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!!!

Pictures from Rita-Weekend

This is me and my football bruise! Well, one of them. So maybe it's a good thing that Symphony was canceled, 'cause I was gonna wear a sleaveless dress . . .


If you look closely, you can see some Quad 2 guys playing football in the hurricane!
This is us Saturday night at TCBY after trying Marble Slab (which was closed), Starbucks (for those who wanted coffee), and Whataburger (which was closed).

Interesting Weekend

Well, I've had an interesting week. . . . I was all excited about symphany, and then they canceled it. Then we were gonna do something anyway, and then we weren't, and then we were, and then we weren't, and then we were, and oh my goodness--talk about confusing. On top of all that was the stress of a test on Monday, a quiz on Monday, an abstract due Monday, a website due Monday, a mountain of Spanish homework due Monday, a presentation last Thursday, and all the other homework. And then the bookstore closed early so I couldn't get any money for gas or anything if I needed to leave. Oh, and what was that other thing? Oh right, the HURRICANE!!! So, they start posting all these emergency procedures everywhere so we'll be prepared for the horrifying and scarey hurricane Rita. Then a bunch of evacuees came and tons of people donated their mattresses, pillows, blankets, sheets, books, cards, and crayons for the evacuees to use. Then . . . the hurricane came!! And was somewhat disappointing. It rained a bit and blew pretty bad, but it really wasn't that bad at all. I thought maybe a little thunder would have been nice . . . ;-) So, by the end of the day it was fine, and we went out for coffee and ice cream.

Oh, and we had our most fun intramural game the other night when we played football against G2. They actually just wanted to play to have fun--what a crazy idea! And I know quite a few of those girls, too, so that made it more fun. But, I got the most beat up I've ever gotton at a football game. I got a huge bruise on my shoulder that I don't know where from, and I bruised my knee up pretty badly, too. And my other arm and knee have various bruises. People keep trying to hug me and stuff, and I keep saying, "Gently!" or screaming in pain. ;-)

Last night, I had this dream that these kids were running away from bad guys in a really big hotel. The kids wound up on the roof and they didn't know what to do! So, they jumped off and immediately "You don't know what we could find. Why don't you come with me, little girl, on a magic carpet ride" rang through the air and the kids used parachutes. It was a fun dream.

I guess that's all. I don't want the week to start again. I'm not ready for it. Especially since I didn't get to go to symphany, and I've had a severe lack of hanging out with friends time lately. Well, I guess I've gotten to hang out with friends, it just feels like I haven't reached my friend quota for the weekend, so I don't feel ready to go back into the week. Oh well, such is life. I know what it is. I haven't gotten my supper socialize time this semester. It makes me sad. We all seem so much busier than last year (which last year I would have thought impossible). I miss all my friends . . . . :-( Okay, done now. I guess that's all. Until later!

Quick Update

I don't have much time, but I thought I'd post a little something. The lake party was a blast! We rode jet-skis (Jen and I flipped one over--twice!), hung on the tow line at the back of the barge, jumped of the party parge, ate grilled food, and just otherwise had a lot of fun! Um, what happened next?

This week is crazy! I have so much I have to do! I had a Spanish test on Monday, I have a large website project due around the end of this week, a presentation tomorrow for which I had to write a digital poem, I found out today about a Philosophy test on Monday plus our "Outside Reading Assignment" due in a couple of weeks, and an abstract due Monday for which I've done pretty much nothing. And now I'm going to symphony! Talk about busy . . .

Symphony this time is Roommate Roulette, so last night, a whole crowd of girls came into my room and we spent around (estimating here) 45 minutes trying to set everybody up with somebody. It was pretty fun.

Oh! And yearbooks are in! Yay! Speaking of which, I'd better get to lunch and see if they have the yearbooks. Until later!

Weekend

So, I had a fun, but sometimes slightly frustrating weekend. After a crazy and stressful week of trying to do all of my homework so I could go on the Freshman retreat, realizing I didn't have enough money to buy my parents birthday presents and Christmas presents, trying to get engine coolent in my car, and various other activities, I collapsed Friday afternoon and slept. Well, I did try to do homework first, but that didn't work. And I was so tired that I didn't even think about e-mailing my PA to tell her I couldn't go on the retreat, even though I fully intended to. So, I stayed back from the retreat. Friday night was impossible to do homework on because I'd been doing homework what felt like non-stop all week, so my brain was dead, I was tired, and I wanted some socialization. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to socialize, so I read and played guitar until Shawna came back and let me hang out with her and her friends. We had a girl night, which was fun. Saturday, after a highly needed morning of sleep, I did homework until I went bed. I did get to see my sis some, 'cause we went and studied together at Starbucks, so that was fun. And I broke for supper. And a half hour when I tried to figure out what was going on the next day. Other than that, I did homework until one in the morning. Sheesh.
Sunday was Quad 2's lake party that they actually invited us to! Which was incredably nice of them (historically, it's been a no girls event). I had so much fun!

Happy Dad's Birthday!

Hmm, let's see. What's up in the life of me? First, I have to check to see where I left off. Okay. So, Thursday night we had our first intramural football. ::::sigh:::: I love football. When I'm playing, I mean. We didn't win (I mean, ELH-3 always wins!), but we did really well, I think! Better than last year (not that that would be hard--I mean, ELH-3 always wins!). And we had a great turnout! Half of our floor, plus some brothers to help coah and cheer. Yay! Q2 has its first game tonight, but I can't go . . . Maybe I can go see part of it. Because of Singers, don't cha know.

Oh, and today is my Dad's birthday! Yay! So, happy birthday to my dad!

Um, Friday I actually did homework until dinner! Amazing! But it worked. I didn't have to do much this weekend, so I'm going to try to keep it up. Friday night we saw Sahara (with no 'h' on the end) in the Assembly Building. That was a funny movie. Almost as funny as Transporter 2. I think we played Apples to Apples after that, but I could be wrong.

Saturday was Longview Blitz. I hadn't ever been before, but I got up to go this time. We went to Windridge Esquestrian center and tore down a shed. But first, we got to say hi to all the horses. It was fun! I hadn't been around a horse in forever. We went out into a pasture of about 20 friendly horses. A couple of them were pretty big draft horses. One was half Clydesdale/half Shire (maybe). He was very interested in Tim who is pretty tall himself. Alisha and I decided that we're going to be professional hole diggers.
After a hot morning and some heat exhaustion, we went to Wendy's for lunch. Yay for food! and frosties.

So, I discovered that my car needs engine coolent, so I have to drive to Wal-Mart (it should be okay), buy some coolent (oh where does the money go???), and find somebody to help me put it in.

Speaking of money, still no word on the job front. I guess I'm gonna have to find some different places to look. The library said they would send me an e-mail either way, but they haven't, so I dunno. I don't really want a job since I don't have that much time anyway, but if I want any money next semester for deoderent, toothepaste, and the odd IHOP run, I need a job.

Sooooooo, I guess that's enough of a life update for now. Er, wait, I forgot about last night. So I went to dinner last night at Lina's house :::::deep sigh of contentment::::: and watched a funny movie. When I came back, I noticed that the floor smelled like something had burned. My suspicions aroused. Then Kendell ran into me and said my roommate had something to tell me. So, Carolyn burned some popcorn again ;-). When the room filled with smoke and all that jazz, she and Rebecca decided to hold the microwave up to the open window to air it out (when she said that, I was so afriad she was going to say they dropped the whole microwave down three stories!). Well, they forgot about the lazy susan plate and--three stories later, it's in several pieces. I laughed my head off. Carolyn and I certainly have interesting roommate experiences. Did I mention how I woke her up in the middle of the night the other night because I had had a nightmare? Yeah. ::::laughs:::: This is going to be a fun semester.

On a more serious note, I have such awesome friends. There's no way to express how much they all mean to me. You guys (ELH-3 and Q2) are just awesome. You have no idea how much your friendships have meant to me and have helped me to become more myself. ::::shudders:::: That just sounded sappy. But it's true. Before I was on ELH-3, I was a shy, scared, hurt little girl. Now I'm loud and obnoxious (working on that . . .), but I'm not afraid of people anymore, and it's almost entirely due to the love I get from my ELH-3 girls. I love you! Thanks for being such awesome friends. (P.S. Shawna D. rocks!)

Okydoky, it's about time for class. By the way, if you want to see what I've been doing in class, go here:my class website

Until next time!

Annie

P.S. Talk Like a Pirate Day is next Monday!

Bowling, Swimming, and Creepy Music

Oh, by the way, if you want to hear some creepy music listen to a clip from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe found on Narniaweb (which is an excellent site, by the by).

So, after a thoroughly stressful first week of classes, things are going better. Sunday and Monday I was really, really stressed. It wasn't very nice. I got sort of snappy, which was bad. I'm sorry if I snapped at you! Although I'm pretty sure I managed to keep my upsetness to myself (meaning I only really snapped at inadament objects and appliances ;-) ) but if I did snap, I'm sorry. But, I had a good emotional release time (yes, I rather cried; it felt good), and Monday night I had Singers, which I warmed up for first--yay!--so it went really well. I like being a first soprano and singing the high notes. Then, about ten of us (::::deep breath:::: [see if I can get everybody] Kendell, Alisha, Shawna, Kurt, Jason, Dave, Bryan, Evan?, Matt [who got in on the second game]--oh, and me) went bowling. That was so much fun! I discovered that bowling is very stress relieving. I bowled 95 the first game, which is much better than the 56 I got last time I went bowling. I didn't do as well on the second game. And I discovered that it's not good for me to talk and drive at night when I don't know where we're going . . . :-D

Monday and today I woke up extra early (6:30) and went swimming. I'm really enjoying it. It gets me alert for my classes. Speaking of classes, I'd better go if I want lunch before my next class. Acidy throats are no fun. Talk to you later!

