Finally, It's Finals Week

Dear Avid Readers,

Today is the not only the first day of May, it is also the first day of finals week. I've already taken one final (Fed, State, and Local, which I'm pretty sure I got an A on) and turned in my final paper for CMC. I've spent the last hour and a half studying for Spanish, so I needed a break before my brain explodes. My Spanish final is at 12:45pm today. I don't have any finals tomorrow, but I have one Wednesday (Revelation) and one Thursday (American Literature II).

Last Thursday evening, Paul and I went to run a few errands, which turned out to be pretty fruitless. So, Friday afternoon, I went to complete those errands. I got a pair of tennis shoes so that I can walk around in Mexico. I also bought a really nice Spanish Bible.

Friday evening, Kendall was house-sitting, so she invited Carolyn, Jen, and I to hang out with her. We trashed the house, got tatoos, and did drugs!! Okay, so we just accidently stuck the pizza box to table (don't worry, we Pledged it up), they were temporary tatoos, and Jen took Advil for a headache . . . So first, I went with Jen to rent a movie. After several phone calls and much debate, we decided on The Perfect Man with Hilary Duff. We all thought it would be pretty dumb, but it actually wasn't bad. We had pizza, chips and dip, and soda (we refrained from drinking the beer in the fridge ;-) ). After the movie, we got in the hot tub for a little. Then we did the temporary tatoos, and then Kendall talked us into watching the last episode of the third season of Alias.

The next day, Carolyn, Paul, Bushey, and I all went to Jen's house. We got there around noon and played a practice round of Hand and Foot while we ate hot dogs and beans. Carolyn had to leave at 2pm to go study, and I probably should have gone with her, but I was having fun. So, I stayed. Jen, Jen's little brother Robbie, Bushey, Paul, and I played Hand and Foot until 7:15pm!!! Paul won with me in second. :-) I wound up staying the night at Jen's and coming back early tomorrow---er, I mean the next day, which was yesterday.

I didn't sleep too well Saturday, and I felt really gross from sleeping in my clothes, so that threw my whole day off. There must have been other stuff, too, but I felt really grumpy and stressed yesterday. It's probably partly 'cause I hadn't gotten to have "couple time" with Paul since Thursday, which was running errands. But Karen took me to McAllister's, which was really yummy. Then we went to Old Navy, and I got my birthday present! Lots of clothes. I'm wearing a new outfit today, and I really like it. I feel all springy.

Saturday night, I had this dream that I witnessed to Sarc! (an evil villain from Alias) It was really funny. See, he was trying to kill me, so I thought I might as well witness to him as not, especially as we were in a Christian bookstore. So, I bought a New Testament for him. He was really grumpy about it because he said he didn't like to read. Anyway, I systamatically went through all four of the gospels like Mrs. Dr. H taught us in Life and Teachings of Christ Fall of '04 to decide which one I should tell Sarc to read. I told him to read Mark because it's short and fast-paced. But first, I asked him if he felt down-trodden and oppressed because, if he had, I was going to tell him to read Luke. I also told him that in God's eyes, all sin is the same, so I was just as bad as he was, and God still loved him. It was a really funny dream. When I told it to Jen and Carolyn, Jen said, "It's not real! Annie, some people you just can't witness to." It was really funny.

Anyway, probably no one will read this because it's long and drawn out, but I feel better now. :-) I should probably study a little more or at least contact student accounts, facilities services, and housing people because that would be productive. Okay, talk to you fellers later!

Annie

P.S. Jen's little brother is funny.
Context: Dave (my future brother-in-law) likes to tease me by saying, "You know when I look at you all I see is free child care, right?"
Jen: ::::singing:::: "I wanna be like you."
Paul: "You do?"
Annie: "No, silly, she was talking about me!"
Robbie: "What, free child care?"

