fill up paper and not say much at all (including my own! which is why I hate free verse. Prose is fine, but free verse bothers me). Poetry is so subjective.

I also have a Philosophy class starting in about a month, on world religions. I already know THAT will be fun, heh heh. I've already taken two other philosophy classes, and I must admit I find them fun. Arguing can be fun, but I'm a slow and steady thinker - so since the class is online I can come up with better arguments. If it were in-class and I had to debate face to face... that would not be so good. I try to think on my feet, but unless I have already thought out what I want to say, it comes out sounding pretty retarded. Believe me, I have tried, and it's not pretty! Lol.

Other than school, life has been going well. I have a garden again, though I don't know for how long. We started to dig up the former sheep pen to plant a garden, we will just have to wait and see if the squirrels, gophers, and moles destroy it. So far I have seedlings of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and have planted nasturtiums, alyssum, and spaghetti squash. I planted five or six rows of peas, but they are duds or something, because nothing came up and when I tried to find them they looked the same as when I planted them. They were really old seeds, so I went and bought more. Doesn't really matter I suppose, it's not really cold enough for peas for much longer! J planted different kinds of lettuces and spinach, and R planted snapdragons seedlings, cucumber seedlings, and she planted seeds a week ago for zinnias (giant green ones, they'll be cool), forget-me-nots, bachelor's buttons, and today she's supposed to plant sunflowers. Our to-do list still includes

- Tomatoes (Beefsteak, cherry, and heirloom of some sort - tomatoes LOVE our area, and we love tomatoes)
- radishes (to make us feel better about our lack of gardening skills - they grow SO easily)
- Watermelon (we've tried for several years, maybe we'll actually get to it this time!)
- Pumpkins (the big ones)
- Cantelope (R really wants them)
- beans (lots and lots and lots!)
- Zuchinni (found some good recipes in the years past, as that is one of the few things that grows well for us)
- eggplant (J has a 'zebra' variety)
- Potatoes (J wants to try them, and we have an old 50-gallon wheelbarrow to plant them in)
- Garlic (just because)
- Corn (we will try...)
- Herbs of various sorts.

I know I'm forgetting some things. I'll post progress photos once there's more green in the garden. It's a pretty big spot, we've only planted an eigth of a third of it so far (we got tired and only dug up a third of it so far, lol).

Anyways, just a quick update. I have some photos to post, maybe I'll do it later (which means probably never!). I need to work on all the other things I have been procrastinating over...

February

Well, my classes for spring semester officially begin next week. I can't wait! I love school. This semester is mostly fun classes, which will be fun but unfortunate... as I somehow overlooked the fact that I hadn't finished all my general ed classes yet... oops. I managed to find one of the classes I need, and I might try to add another next week. Trying to add will be nearly impossible I'm sure; when the economy gets bad, community colleges get flooded with students. I have five classes right now, and am taking a class that will hopefully complete the requirements for my AA. The classes I've got are poetry writing, fiction writing, sculpture, philosophy, and a self defense/martial arts class (lol! How's that for getting out of my element???). The only class I'm a little worried about is that last one... I've been working on my knees, so hopefully they'll hold up for me. I heard the instructor is really tough. I love a challenge - but so far all the challenges I've relished are mental. Physical... well, that's just not as much my element XD

I finished my restaurant management class, did well in that. It was kind of interesting, I learned some interesting things that I will probably never use unless I work in a restaurant. Oh well. It was nice to have something to do over the winter session.

We have a mini river running through our front yard. When it rains, all the water comes from our neighbor's yard and down our driveway to go down the enormous drain at the end of our driveway. It's not bad right now since it's stopped raining for the moment, but when it was pouring we had our own little mini rapids. Our driveway is paying for it, but at least it's not pooling up in our sheep pen like it did last year. That was crazy! My poor chickens were floating around in their coop on a wooden pallet. There was two to three feet of water, and it was beginning to get into the barn. My dad had to take a sledgehammer and knock out a section of the brick wall, because the whole brick wall on that side of the property was beginning to go down. Fortunately we had already given away our sheep at that time, so they didn't have to swim around in there.

I love the rain, even though it wreaks havoc on our poor waterlogged property. I love the smell of rain, although I've found that here in California, the 'smell of rain' is usually the smell of rain on the cement or pavement. My favorite rain smell is when it's raining in the desert... that smells amazing. By the way, this is very random, but besides the rain my three favorite smells are new tires, fresh play-do, and really old books. Ha ha. Yes, I smell books. Old books smell like mystery. New books smell like money.

Last night a random cat was on my windowsill, meowing. Rascal was in my room on my dresser, trying to look out. When it kept meowing, Rascal jumped on the floor and went to the corner of the room and wouldn't come back until it left. He waited ten minutes, then went back on the dresser and peeked through the blinds. My cat is antisocial. He doesn't like other cats. Even when I had other cats, he would get really mad at them. I had one cat, Jack, who absolutely loved Rascal and would follow him everwhere, purring and rubbing on him, but Rascal would pin his ears back, whip his tail around, and glare.

I finished the book I was reading, Pulpit Crimes by (I think) James White. It was really good. It was intense, but intense is good as long as it's in line with scripture! It talked about the most common problems of the church today; easy-believism, entertaining rather than teaching, and making the bible more 'user-friendly'. This year I've made it my goal to read a bunch of Christian books, and I've already finished two. I think I'm going to read something by C.S. Lewis next. I LOVE almost everything he writes, he's one of my favorite authors of all time. He can get a little weird at times, a little too mystical; but as long as you know that going into his books you'll be ok. Reading it takes me back to my Inklings and Foundations days :)

Yesterday we went out for a family day. It was fun. We went to Olive Garden for lunch, which was good as usual. I love their soup, salad and breadsticks. I think after we went through there they might not offer the 'all you can eat' of the soup/salad/breadsticks. Especially after my brother was done eating XD I always get the feeling that we get more than our money's worth out of all you can eat buffets, we just eat a lot... lol.

