okay so break

well its been fun, not very productive but overall a relaxing time. And isn't that the point. Although I have become rather addicted to Sims 2. My brothers and I started a game with all three of us represented. No other game would included a kilt wearing alien who copied his step uncle Jonathan or a pirate costume wearing top executive who fell in love with the maid or my own character who determinedly wooed and married an elderly alien with two children. I have also been trying to get packed for Indy and am I am looking forward to lots of cooking opportunities I will have there, especially now that I got a rice cooker/vege steamer for Christmas. But tomorrow I head into PA with the family for a cousin's wedding and overall one of our quickest trips 2 days of driving for less than 48 hours of "there" time. Oh well.

leave a comment if you like sundays :)

Well it has been a really lovely last few days. Tim has been home and I have been spending some good time with my family. We really are a bunch of dorks. Today around the dinner table Jonathan decided to use Tim's digital camera to take a really long and rambling video clip which included up close and personal footage of each family member's mouth. Other highlights of the week include spending yesterday with Katrina and Becca for most of it. We went up to South Bend and did shopping both for ourselves and for Christmas presents. Since I have both Mom's and Charletta's presents figured out, I have to work on the males in the family. So I got some of those figured out. Then the three of us went to see The Incredibles in the theaters. Highly hilarious, one of those very creative Pixar movies that kids love but most of the jokes are aimed at adults. Oh and I got to chat with Sarah for a while last night, which was nice. Overall I haven't had a really eventful Christmas break so far, which suits me just fine!

cold house

Well I am done working for the week! Yah! which means that I slept in to almost 11 this morning. That felt so good, except for the fact that I seem to be coming down with a cold or something because my nose was stuffed up. Therefore I spent most of the night breathing through my mouth, which results in the aweful dry morning mouth syndrome. Anyways last night I watched more of the special features from Return of the King with Tara and Zeb. It was good stuff, although I missed portions of it because I went over to visit Dan. Which turned out to be quite fun, because Kat was there and Thereasa and Jesse Shoemaker (who is lots of fun and I went to jr. high with) Anyways a all in all good day, although I still really need to get some things mailed and completed for Indy Peace House today....sigh I hate paperwork! But the big news folks is that tonight we are going to go pick up Tim (my brother who has been in London for the past year) from the airport in Chicago. And Charletta (his girlfriend of several years) is coming home on the same flight and her family is coming from Iowa to pick her up. Then we all are gonna go out to eat together, which should be lots of fun! Well I must get ready to go.

sneezing and break

It is the second official day of break. I returned with Becca and Steph from Chicago on Sunday night and was warmly welcomed by Jonathan and Dad. I think Jonathan had missed me because he kept punching me (don't worry its our strange way of saying we love each other). Then both Monday and today I have been working for Nancy from 9-1. Not really fun working over break, but I need the money and I figured I would do it just for the first 3 days before Tim arrives home. My room is a chaotic death pit right now, consisting mainly of boxes packed up from my dorm room and dumped in a mad rush before our departure for Chicago. It is hard to unpack though, because I don't really have anything to unpack into and a lot of it will just be coming with me to Indianapolis in January. The big event of break so far has been my first and probably only attempt at leg waxing. Both Steph and I had been feeling the urge to remove our winter coat of leg hair and were interested in trying a homemade recipe for wax. It was pretty simple, cut up some old T-shirts into long thin strips and then heat together 2 cups of sugar, 1/4 cup water, and a 1/4 cup lemon juice. This creates a sugary syrup that is very sticky. Then you spread the syrup on your legs and lay the cotton strip on top. After allowing the mixture to harden your then count to 3, bite your lip and yank from the bottom up. Wowsas it was really painful, and it wasn't even that successful. Neither Steph or I managed to get all the hair off on any of the strips we placed on. Basically after we gave up, my leg looked like it had balding patches, not smooth and hairless. So then I decided to just shave anyways, which I also discovered is not really a good idea to do in a bath, cause then all the little hairs stick to the bottom of the tub and look really gross. But the other really big news is that tonight I am going to watch the extended version of Return of the King!!!! So freaking excited, the House of Healing, the Mouth of Sauron, the confrontation between Gandalf and the Witch King, the knighting of Merry, all of these amazing scenes I will get to see!!!!

