Off by a tenth

My philosophy professor is so infuriating. He has a weird way of grading tests that I don't understand at all. But basically he goes by a scale of 0-4.0, and as far as I can understand him, he thinks of it like GPA. Each test has eight questions that require a short (one sentence being the shortest up to one or two paragraphs being the longest) answer for each and some of the questions are two part which means that they are worth double. He goes through and marks each response individually as an A, B, C, etc... and then adds those up for the final exam grade. Like I said I don't understand it so this probably doesn't make much more sense. Because I hate philosophy, decided not to read the chapters, decided not to study, and this particular prof.'s exam was so strange (also it being the first exam of the semester) I made a D. Then I got serious on this second exam and did everything I could to prepare myself for it. Got my results back on Monday and was relieved to find that I had made a B! Upon examination of his feedback on my paper I realised that I was one/tenth of a point off from making an A! And there was even one question that he had marked as a B that had asked for a direct quote from the book of the first form of the categorical imperative (or something like that) that he had told us previously to memorize and just put down word-for-word what the book said...and so that's what I did. Or at least I thought I did. When I brought it up with him he pointed out that instead of saying "only" I had put instead "on." WHAT!?! OH MY GOODNESS! How incredibly nit-picky is that??? Man, I was mad. I still am. I totally deserved that extra tenth of a point for my A. Duuuuuuude. GAH!!!

My God Is An Awesome God

God is super amazing!!! I don't have time to go into details right now, but man, oh man, HE ANSWERS PRAYERS!!! And I highly recommend the Bible study Experiencing God. More later....

It really bugs me when people use "UR" wrongly

I went to St. Mary's Health and Fitness Center for the first time yesterday. Dad got Daniel and I memberships so that we can play racquetball with him because Mr. Pool has been restricted by his doctor not to play as much as he used to because of his bad knees or something. So dad is needing minions to play with and he knows that we're pretty good at tennis so how hard could it be for us to pick up racquetball? hum, I haven't actually played yet, at least not the Americanized version. I can play the Spanish version somewhat. Although I don't know what the differences are I just know that when I was in Spain and the mk guys taught me to play at El Escorial they informed me that Americans don't play the same way as Spaniards. Whatever that means. I never got as good as them but by the end of the week I was able to hold my own and at least score a few points.


So there I was at five stinkin thirty in the morning with Daniel walking into St. Mary's. Daniel had already decided that he would lift weights and I had decided that I wanted to swim. He went one way at the front desk and I proceded down the opposite hall towards the pool. Alone. It's kind of not too much fun to swim alone. Really rather boring. I swam like five laps (that's a lot considering the size of that pool compared to mine) and then got really bored and floated around for about twenty minutes. I was really wanting to sit in the hot tube but couldn't figure out where it was so I went to the other side of the room and got into the large kiddie pool and discovered that the water was really warm so I drew the conclusion that this must be in the hot tube (turns out it was the warm water therapy pool). I had no idea. Finally after about an hour after we arrived Daniel came to find me and tell me he was tired and ready to hit the showers and then leave. So he showed me where the ladies lockers were and I went in to discover that the hot tube, sauna, and steam room where lying within! Oh rapturous joy! I spent about ten minutes soaking my soar muscles from snowboarding in the deliciously hot water and then took a shower. Before I left I noticed a device on the wall that was for speed drying swimsuits. I had to try it out. It is one of the most amazing inventions ever!! It's like ten seconds and your swimsuit is completely dry! How cool is that?!? It made me want to go get my suit wet again just so that I could marvel at the efficient drying capabilities of that little machine. It doesn't take much to impress me.

I got home around seven thirty and pretty much slept the rest of the day while watching two movies. That was a good day. Now spring break is over and there's a blasted time change tonight that's coming three blasted weeks early and on top of that I only have one blasted day to get used to it before my school week starts up again. BLAST.


On a side note...this is a video that a friend, Luke Wilkerson, from my church and Josh are working on. It's really amazing so far and I can't wait for more. Btw, Luke is working on a missions project in Haiti to build a Christian vocational school for street kids and he just became our church's official worship leader last week. How exciting!

Early Haiti Doc Edit

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Renew and restore me

It's March!!! and that means that Run Kid Run and Red are coming to K-town at the end of this month. I can't wait!!! man, but it also means that the ski season is almost over (at least here in the south east). *sniff*


I've been realizing slowly how important it is for me to have a better relationship with my family and along those same lines a deeper relationship with my heavenly Father. I attended a wedding last week of two friends, more like acquaintances than anything, and was saddened to witness the lack of love expressed by both families for the bride and groom. According to the groom's brother, who is a good friend of mine, no one on either side of the families were too happy about the marriage. And my friend also said that his brother's friends disapprove greatly of his now wife so much so that none of them attended the blessed event. I also witnessed the strained relationship the bride has with her younger sister when I attended the bachelorette party two days before the wedding. Again, it was sad to witness the very apparent lack of love between the two.