We watched some movies too, got some from RedBox. Now, I am not a fan of most cartoony or animated movies, I generally do not appreciate kid's movies (they make me sick with all their 'believe in yourself' and happy-happy-happy stuff, I can only take so much of that LOL), but Kung-Fu Panda was pretty funny, all things considered. It was really clean too, which was surprising. It was just so... random and crazy. I guess that was why I appreciated it!

I need to clean my room. It's not that bad, but my room could always use cleaning, whether it's my closet or my dresser or whatever. I want to re-do my room, I was thinking of painting it. I already started working on curtains and stuff, but my closet... oh man. I always think I might end up needing to use something. I really need to push up my sleeves and get to work. As the reality that I am leaving in about six months to a dorm is beginning to dawn, I realize I need to get rid of a lot of junk that I have. Also, I really really want wood floors, I hate carpet. We'll see how that goes... I just want my room to be somewhere I'd actually want to come home to. Right now it's just... messy. I laughed out loud when I was looking at the Master's questionnaire for matching you up with a roommate, one of the questions was "are you creatively disorganized?" Hah. Um, YES.

So, that's a little of what's been going on lately. Not a whole lot.

Oh, yeah. I also cut off a good chunk of my hair. Nothing too drastic, but when your hair is so long that it starts to wrap around your neck and choke you at night, you know it's time for a hair cut ;) It was down to the small of my back. I do miss it now, I'm gonna grow it out again, but not that long. Fortunately I was able to donate the hair I cut, so it made me feel a little better XD It's now a little longer than shoulder length (yes, that's short for me!)... also, it is now red. Not really red, not clown-red or anything; more like a dark red-brown or burgundy or something. It's just the 28-wash kind, and it's already a lot duller than it was even though I just dyed it a week ago. I like it. I think I might stick with it for a while. I don't like to do permanent dyes though, I don't want to fry my hair.

My gums are almost completely healed from having my wisdom teeth extracted. Overall it wasn't that bad, it was frustrating though. Day three after the operation was the worst; I REALLY wanted pizza, but it just wasn't going to happen. I had soup and ice cream and jello, but that really only works for so long before you never want to eat any of that stuff again. It's my sister's turn next, and I want to take a video when she comes out and is all loopy :D

That's all for now.... :)

- Me

Photos

Here are some of the pics I got on my hike last week... I know, procrastinator :P

Part of the city that I can see from the hill on the way down.


A tree...and some grass...


More trees....more grass....


I got some nice pictures, just not a lot. I took a lot of photos, just didn't like a lot of them once I looked at them up close. I have a little Canon Powershot, so nothing fancy, but it does a nice job. It's a nice little sturdy camera.

January

It's another year already.

Wow.

And it's already nearly halfway through the first month.

Ack.

I have a little too much time on my hands right now. No "real" school until the end of February. I'm just taking my Dining Room Service Management class right now, just to have something to do. The reading is intense because it's a six-week class, but other than that it's been pretty easy so far.

Went to the tide pools on Saturday, it was the lowest tide of the year. We found a bunch of cool stuff, and at least four octopi. Lots of fish, some really ugly crabs, sea hares, sea cucumbers, starfish, sea urchins, shrimp, and other stuff. I didn't fall once on the rocks! I always fall when we go there, the rocks are so slippery and hard to walk on, but this time I guess I was just extra lucky :D

I think I need to get a job. I want to work at a Starbuck's or Coldstone, but would love to work at Borders too. I guess I just need to get out there and see if anything is available (I doubt there is, but I can try).

Yesterday my younger sister was baptized along with two other youth from our church. It was really a blessing to be there and hear their testimonies and see them become members. We had great preaching (as usual, we are blessed!), and are currently learning about self-denial, which has been really intense and really good. I'm going through the book "The Shadow of The Cross" by Walter Chantry, which is an excellent little book. I'm also going through Ezekiel right now.

Ew. My coffee is burnt.

Ha ha. I think the heating plate got left on too long. Blech. But I want my coffee... :(

I'm getting my wisdom teeth out on the 30th. I can't decide between local and general... most people would go for general but... I'm not afraid of going under, I think it would be cool to see what it feels like, but I don't know... The doctor told me how gruesome getting only local would be, but he didn't scare me off. The nurses didn't know what to do with me, ha ha. My teeth, apparently, are at a stage where they're pretty easy to get out so it wouldn't be too bad to get local. I like to feel what's going on :) I guess I have a bit of a higher pain tolerance - except when it comes to my knees! I'm a wimp in that respect, they've gotten hurt too many times. Though, I do have to say that the last two times my knee gave out it didn't really hurt... which was odd. I kept waiting for it to hurt, but it never did. Maybe I've just ground out all the nerves by now XD Ah, my poor knees.

So that's pretty much what's going on right now. Not much interesting. I think I might go to the park and take some photos today, it's a nice day out.

Here's a picture I took two or so weeks ago, we hiked to the top of the hill nearby and could see all the city lights. It was really pretty.



And from the beach on Saturday





I suppose my little camera does pretty well for a little cheapo :)