This update in the life of Annie was brought to you by Klutz Co. Apple Sauce

P.S. It sort of stinks when your old "invisible" friends are the only ones who get a joke . . . ::::deep sigh:::: Oh, to be young again.

A Looong Update

Yay! I got into Singers! It's exciting and intimidating at the same time. We had our first rehearsal on Thursday, and I'm so out of practice! Isaiah put me as 1st soprano for the song we were doing, and I went flat on all the high notes. I'm gonna try to practice some this weekend admist my loads of homework. But homework in a minute. It was really fun to be in a choir/part-singing setting again. Ah, I'm excited. And we're going to Florida for our Spring Break tour! It will be fun, but it's also a little sad 'cause that means I can't go home or hang out with other people if I want. But Carolyn and Jen are both in Singers, so it will be like hanging out with people because I will be hanging out with people. I'm just one of those weird people who wants to experience and be a part of everything. I dreamed last night I rode the Batman ride again . . .

Oh, and I started my new story! Well, it's not technically new since I'd already come up with the idea several years ago, but still. So, which of the stories did I pick? Well, I didn't actually pick one from the poll--go figure. I decided that When Evil Comes and Telepath would be really fun to do, they just aren't what I'm in the mood for right now. I'm a bit sick of sci-fi right now, and When Evil Comes is too dark for the moment. So I picked Keeper of the Cats (working title that nobody can steal!!!!!! :-) ). I'd give you a plot summery, but for one thing, that would ruin it and I wouldn't be able to keep writing (it's a weird writer/Annie thing, don't ask) and for another, I don't really know yet what's it about.

School is evil . . . and fun. Argh. I'm excited about my classes, especially Digital Literature, but there is a lot of work this semester, and I have to get a job. Darn that money! For Digi Lit this Tuesday, I'm supposed to read three chapters (three stinkin' chapters!) of a netlibrary book. And then I have a ton of other homework. Homework is evil. So, my grades, social life, and sleep habits will suffer this semester until I wind up collapsing in an exhausted and emotionally broken heap either halfway through the semester, right before finals, or both. And I'll probably get sick around finals, too. ;-)

Oh, last weekend, Shawna, Alisha, Amanda (Fro, for those of you who might get confused), Amanda's new roommate Valerie (ironic, isn't it?), Kurt, Scott, and I went to a Rangers/Twins game. It was really fun! My first baseball game! The Rangers won! We had a blast and took some artistic, CD cover pictures. Then a guy came and asked for a couple dollars for food, so we bought him some food, and some bug spray, and a first aide kit, and Amanda gave him a Bible. The result of that was that I didn't make it the dessert with your mentor thing. And we lost our PA at the Freshman Service project. In getto Longview. Not so good. She's okay though. And she got into Singers too!

I've been having interesting dreams lately. First that the world was going to end, then--darn, I don't remember! and then elevators are the place to have deep conversations, and then I went on a rollar coaster. And there were scarey people! And a car! And a gun! AHHHH . . . interesting dream . . .

Okay, off to EO. Until we meet again!
Annie the up and coming novelist who is about to die from fear of overhomework--do the professors conspire or what?

Lunch Break

So, here I am at school. It's hard to believe that I've only been here two weeks. It feels like a lot longer. Classes started yesterday. I'm excited and not excited. I don't want to do homework and write papers, but maybe if I really keep up with it this year, I'll be able to do it. I'm sitting in on Cornerstones again (as Themelios). This is the third year I've heard that class. I think Dr. Hummel is a good Cornerstones mentor.

Yesterday, I slept in a little (it was my last morning to be able to), and then got up and ate breakfast. After that, I started the job hunt again. Finding a job is redicules on this campus (and yes, I know I can't spell redicules--I've tried). Every office tells you to go to another office which has no idea what you're talking about. Oh well. I turned in applications at the Business office, Phys plant, and Student Affairs. Oh, and I went by the Assembly building to see when tryouts for Singers was. I didn't have a pen, so I couldn't put my name in one of the time slots, but I decided to come back before lunch and see if I could write my name down then or something. So I went up to MSC-3 and warmed up a bunch. Then I went back to the Assembly building, and he wasn't busy then, so I tried out. It went amazingly well! I was just excited at well it went, whether or not I get in. And he said I had a good voice, so that was cool. (AHHHHH the phone's ringing!!! Oh, it's for Carolyn.) I'll find out this afternoon when I get back from class if I got in or not. Last night, I dreamed that all the Singers went to the Trinity Courtyard in their dressy Singers' clothes and started to singing to me to tell me I got in. Ha ha. That's funny. It probably means I didn't get in, but I might as well be hopeful. ;-)

Oh, and our brother floor escorted us (not courted us, not extorted us--it's funny what people mishear) to communion last night. I thought that was nice of them. It was also nice to be able to sit with everybody as a group.

And, I have to go to class at 12:25pm for the first time. This is the first semester in the four (starting the fifth) semester that I've been here that I haven't had an 11:20am class on M-W-F. It's really throwing me off. Anyway, I probably ought to go eat. Rebecca (R-Duck) might eat with me which is nice because everybody else has class at this time. But if not, I'm reading a fascinating novel by Agatha Christie. I'm not sure what it's about yet, but it's pretty interesting.

I hope that's enough of an update for everybody. Oh, I'll have to talk about baseball later and losing our PA later. I always say that, and then I never do. Oh well, maybe this time. Until then!

Annie

An Eventful Start to the Semester

So, here I am at Themelios training, but we need stuff from the print shop before we can do anything else. Themelios training is a lot more fun than Peer Advisor training. Not that Peer Advisor training wasn't fun, I was just copletely freaked out at the time. ;-) But I was half an hour late 'cause I thought the schedule said 9:30, which it did, but it said 9:00-9:30. Ooops. Apparently I didn't miss much.

So, I've had fun so far. The school got a bunch of new mattresses on our floor, so the old mattresses were in the hall. ::::mischevious grin:::: And then we decided to go watch a movie (Thursday night, by the bye). So, we picked the 10:10pm showing of Must Love Dogs 'cause Jodie thinks it might be based off of one of her (highschool?) teachers. Jen, Carolyn, Jodie, and I got to the theater to discover that the website was wrong--the last showing was at 7:05. Oops. So we decided to rent a chic flick that we'd never seen and found The Wedding Date. That was a twisted romance movie. The guy character was a male prostitute. It was just . . . weird. So, before we watched the movie, Carolyn decided to use our microwave to make a snack bag of kettle corn popcorn. She left to go get it and came running back saying, "There's smoke in our room!" And she meant it to. Lots of smoke. Billowing and pouring smoke. Carolyn stuck the popcorn out the window while some of us fanned the smoke detectors (which really should have gone off) and somebody else sprayed some fabreeze. We opened the microwave (which had been spotlessly white, thanks to me) and discovered it brown and burned. Well, it turns out that I had forgotten that I taped down the glass tray so it wouldn't break while we moved. It very much burned.

So we had an adventurous first night. I'll tell more later maybe. About the jet-ski and scaring the other ELH girls. ;-) 'Til then!

Back At School

Well, I'm back at school, sitting in a very messy room and listening to my new Celtic rock station. It isn't too rocky, but it's not the really quiet stuff, so it's cool. I stayed up till 4:30am Tuesday night (Wednesday morning) packing and then got up at nine to put the finishing touches on and load out. We didn't leave until around 11am and then we had to go back for the guitar. ;-) So, we eventually got here and unloaded stuff. Then we ate Whataburger for supper. Mmmm. And then I unpacked some. I tell you, it's hard to unpack when you arrive the same day as your roommate. Not that I'm not glad she's here, it's just a mess. I think I need some shelves. Well, we brought stuff back from the storage unit today and then Mom and Harry left.

So, now I'm all hot and stinky and I have the IMPACT dinner tonight and the retreat tomorrow. And I discovered that Themelios have a lot to do. So, I'm gonna be exhausted by the time school starts. Oh joy. It should be fun, though.

Oh, and I finally got to turn in my change of major form! And the registrar didn't know if I could yet, which makes me hope I was the first one. Yay! Digital Writing, B.A. Sounds fun. Anyway, I should get back to unpacking, just wanted you all to know that I'm not dead. Later kids!

PACKING!

Well, I'm almost halfway through packing. I haven't started on clothes yet. I can't believe we're leaving tomorrow. It's crazy. I'm going crazy. Why do I always have so much trouble packing? Ahhhhh!!!! I guess I should get back to it.

Oh, and by the way! Late Sunday night--da da da da!!!

!!!I FINISHED MY BOOK!!!

Well, only the first draft, but it's the first story I've actually finished except for the short book thing stories and one book thing wanna be. Yay! I have finally reached a long lost goal!

So that means that I need a new story to start. So keep voting! So far I've got 3 for When Evil Comes and one against; two for Quest or Curse (which I reread the other night, and it's actually pretty funny); and half of one for Tom and Eleanor. By the way, the titles are working titles. I reread the synopsis for When Evil Comes and it's a lot cooler than I remembered. But I'm kind of hung up on Telepath right now, so I might do that.