All this to say that through that experience at the wedding I've realized that God has been speaking to me about this for some time now and I've been to pigheaded to listen until now. I can't have a real and personal relationship with my family until I have a real and personal relationship with my heavenly Father and vice versa. Because if I am fake in one area of my life it directly affects other areas of my life. I'm tired of being a hypocrite. I'm so ready for God to take charge of every area of my life!


Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not banish me from your presence,
and don't take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you.
Psalm 51:10-12

God is more than a vegetable

This morning, like all Thursday mornings lately, I spent four hours over at Forerunner church babysitting for a bunch of toddlers while their moms met in a Bible study. Today it was just myself, Ashley, Rosa, and Liesl and a ton more kids then were there last week! So Ashley, Rosa, and I worked with the older kids (i.e. toddlers and home schooled school age kids) in one room while lucky Liesl stayed in the nursery with just one baby. I was so jealous by the end of the morning when my head began to throb from the constant noise we were subjected to today. Bring on the ibuprofen.


Anyway, we had been having a little trouble as usual with one kid, Jordan (not his real name) that doesn't really talk much but is always pushing other kids out of the little car and causing terror. He was adopted form Africa less than a year ago. Then there's this other kid, Jimmy (not his real name) who talks up a storm but no one can understand a word he says including me. So it happened that they were in the same area of the room and were kind of playing with the same plastic container. Jimmy was curling up in it and then another random kid would put the lid on him. Then Jordan decided he wanted to get in the box, but Jimmy wouldn't get out and proceeded to bite Jordan which caused hysterics to ensue. Ashley and I were right there so we both immediately try to figure out what happened and we look at Jordan's thumb and it has two definite teeth marks in it and one side is actually bleeding slightly where the teeth broke skin. Ashley and I had no idea what to do. I think she might have tried to clean the wound, but then she handed him over to me and told me that she would talk to Jimmy while I wiped Jordan's disgustingly soggy nose while he was still screaming bloody murder.


We finally got through the situation and thankfully all the moms there know each other and are really good friends so there wasn't a problem later when we told the two moms about their kids. When all the moms came to pick up there kids each one kept telling us over and over again what a blessing we are to them because God has really been amazing for them in the Bible study and the kids really enjoy us. I couldn't help thinking each time gosh, it's not just you guys that are being blessed but I come away each week feeling like I've been blessed to work with such great kids.


Each week we're supposed to have a time set aside to listen to praise and worship music with the kids and encourage them to praise God. When I first saw that on list of things to do I was like how in the world are we going to get these little kids that can barely talk to praise God??? Then I remembered that in Deuteronomy we are not only instructed to make sure that God's word is hidden in our own hearts, but also that we impress upon even the youngest of children a heart that loves God and longs to serve Him. Sometimes I really feel cursed with my Thomas-eyes. But I thank God that He still reveals to me what I need at the exact time I need it when I call out to Him. Praise God!!!


Just watching the kids this week was an amazing experience. Ashley just played one song for them and got them to do hand motions to the words that were really beautiful. After about the third time the kids were able to sing and motion along with the chorus and the sight was so uplifting. Ashley was talking to me earlier about how she had heard a speaker on the subject of children say that God is more than a vegetable (referring to Veggie Tales), and that we should start expecting even the youngest child to be able to worship God and become proactive with the kids in the church teaching them early on to be open to God's touch. How true? How many times have I seen in the nurseries and Sunday school kids being babysat by a TV and a video of Veggie Tales while their parents are in church? Again, my spirit gains more and more confidence that this is indeed where God has placed me in His ministry...to work with the children of the world. It's so exciting to see God at work around me and in me and when I get to join Him in His work the experience is always more and more amazing. I can feel my heart continuing to grow towards His and I just can't begin to explain how I long for everyone to experience this!!!


Deuteronomy 6:4-7
Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord the only Lord.
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind and heart and with your entire being and with all your might.
And these words which I am commanding you this day shall be first in your own minds and hearts; then
You shall whet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate, and teach and impress them diligently upon the minds and hearts of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.

It happens everytime

(I put this video up for the music. This is exactly the piece we are playing. Although we are not an orchestra. Same idea. Ten minutes. At least listen to a little of it. I just play it for the music not the video, because it is obviously outdated, plus I don't think the conductor is particularly good at his job. Could just be the lag time in the video that's messing with my perception of his directing. I don't think so. Anyway enjoy.)

