Busyness Blurb

Alright, well, as I sit here wondering what to write about, Rebekah is comparing the two different sizes of Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip muffins that are sold on campus. Turns out, even though the smaller one is sweeter (at least I think so), they are both made from the same exact ingredients. And with that mind-blowing discovery, I sit here and finish off my bowl of black beans.

Life has been rather busy as of late. Between the two of us, we have been busy with school, exams, papers, work, projects, interviews, volunteering, and hanging out. Okay, so it's just the typical college stuff, but it gets tiring. However, I've been realizing lately how grateful I am for certain things, and this college experience is one of them. So no matter how tired I get, no matter how frustrated I get, no matter how fed up I get with everything going on, I will always remember how awesome the experience as a whole is.

Last night we watched Pocahontas, and I was reminded that I really like that movie! I also wish I could have seen America when there was nothing really but trees and empty land.

Rebekah and I both help out with the kids at our churches on Wednesday nights. She works with the 3-4 year olds at Highland and I'm with the 1st-6th graders at Beltway. It's been a lot of fun sharing stories and wondering how our own kids will turn out...

The Infamous Quote Section:

- "My bottle's like a gimp bottle, it doesn't even stand up straight." - Rebekah

- "Oh, I love fuzz." - Rebekah

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! The campus was swarming with green and today has been filled with St. Patty's Day celebrations.

JoAnna and I went over to my family's house for dinner, where my mom cooked a Irish dinner. We dined on corned beef, colcannon and soda bread. Dessert consisted of Blarney Stones. Sound delicious? It certainly was.

We came back to our room for a little while to work on homework before we rounded everyone up for a trip to Brew.net. Well we tried anyway. Chris was the only person who was free, but in the end that was just fine. The three of us had a wonderful conversation over Irish Cream lattes. Yum!

I bought a new skirt over Spring Break, which is very exciting. It was warm enough (84 degrees) to wear it today. The first day of spring is in just a couple of days, so soon the warm days won't seem so crazy.

Also during Spring Break my family went to the Dallas World Aquarium. They have this big rainforest set-up, and a few birds even fly free above visitors. I, of course, was pooped on. Only I could get pooped on indoors. So not cool.

I missed JoAnna a ton throughout Spring Break. The night I got back into the dorm, we stayed up for hours just talking. Even during that short week, I forgot how much Jo and I love to laugh.

Yesterday the Bean served some sort of Thai coconut curry. It was one of the best meals I've had in the Bean. Jo and I both thought it was fantastic.

Quotes from our favourite Kat:
"The mothers [of the ducks] will come and peck the [children's] little eyes out."
"Your feet are too big. And your other parts are too small."

And in honour of this green day, the beautiful Irish countryside.

Sleepy Spring?

Silence. Stillness. Stagnance. Sikes.

Yes, that is the motto of Sikes dorm on spring break - if you can even imagine it being more still than it normally is!

After an initial scare of essentially being trapped in the dorm - because we got no notification by email or otherwise that we needed to put our names on a special list so that our ID cards would still open the front doors (so after finding that our cards didn't work, we were let in by a nice student who happened to be staying here as well, and we just stayed inside or took turns going outside so that one could let the other in) - Katherine and I have been happy buddies this week, usually seeing each other for some amount of time every day (oh, and yes, we did get ourselves on that list - thankfully). All I can say is that I'm glad I know her! It's even great when I stink at video games and she beats me just about every time in every game we play for three hours. Thanks for being a great friend, Katherine. Love you!!

My spring break has been characterized by sleeping in, overcast skies, no Bean food (which has really been a relief, as I've grown quite tired of it), pursuit of personal reading (which has been absolutely glorious), movie- and TV-watching, and half-hearted attempts to actually get some work done (and today I've been the most productive, in that respect, out of any other day so far). It's been very relaxed, but not without a hint of loneliness. I thought it was odd that I should get lonely so quickly, since I like being alone and I will usually take any chance I can get to be in solitude. (Oh wow, I sound like an aspiring hermit.) I think, even with the difficulties of adjusting to life back at school, as compared with Oxford (yes, it's still very hard), I've reattached myself to my friends here, and I was sad to not see them everyday like I usually do. However, all in all, it's been a great retreat, and I'll see them once again in a few short days.

Last night I saw Rebekah for the first time since last Friday. 'Twas great. She, Katherine, and I watched Bend It Like Beckham, which was even better the second time around. Rebekah's been out of town with family, so I've even been without a roommate! This has given me plenty of opportunities to blast music and dance around the room wildly... as if I didn't do that when she was in the room anyway.