Okay, break time is over. Back to packing! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The Choice Is Yours!

"The city is gone!
The city is gone!
They tell me that life
life will go on
I can’t see it . . ."
~~These Are the Voices by Anne M. Waitz

The city has FINALLY disappeared! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Oh the great oodles of joy. Just a few more loose ends to tie up and the book is finished! Anyway, I figured once I finished this book that I should write a different book. You know, take a break from this series and hone my writing skills. Especially since it’s been five years since I’ve written a different story. I could use a break. I will definitely get back to this story, I just want a break. And maybe a short story that I could get published under my belt. So anyway, I can’t decide which story to write, so I thought I’d take a poll. I narrowed it down to six stories in four genres. Vote on which story you’d like to see me write! Or just vote ‘cause you feel like it even if you don’t really care . . .

All titles and synopsies contained herein are the sole property of Anne M. Waitz, not to be used or copied without express written permission of said Anne M. Waitz.

Science Fiction:
Aysa Norris
A down-and-out, drunken, once-famous, physically impared space racer is recruited to help a band of mercenaries find a priceless treasure.

Telepath
An highschool girl discovers her telepathic abilites and is thrown in the midst of a covert civil war between her government and the underground telepathic community.

Fantasy:
When Evil Comes
A warrior-reject runs away from a twisted spartan society and returns years later to rescue the land.

The Prince’s Story
The story of Cinderella from the prince’s point of view.

Romance:
Tom and Eleanor
A guy and girl are in love. Guy has to become sailor to make his way in world. Girl gets kidnapped. Both travel the world. Eventually they find each other again.

Short Story:
Quest or Curse
A young girl is forced to go on a quest or her best friend will be turned into a purple lizard and she will be cursed forever!

Well, after I wrote out the synopsies, I realized they were a paragraph long each, and who wants to read that? So I narrowed it down for you. Vote away!

Celtic Rock, French Musicals, Sibling Bonding Days, and (of course) the Epic Novel

Hola. ?Como estan mis aficionados? Estoy muy bien . . . ish. Well, I'm fine now. I had a bit of a bummer moment earlier this evening when I could find none of the music I wanted at Barnes and Noble. I finally got Master and Commander which I've been wanting for awhile (love that cello music--yay for Yo-yo Ma). It just gets frustrating when all my music I have to buy online. I'd really like some celitc rock, but they didn't have any Runrig (stink) and if I was gonna get a Flogging Molly CD (recommendation of Sarah), they didn't have the one I would get. Stink again. And of course they never have the Ceili Rain CD or Maire Brennan CD I want. Double stink. Oh well. Oh, and they didn't have Tuck Everlasting. Come on people . . . I'm happy with what I got, though. I'll just mooch other music off my brother. I also got the Lord of the Rings planner now that they finally came out with it. I hope they have a Narnia planner for next year.

So it turns out that the Les Miserables CD I got at the library was in French. I actually think it sounds better in French, but I couldn't quite catch what the songs were about.

Oh, and I got my latest writing craft book! Conflict, Action, and Suspense. Yippee! Did I already say that? :::checks:::: No, apparently I didn't. I guess I didn't write about sibling bonding day. We had a sibling bonding day on Thursday when we couldn't find Harry's fencing. After honking at the pidgions, Harry made an executive decision that we would go hang out at the Quarry. That's when I got my book. At Border's. Then we ate Jack in the Box and then watched The Island. Maybe I wrote about this in my journal 'cause it seems very familiar. Anyway, it was a good movie. I liked it. Neelix was in it! Hooray! And Sean Bean. Awesomeness. So Conflict, Action, and Suspense says that happy families are boring and unhappy families are unhappy in their own way. I guess it kind of stinks that my character has the perfect family. I get conflict from other places. Besides, unhappy families are really overdone. And they aren't normal. That's why I'm writing about a normal, happy family for once. And, it's kind of cool 'cause it shows that even if you have the greatest family and love them a lot, you still need to get out on your own to figure out who you are. I like my story.

Oh oh oh oh oh oh, speaking of which! ALMOST DONE!!! Muahahahahahaha!! Yay! Just a few more things to go. It's actually the day before the city disappears. Coolness. I'm so excited.
I guess that's all I intended to say. Except that last night I dreamed R-Duck stole an airplane and Shawna was on the phone with her telling to go to the runway to take off while cops chased her. Then we did Christmas decorations and listened to boring speeches. And then, a dog died very gorrily and went to heaven 'cause all dogs go to heaven. Seesh, I've never even seen that movie. Weird dreams . . .

That's all for now! And it's not long enough at allllllll. Oh, but do you think I make a good Elinor and Polly? It think it fits about. Ooookay. Bye!

Dreams . . .

I think Harry’s been playing DTA: San Andreas too much lately. Or at least, I’ve been watching him play too much. The other night, I dreamed that I was riding in a car full of people (we were trying to get to the city to stop the alien invasion—it was actually part of my story; I wish I could remember my dreams better!). We were driving down a dark road when all of a sudden, we hit somebody! He sort of splatted into the windshield and rolled off the car. It was rather gory. I recall thinking in the dream that Harry had been playing San Andreas too much. What’s sort of funny is that the guy we hit was a character from my story. What’s worse is that his sister was in the car. She, of course, started screaming. It was sort of amusing. In a twisted sort of way. Of course, I knew it was a dream, so it didn’t bother me so much.

The next night, I had this weird dream that I was with this cheaper by the dozen sort of family that had a ton of kids and we were going to camp out in a driveway. We had to do something with moving a bunch of boxes so that the police wouldn’t get suspicious of a bunch of people camping out on a random driveway. Well, it turns out that the family had robbed whoever owned the boxes of $50,000. I was upset, of course. But it turns out that robbing the people wasn’t unethical because they had the help of a fairy. Okay, that part didn’t even make sense in my dream, but I decided to let it go. Man, I have weird dreams.

So, last night Sarah and I went to the college Bible study. I really like that group. Too bad I’m leaving for college next week. AHHHHH!!! Anyway, she decided to spend the night. It was fun. First, we traded lap-tops and read each other’s stories. It was great! How many people can you do that with? I bet only a few. Sarah’s the only one I know. By the way, her story was pretty darn cool and she’d better finish it and let me read the rest! And, I’ll send her the rest of mine, too . . . Harry had Luke and Steven over last, too. So, at about 12:45 am, we decided to go out and do something. I don’t even normally go out that late at college. So, we went to Wal-Mart, and after looking through the sad media collection, we had a lightsaber fight in the isle. I’ve always wanted to play with the toys in the isle and Wal-Mart, and can you believe I never have? Twenty years and I haven’t done that. Unless you count the time I shot Karen with a blaster in K-Mart. I got a funny look. And then we went to Whataburger. It was pretty fun.

Oh, and today I found out that Jodie’s still on our floor! Kermit the Frog yay. :::waves arms around like a puppet:::: YAY!!!!! That makes me happy. It was going to be hard for her to spend all day on ELH-3 and then have to go to G2 just to sleep. ;-) Let me count. ::::counts:::: I think that’s thirteen out of twenty-one of us who are staying on the floor! Coolness! Well, I guess that’s all for now. Later!

Speaking of Stories . . .

So, I had to take Harry to the Orthadontist today (it's great, 'cause as long as he keeps going to the Orthadontist, I keep getting free stuff! shoes today). He wanted to go somewhere afterward and suggested the library. I thought that sounded fun (especially since neither of us had a very good trip last time). So, after the Orthadontist, we got on the highway and drove to down town. We picked an exit and just drove around until we found the library. As Harry said, that's the great thing about down town, you just know which direction to go in. (Of course, that was before we found out we'd already driven past the library once, but oh well.) We passed The Magestic Theatre, The Alamo, and the Wax Museum. We we got to the library, we found a bunch of CDs. Harry even found The Reason CD! Yay! That's a good song. And I got a Clannad CD and the Soundtrack to Les Miserable. Cool stuff. I also got Ivanhoe (Harry informed me, after my own fruitless searching, that Ivanhoe is one word) and flipped through a ton of DAW books. I'm begging to feel quite hopeless. My book doesn't fit into any category and why would a sci-fi or fantasy publisher want it? The world isn't that different from ours. My one comfort is how long all of the DAW books are. So we had fun. And we didn't really get lost coming back either. Nice library trip.

Speaking of stories, I'm reading an old story that I wrote when I was fifteen (actually, my last endevour before the series I'm working on now). It's actually that bad considering I fifteen. (I'm not saying all fifteen yearolds write terribly, but I have only recently improved my craft to anything noteworthy.) The characters are awesome! They make me laugh so hard! You've got the space pirate with a soft spot, the nameless girl, and the random passenger who just decides to tag along in their adventures. Aha ha ha. The chemestry is awesome. Too bad the space pirate is too old for the nameless girl. It's a nameless story, too. But I'm thinking it might actually be salvagable, which is exciting.

