Happy Memories

Are you ever so happy that you hurt? I was that happy last night. I always think in memories--I think, "This was a good time" when I know I'll be able to look back on it and remember fondly all the fun I had.

Last night, a bunch of us went over to Bushey's house out in the country and had a cookout. Paul made some taco salad and stuff while Bushey cooked burgers and hot dogs. While supper cooked, we went outside and drove Bushey's riding lawnmower around (that was fun), played with the neighbor dogs, and played frisbee. Once supper was ready, we all piled around the kitchen (inadvertantly segregating so that the girls got the table . . . :::grins:::: ) and ate a yummy supper.

After supper, we hung out for awhile with guitars in the living room. Then those of us who hadn't cooked the meal cleaned it up. Carolyn and Rebecca left after dinner because they had stuff to do, but the rest of us crowded into the living room to watch The Pentagon Wars. I stayed for the first few minutes, and then went into the kitchen to help Shawna make yummy chocolate chip cookies. We finished the cookies right after the movie ended. Matt, Scott, and Nichole left after the movie. Then we went and looked at stars. But Demildt, Paul, Kyle, and I thought there was somebody else--maybe that was Nichole--anway, they left. The rest of us looked at stars for awhile, and I played the guitar just a little. Then we left (that would be Zoot, Jen, Kendall, Shawna, Kurt, and me).

Ah, that was so much fun. I was so happy to be in a house full of friends, having a cookout, watching a movie, doing dishes, and making cookies. It felt so unbelievably perfect--like what college is, what I'll remember when I look back. I won't remember whethere I got an A or a D in this or that class; I'll remember cookouts at friend's houses, sitting around the brother floor lounge singing praise songs, ordering in pizza to watch "Gilmore Girls" on a Wednesday night, and staying up late to talk about tesseracts and marriage with two of the best friends I've had. This is what memories are made of. God is so incredably good. I'm so grateful for the life I have.

I don't think I've ever been so hurt in my life. I feel like someone stuck a wrench in me, squiggled it around a bunch, and yanked it back out. I think this must be somewhat what it feels like to break up with someone. You know they aren't good for you and that you can't waste anymore emotional energy or time on them, but you still love them so much that you want them to be happy. So that makes it hurt all the worse when they laugh in your face.

You know, everybody used to talk about how great Sam Gamgee was in The Lord of the Rings. They'd wish they had a friend like that. Wasn't Sam so cool for following Frodo? What a great friend. But you know, Sam wouldn't be Sam without Frodo. Frodo had to love Sam back. If Frodo hadn't loved Sam, Sam would have just drowned and there goes Middle Earth . . . So, friendship is a duel partnership, a joint effort, every Sam needs his Frodo.

So, Dr. Olson told me that my homework for tonight was to make a list of all the good friends that I have, because that would be therapy. I think she was right, so here goes.

First, my awesome beyond awesome sister Karen. She's always there for me, loves me, and takes care of me, plus, we have a blast hanging out together.
Next, Shawna who is the best friend that I have ever had. She's the only person I've ever been able to tell everything to. She's so much fun as well. And she loves me no matter what.
I also have the coolest roommate Carolyn, who keeps me from doing things that I'll regret and has fun with me, too.
I've also had really awesome roommates in the past: Amanda and Jodie. Both of them really helped me through some rough times in my life.
Lina was my best friend Freshman year. I never could have made it without her. She and her family have been great in being good friends.
I know I'm gonna forget somebody, but here goes:
Kendall
Alisha
Christy
R-Duck
Jen
Jennie
Heidi
Kim
Nichole
Polly-wolly
Kanoe
And all the other ELH-3 girls who have made my life amazing!
Quad 2 guys (in random order--it's late, so I'll probably forget somebody . . .)!
Paul
Kurt
Demildt
Bushey
Matt
Tim
Scott
Zoot
Ben
Jessie
Mike
Jason
AJ
And all the other awesome guys whose faces escape me at one in the morning when I should be alseep . . .
Good old friends!
Audrey
Holly
Amanda
Angela
Bethany
Shayla

All of you have meant so much to me. Thanks expecially to ELH-3 and Quad 2 for showing me that friendship is a joint effort, that people can be my friend as much as I can be theirs, and for showing me that I can be loved for who I am. You all are the best friends anyone could ask for. I love you!

