One-and-a-Half Weeks Remain

Just one-and-a-half weeks until I'm done with school for the quarter!!!! w00t! It's going to be hard to concentrate for the next little bit here since it feels like I should already be home for Christmas. Laura put some Christmas decorations up in our room and they look pretty good. :) My last final is on Thursday, December 8th, and it's over at 12:30, so I'll most likely be coming home when my parents are at work. ;) I'm going to send out an e-mail to all the underclassmen I know to see if they want a ride to Yakima. I think most of them have cars though . . . By the way, mom, please, please, PLEASE e-mail me to the point of spamming me to remind me to bring my bridesmaid dress home. I suppose it's not the end of the world if I don't since I have to come back up here for the bachelorette party anyway, and I've written myself a note, but still, reminders would be good.

In other news, Dr. Nelson asked me today if I'd like to continue taking care of the greenhouse next quarter. Heck yes I would! XD He figures that he already has me trained and I've been doing a good job, so why switch to someone else? I'll probably be taking care of it for the whole year, and maybe even my whole career here at SPU. I can choose whether I want to do it for credit or money next quarter, and I'm not certain yet which I'll pick. Sooo . . . that is one thing I am very excited about.

I'm worried about my organic chemistry final, but that's not surprising. It's my Thursday final. I have my theatre experience final on Wednesday, and that's going to be the presentation of our scene which is going pretty well. We're going to try to practice tomorrow night and I think almost everyone has their lines memorized. Almost . . . one girl didn't make it to class today so we don't know how she's doing on her lines. I don't have finals in my other two classes because one is the greenhouse and the other is a writing class.

Okay! I'm off to do some work!

The Distracted Deviant

A group photo of Moyer Hall Retreat minus some of the guys who left before picture-taking. 

Carpet ball. Every time we go up to retreat, people are obsessed with this game . . . There's a lane lined with carpet and a ditch at each end. The object of the game is to knock your opponent's balls into their ditch before they do the same to you. 

The girls of first Moyer who went on retreat. 

That's Susan, myself, and Adam out canoeing. Steph took this awesome picture of us. 

Some of the guys posing on the gargantuan tire swings. This thing's a monster. 

My friend Christine and I doing our "Yes!" move that we coined while playing air hockey. Mine kinda looks more like a karate kick with that camo I'm wearing . . . yes, I brought the camo. 

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, the above statement about covers everything that's going on my life at the moment. Lots of homework, a bit of stress, and many things to get done. After I write this, I'm going to the library to isolate myself for a homework session so I can have everything done before Thanksgiving break. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody, and to the game night on Friday. :D We can have it at my house if need be, I'm sure.

Retreat went well, it was lots of fun. :) I'll post some pictures.

Last week in the library, a student from Korea or Japan who is here in the US trying to learn English came up to the front desk while I was working and asked, in very broken English, if she could ask us a few questions. We said sure she could, so she started in with a very intelligible "Whaboutinvilenz?" She repeated the question a couple times, before I was able to craftily sneak a look at the notebook on which she had the question written. Following is a transcript as close as I can get it from memory:

Girl: "Wha bou tin vilenz?"
Me and Kelsey (girl I work with): What?
Girl: "Whad boot tin billens?"
Me: Uh . . . (sneaks look at binder) Oh! What about teen violence?
Girl: (nods and smiles)
Kelsey: . . . it's bad.
Me: Well, I'd say that a lot of teen violence gets started because of gangs and gangs get started because kids are growing up without a father, or with a mother who has to work all the time to support a family. So these young kids join gangs looking for a family. (girl writes down about four or five words)
Girl: "Wha hiz ee sos?"
Me: The source? Well, I guess we kinda already talked about that with the broken families and all. Kids join gangs looking for a family.
Girl: "Famiwies?"
Kelsey: Yeah.
Girl: "Wa diz da . . . solooshun?"
Kelsey: (answers immediately, like two-year-old) Jesus.
Me: Heh. Yeah, that.
Kelsey: And community programs.
Me. Good one. (smiles)
Girl: "I sorry, I don no, wha is diz Jesus?"
Kelsey and Me: (Stare blankly) . . .
Me: (slightly unbelievingly) What is Jesus?
Girl: (nods)
Me: Well . . .
Kelsey: (poking a little fun) Do it Bonnie! Share your faith right now!
Me: Heh. You know the Christian book, the Bible?
Girl: "Bybuwl."
Me: Yeah. Well, in the Bible Jesus is believed to be the Son of God sent to die on the cross to save mankind from their sins.
Girl: "Oh owkaey. Could I have yous signachous? Hav prouf uv ansoor?"
Me: Oh sure, yeah.

And that was the end of that. I guess I was a little shocked to have someone coming to SPU who didn't know who Jesus is . . . but she may have meant that she didn't recognize the name. I'm assuming that Jesus is called different things in different languages. You never know though. All different kinds of people come to SPU.

I went to see a play Saturday night for my theatre class based on the novel Purgatory by Dante. Well, very loosely based. It was okay, but the actress overacted just a little. And having a runny nose was a little distracting too, although I do think I'm getting better from whatever I caught at retreat.