Speaking of stories, last Sunday, I got a call from Sarah who said her mom wanted her to call either me or Daniel to see if we were going to the college group that night. I thought that was funny since my mom had been saying the same thing to me about Sarah and Daniel the whole summer, I was just being lazy. So, Sarah came over and we went to the college group. It was pretty good. People kept asking us how we knew Daniel, and I started thinking, "How do we know Daniel?" I think I started to explain that his cousin was my brother's friend or something and the person I was explaining to said something about a second cousin's dog. Ha ha. It was funny. I love the little community my family has. When people asked how Sarah and I knew each other, I kept nearly saying we're sisters. I guess it sort of feels like that after five years. No, it's been more than five, hasn't it? Maybe not. But it's been awhile. Anyway, Sarah spent the night that night, and we had fun. We watched Labyrinth and messed with my crazy computer. We decided to start another story like we wrote one time over e-mail (a story I affectionately call 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 . . . BOOM, but which has no actual title, though it has a lovely Shakespearean death scene). So this time we're using a story website and calling it Assins Inc. Ha ha. I love writing fun stories! If you want to read it (don't know why you would unless it's really late at night and you want a laugh) go here: Assasins Inc. My character is Tal J. Rico, just in case you wondered.

Anyway, it's about time for supper. And almost time to go back to school!!! Writhing Agony!! Just kidding, I'm excited. Oh, and I finally got to Sophomore year with my memory book. I might have gone overboard printing pictures. I have about a three inch stack. I'm on Fall Fest right now and trying to figure out how to put my IHOP map into the book. . . . A dilema, to be sure. Anyway, time for food! Yippee! Ah, farewell my adoring public!

Commentary on The Archives of Anthropos and 34 pages

I finished The Dark Lord's Demise yesterday. It was pretty good. But it was one of those where everybody's a bad guy, so you can't trust anybody, so my mind says, "AHHHHH!" He he. I think I like the first four books the best. I've decided that my favorite is Gaal the Conqueror, which is odd for me since I almost always like the first in a series the best (although my sister pointed out that I did like The Two Towers best). I do still love The Tower of Geburah though. Once I got over the initial shock of, "Oh my, these were written for kids!" and got past the books I'd read a million times so practically knew by heart, I really enjoyed them. I used to not like The Sword Bearer, but I liked it this time. I like the whole idea of The Changer and the Mystery of Abomination. It's pretty cool. Plus, adults can go to Anthropos whilst you get too old for Narnia (which is entirely unfair). I only have two things I really disliked about The Archives of Anthropos: we never got to find out about Uncle John's other adventures, and the lack of consistence. The main characters stay approximately the same age through the whole series, but they go through about three decades. It's like The Hardy Boys. They (not the Hardy Boys) start out in seventies cloths and a few months later in the books mention a movie copywrite '93, even though mathmatically, the book should have taken place in 69 in order for one character to be the age he was. Ha ha. Amusing. Maybe I'm just the only one who notices things like that, but that would explain my large folder of notes on my story in order to keep everything consistant. Speaking of writing . . .

I beat my record! Well, at least any known record. I did 34 pages in one day!!! That's nearly 7 hours worth of writing, and boy do I believe it! Of course, the next day I only wrote two pages, but I made up for that by writing 12 at midnight last night. I got to the awesome emotionally charged climatic part! Oh, I think I already talked about that. ::::checks:::: Yeah, I did. Anyway, so I've just got the storm, the invasion, and the vanishing act left to go. Yippee! My poor character doesn't know whether to be devistated or excited right now, not that he has much time for emotion at the end of the novel. Ooooo, I'm so excited. And I'm glad I got rejected because I'm going to go change some stuff in the first book. Just little stuff, like adding references to events here and there. I also think I'll rewrite the first chapter and make it more hooking. Oh, and I'm going to give the book a continuitous plotline. He he.

So that was long, drawn out, and probably entirely unreadable. I need to start writing in my journal again so that I stop boring my avid blog readers . . .

Heart Attacks

Watching Gargoyles. I hope they put the second season out on DVD. I like this show. When I was little, it was a little dark, but it’s cool.

So, I had another missed-my-classes-during-the-first-week-of-the-semester dream. Stink. I don’t like those dreams. Although, this one was better because it turned out my clock was wrong, so I hadn’t missed class. And then it turned out that it was Tuesday, not Monday, so I didn’t actually have class until four that afternoon. So it wasn’t so bad. Did I mention my dream the other night where I was sword fighting but I kept loosing because I was short? That was amusing. I got so fed up I started crying until the Jesus character from the allegorical book I’m reading gave me leg and arm extensions so that I could fight. It was funny. ;-)

Deep contented (and exhausted) sigh. 17 pages. In one morning. Lately, my quota for each day has been no more than 15 pages accept for yesterday which had a record 25 pages. I’m talking about my book, by the way. I haven’t measured in awhile, but my average is generally 5 pages an hour. We’re talking notebook pages, handwritten. I finally got to the part I’ve been wanting to get to for years! Yay for climatic parts! I got so worked up about it that I actually felt as nervous as the main character, sort of cold and nauseas, heart pounding. It was awesome. Although I’ve decided that I probably shouldn’t continue my writing career into my old age or I might die of a heart attack at the climatic point. I’m still not done with this climax by the way. And I’ve got two more climaxes to go, and then I’m done with the book!! Oh excitement! Oh pure joy! Anyway, I should probably go clean the kitchen. Poor Mom is stressed about the homeschool round-up next weekend. If you think of it, pray for her! Oh, and I finished Quest for the King this morning, so now I can start reading the last in the Archives of Anthropos book The Dark Lord’s Demise, which I haven’t read yet. Right, kitchen time. Woohoo. And then back to epic novel writing. :-D Until next time, may you not die of a heart attack while reading my book.

Friends

So it turns out that my foot was actually hurt a lot worse than I thought. I had been walking around on it like normal just wearing a brace when it started to hurt after a week. I looked down and noticed that my entire foot was somewhat green. Yeah, a pretty bad bruise. So I've been keeping off it for the most part. Which sort of stinks because I just figured out two new songs on the piano and I have to keep playing them in order to remember them, but I can't use the pedal with right foot.

I got to see a lot of friends this past week. First of all, I got to hang out with Sarah (who I don't see very much because of school even though we live in the same city). That was loads of fun 'cause I hadn't seen her since I first got back from school. We hung out at Barnes and Noble for awhile and then she came and watched Hide and Seek which wasn't too R-ey even though it was rated R (I mean it was violent, but there wasn't a whole lot of cussing or other objectionable material) and was pretty good as far as suspense horror goes. But it was really fun to watch it with Sarah (I'd already seen it). Then on Thursday, my sister, her fiancee, and I went to the Quarry and hung out with my two cousins Tiff and Liz (who actually live in my city now, but also whom I hadn't seen in forever) and one of my really old friends, Amanda. I mean, she's not that old, just a couple years older than me, but we've been friends for a long time. I hadn't seen her in forever either, so that was a lot of fun. I hadn't realized how much I missed their kind of silly and crazy. It was very refreshing. Then on Friday, Holly from the Valley called because she and her mom had to take an emergency trip to our city and asked if they could stay at our house. They got here after supper, and so Holly got to come with us on our traditional something-came-out-at-midnight trip to Wal-Mart and Krispy Kreme to get the newest Harry Potter book. Then Holly and I talked for a really long time, and it was a really good talk, too. I told her some stuff that I hope will help when she goes to college, and she gave me some really good advice. Oh, and I did get to see my other friend from here, Shayla the week before last. That was fun. We went to the mall and did girly my-sister’s-getting-married stuff. My friend Audrey will hopefully be visiting in August, so that would be awesome. Lina won’t get to visit this summer, so that’s not fun, but at least I’ll get to see her in the fall.

So, I guess this has been a pretty nice summer. And I’m almost done with the Archives of Anthropos. I’m about a third of the way done with Quest for the King. And then on to the last book, which I haven’t read before. After that, I’ve got some good Vesper Holly books to read (love those exploding sausages!). Also, I’m getting along nicely with the book I’m writing. Having to stay off one’s feet does have an upside. :-) Anyway, off for now!

Voice of Aslan and other tidbits

A few bits of news. Not really. For one thing, I've heard it rumored that Liam Neeson will be the voice of Aslan in the new The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe movie. It hasn't been confirmed yet, so who knows. I suppose it's as good a choice as any if it's true. I still think James Earl Jones would have been a good choice if he wasn't already Mufasa. ;-) Check out this link if you want to read the rumor: The Voice of Aslan at last?
In other news, my foot still hurts. It seems to have gotten worse as time went on. That stinks. To high heaven.
In other, other news, I finally just skipped two months of my story so I could get to the interesting stuff again. I wrote something along the lines of: "And then there were a bunch of battles, it was the same old, same old, again, and two months passed." I figure, if I'm tired of battles, the reader must be almost as tired of them. So I decided to make it as brief as possible. I really like the character I just introduced. He's different than the other characters. He almost seems to have more--er, more--what's the word? Nobility? Moral character? Charm? He he. He's cool. But I had to kill someone off again. I hadn't killed anyone for, it must have been more than 20 chapters. It's terribly sad though. :::sigh::: They die so young.
I suppose that's all. I'm looking forward going back to school and seeing friends. I'm not looking forward to homework, and I'm dreading Saga food. Dear me, dear me--just the thought of it makes me sick.
Oh, and comment on what you think about Liam Neeson for the voice of Aslan! Other people who supposedly auditioned for the part were Jason Isaacs, Timothy Dalton, Sean Bean, Gerard Butler, Ian McKellen, and Ralph Fiennes. The original Aslan was Brian Cox. All of these actors have been villains at one time or another: (don't read if you don't want spoilers; some villains aren't revealed til the end) Brian Cox--Bourne Identity (or Supremacy --can't remember which); Jason Isaacs--Harry Potter; Timothy Dalton--The Rocketeer; Sean Bean--James Bond, National Treasure, and Lord of the Rings doesn't count; Gerard Butler--The Phantom of the Opera; Ian McKellen--X-Men; Ralph Fiennes--Harry Potter; Liam Neeson--Batman Begins; and even James Earl Jones was Darth Vader. Anyway, that was longer than it needed to be. Until later!