Isn't it amazing how perspectives can suddenly change? For the past couple of months the community band I'm in has been preparing a piece for our upcoming February concert that has proven to be quite a feat. It's Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 Finale. Originally composed for an orchestra the rather difficult part of the violins thereby falls to the oh so lucky clarinets when it was arranged for concert band. And as you might have guessed, yes, I am one of those "lucky" clarinetists. Rapturous joy.


So like I said, we got this piece maybe two or three months ago in preparation for this concert because our conductor knew it would need lots of work before it was ready for us to actually perform it. Was he ever right. The first month of running through snippets of it just to get a feel for the piece every rehearsal was agony. For me anyway. Even though I have a good understanding of music (thanks to all those mini music theory lessons in band and choir back in the day and Emily W.'s college level music theory class back in high school) and how it's composed, for the life of me I just could not figure out what Shostakovich was thinking when he composed this piece.


My main reason for disliking it was because it sounded too exposed. There are a bunch of parts throughout the piece in which just one or two sections carry on the music for several bars. I never have liked that. It's easier to hide within your section if more sections are playing, especially brass. So from the start I knew that if I was going to play this piece in the concert I would actually have to practice my butt off because there will be no hiding within my section this time.


And indeed I have practiced more than I usually do for our concerts. Usually I'll just go regularly to our once a week rehearsals and use that as my "practice" time. Good grief, no one needs to tell me how lame it is for me to do that and how conductors hate that. I can't count how many times I've heard from various conductors in my high school band days that would, sometimes not very kindly, inform individuals or sections "Practice on your on time, not the bands time! (or my time)" So yes, I am well aware that this is not the best way to go about preparing for concerts, but so far it has worked well for me and I must say several others in this particular band. Not to mention any names, but my sister, aunt, and several fellow clarinetists (fondly known as the "geezer team" or "team G" by my aunt) follow the same example. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I have pracitced my butt off, but pretty darn close.


The past month of rehearsing this particular piece has made me fall in love with it. I was determined to never enjoy playing this piece because it was just too hard for me. And I was justified in the fact that it is seven pages long (a little over ten minutes of straight playing depending on how fast the tempo is) and it is especially difficult for clarinets. Through the encouragement of a friend in band I began to look at this piece differently because he was so enthused about getting to play it. Regardless of the fact that he plays tuba and his part is totally different from mine I slowly came around to look at it the way he does. I absolutely love it now! Every rehearsal I can't wait to play it. I would much rather play Shostakovich than a rather lame arrangment of Amazing Grace that will also be in the next concert. The only good thing about that one is that we will have a bagpiper playing a large section of the piece that the clarinets would have normally had to play. And my part was sustaining the same note for seventeen excrutiatingly long measures while the first clarinets carry on the melody giving the effect of bagpipes. Anyway, the point is my perspective has changed in the way I view Symphony No. 5. In a very good way.


That happens a lot to me. You'd think I would learn something. Anytime we get a new piece of music that proves to be challenging for me I'll put it on the side and not practice it because it's just too hard and I'll dread having to rehearse it with the band. But as soon as I begin to practice it I fall in love and can't get enough.


Is that what it's like to truly be in love with God? All I have to do is practice setting aside time throughout my day to immerse myself in His word and then I fall in love all over again and I can never get enough of Him. I want more of Him. I want more than my fifteen minutes of faith. I want to know Him more.

With Faith Like A Child

Dear God,

Surround me as I speak,

The bridges that I walk across are

weak

Frustrations fill the void that I can't solely bare

Dear God,

Don't let me fall apart

You've held me close to you

I have turned away and searched for answers I can't understand

They say that I can move the mountains

And send them falling to the sea

They say that I can walk on water

If I would follow and believe

With Faith Like a Child

Sometimes,

When I feel miles away

And my eyes can't see your face

I wonder if I've grown to lose

The recklessness I walked in light of you

They say that I can move the mountains

And send them crashing to the sea

They say that I can walk on water

If I would follow and believe

With Faith Like a Child

They say that love can heal the broken

They say that hope can make you see
They say that faith can find a Savior

If you would follow and believe

With Faith Like a Child

Like A Child - Jars Of Clay

February Song

That's Nadia on the left. Nadia Churyuk. Last Thursday she passed away when her car slammed into a tree. She was only eighteen. And I had only known her for a month. But her life and now her death have affected my life and I hope many others in ways that I don't even understand yet.