My mom sent me a package with a few St. Patrick's Day decorations in it. Since I can't be in Ireland next Tuesday, I figured I'd just add some green to the room with a big shamrock and little leprechaun hats and a mini leprechaun figure for good measure. He even brought some gold with him... chocolate gold...

Oh, awesome news: I got a summer internship with Dry Bones in Denver, CO! I'm extremely excited and I still can barely believe I'm going. Dry Bones is an organization based in Denver that basically builds relationships with the street kids of the downtown area, showing them Christ's love and providing services they may need. I did last year's spring break campaign with them and loved it. This summer, I will be working with a different church youth group every week and getting them connected with the kids in town. It's gonna be great.

I'm a bit behind on posts, so that means I'm behind on quotes as well. Here's a goldmine of them:

"He's being a poopyhead to me!" - Anne

"When I said perfect, I didn't mean 'Son of God' perfect." - Rebekah

"'Cause that's the first thing to do - catch the goat." - David

"'Don't look at the legs!' Look how sexy that chair leg is!" - Katherine

"Ah, my giant ribs. I've always had them." - Katherine

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Well, it's not actually pouring, but it is raining in Abilene right now. It hasn't really rained since October, so this rain is very welcome and delightful. Granted, it's not much rain, but even the slightest amount of moisture is needed.

I continue to be amazed that people actually enjoy reading this. In fact, we received our first fan mail the other day. So our thanks goes out to Spenser who sent us a note all the way from Egypt!

Our last Disney movie was The Hunchback of Notre Dame. That movie is intense, and way darker than I ever realized as a child.

I can't believe that it's been so long since I've posted. I guess I need to work on this a bit. JoAnna's been a bit better about keeping you all up to date. So, my apologies on account of that. Even now I don't really have all that much to say. I haven't seen JoAnna since Spring Break began, so there's no exciting news on that front. But stay tuned, as something fascinating is sure to happen soon.

Attention:
Please send all fan mail to our ACU boxes.
Thank you.
The Management

The Importance of Being Insignificant

Rebekah and I have recently been in awe at how many people read and enjoy this blog. We can't seem to fathom that reading it could offer any substantial amount of entertainment for anyone, but obviously we're wrong. It's interesting how the little, random, insignificant, everyday things of other people's lives can be so interesting, eh? Maybe that's why social phenomenons like Facebook status updates and Twitter feeds are so popular.

Sad day, Thursday I dropped my cell phone and it now has a huge crack in the screen. Oh well. Like I told my mom, it's ugly but it works. The sound is a little wonky, but it's alright. I'm just freaked out that it will suddenly stop working and I will be left without a phone. I guess that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but it's my main form of contact with most people I know.

Rebekah and I went to Wal-Mart yesterday. Among other things, she bought a new bottle of multivitamins (which, unfortunately, weren't the exact ones she needed to replace, but they'll do) and I bought a couple of headbands.

In other news, well... I guess it would be... uh... "olds"... anyway, something else that is still an issue is the lack of curtains over our closets. I think we have just resolved to let them stay wide open and hope that there are no dirty clothes visible when anyone comes over. This wouldn't still be such a problem if the dang curtain rods were removable...

Recently, several of us have started watching animated Disney movies together, in honor of the fact that Meghan has not seen most of them (pitiful, huh? [; we love you Meghan!!). So far we've watched The Lion King (I actually missed that one, but at least I've seen it several times before... and even eaten an ant in honor of Hakuna Matata - note: bad idea), The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin. I think the next one is Hunchback of Notre Dame. It's great reexperiencing these childhood delights, but very surprising how many mature references are slipped into the films. "Leave no shell unturned!" (Please, leave two of them unturned, for all our sakes.) "Combination hookah and coffemaker!" And Aladdin finds himself in a brothel as he's running away from the guards? Yeah.

Ahh, spring break is just around the corner; I think I can smell it, even if I'm not quite sure what it smells like... oh, yeah, that's right: freeeeedom.

Here's a poem that I recently came across that I really liked:

"Eternity" by William Blake

He who binds to himself a joy

Does the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in eternity's sun rise.

Aaaaand of course --

Quotes/Conversation Snippets to Remember:

Katherine: "I've always wanted to lie on a rock like that."

David: "Can't say I've ever had the urge."