another day another dollar

three hours at the buck studying...check
another couple in the living room...check
three full attempts at passing quiz online...check
squeeze in an hour for anatomy...check check
get all dolled up to go out on the town...ha, you betcha;) So, I put in my time, I fought through the pages and pages of notes, organized, outlined, read, highlighted, compare/contrast...all that good stuff. I practiced my skill of juggling, which will be performed tomorrow for a grade, yes I actually had to learn to juggle for class. I prayed that God would help me pass the quiz on-line after the second trial was another failure. I passed, thanked God for real, and took a time-out to chat with...none other than Zion, you know who you are.
So, yes, I along with two other classmates went out for a night on the town, now, you might think...twenty somethings, extremely intelligent young women would go to a nice restaurant, which we did. Then they might walk around the mall, yeah, we did that. Maybe get a drink somewhere and engage in stimulating conversation, oh sure we did. And a nice way to round out the evening would be stroll along and admire the many monuments and fountains adorning the downtown area, uh huh we were there.
Now, what you might not guess, but what makes us...well us, is the most exciting events of the evening. Dinner was normal sporty restaurant for sporty gals, talking of randomness like dress up days for school, boring you think, but it picked up. Now any good mall has to have a Brookstone or the like and ya know this girl loves massages so you know we were all over that like slobber on a St. Bernard's face. Then drinks of course, focused around chocolate and ice-cream for me, obviously, as we sat on the steps and guessed ages and grades of the multiple groups of what we decided were sophomores in H.S. and freshmen in college to name a couple. And walk we did, but after all that eating, sitting, eating, ya gotta get cha cardio going and yes I started it, but we all ran up the huge building's stairs and sang the rocky theme song at the top and proceeded to make puppet shadows in the spot lights on the sides of the building...still not sure what building it was or why or who. Oh, did I mention the spitting contest off the side, I learned that by default (thanks Grandma, I owe ya one)
There you have it, one nice relaxing, explorative, and creatively fun evening. And I came to the conclusion I could be a city girl after all...it's not half bad, esp. when there are so many chances to reenact Rocky and be a champion, even if it's in my own pretend world:)
And there it was...today was the day, now where's that dollar?

feelin the love

who knew when my roommate so graciously created a facebook account for myself that she was doing me a favor. Yes, I resisted at first, then occasionally used it to send messages or receive them...then it happened...the way I swore it never would. I became a full-out facebook user. Hey, they say admitting it is the first step, well I'm way past that as I fully appreciate all it has to offer. Granted I have not, nor will I delve into the ten thousand new avenues of facebook such as the movie reviews, top ten friends, and all that jazz, why, who has time for that nonsense? Not me, not with gross breathing down my neck (by the way test Monday) and gesr right behind that (by the way test on wednesday) and did I mention a class where we learn all the theories of...who knows what...movement I spose, the way the world revolves, how to apply that to our lives (confused, me too, but by the way test on that next Monday). Point proven...time? No.
Anywho, where was I...oh yes...facebook, I really like and almost wouldn't know how to handle myself if the sharing pictures was not an option. Let's confess, shall we that the past two years I, myself have not used a camera; yet, I am able to gather copious amounts of photographs captured by friends around the world...oh yes, world and then compile them into one of my favorite forms called a scrapbook. So thank you to all you who do own a digital camera and so willingly post picts on facebook or use another fascinating facet called email to share with those who are as I would classify myself-a picture smooch (and yes I just had spell-check tell me the correct way to spell smooch...who knew!)
So, I'm definitely feelin the facebook love and it helps all the more with us date challenged people who don't remember birthdays for the life of us. I mean, what could be more awesome?!? It tells you whose b-day is coming up so you can in turn let them feel the facebook love and send a little wall post (which for those of you not facebook savy, is a message one and all can read if they look at your profile). I mean, sure I recognize the fact that hardly anyone remembers my b-day, but once facebook tells them it's my b-day and they post on my wall...who cares if you never talk to them anymore, or the only time you see them is through a pic online...it makes you feel special...b/c they took the ten seconds to give a shout out to me...on my birthday...and that's special. Not as special as feeding the starving kids in Asia...but special:)
And I preface that with how much more I do feel the love from the personal phone calls and truly time committed friends who put in the effort and have a sustained friendship with yours truly(...but I'm enjoying the satire on facebook at the moment, so consider it as such.)