vintage shopping and clothing in general: a small rant

Today started off quite well, I woke up late which is always a good thing, then after saying a sad farewell to Meryl and Thushan I headed out with Jess, Becca and Steph to see the sequel Bridget Jones. It was a fun romp of a movie, not particularly good or well made, but funny and endearing. Although I would agree with critics who stated that Bridget's character seemed to become even more ridiculous in this movie. Then we shopped for a little bit at Borders and grabbed some ice cream at Marble Stone Creamery (pretty darn good). Then we went to the vintage store. Now this is where the rant begins. Which I should note is also connected to the week I spent in Athens, Georgia last spring break during which we went vintage shopping multiple times. Essentially this is the problem: the vast majority of clothes in a vintage store will not fit me. As a 14/16/18 size woman, finding a piece of vintage clothing that fits would most likely mean stumbling across a muu-muu that someone forgot to burn as they were vacating the 60's. I have yet to find a vintage store that offers any kind of wide selection beyond the 12/14 size range. For all you women out there who have trouble finding clothing to fit your waist or you butt, or some other part of your body that you think is just "huge" imagine knowing that most any store you walk into won't have any clothing that would fit you period. Yet maybe I go to far, you say, there are after all plus-size clothing stores that cater to larger women. Yes there are, however with a few exceptions (i.e. Lane Bryant) most of that clothing is aimed at middle aged women who are in a very different fashion stage. Also as I have recently discovered I am now to small for most Lane Bryant tops and only fit in their bottoms, caught in this too small for plus-size and too large for regular is not a fun situation. I guess this is also exacerbated when everywhere I look smaller is constantly praised over larger. Would you ever hear someone say, "wow you are perfectly large enough for that dress?", but to hear "wow you are perfectly tiny for that dress is considered a huge compliment". Okay well this rant doesn't really have a point, other than to say I am just so darn tired of women taking for granted the ability to always find their size. Instead of searching a rack for the largest sizes and then trying to find something that isn't completely hideous, so many of you have acres of options that you can try on at any time. So from me and the rest of women too big for vintage or too curvy for the regular sizes, just try and be grateful for the options you have.

a warm cat

I am sitting here in an amazing condo in (almost) Chicago, commonly referred to as Jess's house. Marni, their lovable cat is keeping me company. I can here the giggles from the girls down the hall and the rhythmic thump of the washing machine spin cycle from the room next door. Today was a really good day, I felt frisky and fun for pretty much all of it and had a wonderful time with the girls. I guess these are the type of corny memories I will tell about all the fun I had in college. Only in college can you get away with singing all the Christmas carols you know as you walk along Lake Michigan trying to remember 3rd and 4th verses as the wind whips you and the rain blows. Only in college can you splurge on a Thai food meal and then spend half an hour carefully dividing up the bill and fishing up the last quarters out of your purse to pay for it. Only in college can you sleep into noon and still feel like you didn't miss anything. Ah moments of contentment are very hard to beat!

Chicago, Chicago its a wonderful town

Well, that's all folks, me and Goshen College are done for a good 4 months. After wasting away most of my hours last evening with fun times, hanging out and talking, I finally had to pull it all together this morning. In a crazy round of switching cars and loading and unloading I finally managed to get my room emptied out and back home (although about 30-40% ended up gathering around the bottom of the stairs and never making it up into my room, sorry mom and dad!) But finally around an hour and half later than our original departure plan and after a quick reversal to retrieve my purse, we were off to Chicago. I rode in Steph's car and managed to sleep most of the way. Then we were greeted by Jess's family and fed a lovely meal of pasta and salad. Now our goals are relaxation, laziness and back to back Bourne movies (yay for Matt Damon!). Break is just looking better and better. It is amazing how the end of semester can just make everything seem so much more wonderful!

no more finals

Well in celebration of my lack of school work on the to-do list I watched Love Actually this evening with Lucas and Miriam. Good movie overall, I had seen it before, but it had been a while. Plus it was neat to recognize scenes and landmarks from London. Anyways movies like that always put me in a mushy mood. Earlier this evening I was watching Amazing Race and there was an older couple competing on it and they were really amazing and so obviously in love. I guess that's what I want, not just someone, but a special person. When it comes down to it, I really don't like the idea of living life single and really want to find someone to share my life with. Yet people always say that you only find love when you aren't looking for it, or when you are fully content with where you are. So how do I do that? Do I deny that I want a relationship? or do I continue to want something I don't have and may never have? Thus is the current frustration of my life, plus this whole area is then tied into my self-esteem and body insecurity issues. Sigh, sometimes I wish........... Okay enough of all that. My Christmas break is shaping up to be a lot of fun. I am gonna go to Chicago on Thursday with a bunch of friends and we are gonna stay there until Sunday afternoon. Gonna see some sites, do some relaxing, all around have a good time. After that I am gonna work for three days for Nancy, watch the extended version of Return of the King, then go to Chicago to pick up Tim and Charletta. Then the rest of break will be spent sleeping, spending time with family, and enjoying christmas. (in a house with no kitchen!)