Just in the short time of our friendship I realized that Nadia was not only gorgeous on the outside, but she had an inner beauty that far out shown her outward appearance. People say that I smile a lot, but Nadia really did smile all the time. Truly she was one of the sweetest most gracious friends I've ever had. I'll never forget that. There is not a doubt in my mind that Nadia was a believer in Jesus Christ and that she is in heaven with Him right now.

It's been hard for me to realize that Nadia really is gone. Mattie told me on Sunday that her boyfriend had gone to the funeral of a friend from school. When she said that the girl's name was Nadia I couldn't believe that it was the same Nadia. It just couldn't be. But later when we were at Panera they found her picture in the obituaries and it confirmed it for me, although it didn't really sink in until Monday and then again today. I used to see her every day that I was on campus. And during my economics class I would see her walk be in the hallway. But this past Monday when I didn't see her go by and I started thinking about her I really thought I might lose it right there in the midst of a lecture on elasticity.

Today was another rough day (for more reasons than just the obvious one). Singles Awareness Day. Need I say more? It's S.A.D. isn't it. That pun was totally intended. I'm really not one of those people that pay attention to Valentine's day and get depressed because they don't have a significant other to spend it with, but today it was pretty much the straw that broke the camels back. First going to philosophy class to get my test grade back fully expecting a C only to face the reality of a very big red D was enough to make any day hellish. Then finding out that our professor would be picking out our group members for the term project. And then narrowly evading my group getting stuck with gay marriage, sexual morality (or is it immorality?), and porn. In the end we were finally able to agree to do abortion. Still not my cup of tea but it's three against one in favour of Pro-Life so that gives me hope. I'm faced with a group of four other females. One ditzy liberal. One ditz liberal conformist. And one in-your-face I have no idea. Then there's me. It's a very odd combination.

So back to my crappy day...

One nice thing that happened was that my psychology test went better than I thought it would. 82 thank you very much. I thought I had done terrible on it. And during that class period Krissy asked me for my address so that she could send me an invitation to her wedding. I like Krissy, but I don't really like Alex (the guy she's engaged to). So needless to say I don't really want to go to the wedding in about three weeks. It's the week of spring break so hopefully I'll be out in the wilderness somewhere backpacking. Okay okay. Then there was a test in economics. It didn't seem too hard, but I had a lot of trouble with the last two questions. They were short answers. Not good.

And then I was looking around for Mattie's car so that I could leave her Valentine's day card that I made on her windshield and I couldn't find it anywhere, but I did see Grant's truck. So I ended up stopping and writing him a quick note on an extra Valentine I had floating around my books and left it on his windshield. I haven't seen him since last semester and actually I assumed he was at UT, but he sent me an email this afternoon thanking me for the Valentine and informing me that he would see me up at Ober when we go on the ski trip. So that was kinda cool even though I didn't get to give Mattie her card.

So anyway. Maybe that day wasn't as bad as I made it out to be, but everything got better when my mom gave me a hug this afternoon and I just got to cry while she held me.

My life in a nutshell

Sometimes I believe all the lies
So I can do the things I should despise
And everyday I am swayed
By whatever is on my mind

I hear it all depends on my faith
So I'm feeling precarious
The only problem I have with these mysteries
Is they're so mysterious

And like a consumer I've been thinking
If I could just get a bit more
More than my fifteen minutes of faith
Then I'd be secure

My faith is like shifting sand
Changed by every wave
My faith is like shifting sand
So I stand on grace

I've begged you for some proof
For my Thomas eyes to see
A slithering staff, a leprous hand
And lions resting lazily

A glimpse of your back-side glory
And this soaked altar going ablaze
But you know I've seen so much
And I explained it away

Waters rose as my doubts reigned
My sand-castle faith it slipped away
Found myself standing on your grace
It'd been there all the time

Shifting Sand - Caedmon's Call

I'm back!!!

dude, it's been a long time since I've been on blogger. when did Google buy it??? crazy. I guess when it was bought they also redid everything so that it makes it easier for laymen to work it...they could still do more in my opinion.

it took me forever to work through the system to find my username and password. and really the only reason I'm back on is because I'm taking an economics class at pellisucky that offers extra credit for taking part in a discussion forum on blogger...plus it's pretty easy to log in with my gmail account so I was like what the heck.

Present time! Present time! Open the present see what's inside!!!!

