4 days.

It always seems to be a while in between my updates. Today is Monday November 5, 2007. This year is almost over. In two months and three days I will be 20. I don't know how to handle that. I will no longer be a teenager. I still feel like one. Age is definitely a mental state more than a number I believe.

Today I don't have class, like always, and I'm waiting to go buy a bike with Tyler. It should be fun, then I can ride to class and not walk. Haha I'm so lazy. Oh well. I also have a follow up appointment for my ruptured ear drum. Then I have my interview at Aero at 4. I hope I get that job! It would be great! They turned the water off today for about 2 hours. I really would like to take a shower but I can't. I guess I'll have to wait til later.

I have to read a Spanish chapter before Wednesday, and write my research paper before next Wednesday. Not excited. I found out though that the actual paper part is 12.50 percent of my grade! It makes me feel a little bit better about it if it's not that great.

On Friday I'm going to Florida to visit my friend Stacy! I am really excited to get out of Norfolk for a few days. This semester has been filled with quite a bit of travelling. Leadership retreat, sandbridge trip, Rudolph, CCM retreat, Fall Break to NY, now Florida. I'm happy. Next semester for Spring Break I'm going to go to California to visit Jason and Ashley! I cannot wait. I don't want them to move, but at least I can go visit them!

Yesterday I gave the last part of my STIM application to the priest at church! Now I just have to wait for them to send it in and then for the STIM people to give me an answer! I wonder where I'll go if I get accepted. I hope it's Bolivia. But I wouldn't mind Peru either. Kenya would be cool, too. Anywhere would be awesome. I just want to speak Spanish.

HEROES is on tonight. I was reading today that the writers are going on stike and the season might end sooner than they wanted. They better work it out because there are going to be A LOT of fans that will be pissed if they have to end this season earlier than they should.

Well I'm not getting a bike today. I guess it's going to be Thursday. Oh well.

I guess I should start my Spanish paper. But I would really like a shower first. I have to wait about another hour before I can take my shower.

Well I'm off to do something. Maybe I'll clean my room. Isn't The Price is Right on soon?

PEACE

Where to begin!

So much has gone on since I last updated. Fall break is over. It was okay, there have been better. I have officially moved on from trying to regain a friendship that died a long time ago. It sucks, but you learn. I've been working at my new job for almost a month. Pretty crazy when I think about it. It's good money though. I've already made a third of what I made at Cold Stone for 7 months. Pretty ridiculous. Classes are slowly going along.

Math: still easy, sometimes a little challenging as I forget stuff that I haven't used since 8th grade. Oh well. I had an A and now I'm a few points from an A, but there's still half the semester just about to raise it.

Spanish: This class is challenging! I have two big papers due in the next three weeks and I should probably start now so that way I'm not cramming late into the night to finish and research them. It's a really fun class though, I have an A for now...I wouldn't be too upset if I got a B+ in the class. I'd like an A, but ya know.

Geography: This class has surprisingly been more difficult than I thought it was going to be. I have an even 80 right now. But there's still plenty of things to raise my grade to an A.

Politics: This class is just horribly boring. I take notes to stay awake. The teacher is nice and knows his stuff he just structures his class kind of boringly. I don't think that's a word, but you know what I mean. I got a paper back today and I'm really proud of it. I got an A and he said "Andrew, this is a great paper. You went above and beyond. Keep up the good work!" It made me feel good about the 5.25 pages I wrote. Thanks go out to Doug for editing it for me.

Next semester has been planned out and then I went to talk to my advisor and he knew absolutely NOTHING about what I need to take and the questions I had. I'm now in search of answers from people who aren't my advisors. Oh well. It'll all turn out well.

I have an interview at Aero on Monday for seasonal work. I hope I get the job so I can make some extra money for the holidays. Maybe they'll pay me roughly the same amount as the coffee shop. Then I'll be rolling in the big bucks! Ha. It's a good thing to wish for.

Today at work I started this book called The Convict Christ: What the Gospel Says about Criminal Justice. It's extremely interesting and I encourage anyone who is interested in the death penalty and criminals and what God and Jesus feel toward them to read this. It's really good, written by a man in jail for life. Very moving.

I can't believe that next week is November already. This semester is flying by. I'm kind of excited because I want to take some other classes. I'm bored with these. But if I ever have to take another geogrpahy class it will definietly be with Mr. Kidd. He's absolutely hilarious.

I'm listening to the new Juanes cd. Juanes, for those of you who don't know, is a cantautor which means he writes his own songs and they're kind of political. But in this one song, there's a guy singing in German. Kind of weird.

This weekend is the IV Halloween Party. I'm going as Dwight from The Office. Tomorrow I'm hanging out with Tyler and I think he and I are going to go thrift store shopping so I can get some good Dwight garb.

Well I want to read sme more before bed, so this is where I leave you.