Well that's all for now, kids. I have one-and-a-half weeks of school left, then finals, then Christmas break starting the ninth! XD

The Dazed Denizen

Good Things and Bad Things

There are good things and bad things in my life right now. Shall we go with the bad things first just to get them out of the way?

I'm not doing as well in chemistry as I want to. I had another midterm today in O-Chem and I'm fairly certain I flunked it. :( I'll be filling in those people who need the details (my parents), but the rest of you can pretty much just know that I'm bummed about that. :\ Fortunately, Professor Mouser does drop the lowest midterm score for each person, and I'm hoping that this will be it. If I do any worse on another midterm, I'm in serious trouble.

That's pretty much the only bad thing right now, it's just a really big bad thing that involves lots of small little bad things. My other classes are going fine. Well, I didn't do quite so well on a midterm in Theatre Experience as I had expected to, but the rest of the class is going fine, so it's okay, I think. Guess the whole situation is kind of agrravated by some outside circumstances like Andy being stressed and me being determined to get good grades this year and foiling my own attempts . . . but enough of that. The good things.

My bridesmaid dress and ballot arrived at my house and Janelle who was visiting home for the weekend was nice enough to bring them up to SPU for me the day after she arrived back in Seattle. I barely voted in time with a last-minute call to my mom for voting directions, but I did vote and left only one spot blank. :) My bridesmaid's dress is ADORABLE and fits very well :) (Good choice Bethany). There was cat hair on it when I opened the box, so either my family took a peek at it before sending it on or the J. Crew factory has a cat infestation. ;) The only downside of the bridesmaid thing is that I am now receiving very annoying J. Crew spam that I haven't really endeavored to get rid of yet. Ooh! I also have a package from my parents at the mailing center. Who knows what it contains?

The other good thing right now is the Moyer Hall retreat this weekend. It's sad to give up an opportunity to go home for a three-day weekend, but I suppose this is as good a time as any for retreat. Retreat was a great time last year and I expect this year's to be much the same (with better food). Also, as a side note, for those of you who don't regularly read my room mate's blog, you should check out the latest posts. Laura and I had way too much fun making some posters to advertise Moyer Hall sweatshirts (I still don't own one . . . >_>), and she posted the pictures we ended up with. Mine was the idea and the photography, hers was the poses and most of the execution with me helping out a bit on cutting and pasting. Anyway, follow the link on the right! -> You know you want to . . .

The Divided Disposition Dame

Reverse Trick-or-Treat! (kcirt-ro-taert!)

I have discovered yet another thing to dislike about wet climates. (Like I needed another one.) Pumpkins don't last like they do in drier climates. Pumpkins literally melt within a matter of days. My Homestar jack-o-lantern is officially toast. I took it to the trash two days ago and found that it was squishy to the touch and had left a lovely bunch of frothy white mold on the carpet beneath it. Luckily it wiped up and there isn't a stain, but still . . . jack-o-lanterns shouldn't be health hazards like that.

The CD wall continues to grow . . . the mail-in label for my battery charger still hasn't arrived . . . the greenhouse is going well but an orchid called pamphelodium is rather doomed. Sadness . . . but, in other news, I went reverse trick-or-treating around my dorm! It was lots of fun! I got a little sick from eating too much candy, but it was still a great experience. People were very surprised when we knocked on their doors and informed them that we were the ones giving out candy. ;) Pictures following . . . (and now each in their own posts since blogger is stupid)

Well that's all for now, folks. I've got a lot of homework to do. I had a test today in theatre experience where the prof gave away a remarkable number of answers. He's a little eccentric, which is only fitting for teaching theatre . . . (and he insists it be spelled that way too) Pictures of my finished bathroom stall should be up in a few weeks if everything moves along at a proper pace. That doesn't seem very likely at the moment, but if it does, you'll know. ;) Signing out,

-The Candy Chomper

Room Mate Costumes

Laura and me in our costumes. I'm an ice princess of some sort (wearing Emily's curtain decorations) and she's a dalmation. 

Group Photo

A group photo with funny faces each appropriate to our costumes. Starting on the left in the front row . . . there's Jordan as Super Loser, Christine and Susan (room mates) as hippies, and then the standing row from left to right is Emily as a school teacher me as an ice princess (or Queen Frostine from CandyLand or the evil Snow Queen from Chronicles of Narnia [I'm holding my polar bear!]), Laura as a dalmation, Amber as a magician, and Stephanie as a fancy elf-type lady to whom all these pictures are due. :D 

Tinkerbell

Our PA Amy in her tinkerbell costume. She's so cute! 

Yay! Candy!

Yay! Candy! This would be the reason I was sick that night and a little the next day. I had at least eight pieces of candy . . . Also, I was asked if I wanted to compete in Gwinn's costume contest, but I wimped out. Everybody else was ready to go anyway.

Randomness

A random guy from second named Dan in his Scottish costume. He is Scottish, and he can pull of the accent . . . but this guy's just crazy. That's acrylic paint he has on his face, a major mohawk, and his shirt says, "If is not Scottish, is crap." 

Hangin' in the Lounge

Hangin' out with the girls after trick-or-treating ourselves out.