Creative Geniusy

I don't really have much to say, but here it is anyway. Ooo, I ryhmed. I'm reading a good book right now called Gaal the Conquerer. I like it. You should read it (and ignore the blatant typos and slightly confusing writing--it's not as bad as The Sword of Shannara, I promise :::wink wink::::). Oh oh, I'm excited because I wrote a song the other night, which hasn't happened in awhile. And it's a happy song, which also hasn't happened in awhile (my last two songs were about hopelessly trying to make someone proud and trying to get away from a manipulative control freak--sheesh, what's going on in my mind? ;-) ). And I figured it out on the piano, and it's a love song which has nothing to do with anybody I know; it's just a fun song. Ah, the wonderful flow of creative genius. I've been debating creating a seperate blog for writing stuff, but that would pretty much serve no purpose since I don't post things I write because I'm paranoid about my work. :::wink wink::: Anyway, I gotta go make a phone call before we go to the library. Until then!

Anne the Creatvie Genius

P.S. Plus I figured out how to add titles to my entries. And blogger is so much cooler than xanga 'cause you can edit the html. Yay blogger!

Well, today, I was walking along the edge of the pool and stepped off, not remembering how far down it was, apparently. I landed pretty bad on my ankle, and wow did it hurt. I've got a brace on it now, and so it hurts less than sprained ankles normally do. It was an interesting experience. Then we went and saw Batman Begins. I really like it. It was definately a good movie. So, Carolyn, I guess I won't boycott you for saying it was better than Spiderman. :-D I don't know that I would compare it to Spiderman. They were very different. This Batman was definately better than the other Batman movies. It was very interesting. I couldn't figure out which decade it was supposed to take place in. In case I haven't used asteriscs on this site before, comments between asterics generally mean "don't read comment between asterics unless you have seen or read the movie or story in question." That said, *I had forgotten about the Scarecrow! Sheesh, creepy badguy. He killed Batgirl one time. I never got to see the end of the episode, so I never found out how she came back to life. Oh well.* Anyway, enough random entires. Oh wait, not done being random yet. So, last night I dreamed that I was back at school and (I always have these dreams before every semester) I missed my first Digital Writing class 'cause it was at 4pm on Tuesday, which is random. And I didn't have any time to eat supper. And I had a test the second class period in one class. And then, there were pirates or something. And aliens, or something. And then something. Anyway, it was another weird dream. Those dreams . . . . Okay, now I'm done being random. :-)

This update in the boring, yet interesting (depending on who you are) life of Annie was brought to you by--well, Annie
Until next time, "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit--Crime does not pay. The Shadow knows. Muahahahahahaha"

So, other people have already posted about Six Flags, but I am going to do it myself now. So, Friday, my sister Karen and I drove up to Longview—long drive. Jodie and I ate supper at Applebee’s—yummy! Then we got up at 6:30 Saturday morning—much too early for a Saturday morning. We stopped to get gas which wound up taking around half an hour because I got witnessed to by the gas attendent. That was interesting. I think he was Muslim, but I’m not sure. I couldn’t understand him very well because English was his second language. I’d never really been in that position before. As I said, it was interesting. So then we got to Dallas (without getting lost, huzzah to me) and saw Carolyn and Amanda in Carolyn’s foyer. I was going out to get my contacts when I heard a “psst” from above him. I didn’t know who would be “psst”ing since I didn’t think anyone was in the house, so I ignored it at first. Finally, I looked up and saw—da da na da!—Shawna no-last-name!! (security reasons, you know) I said, “HI!” then a confused look crossed my face and I said, “You’re not supposed to be here.” So Shawna got to come! It was awesome.

So, I was adventurous at Six Flags. I rode Batman—my first upside and dangly feet rollar coaster!! Wowee!! Then I rode Superman, which was like the Fiesta Texas Scream, which shoots you strait up and down. That one was fun. Oh yeah. We also rode the water ride and the little rollar coasters and the bobsled and Sponge Bob (the brain-cell killer). And Amanda and I rode the swings and the log ride while the others were on the Titan, which we refused to go on. We also got to ride the carosal. It was so much fun.

Ah! They just blew up the president on the TV show I’m watching! That’s not good.

So, we went swimming that night at Carolyn’s after eating fondue (hey Strongbad, I brought back your fondue pot). The next morning, Jodie and I drove back to Longview. There was a stupid bird walking across the road and it wouldn’t fly away. There was a car next to me and a car behind me, so I couldn’t really move (come on, we were in Dallas!). I kept remembering Driver’s Ed: “Never swerve for the birds.” So yeah, I ran over a bird. And then, we were trying to get on the highway. There was a semi right next to us, so I sped up to get around it, and guess what? the semi sped up too. How stupid can you be. So my lane ended, the semi’s coming into us, and it was a little freaky. So I honked (yay!) and let him go by. Stupid semis. I got to eat lunch with Lina, which was fun. I got the recording of us singing “Scarborough Faire” yay! The drive back was interesting—Karen and I were both hyper, plus, I was tired. It was fun.

Okay, that’s a long enough post for now. :-)

Annie/Sam

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THE SPURS WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

YES!!!!!!!!! Ha ha ha!! 81 to 74. Oh yes, go Spurs. :-D

The Spurs are winning! Yay! They'd better win, let me tell you! GO SPURS GO! :-D So, today, I suddenly realized that I can go to Six Flags day afterall--the only problem is that I can't get through to Carolyn 'cause she's working as a camp counselor this week. I don't want to just show up on their doorstep tomorrow and say, "Hey, can I stay here tonight?" That would be wrong. Plus, I wouldn't be able to find their doorstep since I can't get a hold of her for directions. :::sigh::: The things we go through for friends.

So, a couple nights ago, I dreamed that I was at this ganster place. I went to find Karen and Harry for a quick get-away, so I left the car running. I forgot that we were in a ganster place, and it took longer than I thought to find them, so somebody stole our car!!! I distinctly recall falling to my knees, throwing my hands to the sky and crying, "WEEEEENDY!!!!" And then, I was somebody from another country who came to America and got captured in this fortress or something, and the evil twin girls from X-files were there trying to kill us, and I was Scully trying to stop them. It was weird. That dream was a mix of 24, X-files, and my brother's video game. Last night, I dreamed again that somebody stole my car, this time with me inside! This creepy little man got into the car, and I said, "What the heck are you doing?" and he said, "Getting into your car." And I said, "Get into your own car!" in a very derisive voice. Ha ha, you tell those car-jackers . . .

On another note, I've gotten farther than ever in my written story! Did I already say that? But now I'm at a dilema. As I told my siblings, "Never write a story where the evil villain is a brilliant strategist unless you are one yourself." Darn that villain, why'd he have to be so bright? It took me forever to come up with a strategy for the bad guys to attack the good guys, and it's so good, that now I'm having trouble figuring out how the good guys will actually win. :::sigh::: The price we pay for epic novels.

Rock on Spurs!! YAY!!!

So this time, the reason I haven't updated in forever is because I've been lazy. But it's nice to be lazy. Thanks to everybody who commented! I appreciate it a lot. And you don't have to comment every time you read; I was being whiney, sorry about that. Ah! The episode of 24 ended! A cliffhanger. Anyway, I've been having a good summer. No stinkin' job yet. Which probably means ever. Oh well. I'm working on the rest of that epic novel, ;-). I've gotten farther than ever before! I just introduced a character who has been around since the beginning (nearly five years ago), but has never been introduced in the written drafts. Yay! I'd better go because I have an appointment in the morning. So, I'll tell you about my freaky x-files dream later. He he.

Alright, I confess! I can’t take it anymore! ;-) So, the reason I haven’t updated in forever is not because I haven’t wanted to update in forever—I even thought out a lengthy post about my cool birthday—it’s because I got mad that nobody ever comments on my blog. I’m sorry. It’s just that, when I see no comments on my blog and bagillions on other people’s blogs, I wonder if anybody actually reads my blog. Which they may not. But if you read my blog and have time, just drop a note to let me know you read it. You don’t even have to say anything relevant to the post; just let me know how you’re doing. Now that that’s taken care of, onto the reason I have broken my long vow of silence:

I GOT REJECTED!!!

I’m so excited! My first rejection slip was waiting for me (in my specially labeled self-addressed-stamped-envelope) when I got home from college! Apparently it had been waiting for me since sometime in April (the date was smudged out). Anyway, it was so exciting! You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for my first rejection, how many times I’ve wondered which of my stories would hold the honored position of first rejected, how many years I’ve been waiting for this moment! Okay, before you think I’m totally insane, most authors (in fact, no author that I’ve heard off) aren’t accepted on their first try, so I was expecting to be rejected. The excitement comes from the fact that I actually sent something off, I’ve been acknowledged by a publisher, and I got a letter addressed to “author.” I’m an author! Of course, it was definitely a form letter—“Dear author, from the editors,” but it was still a letter. Yay! So, June 9th marked a momentous occasion in the life and career of Anne M. BEEP. What was that? Oh right, no last names for security sake :::wink wink double grin:::.