Annie

Goodbye to An Old Friend

Today has been a very interesting day. I just said goodbye to a really old friend. She was the longest and pretty much only friend I had in highschool. We had a lot of fun together. I could tell her things that I could never tell anyone else. She saved me from total depression in highschool. I almost didn't go to college right away so that I could graduate with her. She was the first real writer that I could talk to, and she was the first person in a long time who was my friend with whom I could totally be myself. I can honestly say that she's the reason I'm not an atheist right now, just because she was always so open and real about what she was going through. She wasn't one of those fake Christians who are perfect all the time. She was a real person.

The last part of that chapter of my life is now closed. I'm glad. I really struggled during those years. I fought depression and other hard stuff. I didn't like who I was then. I'm really excited about my future and everything God has for me. But, I'm going to miss her.

Annie

A Summary of Fall Break (complete with incorrect spelling and grammer)

Yay for Fall Break and doing three weeks worth of laundry. ;-) On Friday afternoon, Karen, Dave, and I piled into Wendy while Jen, Kendall, Shawna, and Nichole piled into Jen's car, and we departed for San Antonio a mere 15 minutes after our targeted time of departure. We got to San Antonio sort of late, so we didn't do much that night aside from laughing and stuff like that.

Saturday: We slept in, played Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit (Kendall won), went swimming, played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit (after losing for most of the game, I made a mirculous comeback and won ;-) ), and watched Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Sunday: Slept in. After a lunch of good ol' Bill Miller Fried Chicken, Kendall, Jen, Shawna, and Nichole went downtown to the Alamo and the riverwalk, giving me some time with my family. We went to Dairy Queen for afternoon snacks and ate wonderful fajitas for supper. Yay! After the friends came back, we played Who's Line is it Anyway? type games. Then Jen fell asleep on the couch, Nichole read her third book of the weekend, and Shawna, Kendall, and I stayed up til 5am talking. Fun!
Monday: Slept in ;-). After a lunch of leftovers, Nichole stayed at home to read while Kendall, Shawna, Jen, and I went to the Quarry Market where we went to the book store, drank coffee, purused Restoration Hardware, played with Humane Shelter dogs, and Kendall bought a ring in James Avery. We had yummy cooked Salmon for supper and just relaxed that evening.
Tuesday: The plan was to leave by two. We had a lazy morning--doing laundry and packing--and ate leftovers for lunch while we watched some classic Jeeves and Wooster. We didn't leave until 4:15pm. After making sure everybody on my floor and the brother floor had returned safely (and assuming those we didn't see were asleep), I went to bed.

So, all in all, I had a good Fall Break, though it wasn't quite as restful as I had hoped. :-D Wow! A ten minute summery! Now I'm off to lunch. Until next time! NEXT TIME!

Annie

P.S. Go to Narniaweb to watch the new Narnia preview! It's great!

Too Tired to Talk

So, yeah. Tired. That's me. Hi, nice to meet you Tired, I am Torrence. Hello Torrence, I'm really tired.

So, we went to play intramural soccer last night, and the other team showed up in our colour. That was sort of annoying. And the refs made us wear the yellow pinnies even though grey has always been our colour. But we had a really fun day. Right up to the broken nose and concussion . . . So, I was at the ER with Kendall, Jen, and Jodie until 1:30am. Then we took awhile to get Kendall's prescription. And then we were hungry, so we ate IHOP. I'm ready to go home. Yay for Fall Break! But first, I have a Spanish test . . . . If I surive, I will post later . . . .
Annie

Picture Time!

Here is a group photo of Quad 2 and ELH-3 when our wonderful brothers nominated Shawna for Fall Fest Queen.

Roommate picture!
Here's a picture of the flowers my date gave me!
And this is me and my date! Kendall is so awesome. He he. We had a blast.
For more pictures, visit My roommate's blog.

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I guess it's been a few days, huh? Well, where to begin?

Fall Fest week was . . . interesting. I wound up being almost the one in charge for a lot of the stuff, and it felt like we had very little floor participation compared to last year, but that's probably just 'cause I was doing so much. I know other people did a lot too (especially Kendall!!), but it felt like I was doing almost everything. So I got really tired. And then, Fall Fest didn't go at all how I had planned. It was really fun, so I wasn't disappointed, but it was interesting. A bunch of guys came this year, which was exciting 'cause girls almost always like to dress up and get pretty, so you can figure there will be a bunch of girls, but guys don't always like to get nice. I was really impressed with our brother floor yet again. They came over to meet us at our dorm and most of them acted like gentlemen the whole night. Shawna even asked Zoot to pull out our chairs for us! That was a life-savor. I think guys don't always realize what a pain it is to sit down in a poufy formal dress.