Gracie turned three last Sunday, the sixteenth, and I have been swimming everyday since for four+ hours. It's killing me. My skin is starting to rebel, even though I put on sunscreen I still get burned. I guess that direction on the bottle about reapplying every ?hours is advice that should not be taken lightly. Amy informed me yesterday that I looked like an oldish lady that we once saw at David and Rebecca's pool who laid out every day. She had a most unusual leathery burnt brown look about her, accentuated by her unbecoming black swimsuit. Oh God, I never want to look like that!! I still find myself desiring more of a tan on my legs. *sigh* I hate "laying" out and despise even the word. Maybe my goal of bronze legs will be accomplished at Hilton Head next month.

Yes!! Dad's taking us back to Hilton Head for vacation!! Oh how I miss that place. I haven't been to the beach (Dominican Republic doesn't really count) since 1998 Reeve Family Reunion OBX. All of our vacations since have been out west or none because of missions trips or parents gone. 1999-I don't remember going anywhere special-wait a second! That's the year Dad took Mom to Hawaii for their 20th wedding anniversary, and DIDN'T take us. hmph. 2000-Amy and I were in the D.R. for a mission trip and then we all went to Colorado for another family reunion. Somewhere between 2001 and 2003 Dad took Mom to the Bahamas and not us, again. 2003-Amy and Daniel in Germany for music mission trip then roadtrip to Yellowstone with Hornsby relatives. Gosh that was fun. 2004-Mom and Dad in China to get Grace. 2005-I was in Spain while Daniel and Dad were in the D.R. for a mission trip. So needless to say it's about time we went on a real family vacation.

We rented a house within walking distance (or biking which is preferred in HHI)of the beach that looks out over a rather swammpy but pleasant "lagoon." Dad wanted to go back to OBX, but we convinced him that HH had better beaches for little kids. The waves are much smaller. Plus all the biking trails on HHI are really fun. So the second week of August we'll be hitting the road for the eight (or is it ten?) hour drive to HHI SC. On the way back we're going to stop in Colombia to visit the Mundy's and go to the zoo. Can't wait!

Let's see...there's not really anything else going on right now. I'm still plugging away at my Psychology class which ends next Tuesday night. YES!!! Everyone kept telling me how that class was "SO easy." Oh yeah!?!?! I'd like to see everyone of them try taking it during the summer session with videos and text as the teacher!! With tests every other week over three chapters and six videos!! See how well they do now! At least I'll be done with it soon and I know I've got a B. Even though I know a C is a passing grade and transfers to UT, to me it would feel like I had failed. So my goal is to make it out of Pellissippi with absolutely NO C's. I don't care once I get to UT because my classes there are going to be really tough. Oh Lord, I've probably cursed myself now.

Btw, I knew all along that Italy would win the World Cup!! I knew it from the start but was for Spain until they didn't make it to the next round. Then I was for Italy all the way. I just didn't want to see Brazil take another Cup title.

News Flash!!

I JUST FOUND A FLEA CRAWLING ON MY ARM!!!!!!! And I'm in one of the least likely of places to find that kind of critter-the library at Pellissippi. What's up with that? I thought I was safe from stuff like that here! Gosh, I hope Mittens and Sheeba don't have fleas and I'm just carrying them around with me wherever I go. Scary thought.

One more news flash before I tear myself away to study for the chemistry test in like an hour, yeah that'll happen, a helicopter landed in the Pellissippi parking lot this morning as I was getting out of my car!! IT WAS AWESOME!!! I asked my friends in lab if they had seen it and Justin said he was driving by when it touched down next to an unmarked black sedan (does anybody use the word sedan anymore? It sounds like something reserved for movies with CIA agents). I was too far away and some trees were blocking my view for me to see anything other than the chopper. The strange thing is that there were people way closer than me to it and they continued on their merry way like nothing out of the ordinary was happening! I was on the the across the road and one and half parking lots and I stopped in my tracks and stood like an idiot gaulking at it until it took off. I did however cause a small group of smokers outside the Alexander building to come out from their smoke infested hollow by the door to see what the heck I was staring at. It kind of made my day in an odd sort of way...you had to be there.

Chemistry and Dead Bodies. : o

So, I'm already halfway thru with my fast track chemistry course at pellissippi. The chapters, days, and labs have flown by with more speed than I was prepared for. I knew it was going to be fast, but nothing could have prepared me for the insanely fast paceness of this class!! The first week we covered two chapters starting on Tues. going thru Thurs. Our first test was the next week on Mon. Then we had two days to cover the next two chapters on Tues.&Wed. with the second test on Thurs. ACK!! I did surprisingly good on the first but my score plummeted on the second test. The third test is tomorrow and I intend to work my butt off for at least a 100. There's a chance to get twenty extra credit points on the test so hopefully that'll balance out my score.