Of course, with the rejection does come a little bit of insecurity, which I was feeling before I got the letter, namely: Is my story really publisher ready? I hope so. If I have to read it again, I think I’ll puke. Oh oh, and along story lines! I’m on Chapter 48 of Book 2 (they’re short chapters). I’m almost to Part 3! Yay! exciting!

So, I’ve been enjoying my time at home. I’ve been swimming twice, I cleaned two shelves and a drawer, I ate cookie dough ice cream!! (here’s to the CD club and the good ol’ days of summer! :::miss you, Leo::::), watched my third R movie (it was a pretty cool movie, but it was rated R pretty much only for the swearing which really got to me, so I think I’ll stick to my general no R policy—I mean really, people good think of better ways to express themselves than cussing all the time—I do ;-) ), I’ve written a little, read a little, and we started this summer’s marathon of Veinticuatro (24). Yay! And hopefully I’ll get a job soon. ::::singing:::: “I guess you’ll say, what can make me feel this way? Money, money, money, talkin’ ‘bout money.” :::stops singing:::: “It’s money, not Ares! Sorry Ares, but when it comes right down to it, I just love money more than you . . . ” Some people and their boyfriends . . . ;-) Annnnyway, what was I saying?

Oh yeah, I’m 20!!! Weird, huh? I got the entire set of the Archives of Anthropos for my birthday! I’m reading the Tower of Geburah right now. It’s not the same as I remember it (definitely written for children), but I still like it. I love the blue light, plus I haven’t read the last book yet. And anyway, now I have the set for if I ever have kids (I’ve been writing my story too much, I nearly wrote my language’s word for kid instead of English . . . sheesh). I also got Eragon (I’ve been wondering about it forever—I’m sure I can write that well :::wink wink::: and Earthsea. (By the bye, those were from Mom and Dad, the B------s no last names for security sake [Lina’s family], and Lina respectively.) Harry gave me the first season of Gargoyles on DVD! For once, a cartoon was better than I remembered it! (I know, needless italic, but I felt like emphasizing.) That was really fun. I enjoyed it during my long, lonely hours at school . . . . And I wasn’t scared because I had Darth Vader to protect me! Karen gave me a stuffed Darth Vader who breaths and says, “You don’t know the power of the dark side!” Although, that is creepy to hear in your sleep . . . (accidentally squeezed him). (Another needless italic, but I just wanted you to understand my emphasis.)

Well, now I think I’ll either read the rest of The Tower of Geburah or write the awesome duel scene from my epic novel number two part three!! Da da da da! (oh oh, here’s for Shawna: da na na na na!! It’s coming from your house! Da na na NA na!)

Goodbye my imaginary and adoring public! Until you read again!

Anne M. No Last Names for Security Reasons

P.S. Why are my posts always so long?

So I'm sitting at work and going crazy because it's Friday and I still have half an hour of work plus four and a half hours of class!! :::bangs head on desk:::: Oh well, at least I got the computer today. I need to ask about getting it so I can sign on under my name instead of borrowing somebody else's. Ooo, sounds like a book: Borrowing Someone Else's Name. Da da da! The main character, Tommy Shepherd, discovers that he isn't who he thought he was! In addition, his new identity is wanted for first class murder! Or murder in the First Class. That sounds like another book! Tommy Shepherd was riding along on the train, relishing his gift of First Class train tickets. Suddenly, the lights go out! the train car screeches! there is a hideous scream! Oh the tragedy of it all!! There was a murder! Tommy Shepherd gets the blame! Just before his conviction--oh, another book! Just Before Conviction--Tommy Shepherd is wrongfully blamed for the Murder in the First Class. Just before his conviction, a mystrious female lawyer/love interest busts Tommy out of prison! She wasn't really his lawyer, she's a bounty hunter, hired by the murdered victom's family (who believe Tommy Shepherd is innocent) to find their son's murderer (or was the victom a girl? I forget). In order to find out what really happened, the mysterious lawyer/bounty hunter/love interest needs Tommy's help! Back to Borrowing Someone Else's Identity--or was it Name?--whichever. Tommy has to assume a new identity in order to escape the FBE--I mean FBI, I'm not really trying to rename a government agency

15 MINUTES TO FREEDOM! I mean 15 MINUTES TO SUPPER and 5 HOURS AND 45 MINUTES TO FREEDOM!

And then it turns out that Tommy Shepherd's new identity was his real identity--he only thought he was Tommy Shepherd! And as it turns out, his new identity, Max Cable, is actually a serial killer who really did murder the murdered victom! Jana Suewellen (the laywer/ bounty hunter/ lover interest) is forced to work against her passionate love for Tommy Shepherd and has to arrest Max Cable to turn over to the murdered victim's family vengeful wrath!! Oh the HORROR!! In a fit of frenzied rage, Max KILLS Jana Suwellen! When he discovers what he has done, Tommy commits suicide and Max takes over his brain going on a vicious rampage where he murders seventy-two innocent victims before being brought to justice.

He he he, that was really fun. And random, I guess. Nobody can steal my wonderful plot idea or cool beyond cool names! They're MINE I tell you!! :-) Maybe I should go before I frighten my adoring public to death. He he.

10 MINUTES!!!
Happy Friday!

Annie the Crazed from Working Nearly 8 Hours on the Switchboard and Having 4 and 1/2 Hours of Class to Look Forward to Tonight

Ah, why do summer and stars go together so well? Stars are awesomeness. This astronomy class makes me think of something like a museam exhibit I once went to, but I can't quite recall what it is. The closest thing I can think of is the ET ride at Universal Studios. That was a fun ride--yeah, that's probably it. I have a picture of the aurora for my computer background and it was fun to wake up in the middle of the night, look down from my bunk and see the aurora in my room. :-) And then I look up and bump my head on the "It's snowing!" sign taped to the roof above my bed. Old inside joke--my sister had fun at the computer lab the other night. I walked into my room and saw a sign, "He's coming . . ." taped the closet when I opened the door. All around the room are pictures of Darth Vader taped everywhere but the walls (since we aren't allowed to put anything on the walls :::dirty look:::).

Speaking of Darth Vader, my sister and I had a sister date at Burger King on Sunday and they had Star Wars toys! I felt like 12 again! My sister and I both "Jedi sized" or whatever our value meals so that we each got two Star Wars toys. Ah, it was like the summers of old . . . So Star Wars came out today and we might go see it this weekend. Let me tell you, it had better be better than the last two "Star Wars" (note the quote marks) movies. Anyhoozers . . .

So, only ten days left of being a teenager! AHHHHH! Weirdness . . . I can't believe I'm almost two decades old. I saw a commercial for the tenth anniversary of Pocahantas--boy do I feel old! Sheesh, I remember like three movies before Pocahantas! Well, I should probably get ready for work--Oh oh!! I wrote 11 pages yesterday!! Yay! I'm back in writing mode! The only problem is that it took 3 hours to write 11 pages when normally I can do approximately 5 an hour. But, I was answering the phone at the same time, so we'll be lenient. I just got to the part I've been trying to get to forever when the main character first really meets his arch-nemises! I'm almost to the part where the have their first battle! Oh, it's so exciting! I haven't gotten to this part since Draft 4! Which was like 3 years ago. Oh right, work. Anyway, so maybe I'll get more work done today at work! Although, I do have homework, which is the stinky kind of work. Right, I'm leaving now. Tomorrow's Friday!!

Sam/Annie or Annie/Sam or whatever order you prefer or TC/Luke/Luther/Vortex/Kitty/Captain Janeway/Samwise Gamgee/RED/any other of the numerous knicknames I have accumilated over the years--and not one of them at college, now that's messed up . . .

Well, I've survived one week of work (plus a day) and nearly a week of class. All I can say is, this is good for a couple weeks, but I'll be glad when work is over. Working for four to five hours and then running to class for four and a half hours can get exhausting. It might not be so bad if class wasn't from 6 to 10:30pm. Thankfully, class is only Mon-Wed-Fri, and it's a fun class! Yay for astronomy! Numerous story ideas jump out of the text at every moment! :-D Plus looking at the craters on the moon is fun, too. But, I do have a test tomorrow that I probably ought to study for. Darn studying, it stinks. As my astronomy lab partner said, studying is like homework without a definate end. It's terrible!

Speaking of stories (as that's a more pleasant topic than class), I'm getting back into writing phase now that the major semester is over. I have a feeling some major rewriting is necessary for--what am I on?--Part 4, but as it's the first time I've written this part, I don't so much mind. :-) I got a book on Plot and Structure at Books a Million last Saturday. I always freak out and think Book 1 (of my series) must be soooo boring and it doesn't have a plot really, and it doesn't really get into the plot until Chapter 7. I always forget that aliens trying to conquer the world (sounds silly, doesn't it?) isn't actually the plot line, even though it started out that way. The plot is an orphan young man starting college tries to find his self-identity (and fails miserably, by the way--oo, this is fun!). And then in astronomy class last night, the teacher mentioned something that made me think of my villain and suddenly she got a lot cooler and more evil and I started to think the whole end of Book 2 again. My series is really like one big book in a bunch of volumes. Each book ends with this, "Oh there was a battle that began at the beginning of the book, but we finally won!! But then the world blew up and we have to start over" kind of feeling. Each book ends with the beginning of another problem. It's really fun!