PEACE

Blogger sucks

So I tried redoing my fun pictures and friends thing and blogger is being gay and not letting me. wtf. i guess i'll have to do it later. maybe when i get back to school. i have new pictures that need putting up.

long drive tomorrow. Not looking forward to it.

BYE

I'm cold.

So I'm sitting here in my "room" watching the first season of The Office and it's hilarious. I really enjoy this show. I think I'm going to start watching it.

Fall Break has begun, it's actually almost over. Friday morning I left Norfolk around 7:35, 35 minutes later than I wanted to, but I was making great time all the way through PA until I got stuck in traffic for a total of 3 hours. I made it to Binghamton around 5ish. I got lost in Bing for a little while and that was annoying. Needless to say I finally made it and it was a lot of fun. Kelly took me to eat dinner at her nasty dining hall and it was fun. That night we went downtown, which is ridiculously small. We went to a club and I got in using someone else's fake i.d. That was fun. Lots of funny pictures were taken. Got in really late that night and had a great sleep.

Saturday was a lot of fun too. We went to Tully's for lunch and had HUGE burgers. Then we stopped by Cold Stone and went to a pet store for quite a while. We saw two dead beta fish and moved them to the back. We also saw a dead turtle. That wasn't cool.

Today I woke up early and headed up to Rochester. It took me 2.5 hours roughly and it was an okay drive. I'm not looking forward to going back to VA because the drive sucks big hairy balls. I refuse to drive home again. I'll fly or take a train. After Christmas of course where I go home with Katie. Today I got to see Katelyn and that made my day. She came over for dinner and we laughed for a good while and then she left for work. Afterwards I went to Meg's, picked her up and we went to Cold Stone and rented a movie. We rented Breach but didn't finish watching it becuase we were tired and it took too long to get into. Then we talked for a bit and I headed home.

Tomorrow I plan on getting my hair cut and then hanging out and I don't really know. Maybe getting dinner with some fun people. Tuesday I plan on going to Odyssey so I can see Eva. That's my old high school Spanish teacher. She's my favorite. I think I'll talk to her about when I get my free trip to Spain.

Well that's all I've got for now. I'm tired.

PEACE

Fall Break anyone?

As I sit here ready to get into bed I can't help but think about the great weekend coming up! It's Fall Break and I am heading home. First I'm making a pitstop in Binghamton, NY to visit my friend Kelly at school. She goes to SUNY Binghmaton (SUNY = State University of New York by the way). It's going to be a fun few days! On Sunday I'm going to drive 3 hours North and go back home to the ROC. I get to visit my cousin at school and see her new place, see my mom and brother, see some friends. Hopefully go to lunch with Eva (my highschool Spanish teacher) and just relax for .3 seconds. Then Tuesday monring/afternoon I'll begin the treck back down here. It's horribly boring to go by yourself. If I weren't going to the Bing I might have invited someone to come with me, but I am so it would be weird for them to come.

Also really soon (in about a month) I'm going to Tallahassee to visit Stacy at FSU! I'm really excited about that. It's always fun when I get to see her and it'll be even greater going to her school and seeing it and meeting her friends. Hopefully it'll be warmer there, too.

I'm in search of a bike. I'm going to go to thrift stores and look for a good one. Hopefully it'll be nice and cheap, but still a reliable bike.

Well that's all I've got.

PEACE

¿Como te llamas?...Estoy roto.

Wow. Like Andrew's post it has been a really long time since I've updated. Part of it was due to lack of internet and the other part is just lazyness. So I guess it's time to be unlazy. Right now I am laying in bed and just turned on The Chronicles of Narnia to watch. I'm really excited, I've been thinking about this movie lately.

Where to start, the last thing you knew was that there was a dance party to go to. I went. It was a lot of fun and I took a lot of pictures (you can find them on Facebook). After that classes continued on and then I worked at lame-ass Cold Stone. The following weekend was the InterVarsity Chapter Retreat! I love retreats. They get you started on your Jesus high that lets you go from there. The trip up there was great. I had a car of 4 girls. So naturally, it was hectic. We got lost (following Doug and Justin though!) and then finally made it there. One word to describe this retreat: revealing.

I use the word revealing because there were a lot of things revealed to me. One. God speaks to me through Spanish. I used my Spanish Bible a lot while I was there and it just started clicking. Two. I don't know my name. If you were there you'll understand that. Three. I am broken. I am trying to find my way and understand what that means. I know that I am in need of God and Jesus so much that it hurts. My life is anything but perfect, and I need to learn that in order to help with that, Jesus needs to be the center of that help. Four. I am a judge. I am constantly judging people. But luckily, God is constantly slapping me in the face and telling me I'm wrong. I would say that this weekend I made some good friends, with the new people and with people I've known since last year.

It was extremely weird walking back into that place. I have grown so much since last year, and shrunk a little, too. Being a small group leader was really weird because I now know what it feels like to be on both sides. I really enjoyed my small group. Ashley was my co-leader and I feel so much more connected to her (you'll find out why in a little bit). That's actually what my picture is; my small group. Just kidding. It won't load.