Ketschup Time

So, I guess it's been awhile again. I had a really good Easter. How about you all? On Thursday evening, Paul and I drove home (my home), stopping at Whataburger on the way, at which place I forgot to order my burger with mayonaise no mustard, but it was still very good (and not Saga, I might add). I can't remember what we did when we got home . . . I think we watched a Fraiser or two.

The next day was relaxing and fun. We . . . oh yeah, we played Apples to Apples and ate fajitas. And . . . I think we watched Elizebeth Town, but I'm not sure. My days are getting mixed. Oh yeah, I went and did some errend stuff with my mom. Saturday, Paul and I went out for lunch and then we hung out in some stores. We went to Border's and looked around there. It was fun. At some point in the weekend, we went swimming . . . Sunday, I got really stressed. My mom ordered my books for the summer, and Dad helped me apply for a summer loan. After I ate some lunch and watched "Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court," I felt much better.

Paul and I had a nice trip back. We took the frontage road to avoid traffic, which was a little adventure. Especially at the beginning when we wound up in a neighborhood. Then we stopped at a little off-the-road local Dairy Queen where they gave us a free blizzard with the leftover ice cream when they shut the machine down. And then--da da da da da!!--we got pulled over! Don't worry, I wasn't speeding. One of the lights was out in the back. It was the first time I've been pulled over, so it was a little scarey. But the officer was very nice.

So, I have a very busy summer ahead of me. I have two and a half weeks left of class, during which I have to write three papers (one in Spanish--oy), stay with a Spanish-speaking family, read a book that hasn't come in yet and write a paper on it, type notes, find a four-week summer job, figure out what I'm going to do with my stuff while I'm in Mexico, and pack for Mexico. Then, after graduation, I leave for two and a half weeks in Mexico. The day after I get back from Mexico, I start Fine Arts for four works. Hopefully, I'll also have a job then. Then I go home and have two and a half weeks before Karen's wedding. After the wedding, I have one blissful month during which I plan to write a resume, work on my story (which has been on the shelf since last summer), and get together a writing sample and application for graduate school. I also plan to do some relaxing and swimming. After that blissful month, I'm flying to visit Shawna for five days! YAY!! Paul is going to fly up for the last day, and then he and I are flying to meet his family. We'll spend a week with them, and then fly back to my house for a few days (well, we'll fly to the airport and drive to my house, but it's basically the same). After those short few days, we're driving back to school to start a crazy second-to-last semester of school. AHHHHHH!!!! At least I get apartments (real food, a walk-in closet, and moveable furniture).

Well, I don't update often, but when I do, I really do. ;-) Hope you had fun! Until later!

Annie

Back from Break

Well, I'm back from Spring Break. I ought to be taking a test right now, but I thought I'd update really fast. So, Spring Break was pretty cool. I splain--no, there is too much. I sum up. (three cheers for who knows what movie that is from)

Lots of bus riding.
Lots of singing.
Beach time!
Universal Studios!
Hand and foot until almost midnight
Homecooked food
Fast food
Lots of pizza
Food not from Saga
Coca-cola factory
Scarey Underground
Lots of bus riding.

So, it was fun. I'll have to put up some pictures when I get some. Oh, I do have one:

That was the church where some lady who has talked to my mom online came and talked to me. It's also where Carolyn, Jen, and I played hand and foot until midnight.

Oh, and I started Ender's Game on the tour. It's cruder than I like, and the first almost half was almost too depressing, so I didn't really like it at first. However, it is very interesting and extremely well done. So I keep reading. I like it better now. Anyway, time for test and getting passports and all sorts of other stuff.

Annie

Daffodils

I don't really have time for an update, but I thought I'd give one really quick anyway because I just spent an hour and a half studying and so I don't feel like going to bed yet. :-P

Things have been crazy here lately. I have so many things to do that they all leaked out of my head and I can't remember them anymore. It sort of stinks. Hopefully I'm remember all of my homework. I was supposed to work on planning Karen's bridal shower this weekend, but I didn't. I've been trying to work on a presentation, study for a Bible test, write papers for Bible, edit papers for OwLet (excuse me, critique papers for OwLet), get money together for Mexico, get ready for Spring Break Tour, and I'm sure other stuff which I'm forgetting.