Anyway, I should probably ready for work. "How may I direct your call?" I got a call for someone from the brother floor the other day. It was funny. But we aren't allowed to give out student's information. Have wonderful weeks everybody!!

Sam G.

I don't have time to say much now except "The Internet is back!! Yay!!!" So I can finally post the posts that I wrote Sunday and Monday. I to leave for work in about ten minutes. I'm working all day today and then I have class tonight. Oh joy. Pray for me not to go crazy!

Monday morning: Well, I started that entry Sunday morning when I took a quick break from packing, but by the time I was done moving out and everything, I was too tired to finish. I spent all day packing, cleaning, and moving. It made it worse that I was already sore from moving everybody else’s stuff on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I ate Burger King for supper, which was yummy, and didn’t get to bed until really late. In a little over an hour, I have to leave for work—my first job! (not counting five days at the dog groomer’s and Peer Advising) Weeeeird.

Speaking of weird, right now, I am installed in Quad 4, and it just seems weird. Everything is so familiar that I keep expecting to see Quad 2 people. Now I’ll tell you what’s unfair—the Quad has BIG closets (I can hang up my dresses and the whole thing can hang out, as opposed to being bunched on the floor; as short as I am, if my dresses get bunched on the floor, there’s something wrong), you can move the furniture, the Quad has nice desks with three drawers, and the Quad has bookshelves. So the room is smaller, but it seems like there is more space. I agree with Jennie—if I ever get rich and win the lottery or something, I’m going to get ELH moveable furniture and bigger closets.

Oh, and since the phone lines in this room aren’t working and I’m totally cut off from the world, it might be awhile before I post this. Well, I’m off to find something to do before I make myself a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. :-)
Annie/Sam

Well, everybody’s gone except those of us who are here for the summer, :-( and I decided to take a break from packing. I have had such an awesome beyond awesome week! I hardly remember finals, so much fun stuff has happened since then, albeit it involved a lot of watching people leave.

Monday night we had Amanda’s surprise going away party. That was so much fun! We ate The Dip, cake, and played Three on a Couch (which was so cool ‘cause we started out the year playing Three on a Couch at our first Brother/Sister floor party!). Then Carolyn gave Amanda Victoria and Albert, so we watched the first half that night.

The next day, I didn’t really study for finals because I didn’t want to. So Amanda and I watched the second half of Victoria and Albert. Wednesday evening, Jennie, R-Duck, and I went to get a storage unit. It would be one of our last suppers in Saga, and I wanted to eat it with people because—despite the occasional need for introvert-recharge time—I’m a social person who needs people. I asked Shawna (actually, I said, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it”) if she would keep people at dinner until Jennie, R-Duck, and I got back. Well, we wound up not getting back until around 6:15. I was so disappointed, but when I got to Saga, Christy was just getting there, and Shawna was still there will Kurt and Jen! I was so happy. It was fun. Thank you, Shawna for keeping people around and thanks people for staying! :-D I have wonderful friends!

Wednesday night, we (being a bunch of girls from the floor) watched The Phantom of the Opera. Oh, that is an awesome movie. Thursday, I didn’t have any finals!! Kermit the Frog yay! ::::waves arms around like a puppet while yelling, “Yay!!”::::: Thursday evening, lots of people were at supper for Saga’s (thankfully!) last meal. I got a bunch of people to sign my Autograph book. Then we had the funeral procession to carry Christy and Alisha’s micro-fridge to G2. That was funny. And then we went bowling! Bowling was so much fun! I took 45 pictures! And I bowled a 57 the second time. :::slaps face::: I’m out of practice. :-) Then we went to IHOP even though nobody really wanted IHOP, but we couldn’t think of where else to go, and I wanted to hang out more. I drew my second favorite IHOP picture!

Friday, we moved a bunch of stuff. I got so sore. We went to Whataburger for lunch. Shawna, Carolyn, and I rode in the back of Zoot’s pick-up. That was fun! Then we moved a bunch more stuff. I wound up sleeping for around 15 minutes on the floor of the hallway before dinner. Then I had to borrow Shawna and Rebecca’s shower because there was a fridge in mine. He he. Friday night, we watched Titan, A.E. in the brother floor lounge. I hadn’t seen that movie in forever. It was fun.
Yesterday (Saturday), I had planned to pack, but I wound up sleeping in. Then Carolyn, Jodie, and I went to get suite rings before we went to Amanda’s brother’s graduation picnic party. While there, we took suite and roommate (past, present, and future ;-) ) pictures. Then Jodie and I went to Wal-Mart and got REAL FOOD! I was so excited! Last night, Karen and I made The Dip (mostly Karen) and ate with our friends. Then Shawna, Rebecca, Jodie, a bunch of the guys, and I went to Chic-Fil-A. It was really fun. After that, I packed for a little (not much), and then helped Shawna and the guys move Shawna’s stuff to her car. After that, we decided to watch Napoleon Dynamite. Karen was right—it’s funnier the second time. It started out as Shawna, Bushey, Paul, and Zoot. Shawna and I were the only ones who had seen it. It was great! Zoot kept periodically checking Paul to make sure he was still alive. :-D Mike, Kurt, and Jennie came in (and probably some other people I don’t remember at this time). We watched some of the special features, and then got kicked out of the lounge when security came by—that means it was 2am by then. I hadn’t stayed up that late in a long time. We stood outside talking for awhile. Somebody found a can of grease and gave it to Shawna. She asked what she was supposed to do with it. I suggested lighting it on fire and watching it explode to which Paul responded, “Where do you learn all of this stuff?” Mike and one or two of the other guys went dumpster diving and came back with some ties. It was really fun. Eventually, we had to go to bed.

Ha ha, yes! I got punctuation and grammer right! I know I need work on vocabulary (but really, half the words I'd never even heard before) and spelling isn't my strong point (but how do you learn what's right when everybody spells it wrong?)

It's a good thing it didn't ask about the parts of speech--I was explaining Apples to Apples to someone last night. I picked up the green card and said, "these cards have--what do you call these words?"
"Adjectives," the other players supplied.
"Oh right," I said. "I'm an English major," and gave a sheepish grin.

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 100%

Punctuation: 100%

Spelling: 60%

Vocabulary: 60%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

Yesterday was an excellent last day of class. I still had to get up at seven and go to two classes, but I didn't go to chapel or to sleep or study during the chapel time. It was nice. For Spanish, we went to the little tex-mex place and got pastries. Then I ate lunch (which was terrible as usual--in fact, I think I just had mashed potatoes) and discovered that I didn't have to go to CS-I because I'd already done all the projects! Yay! So after Bible (during which I drew cartoon people that spoke in Spanish), I played the piano for two hours. Ah, that felt good, even though the piano was slightly out of tune and I couldn't sing because of this darn film on the back of my throat. I came back and people were watching Finding Neverland in my room. I watched the rest with them (just enough to make me tear up). And then we walked to supper in the rain. Ah, that was fun. Then I found out that the brothers were going to see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at 9:10. So, before the movie, Carolyn, Amanda, Jodie, Valerie, and I (it was like the veteran ELH-3ers!) went to the mall and got stuff. Well, I didn't really which was probably good. Then we discovered that we had to be back in fifteen minutes in order to leave for the movie at the prearranged time of 8:40. Carolyn and I (after dropping the others off) pulled into the brother floor parking lot exactly at 8:40! Yes! So we went to the movie. What can I say about that movie? It was pretty dang crazy. I laughed my head off at many parts. It was like an 80s movie with better effects! I loved it! It was definately worth 4 bucks! So I had mountains of relaxing fun to celebrate the last day of classes, and still went to bed before 1am! Craziness. We're going to the park in a little less than an hour, and I'm trying to procrastinate until then, even though I should be studying. So, I guess I'll study for stinking finals. Happy end of the semester!!!

You're Jane Eyre of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte!


Which Classic Female Literary Character Are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

So, I really don't want to do homework right now. I have a bit to do, I guess. But I don't want to. So, I thought, writing a post is probably the way to procrastinate feeling the least guilty 'cause maybe it'll get my writing juices flowing so that I can write my Brit Lit journals. Bleh.

On to profoundness! (that is in the title of this blog, afterall) I can't believe that in just a little over a week, I'll be halfway through with college. AHHHHHH!! By next (not this) Thursday, I'll be a Junior! Weirdness. Two weeks from yesterday, I'll be starting my first clock-in job (aside from five days at the dog groomers which didn't have set hours). I guess this job won't last much longer than the dog groomers, but it'll be more like a real job. Oh dear, I'm going to go crazy. This has been a great year. I know I had something profound to say, but nothing comes to mind. Today was my last PA meeting. It was nice. I'm gonna miss the other PA's. This Saturday my floor and our brother floor are going to the park. Yay! It will be fun. I've been looking forward to it all semester. I guess I should go be productive now. No wonder hardly anyone reads my blogs--all I say is "I can't think of what I had meant to say." Oh! I dreamed in Spanish again last night. This time, we weren't speaking Spanish, I was actually trying to remember how to construct logical sentences. That's what I get for doing homework right before bed . . . Here's a little something for your fun. If you think of things to add, let me know. (by the bye, I know this doesn't apply to everyone, it's just stuff that I've found happened to me)

Things That Happen To You When You Attend College:

1. You stop refering to individual days; every day is either Mon-Wed-Fri, Tue-Thur, or the weekend, i.e.: "Is today a Mon-Wed-Fri or a Tue-Thur?" or "Thank goodness! today's the weekend."
2. Going to bed early is anytime before midnight
3. En route to McDonald's, you hear yourself say, "Finally! We get real food tonight."
4. A fun Friday night is going to Wal-Mart
5. Going to bed late is anytime after 4am
6. Starting a project early is two days before it's due
7. A lot of money is $5
8. You generally go to bed around midnight to 2am, but occasionally go to bed as early as 9 or even 7pm
9. Starting a project late is after midnight the night before it's due
10. You know how to buy everything at the cheapest possible price for the best bargain
11. And finally, you spend your free time--what's that again?
    