OOH!! today in lab our instructor let us go into the lab next door to look at the dead bodies for the anthropology class. How do you spell cadaviors? cadavors? I'm probably not even close so I'll just refer to them as "dead bodies." Anyways, it was really gross but interesting. They were still having a class in there so we didn't go all the way in. So wrinkly. For some reason I wasn't expecting that. The skin was basically peeling away from the bone and made the bodies look incredibly fake. So once I got over the initial shock of seeing the dead bodies on the tables it was kind of hard to believe they were real. I'm so glad I don't have to take a human anatomy class. whesh. It sure would be interesting, but I don't think I could deal with the images replaying in my head. I love plants!!

I'm going to see Cars today with old friends from band and my long lost brother Daniel. It seems like ages since I've seen him. Only two weeks? Impossible. I can't wait to see him! He's probably going to have a much better tan than me and look taller too. I called him last night to see if he would be up for the movie when he got back and when I heard his voice I was talking in a really high, squeaky voice that frightned even me. He was like calm down idiot. And I was like I can't help it, it's been dull as tombs around here without you!!!! Okay, I think I'm going to go get lunch today because I'm freakin' starved!!

Does anyone in the US watch the World Cup? I would if I could but I'm at school during all the games. Not fair. I keep checking the results on my laptop during breaks. I can't wait till the REAL Madrid (aka Spain) plays. Is that today!?!?! holy crap I need to check that out!! later!

FYI Kingdom of Heaven is a lame movie.

scaping the land

My parents really (REALLY) want me to do some landscape work in our frontyard. So I'm exicited about getting paid to do it and also getting to go pretty much all out at the Home Depot (or maybe somewhere else....) garden center. Today I laid down my ideas for the area and they gave me the okay to do everything I visualized. I'm so excited about what it'll look like in a few years! I'm going to take before and after pictures and post them sometime in the future. Tomorrow I'll go and get some of the plants and eight or ten bags of cow poop so that I'll have some motivation to get out and start diggin'!! Not too thrilled about that. Especially since Daniel told me that he can't help me in May because "he's too busy." I really want to get this project done before I start school though. I must carry on without my trusty sidekick aka slave. Can't wait to get all the creeping rose bushes and clematis stuff and hostas and lily of the valleys-what fun!

Blast I need to drive out to Havard on the highway to get my chem and pysch book for summer classes. I hate having to drive all the way out there. Lame. I may be getting the pysch book from a friend though and saving ten bucks. I think he lives in Blount county-which is even farther away from me.

I'm officially addicted to my brand-spankin' new laptop. I can't controll my urges to turn it on in the morning and check my email and then facebook and sometimes this thing and a few other things. Anyway, it's a serious addiction that I hope will diminish once I start summer school. Actually I only see it growing because I won't have anything better to do on campus than play games or watch movies in between classes. Ack!!! So far I've spent the majority of my shortish summer break watching tons of movies, sleeping, playing gamecube, sleeping, playing with my laptop, and sleeping. Wow, I really need to go on a hike. Better yet, I need to get a group together to go backpacking. I know a ton of people who want to go with me, but they all have dumb jobs. So I can go whenever but I have to work around their schedules which is lamer than lame.

I'm going to see if this works...just a little something I found on teh intarnet (as Mark would say) when I should be doing something more productive. It's really interesting. I think I might make one tomorrow or the next day....
http://www.pekride.com/medialith/hotstuffs/

Okay, so that link didn't do what I wanted it to do...so go there yourself and watch the video.

SNAKE!!

Holy crap. I did not see that coming. Two dead and one self-inflicted injured Michael. Whoa. Whoa. I'm in shock. Did Michael turn into one of them? Or maybe Anna Lucia was one of them this whole time and Michael found out about her so that's way he took her out. Then poor Libby. Gun happy Michael had to go and kill her too. Poor Hurly. I really need to talk with Amelia and Olivia. Only fellow addicts of LOST can understand the madness. Anyways, that was one of the best episodes of the season...actually just the best cliff-hanger/twist of the season.

