Proposterous

Of course...it would start on the day I fly out. Read the tragedy.

A Beginner

These are a couple of the pictures I got before my camera died. They are all from Monday...

Robotic Days

This morning, my stuffed nose and I woke up and wanted to be back asleep. I got ready, made it to the car, and wondered to myself, "am I alive?" This morning was one of those mornings where you wonder if you're actually living your life or if you're just super thankful you jumped in the car before it started driving off to where you're supposed to go next.

All day, everyone at school (which wasn't very many of us) wanted to just give up and take an easy day coupon. We had come back from the trip week and wanted some time to continue the phwam-i-ness of the recovery. A couple of us are sick. In retrospect, our van was more like a germ breeder on wheels than a transporter of children to and from a nice trip.

Anyways...stuffy nose and I have something to tell you.

I got a phone! My own bonified, able to send and receive calls, complete with keypad to get my fingers busy texting cell phone! I've experienced the weird non-recognition of my new ringtone. What about the jump in my heart when I get the little beep that I received a text? Ah...the joys of robotic life.

But this cell phone. I don't know what to think about this, but it's one of those things that makes me feel like a qualified human being. I may have said this in the not-so-distant past, but things like running, cleaning the kitchen, playing piano, and holding babies make me feel competent.

Alright

There are a lot of things I'd like to change. Like, I wish I didn't need contacts. And the death of my retainers would be nice. I wish I could play a few more crazy pieces on the piano and remember them all forever. Perfect eyebrows would be nice. Why does a Starbucks cost $4?

But when it really comes down to it, things are great the way they are. We can be content exactly where God has us. And logically, it really doesn't make any difference whether or not I have to spend a couple extra minutes cleaning my contacts. We are really alright.

I'm back from Minneapolis! It was quite the time. From getting lost on the way there to the amazing YWAM base in the boonies surrounding Minneapolis to the box-throwing physical labor to getting picked up and thrown in a pool to playing with the little babies at the Marie Sandvik Center to shopping the largest mall in the country (and getting some pretty cute stuff)...it was a jolly-great time.

I don't have pictures to show you at the moment, because my camera ran out of batteries and instead of using my spending money on batteries, I used someone else's camera and will get the pictures on Monday. Wow. I sound really cheap.

We did a whole bunch of stuff on the trip. We helped out doing cleaning and box moving at a couple places, and we packaged food for starving children around the world (we packaged enough food in our 2 hours there to feed a few kids for a whole year). We played with little kids and talked with elderly people, and we fed and prayed for the homeless.

So, the missions trip is over. Three weeks more of school. The formal is next Friday...then I have a performance at Merit on the 29th...graduation and the SAT on the 7th...some days of horseback-riding, Lord-willing, at Frans...then the ACT on the 14th...then off to Kansas City!! I very much hope to keep this blog updated through it all, but if I don't, I hope you understand that instead of writing a blog I am probably practicing piano or sleeping or drinking orange juice...something else to keep myself sane. No, really, I like having a super full schedule with lots to do...makes me feel fulfilled and makes me crave chocolate chip cookies all at the same time.

Woes of Endothermic Reactions...or was it Exothermic?

today was a pretty good day until Chemistry class. It was good after Chemistry class, come to think of it. In fact, it was good for most of Chemistry class too. Most meaning all of the class except those thirty seconds where I cried out of frustration.

Exothermic and endothermic reactions. It's so hard to understand what specifically the computer is asking about or what answer it is asking for. After trying to wrap my brain around the concept and trying some more, feeling every second like I was in danger of getting a migraine just from thinking too hard, I finally gave up, moaned "Mr. Pan!" (in memory of my former science teacher), and buried my eyes in my elbow lain plaintifully on the desk. I tried to cry to relieve all the stress of the work my brain had just been pushing and pushing at, without much success...but the crying didn't work very well anyways.

Chemistry class: I enter the purple gateway, sit in solace at my computer, and blast Tim Reimherr, Misty Edwards, or some sort of fancy classical music that makes all my friends want to run out of the room the moment they come in.

Chemistry class on the computer. Priceless.