After Fall Fest, we went to the talent show where I played "Suite for a City"! I was so excited, and it went really well! I wish my body didn't react so adversely to preforming, though. My leg was shaking so badly I could hardly hold the pedal. Once the talent show ended, we changed and went to IHOP where I attempted to draw an IHOP map, but didn't do so well. I blame it on the pressure.

All in all, it was fun, even if I was so tired and had so much residual stress that I nearly burst into tears once or twice. I really need sleep, and I really need Fall Break. I'd better go eat lunch before my class.

The Best Brother Floor Ever!

So, I know I already wrote an incredably long post today, and that if I'm not sleeping or getting ready to sleep, I should really be doing homework, but I just have something to say. The guys on Quad 2 are the awesomest guys I have ever known. They really are. We just got back from one of their football games, and they are such good sports. But anyway, part of what prompted this post is how Shawna was just commenting on how the guys are really respectufl and--well, I can't remember the other word she used, but it's true. One of the things that really hurt me and bothered me in junior high and highschool was how when I tried to talk, people would interrupt me or talk over me, and I never seemed to be able to get a word in edgewise which is one of the reasons why I was so quiet and shy when I first came to school. But in the past week, when that happened and I got interrupted, both Paul and Kurt have turned to me and said, "What were you going to say, Annie?" And that means so much to me. One of the other things that used to really hurt me is how I always got pushed out when walking next to people. Maybe it's because I have short legs, but everybody seemed to crowd in until I was walking behind everybody where I couldn't be a part of the conversation. That started to happen tonight, but Matt turned around and said, "I'm sorry, Annie, I'm pushing you out." He's one of the few people to ever notice. Those are just a couple of the things I've particularly noticed lately. All of the guys are thoughtful and a whole lot of fun, too.

I am so blessed to know such awesome guys. I think maybe some of them read this blog every so often, so if you guys are reading this, thanks so much for being respectful and thoughtful and so much fun. I'm so grateful to have you for my friends. You really are the best brother floor ever, and I'm so glad that God brought me to LeTourneau and that Quad 2 is ELH-3's brother floor. God really is so amazing. Thanks for being so cool! May God bless you guys as much as you've blessed me!

So, maybe that was a little sappy, but it's late, and I mean every word (unless I misspelled it . . .).

Annie

A Great Weekend!!!!

So, this is a really long post, but I had to write it out before I forgot everything, and I don’t handwrite as fast as I type, so basically, you’re getting the full length/journal version of my weekend. You don’t have to read the whole thing, but I had a fun weekend, so you should. Just kidding. Well, enjoy! And then get back to homework! ;-)

Wow! I just had the most awesomest weekend ever! (and yes, I know that was terrible grammar) My wonderful weekend started Friday after supper when Shawna, Carolyn, and I were coming back from dinner. As we passed by the side of our dorm, Christy stuck her head out of her window and yelled down to us. We decided to play catch, so Christy threw a glue stick at us. We didn’t catch it. Carolyn, Shawna, and I took turns trying to throw it back up. Carolyn could get it at the right height, but Christy couldn’t catch it. A bunch of the guys over at Quad 2 saw us and yelled, “Throw it underhand!” Carolyn did so—and the glue stick went right into the window below Christy’s. It went straight through the blinds as though a vacuum had sucked it in. Carolyn, Shawna, and I all collapsed on the ground laughing hysterically. And then the glue stick came popping back out. We didn’t try to throw it up anymore. As Jennie so aptly put it, “ELH-2 must hate us!” But actually, we think it was Jane’s room, so it’s okay. She’s sweet.

The lovely Friday continued when Kendall, Christy, Nichole, and I went over to the brother floor. We decided we wanted to play X-Box, but we weren’t sure how to set it up. Then Ben came out and called sort of dejectedly to the guys, “Does anyone want to play Halo?” When we immediately said, “Yes!” he sort gawked and said something like, “Really? Sweet!!” and went to set it up. Well, Kendall and I wound up going to the jazz chapel with Kurt, Paul, Kyle, Scott, and Jason (who showed up late). But when we came back, Kendall, Melby, and I joined the guys for a game of Halo 2. Kendall, Melby, Jason, and I wound up in the lounge on one X-Box while four other guys played in another room (since they were in another room, I’m not entirely sure who was playing when). Well, they put those of us in the lounge on one team while they joined another team. The effects were—amusing. Melby was the most experienced out of those of us on my team. We did pretty badly, but it was so much fun! And I actually got some people! Yay!!