Today I was on the computer in the living room and I turned around in my chair to watch the news. Above the tv is a window that looks out onto the front porch. I looked up and saw a huge black thing wrapped around the porchswing chain. I think my heart skipped a beat when I realized what it was. A huge disgusting snake. That's right. It was at least four feet in length. And pretty fat. Crazy. It was upside down on the farside of the porchswing chain (btw, I'm never sitting there again). So, I knew what it was but I wasn't for sure until I walked across the room and looked closely out the window. I started yelling, I don't know why, snakes really freak me out. Bad experience in Spain. Amy came over to see what I was so hyper about and said "Holy crap." At that moment Daniel and Thomas were loading up their band equipment in the van so I banged on the window that looks out at the driveway and told them (okay, I was still shouting) to get their behinds to the front porch. I met them outside along with Gracie, mom, and Amy and we all stood in awe of the snake. The markings on the underside indicated that it was a harmless cornsnake. Thomas says they have a nasty bite though. We took a ton of pictures. I'll get them up as soon as I charge my battery. I stayed outside with it until it slithered down and went under the porch. It then traveled the length of the house and entered underneath our house through a grate. Yeah, it's under there somewhere. I am so glad I sleep up in the apartment. I keep imagining it slithering through the air conditioning vents or coming up the drain in the shower, or worse, the toilet. We did have a frog recently make his way into the toilet down there. It's like Florida here. How do people live in Florida? I forget where I was going with that, cuz I just stopped for a really long time to fill Daniel in on what happened on LOST. He's shocked too.

My last two finals were today. Music appreciations test was a joke. I got to class five minutes after we were supposed to start cuz I the fog was so dang thick today. Speaking of that, do people not realize that they need to use their headlights when driving in fog. There was one idiot driving in front of me on Oak Ridge Hwy that didn't have her headlights on so also no taillights. I was following behind within the three second rule and I was having trouble seeing her. Then all of a sudden a truck swerves into our lane and flashes his lights at her and honks at her. I was glad that there was a least one other driver concerned with visibility, but I don't think going into the other lane and almost causing a wreck is the way to get others to turn on headlights. There are better ways. Like blinding them with your brights. Actually you're not supposed to use brights in fog because the light will be reflected back into your eyes. I've tried it. Sometimes if it's thick enough it really can be detrimental. Back to the test. I get in there five minutes after everyone else has already started. Because the test was completly multiple choice and every single question was derived from the six previous tests I breezed through it easily. I was the first one out of there. It was so great. I got my A.

I need to go to bed so I can enjoy sleeping in very late tomorrow.

Halfway through!

Almost done with finals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My calc teacher already posted my grade on the web. Oh lovely B. I'm happy.

I'm getting very restless. The need to go on a backpacking trip is becoming stronger with each beautiful spring day. I must go soon or I might melt.

Not much of a summer to look forward to. I'll be taking chemistry and a psyc class for most of it. Not much time to swim. And I really need to get in shape! Blah. Man, and I was going to get a job so that I could save some money for skis and a snowboard and a ski trip to colorado and a snowboard class and tons of other things, but mostly just stuff related to skiing. I have however signed up for fall classes and made my schedule to possibly work if I decide to get a job during school. I might just be able to swing it....

Ooh! speaking of swinging things...I have a strong desire to learn to swing dance! I wonder if Daniel and anyone else will be doing that this summer? I have a fear of danceing with fat, smelly, sweaty, hairy, old men though. I need a guy....sigh.

I got an email from Emily yesterday. She's so sad for her dad right now. He's the school director at ECA in Spain. They have an extreme teacher shortage right now and he's pretty stressed out about the whole situation. So poor little Emily is also feeling the stress in her family and desperately wants to do something to remedy the situation. One of her attempts at fixing the shortage is to have me come and teach! HA! Teach what!?!?!?!? Yeah, I don't see that happening anytime soon, although it would be terribly exciting. Her second plea was that I find a friend that would be willing to come teach in the hopes that I would come with that person to visit. Uhm. Not likely. If anyone is interested in teaching missionary kids in Madrid Spain let me know. I have connections....

Crazy day...

Strang things have been happening around my house. On Sunday afternoon one of our neighbors four houses down chased Sheeba back to our property with a what we thought was a shotgun. He stood down at the bottom of our hill and yelled up to my dad, mom, amy, and poor little gracie that he didn't want our dog on his property and that Sheeba had attacked his dog. This guy owns a huge sheepdog puppy, it's twice as big as Sheeba. And Sheeba and the dog get along fine.

So anyway, yesterday my dad was talking to our nice neighbor next door, who really likes Sheeba, and our neighbor said that we should have called the police to file a report. My dad called the police last evening and they came to our house. Then after talking awhile they said they would go talk to the neighbor and tell him he shouldn't be running down the road with a gun and that he could shoot at our dog if Sheeba gets on his property, but once she's off he can't do anything else.