    Sammie G.

Well, I was feeling very good about everything last week. I got ahead in my reading and Bible journals and got a history worksheet done nearly a week before it was due--I was doing pretty good. Then I went on the PA retreat (which was really fun by the bye) and came back. Now I'm remebering everything I have to do. I have to finish two sets of journals (one is thankfully near completion), redo my paper on which it was pretty much stated that I didn't need research and after I wrote it I was told I didn't have enough research, do the Spanish extra credit (which I need), and do all the computer stuff I have to. On top of that, we have a quiz today in Computer Science over a chapter I read a couple of weeks ago and so don't remember specifics so I'll probably flunk, and I got an e-mail today from one of the English teachers sayings, "It's time for you to complete one of your assignments as an English major. You have to complete a one-hour timed writing assignment where I'll give you a poem and you have to critically write about it. This is to measure your progress from your Sophmore to Senior years. It's nothing to stress about; just let me know what time this week would be good." (or something to that effect) What the heck? NO time this week will be the good; it's the dosh gone last week of classes before finals, do they think I have oodles of free time? And I was never told about this assignment, so I don't think they have any right to spring it on me like this. Plus, I'm switching majors as soon as the new one is available, so I don't want to do this assignment if it will become obsolete when I change. ARGH! This campus really needs to work on communication. Needless to say (I hope), I didn't reply to the e-mail right away. I'm waiting until I calm down. :) Well, teacher's here, class will start. Bye!

So, sitting in compi-sci, waiting for it to start. I'm so very tired. But after this class, I have to go to financial aide, and then at 5:45 there's the IMPACT thingy which I need to shower and eat before and after IMPACT is Film Fest. Plus I was gonna go see if I could find my Shawna. So I don't think I'll get a nap today. And I have to get up to leave for the PA retreat tomorrow. Dang that bell . . .

So yesterday was very productive for me. I read more than three days worth of Bible, wrote three Bible journals, finished my Spanish workbook and lab manual, studied for my Spanish test, and did my history worksheet--all after lunch! So I decided I wanted to do something. Well, last night was a little last minute, so I polled the floor and found out that Thursday would be best for doing something. I’m not very good at instigating, so Shawna did most of the instigating. She asked what could be our reason for going out (if we had a reason, more people might come) and I jokingly mentioned my (fake) birthday that was several weeks ago, and Shawna is awesomely sweet, so I think we’re going to celebrate my birthday!! I’m so happy! Alisha told me happy birthday today and it made my day. I’m excited. I was going to say something else, but I don’t remember what it was.

I think Saga food is making me sick because I’ve been slightly nauseated (especially after meals, hint hint) for more than a week. It makes me sad . . . I hope that Saga food isn’t ruining all of my internal organs with its over-fried, over-buttered, stale-and-week-old general nastiness. I sigh deeply. Oh well. Such is the college life, I suppose. On to more homework (although I got very much ahead, I have a paper due a week from Friday. I got feedback on it and I’m confused. I turned in a very rough draft for feedback and explained that I didn’t have a works cited page yet. I was told I didn’t need a works cited page if I only used the textbook. Well, I had gotten some chronology from elsewhere, but that’s it. Well, today the scribbled teacher-scrawl on my paper said that I didn’t have enough research and that quoting class lectures was a poor substitute for research. What happened to only needing to use the textbook? Good grief! teachers can be annoying sometimes. . . . anyway, so I should work on that). Have a wonderful evening everyone who doesn’t actually read this. Maybe I will see you sometime in the future . . .

Sammie G.

So, yesterday I said that about the only I could think of that could possibly be worse that what had already happened would be to be struck by lightening on a cloudless day. But then I'd go to heaven, and that would be tons better than being here (no matter how good your life is, heaven is always going to be better), so I concluded that it was about as bad as it was going to get. Of course, I was chuckling to myself the whole time I figured this out. I love my personality. I'm so glad God gave it to me. I find it very hard to be upset or sad. I usually wind up laughing at myself, which is an extreme blessing, considering that I'm a writer and consequently blow everything out of proportion and overdramatize it. After dinner last night was pretty good. Although, I was very cautious about eating (due to nausea all day), it was steak night last night, so of course I ate some. Then a bunch of us (sisters and brothers) played Apples to Apples (they love that game; it's awesome! thanks for giving it to me, Karen and Harry). Then Amanda sewed a quilt, and I sat in the lounge partly dosing and the rest of the time interjecting comments into Zoot and Bushey's conversation. When the rest of the people got back from the concert that they went to (which lasted entirely too long), Shawna and I went over to the brother floor lounge to watch the Princess Bride because we wanted to and Jason hadn't seen it before. That was lots of fun. So the end of the day made up for the beginning.

Despite the fact that I had trouble sleeping because I was coughing and that I woke up definately sick and weak (it's really funny), I'm in a much better mood this morning. I'm drinking some yummy chicken soup given to me by my mommy through Karen. I love my family. And I'm going to try to make it to Symphony tonight despite my severely weakend condition (writer). Oh! and I dreamed in Spanish last night! That was fun. I had strange dreams too . . .

Well, I'd better get to work on that paper that is due rather soon. Only two weeks of classes left! Yay! Fare thee well my adoring public!

Sammie G.

P.S. I did write that long-promised post about the Renaissance Faire (and it wasn't too shabby), but blogger shut down and didn't save it. Grrr. Hence the "computer's are evil" post on xanga. SG

A part of me just wants to ignore what happened and not write about it, to just move on and write a treatise on the helpfulness of belt loops or tell the tale of how the Great House Shoe Caper was solved, but I owe Nancy more than that.

Last Thursday, I got an e-mail saying that one of the girls from my Cornerstones group was in the hospital and asking us to pray for her. I prayed all day Thursday whenever I stopped to pray. I prayed Thursday night, and I prayed Friday morning. I guess I didn’t think much about it; I thought she’d be fine.

In chapel Friday morning, the chaplain got up to make an announcement. I thought he was going to ask everyone to pray for Nancy to get better. Instead, he asked everyone to pray for Nancy’s family—Nancy had died early that morning.

When I heard, I just couldn’t stop crying. I cried from chapel ‘til lunch. I thought to myself, “I didn’t know her well enough to warrant being this sad,” but when I thought about it, I realized that I had known her better than I had thought. Out of all the girls in my Cornerstones group who didn’t become either my roommate, floormate, or best friend, Nancy was the one I knew the best. She was the sweetest, most joyful and excited, beautiful girl.

Friday afternoon, everything seemed unreal. I had entered that blissful stage of grieving when everything remains strangely blurred. I wanted to cry Friday night, but I couldn’t. Everything stayed so unreal and so blurred all of Saturday until the sun went down, the lights went out, and it was time for bed. Then it really hit me. Nancy was dead. I’d never see her again. No one would. Not here on earth anyway. I cried myself to sleep. I went with Shawna to church Sunday. I needed a good friend, and I needed someone who hadn’t really known Nancy. Someone to be strong while I cried. I cried all of Sunday until supper.

Today, I went to Nancy’s funeral. It was very good. Her uncle from Honduras spoke in Spanish, which was translated, but I understood enough of the Spanish to understand. It was very meaningful and moving in Spanish. I cried more for the people who missed Nancy than I cried because she was dead.

When things like this happen, people often ask why. I didn’t. I know Nancy’s happier in heaven. I know that she’s finally getting to do what she so longed to do. She’s using her beautiful voice to sing for God’s glory.
Even though I didn’t know Nancy intimately well, she was my friend, and I’m really going to miss her.

I’m glad I went to the funeral because I feel like the time of constant grieving is over. All weekend, even when I was so weary that I couldn’t even remember why I was crying, my body knew I was grieving and kept the tears coming. But now, now it feels like it’s okay not to cry.
I’ve never known someone so close to me and so young that died. I suppose this is the beginning and I should get used to it. It’s not something you can get used to. It’s a strange experience. I miss Nancy and what a wonderful person she was. I miss hearing her gasp and start crying every time I played Lord of the Rings. I miss hearing her get so excited. I’ll even miss the way she asked me in a slightly horrified voice if I really heard voices. But I think what I’ll miss the most is that I’ll never have the chance to go with her to Honduras to help her with her Opera house, like she had invited me to. I miss Nancy, but I’m glad she’s gone. Not that she left, but that she went home. Someday, I hope everyone who reads this will be able to meet Nancy in heaven and hear her sing. I hope to see all of you again one day when we’re praising our Savior forevermore. For all of you who knew Nancy, I’m sorry that we lost her, and I pray God gives you peace. For those of you who didn’t know Nancy, I’m sorry that you didn’t get to know her and the joy she had. I pray that someday you’ll meet someone with such a vibrant spirit who will challenge you to life by the way she lives.

Her name was Nancy, and she was my friend
~~In Memory of Nancy, December 29, 1986-April 8, 2005~~