Even so, I took the afternoon off today and went with Paul, Kurt, Emily, Alisha, Jennie, and Zach to the Daffodil fields. Yay! It was a lot of fun. I wore a nice shirt this year! Of course, Paul and I matched, accidently, but that's okay. :-) We took pictures and stuff. The sun was better this year, but it wasn't as cool as last year. Anyway, I guess that's about all. I ought to go. Here's a pic or two for your viewing pleasure:

We didn't mean to match . . .

Me and the girls!

Me being artistic.

P.S. Next Sunday will be the 2nd luniversary of Paul and myself. :-D

Six Words

So, my sister had this on her blog, and I thought it look interesting. So, describe me in six words.

Well, I had a good weekend . . . :-D

So, on Friday, a bunch of us went to the Olive Garden for dinner to celebrate Carolynkydink's birthday. After that, Carolyn, Kelly, Zoot, and I went to see Firewall with Harrison Ford. It wasn't too bad. I found it amusing that they had wireless access even in the middle of nowhere. Oh, they had cell reception, too. :-) After that, our floor had a Valentine's karioke party, which I had been looking forward to for more than a week, but I had a really bad headache, so I couldn't go. :-( But Paul was sweet and took care of me. I just lay on my bed with my eyes closed while he sat with me and read to me and put a warm washcloth on my head. I just fell asleep there at about 11pm. I woke around 5am and changed into my pajamas. Then I went back to bed until 11am.

Saturday, my headache went away. Between the asteriscs is girly stuff that boys (if any read this blog) might not find interesting--just to warn you. ;-) *I spent the majority of the day getting ready for symphony. I watched the latest "Gilmore Girls" while I ironed my dress and stuff like that. Around 4pm, Carolyn, Christy, Kendall, and I went over to Emily and Jacki's room to get ready (Kendall didn't go to symphony, but she came to help us out--awwww). We had a lot of fun and skipped dinner. Everybody was really nice since I'm not girl enough to know how to do my own hair and stuff. Well, I guess I'm girl enough; I'm just incompetant. ;-) So Kendall did my hair and nails for me and Christy and Emily helped with my makeup and they all gave me consultations on everything. Anyway, Carolyn and Jacki left early to go to dinner with their respective symphony dates. The rest of left around 6:20ish or so when all our dates arrived. We waited until all of them were there so that we could make a grand entrance:

Here's me and my date (my boyfriend), that pretty cool guy I know named Paul:

So, we got to symphony in time for part of the "Opening Notes" (Paul escorted me in :-D ) and then listened to symphony. Afterwards, we went to the reception at UT Tyler in Longview (a little, I know) because it was free ::::winkwinkdoublegrin:::::. Some guy from some magazine took our pictures while we ate as many snacks as we wanted because the lady told us to and because, in the words of Andy, "Hungry people go to LeTourneau." Plus, I still hadn't eaten dinner. In the car on the way back, Paul was his normaly goofy self:

Yeah, so, sometimes I wonder what I got myself into . . .

After we got back to campus, Emily and Christy came in Carolyn's and my room, and we watched Double Jepordy. Then we went to sleep.

Sunday I did homework and then Paul and I had dinner at his financial aide counselor's house. That was a lot of fun. We took turns playing halo with her son while simultanously watching 6 episodes of Monk. We were there until 11pm, so we had to scrape ice off the car before driving home (I was very careful on the drive home).

Yesterday, I got a lot of homework done, went to coffee with Lina in the afternoon, and finally watched another episode of "Alias" with my roommate Carolyn! Yay!

This weekend, Carolyn and I are going to visit our old roommate Amanda. On Sunday, the Singers have to sing in Tyler, and then I'm going to go see "The Importance of Being Earnest." After that, I think we have a presentation meeting. Next weekend, the Singers have to sing in Houston on Sunday. The Thursday after that, we're leaving for Spring Tour. I don't have a free weekend from now until the end of the semester except for maybe one . . . Dearie me . . .