After Halo, I went up to my room to take out my contacts. I finally got a hold of my mom to wish her happy birthday (Happy Birthday, Mom!). Then Kendall, Melby, Josh, Kyle, Bushey, Paul, and I (all squished in Kendall’s minivan) went to Whataburger and had some deep conversations about marriage, heaven, and Star Wars. ;-) Kendall was sad that she isn’t a nerd—by saying that, she implied that I was a nerd. I said I was no such thing! But then the entire night, I kept noticing all my nerdy things. Well, first of all, I realized that my car key is on a Darth Vader key chain—dead give away. Then I remembered that I have a stuffed Darth Vader sitting on my bed. And then I did the Live Long and Prosper sign (plus Die Young and In Poverty and the Vulcan handshake. . . .). And then I let slip that I had subscribed to the Star Wars Insider for four years. Yeah, I think I might be a nerd, after all. How sad! ;-)

Saturday, I refused to get up before 11am because I was so tired. Nichole and I went to lunch all by ourselves, but a bunch of the guys showed up, so we wound up staying at Saga for forever—it felt good! Then I did laundry, read my book, wrote a little, did one OwLet critique, played guitar, and otherwise goofed off. It felt good, too. After supper, I went with Lina to Books a Million where we hung out looking at calendars and listening to some old fashioned blue grass music. Afterwards, Lina dropped me off at the dollar theater where Bushey, Kendall, Kurt, Jen, Scott, and I saw The Island. I have to say it was better the first time when I saw it on Sibling Bonding Day, but it was still fun.

After the movie, we hung out in the parking lot for a little (Scott accosted a cop), and then Kendall, Jen, Kurt, and I went to Skateplex for Red Neck Skate Night. We were a little early, so we went and played on this awesome playground first. It was so much fun! Then of course, we went skating. Let’s see, Jennie, Carolyn, Christy, Nichole, Tim, and Bryan came to skate night, too. I’m sure I’m forgetting somebody. I always do. Was Jason there? Oh, I have a bad memory. Anyway, we skated for awhile, ate yummy Papa Jon’s pizza, and stuff like that. Some of the people left early (somewhere between 12:45 and 1:15—Kendall I can’t agree), but Kendall, Nichole, Jennie, Kurt, Bryan, and I stayed for the whole time. Which means I didn’t get to bed until between 2:30 and 3:00am.

And yet, I still woke up for church the next day! Amazing! I had missed the last two weeks of church, so I really wanted to go. Kendall and Nichole came along, too (Kendall because her church wasn’t open or something . . .). After church, I was gonna do homework—I really was!—but, then Kendall and I decided that it would be fun to go to the church’s college student lake party. We were only going to stay for a couple of hours at the most. I thought it would be a good way to meet people. So, Kendall, Kurt, and I piled into the car and drove out to a rather nice lake—and spent the whole afternoon there! We ate yummy burgers, swam in the lake, and went on the boat. We rode this banana thing behind the boat, but man was it hard to stay on! My arms are sore. Later, Kendall and I sat in the boat while Kurt and Daniel (we did meet one person! ;-) ) went water skiing. I did get to talk to the pastor some, for which I was glad. And I had twice as much fun as I should have in honor of Shawna. :-D Ah, it was fun. Of course, none of us had any sunscreen, so we got a little burned.

We got back from the lake, and Kendall and I decided that we were hungry, so we went to Applebee’s. A splurge, I know. But, I still got all of my homework done by ten! (It only took me about an hour and a half.) God is so awesome. He knew how much I needed this weekend in order to survive the rest of the semester because honestly, I was about ready to drop.

So, time to face another week. I can’t believe that Fall Fest is next week! I have a talent show audition on Wednesday and AMANDA IS COMING on Thursday, I think. Yay! Um, what else? I dunno.

Okay, I should go do homework. This thirty-minute, two page post in the blog of Annie was brought to you by:

Craziness, Incorporated—bringing movie quotes and nerdy dates (the calendar kind) right to your doorstep!

Tune in next time, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel, to find out what happens next!

P.S. This weekend more than made up for last weekend! Yay!!!