Jewelry: a love story of a girl and some metal

Today I got up at 7:30, took my 8am Ethics and Morality exam, felt pretty good about it, considering I needed to get a C or higher on it to get an A in the class. Then I finished up my portfolio and turned that in and then went to work for Nancy with Meryl. After we finished around noon, we ate in the rot and then I went to the jewelry lab. Worked on finishing up projects and my pendant, then I went to a chamber choir supper at Deb's house. We had stone soup and amazing cheesy bread, I hung out with Miriam and Will, lots of fun. Then I returned to jewelry worked until my 10pm house meeting. That was a good time, Meryl, Mel, Char, Leah R, Lena S, Alex Roth, and Erin B are trying to get Aurora next year. Then I went back to jewelry, cause this was the last night we could use the equipment, so I finished up my pendant and did some buffing that I had neglected to do earlier. Then I came back here and decided to post. Goodnight!

My artistic shot of the week, inspired by a molding orange. Does this remind anyone else of a flag? 

I am gonna call this one "bright eye". I know it is cliche, but messing with pictures is fun :) 

Today: a brief summary*

*to be followed by a reception in the Gallery with light refreshments and punch served Well today started by my early rise at 9am, followed by 2 and half hours of choir rehearsal. It was much more enjoyable than I had anticipated it to be considered its lots of standing, waiting, with some singing thrown in. Then I went to lunch at the rot and had my usual egg mcmuffin, yummy as always. Then I went over to Assembly to help hang a window as a part of the advent visual aid, it has been really fun being involved in this and getting to feel like my creative and artistic tendencies are being used within a community. Then I went goodwilling with Becca and Steph, it was 50% off day, so it was rather picked over. But I managed to find some good deals, including a beautiful sarong for 50 cents! It was mistakenly in the fabric section. Then I came back and went to the brew with Hannah for a few hours and just read my book. Reading for fun twice in a month, pretty incredible! The book however is okay, but not incredibly fascinating so far, but it may improve as I get more into it. Then I returned to my room, showered and Becca blew dried my hair all nice and curled in. Then I went to the choir concert. It was a really amazing concert, despite how badly chamber choir did on our opening hymn, it went really well overall. I am rea lizing that I really enjoy performing, getting the input of the audience and having someone to sing to, is really enjoyable. It will be even nicer tomorrow when I have specific people (ie my parents) in the audience. Also I just loved how the hall was decorated, garlands, candles and lots of twinkle lights, all very tasteful and simply done. The finale of the concert is all the choirs, shout for joy, the audience and the orchestra all playing/singing O Come All Ye Faithful. The last voice, Jim Heiks (the choir director), just is so ethusiastic and we just sing our hearts out. It is just amazing to have so many people filling that hall and just producing such amazing sounds. So if you are in Goshen tomorrow, you should definitely come here the last concert tomorrow afternoon at 4pm. After the concert, Tara, Libby and Rachel S came over and then our room just started filling up with people. Originally I wasn't really in a crowded room mood, but it ended up being fun. Mainly I just cuddled with Tara and hung out in the sofa listening and chatting. So that brings us to my eminent departure for bed. Goodnight.

so.....about that posting thing

I think my week off in PA and the previous week of busyness has gotten me out of sync with posting. So any who here is a list of random points from the week! -finished with classes! very good thing, although as most people around me have been saying, this semester has gone by oh so quickly. -finished up my pendant for jewelry, it turned out quite nicely, I'll try to post a picture of it sometime soon. -multitudes of ups and downs as usual -rehearsals for the big choir shindig this weekend, I think it is going to be a really good concert Okay this post is really not interesting, but it is late, and I don't care any more :) goodnight

The Mary Kay Party was a blast, not really cause of the make-up but because my floor rocks!