Anyway, I need to go. I just finished reading The Awakening by Kate Chopin. It was very interesting and very sad. So now I should do some other homework before lunch. Ta ta for now! Hope you enjoyed this exceedingly long post. Three cheers for you if you got to the end without doing less than skimming. Until next time! ("Next time! NEXT TIME!!" [extra points if you know what that quote is from])

Annie

It's That Week . . . You Know the One

So this is that one week that happens (at least) once every semester when you don't get any sleep and run on adreneline the entire time. I've been getting to sleep between 1 and 2 am every night and getting up between 6:30 and 7:10 am every morning. And I haven't been taking naps during the day except for 10 to 15 minute haps here and there when I can snatch them. And I've stayed awake in class and haven't dozed off while doing homework! I'm quite proud of myself, actually. :-P I think I'm finally getting a handle on all of this homework. I had my first Revelation test on Wednesday, and I'm almost caught up with Spanish stuff. And I finally finished reading Huckleberry Finn for American Lit. I really like that book. I thought it was very well done.

So I'm not the only one who has been stressed this week. Pretty much everyone I've talked to has been incredable stressed and often on the verge of tears. At least we all know what everyone else is going through. :-\ I've spent some just talking with Paul, even though I probably ought to have been doing homework. But you know, even though I didn't get as much homework done as I had intended, I actually always feel less stressed after hanging out with him. I'm so grateful for his friendship. And he's pretty romantical too. :::::winkwinkdoublegrin::::

Oh, one reason I've been stressed is because I've been trying extra hard to get my homework done early because I got behind last weekend and I don't want to have any homework this weekend because SHAWNA is HERE!!! Well, she's in Dallas right now, but she was here last weekend and she's coming again this weekend. Yay! Paul told me that I had a surprise for me that would happen sometime during the weekend. I didn't really know what on earth he meant. Friday night, I was down in the Q2 lounge hanging out with Paul, Jen, and Jesse while they practiced for their group presentation when Kyle came out and said Shawna was on the phone for me. Well, I knew that Shawna was gonna call on Saturday so that we could talk, so I was confused why she called Friday night. She said she really needed to talk with me (I was a little worried) and asked if she could call me in my room since I couldn't hear her on Kyle's phone. So I went up to room to find Rebecca, Polly, and Kate camped in front of my door. I thought that was curious. I had to use the bathroom before Shawna called, but it was locked from the otherside. Well, I don't have suitemates, so I had no idea who would have locked it, but I picked the lock and went to put my keys away. When I turned around, there was someone in the bathroom and lo and behold!! it was Shawna!!!! I was soooooo happy! I had so much fun with her. I miss her so much. She's such a good friend. I love her. :-D She even did the dinner call for us.

Well, Paul is coming at nine, and I need to get my homework done for this weekend, so I'd better get to it. This weekly update in the life of Annie is brought to you by The Great Klutz and Apple Sauce, Inc. Tune in next week to find out more exciting episodes from

THE LIFE OF ANNIE

P.S. It's our fourth weekiversary! On Sunday, we'll have been going out for a month! (that's Paul and I, don't you know)

Rainy Day

Well, it's Friday again. Yay! I'm still getting over that cold, but I mostly feel fine now. It's a dark and cloudy day, but I kind of like it. It's nice.