In related news...or more to come later maybe...Dori will go on and on about the tragedy of having such a truly remarkably conditioned body that once it's in a rhythm, possibly circadian rhythm, it wakes up so early on Sunday mornings that by this time she has had God time, finished the movie she fell asleep to last night, cleaned up the place a bit, and gotten ready for church...tragedy, true tragedy. Whatever happened to sleeping in...oh that's right now sleeping in is 7 or 7:30...so sad

a hurting world

i came to the realization today walking out of wal-mart that we do indeed live in a hurting world...not that it's just full of sin and brokenness, but hurting...sadness...tears, harsh words. What you ask made me realize this after a what seems routine trip to pick up the necessities such as tp, black beans, frozen vegetables...etc...I will tell you
after witnessing a tense interaction btwn cashier and customer, which started over a simple ?, harsh answer, attitude to the max for the next what seemed like an hour, but in reality was 2 minutes(did I mention the part of me that hates confrontation)...and ended with obviously stressed out working mom almost in tears for who knows why and a disgruntled employee with a ultra fake chipper greeting and "have a nice day"...truly I believe it was not the wal-mart or the cashier or the late elementary kid accompanying mom...no, it was the hurt of the world. She was hurting, she took it out on the cashier, now she's hurting more, now my heart is hurting for the realization that it all hurts.
On a lighter note...the black beans were a great addition to my almost, not quite chipotle style burrito and it is always good to have a stock of tp at any time.

You know you're in a stressful environment when...

After spending a day working an open house, I truly was overjoyed, excited about the place I am currently spending 88.593% of my time. It was thought provoking to recall why I chose this path I'm on, how I got here, and what it is truly like now that I'm in the thick of things. In light of all this thought there comes a critical ironical part of how truly hard it is as I tried to explain some things to others on the outside and they just can't understand...neither can you until you would be in it yourself. So, I might just give you a little taste of how I get through a week...retaining partial sanity. (and yes, it is only the third week, going on four...not that we're keeping track or anything)
You know you're in between a rock and a hard place when...
...you pick an activity or social event for the next weekend so you can look forward to it all week long.
You know you're in for the long hull when...
...others refer to how this will all make sense in a year or two.
You know you're brain is taxed to the limit when...
...very advanced persons (intellectually and physically) take any chance they get to spend the 10 minute break playing nine square, an innovative spin off of 4 square.
...at the end of the day you don't even want to make a decision about if orange juice, blueberries, and strawberry yogurt go together in a smoothie, so you put it all in. (It's not half bad by the way...and yes, I'm the smoothie/shake master.)
You know you are desensitized to it all already when...
...you're studying in Starbucks and you realize (after an hour or so) that the graphics/illustrations on the pages sprawled all over the table in front of you might be a little awkward for others passing by.
That's just a tidbit of things that make it worth it, or get me through the day. By the way, I did win a round of 9square once...just throwing that out there.

City Life

Soo...this little country 4-wheel drivin', camo wearin', country music fan is enjoying the adjustments to city life...there are a few specific things that just make me smile on a daily basis. The first being speed limit, irrelevant really. Nowhere else have I been, and I've seen my share of road in my day, where if you are not going 15 over the speed limit the traffic is flying by. Needless to say, every morning the traffic report has one or two accidents to inform us of the slowed flow around the loop, but that's not bad odds when you look at the shear numbers that traverse the black top/cement that we call a highway.
Second, stores are everywhere...now, this is nothing like Bloomington, IL which has the most restaurants per capita in the United States (fact) but it is definitely an improvement from the gas station subway/pizza and Dollar General store that brought great buzz to area when they set up shop back home. Need groceries...go get em...computer stuff, right down the street...ice-cream and a movie..totally possible without going more than 2miles! Oh yes, this could be dangerous for this roommate duo who find every feeling, emotion, day to be an occasion for a summertime treat that you can eat year round.
What else do I enjoy...get ready, this is big...cross-training...take this week for example in one week I participated in 5 completely different activities that promote health and wellness. The list is extensive and noteworthy for sure, feel free to be amazed as well
day 1-mountain biking
day2-lifting
day3-basketball
day4-swimming
day5-running
and to make it complete in a few momentos the best roommate ever and I will be run/riding...how does that work you ask, easy...she runs I ride a bike:) hahaha...oh how the tables have turned!
So, yeah, time to go...Lime Slurry is waiting!

I'm a blogger?

So, here goes, after much deliberation and thinking on the subject...I decided hey, why not, I need to be able to comment on other's blogs, so I might as well start one of my own. This shall be my way to put it in writing all the things I want to say or just babble about when all my brain power for studying has diminished for the day, or week, or month...really whenever I feel like it.