The next big thing that happened was that my mom was standing at the front door looking out at Sheeba (who is now on a run ::sniff::) when she saw a truck go by our house really slowly and stop at our driveway. She yelled for my dad to come, but the truck kept going. A few seconds later it came back really slowly and stopped on the road at the bottom of our property. So, stupid me, I ran outside and was standing at the top of the hill trying to look tough when the guy gets out of his truck and starts talking to me. I was like whoa. He started yelling up that (with a really heavy southern accent) "it wasn't a shotgun, it was a bee-bee gun!" By this time Amy has made her way outside and I'm starting to get nervous so I head back inside and try to get Amy to come too. As I get inside my dad is finally on his way out to talk with the guy. My dad actually went down the hill and stood face to face with the idiot and had a decent conversation with him. The guy told my dad how he was so embarresed to have two police cars pull up in his driveway. I was like I don't freakin' care!!!!! You shot at our dog!!!!! He admitted to shooting Sheeba when supposedly Sheeba had his dog by the neck. Yeah, right. Whatever. You should see the size of his dog. Gigantic beast of a dog. Before my dad and mom decided to call the police, Daniel, Amy, and I were working out a plan to fork his yard. We figured we better wait few weeks or even a month or two so that he wouldn't know it was us. In the end haveing the police take care of him is much sweeter than forking his yard, although that would have been sweet revenge as well. Especially since he has a perfect well manicured front lawn.

One more week of school!

Wow, lots of stuff has happened since my last post. Amazingly enough I think all of it is good news too!

I've been on pins and needles for about three weeks worrying about a butt-load of papers, exams, and quizzes. Starting with Music I got another A on the fifth exam and completed my third and final concert report. So now I am guarrented an A in Music. I guess the only way I could possibly screw my grade up is if I don't show up for the last week and a half of classes.

I already know that I have an A from my skiing class too. So that makes two A's.

I turned in my second essay in Eng 2 about a week ago and got it back yesterday. Oh, beautiful 100/100! I was in shock all day, and still am today! So that is sure to bring my grade in that class up to possibly a B+ or maybe even an A, depending on how good I do on this friday's in-class essay, exam, and then final.

Botany is going good and I'm not worried about it at all. Perhapes I should be. I just turned in my ten-page plant families essay on Tuesday. He always takes forever to grade papers so I don't expect my grade until sometime at the end of next week. I should have an A in this class no problem. One more lab report due Monday and a Plant ID the same day. I am kind of anxious about the ID test. We have to be able to identify mounted plants by their common and scientific name and then classify them by families. Intense stuff. We have about sixty+ that we are studying and then he's going to pick about twenty of those for us to identify. The indentification and common name is easy but being able to remember the latin names and spelling them will be challenging. Oh boy, I better study my handy-dandy flashcards.

Calc is going good. I made a perfect 10/10 on the last quiz and we had another quiz today that I think I might have made a 9-10/10 as well! I'll be happy if I don't have to take Calc again, but it would be awfully nice to get out of there with at least a B.

This weekend I'm going to be doing some volunteer work in Maryville at Kristin's aunt's house. Something involving painting...not quite sure of all the details. Should be fun.

Mr. Moe contacted me about a possible backpacking trip next weekend. I really hope I can go this time. I called Sarah, but Gibbs prom is that weekend. Blast. Then I called Amelia, but she always has to study for something. Usually chemistry. I swear, she and Olivia really need to lighten up about studying. Well, at least she hasn't said no...yet. She's going to see if she can somehow swing it.

Ten minutes till LOST!!!!!!!!!!

I had a quiz today in calc over antiderivatives. Not quite as much fun as finding derivatives but fairly simple concept. I think I did good. Find out Monday.

When I got to botany I started feeling really sick to my stomach. Why does this always happen? Talked with Grant and Alex and then felt extremely sick so I decided to skip. I don't feel too bad about skipping because I was able to go to the library to get sources for my upcoming lab reports and family papers. And then I got a lot done on my paper due tomorrow. Still have to write a topical analysis of my fairy tale, but no biggy. Skipping band tonight. Mr. Greenwood will just have to get over it...long story.

I got an email today announcing a concert at PSTCC with John (Josh?) Corbet. I probably got his name wrong. Anyway, he's an actor turned musician. He was in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Tickets are ten bucks. I'm thinking about going just to see if he can actually sing. Really, why would he be coming to Pellissippi unless he can't sing. Should be interesting.

Oh yeah, on Wednesday I stayed on campus after my last class to hear an author talk about his book. I can't remember his name, but he wrote Carved In Bone. I really want to read it. He was going to talk about his forensic studies on the body farm at UT. I waited thirty minutes for him to show up. The staff kept saying that they had no idea where he was or why he was late. They couldn't even say for sure that he was on his way. So instead of wasting precious time listening to stupid college students tell stupid jokes, I left. I still don't know if he showed up....