I'm so tired of school. I've been doing really badly on getting my homework done lately because I just don't want to do it. But I need to work on it and do well. Paul is working so hard on his homework. I need to follow his example and get mine done. I think I will be ready to graduate when the time comes. But I'm still enjoying my time here. :-D

Last night, Paul came over to my room and let me play him a couple of songs on the guitar (I played him my three favorite guitar songs). Then he let me show him all my story notes and read him a section of my story (which was even worse than I remember--great, here comes redrafting for the fourth stinkin' time). He's so cool. He didn't just let me show him that stuff, he was actually interested in seeing it. :-D

Well, it's about time for chapel, so I think I'll go. I made a new cloudy day/random playlist which I'm listening to right now. It goes like this:

• "The Chronicles of Life and Death" by Good Charlotte
• "The Celts" by Enya
• "I Will Follow You into the Dark" by Deathcab
• "Learn to be Lonely" from The Phantom of the Opera (movie)
• "At the Beginning" from Anastasia
• "Spill" by Showoff
• "The Prayer" from Quest for Camelot (the credit version sung by Andrea Bocelli)
• "Unglued" by Tait
• "Brazzle Dazzle Day" from Pete's Dragon
• "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkle

You really didn't need to know all that, but I felt like typing it out. I like my playlist. Anyway, time for chapel! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Annie

P.S. Sorry I haven't been checking your blogs like I should. Despite the fact that I've been trying to ignore homework :-\, I haven't really had a lot of free time for blog checking. Maybe this weekend. I love you friends!

Sick on the Second Weekiversary

Well, I have a cold. I haven't got sick this often in years. I was sick twice last semester and twice over Christmas break. And now I'm sick again. And no, I haven't been kissing any boys. I was gonna go shopping in Tyler today with Carolyn, Jen, and Emily, but I'm not sure if I'm up to it, being sick you know. Especially since I just hacked up a lung. :-D Not really. I'm not actually that sick, but it still doesn't feel that great.

I didn't go to Saga last night because I didn't feel up to it. So at about 6:30, I tried to make some soup. Well, the soup fell over in the microwave and spilled all over. While I was cleaning it up, I got soup on the sleeve of my sweatshirt. So then I tried to make macaroni. I followed the directions I always have, but it turned out really watery. Like soup. So I had to sit there forever waiting for it to thicken. When it finally did and I started eating it, it spilled on my jeans. Lovely. Oh well.

Well, I know some people don't like sappy posts, but this is my blog, so I can be sappy if I want. :-) Paul and I have been going out for more than two weeks now, and we still really like each other. If anything, we like each other more than when we first started dating. So, I think it's going well. :-) He said he would take care of me while I'm sick, and he read another chapter of Out of the Silent Planet to me last night. He is a really good friend and a really neat guy. And I'm glad he's my boyfriend. :-D

Okay, time to get some homework done or something.

Happy Weekiversary

So, it has now been one week since Paul and I started dating. :-D I'm really happy and excited. Paul is the neatest guy I know. It's fun because neither of us knows what we're doing (since we haven't dated before), so we're making it up as we go. But we seem to be doing a good job so far. I think one of the coolest things about our relationship is how we both prayed about it before hand and really felt this was a God thing. Well, I should get ready for supper. I'm mainly posting because my mom mentioned that I hadn't updated in awhile and I don't have time to call her right now to give her the full story. :-D Anyway, talk to you all later!

Annie

Happy Now

Well, I'm back at school now. Yay for friends. And especially one very good friend named Paul, who, yes, I am now dating. :-D I might say more, but I've told the story so many times in the past two days. Suffice it to say that Paul is really cool and I'm very happy.

Annie

Packing to Leave

Hello all. I'm about to finish packing and then my sister and I are heading back to school before noon. I'm tired. I don't feel like taking a long car ride today . . . Oh well.

I've had a mostly good break. I had a cold the first week and a stomach bug the second week, but this past week has been quite enjoyable and it's all been fun in spite of the sickness. I'm excited because I bought The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in Spanish to help me work on my Spanish. I aslo got a coffee/tea maker and two mugs. Yay! and Fun!

I can't find Part 5, Draft 10. I don't know where it went. And it's with my folder of notes. I'd better not have lost it because I haven't finished typing it up yet. And it has all the good stuff in it, like the end of the book. Deary me. Hmm.

Well, I should probably go finish packing. I hope everybody who is traveling travels safely and I hope that everyone has a great semester!