Saturday night we had a time for extended worship and a time to pray and think. There were a few people in the back: Shane, Dawn, Jeremy, Ashley, Jessica, Doug, and Dani. I first went back and talked with Ashley. I talked about what was going on with me and then she prayed for me. I can't tell you how great it is to have someone pray for you. To hear them ask God to help you. Its truly amazing. After that I chair hopped on over to Jessica. We talked and then she too prayed for me. Again an amazing feeling. After I was finished with her, I went to Dani's chair. I was actually quite nervous about that because Dani and I had only recently started talking. We talked about STIM next year and all the great things that are going to happen. Then she prayed for me. I think that just really showed how much I don't know about people, and how much I let judgements get in my way.

Afterwards we had the bonfire, and the best part of that was that we had a GIANT massage line. It was just amazing. I got massages from so many people and gave them too. Doug wins for guys and Nicole wins for girls. They were good. This weekend was also a great time to talk with Doug and Tyler. We had great conversations sitting in the woods and talking with them was where I could open up and talk about anything. Great friendships are forming.

Sometimes I'm a douchebag. For some reason, I decide that I'm not going to call someone to hang out until they call me first. I think God is telling me that that's pretty stupid. I have run into said person every day this week. I think it's an insult to the friendship that I have and I need to stop.

What I really liked about the retreat was when Dani gave her talk about identity, and who she is. We were all given nametags for us to think about what our names are. I still don't know, but I wrote some things down. I think it's a process to figure it out and can't be thought of on the spot.

¿A dónde voy con mi vida? = Where am I going with my life?

My plan when I'm done with school is to head overseas somewhere to teach English. Maybe in Latin America or Spain. I don't want to leave behind my friends. But I guess if they are meant to be in my life in the future, God will keep them there. It's just really nerve racking becuase I'm very selfish when it comes to that and refuse to say goodbye.

Tonight I had dinner with one of the guys from my small group. It was fun, he's cool and we share the same name and cell phone actually. I look forward to getting to know him better. Tomorrow I'm getting lunch with another one of the guys and that too should be fun.

Well I'm exhausted so it's off to bed I go.

Also. Yay for an interview at the coffee shop and hopefully telling Cold Stone to fuck off.

PEACE

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Wow. These weeks are just going by so fast! The third week of school is already over with. Pretty soon the semester will be over, I'll be finding out if I'm gong to Bolivia and Argentina and then it will be Spring semester. Wow. My goal is to not have Dr. Gordus for classes again after this semester. He's a nice guy but I don't like his teaching methods and I prefer to have natives teach me. Oh well, I'll get plenty of that when I go to Latin America (If I go haha). I have to finish filling out my Application for STIM, give the parts to some other people and then send it in.

I'm also really happy becuase I am officially a member of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church now! I got a letter yesterday saying, "Welcome!!" Now I'll get my fun little envelopes and tithe my life away :).

The picture above is one of my cousin, her boyfriend Nate, and me. It was taken on my beautiful Mac and I just love it. It makes me miss her a lot, but I know that I'll see her soon enough and we video chat quite frequently so it's fun. I don't think I'm going to see her until December actually, that makes me quite sad, but I'll live.

I have a lot of stuff to do today. I have to meet with Ryan and plan SG stuff, meet Laura for lunch, meet with my Spanish professor at 3:30, go to the bank, go to the pet/grocery store, call Verizon and yell at them, call Cox, begin working on my Spanish essay, begin my Politics essay, start my Spanish presentation, and there may be another thing or two that I have to do. But it's a good thing I don't have class on Fridays or Mondays. It's going to be my saving grace, I can tell right now.

Speaking of which, that's a funny little idiom right there. Saving grace. We have a saving grace. It was given to us by God, yet we choose to use it when talking about classes and other random earthly things. Kind of funnny. Well not funny, but interesting. I wonder if non-Christians know that they use these phrases and really understand where they come from.

I enjoy just laying in bed, typing on my computer, and waiting for my alarm to go off to tell me to get up. I still have 27 more minutes of free time :). How shall I use it? Maybe a quick nap.

The chapter retreat is coming up and I am so excited!!! It's going to be so much fun. There are TONS of new people coming and I cannot wait to talk to them and figure them out a little better. I don't really want to pay my $40 but oh well. This year I have to worry about making a connection with a freshman instead of being the freshman that tried talking to the other people. I already know them, and it'll just be a little weird changing roles. But I guess that's what our lives are all about. Changing. Nothering is ever there forever, you'll never know someone forever, so you have to learn to accept changes.

Tonight is a dance party, so excited! Tomorrow is the CCM BBQ and then Jason and Ashley's, so excited!! It'll be a good weekend I predict. Filled with fun and buttloads of homework. Oh well. That's what school's all about.

That's all I've got.

PEACE