I'm swamped! So, while everyone else is writing these inspiring depth of life blogs, I am going to continue with the short-and-pathetic.
--I have a test on Saturday in my "Grammar and Composition" class. I don't really know how to study punctuation, but I do have many many essays that I'm supposed to have read. I was reading one last night, all about whether hunting is ethical (riveting, I can assure you,) and found one little phrase that, if taken completely out of context, I like (an oasis if you will). "...to win the wrong war is no victory at all." hmmm.
--My brother is coming home this weekend!!!!! YEA! He's huge!
--Remember that, "there's more to life than just being really, really, really, ridiculously good-looking." Thanks you Zoolander for that life lesson.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K...

Just went to coffee with my dear friend Rebekah. We sat outside with blankets and discussed the world's problems. Nothing got solved, but we both came to the conclusion that we're tired of the "unabridged" version of life. We kind of want to live the "abridged" version so we can figure out what happens.

I was sitting here thinking, well...I was thinking until I zoned out and started reading the signs on my walls. For those of you who don't know, the walls of my room (and part of my ceiling) are covered (completely!) in colorfully decorated signs made by friends, posters, ticket stubs, pictures, etc. There's everything from a huge hippo staring down on me, to marker-written Chesterton and Tozer quotes, to a magazine advert that shows two people running off into the horizon wearing nothing but shoes and it says, "Enjoy your shoes." thank you. I will. There's a picture of the man I will one day marry (???), a korean Funyuns' bag, the front page of a Ripley, Mississippi news paper, a bag of very old cotton candy, a sign with Ps. 22:6, a Peanuts cartoon, an In-N-Out Burger hat, and a sign that says "Don't Die, Kat!" that was given to me just before I got my wisdom teeth out. gee thanks. One sign in particular makes me laugh everytime I read it. "Always remember that someone, somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him, he will win." -Ed Macauley Thanks Ed for that important reminder. Now I have to get back to thinking...

I've been in a weird mood the past few days. pensive. but not the good kind. the kind that makes me want to write in sentences of bad structure and wrong capitalization, just to rebel. although I don't know exactly what I'm rebelling against. I guess it's the man. (see "School of Rock") rebelling against the man, at least thus far in my experience, includes loud music. tonight I drove with the windows down, the heater blowing on my bare feet, and loud music. side-note: I haven't wrecked a car, gotten pulled over, or been harrassed by a cop in over a week! side note over. Words of wisdom (though it's my wisdom so it may just be ramblings and not actually "wise." at all): If a sentence starts with "I know, but..." you probably shouldn't finish it. 2. never fill in the blanks of a sentence that says "if I...then..." ok. goodnight.

"However hidden and undramatic your witness may be, I pray that you will be daring enough to be different, humble enough to make mistakes, courageous enough to get burnt in the Fire, and real enough to help others see that prose is not poetry, speech is not song, and tangibles, visibles, and perishables are not adequate ultimates for beings signed with the blood of the Lamb." -Manning

there are a lot of times when:
...I want to be like everyone else. I don't want to be intimidating (and I don't understand why, apparently, I am.)
...I avoid my mistakes like the plague and try to be perfect because, somewhere along the line, I became convinced that's what I'm supposed to be, that's what we're all supposed to be.
...I'm not courageous enough to get burnt in the Fire; the Fire doesn't sound safe or comfortable.

this is my attempt to be real. Prose isn't poetry! speech isn't song! and even though I'm craving the "tangibles, visibles, and perishables," I am signed with the blood of the Lamb, so thank God I will never be satisfied. (at least not until He is tangible and visible and our joy is imperishable)

WOULD YOU RATHER...
eat a shot glass full of live wasps OR eat a shot glass?
shave your mom's bikini line OR your dad's butt?
be ruled exculsively by your heart OR exclusively by your mind?
only be able to tell lies OR have to scream out every true thought that crosses your mind?
take back one thing you said or did OR say one thing you never said or did?
have a small butt on your forehead OR two little feet dangling beneath your chin?
walk around all day with a dead mouse in your butt OR a dead frog in your mouth?
Goodnight. Sleep tight. (How would one go about sleeping "tight?" And wouldn't it be "tightly?")

The idea to put an entire song's lyrics on a blog is inspired by Nathan:

"On Fire" Switchfoot (of course)

They tell you where you need to go
They tell you when you need to leave.
The tell you what you need to know
They tell you who you need to be.

But everything inside you
Knows there's more than what you've heard
There's so much more than empty conversations
filled with empty words

And you're on fire
when he's near you
You're on fire when he speaks
You're on fire burning at these mysteries.

Give me one more time around
give me one more chance to see,
Give me everything you are
Give me one more chance to be near you.

When everything inside me
Looks like everything I hate
You are the hope I have for change
You are the only chance I'll take

And I'm on fire when you're near me
I'm on fire when you speak
I'm on fire burning at these mysteries.

I'm standing on the edge of me,
I'm standing on the edge everything I've never been before
And I've been standing at the edge of me, standing at the edge.

Interesting smell #37: sweet plastic of My Little Ponies (this trip down memory lane was brought to me by Vh1's "I Love the 80's")

Funny thing happened to me last night. I got the hiccups. So I did what any irrational, sleep-deprived human would do. I laid there staring at the ceiling and thinking, "STOP IT! I have to get up in four hours and 12 minutes!" Finally I succumbed, got up, and drank water from the opposite side of the glass--which is the only working solution for hiccups as far as I know. Does anyone else a) count the time until they have to get up, and b) sit in bed thinking things like, "If I would get out of bed and get another blanket I would be asleep in no time." But even though you know that to be true, you still lay in bed and try to command sleep?

My dear friend Julianne--whom I affectionately call Julianna--is coming to see me! She has booked a flight all the way from Canada to Texas and I'll get to see her in a mere 75 days! Bangarang.

Last week I had a project to do for Spanish. Naturally, I did most of it at about 1am the morning of the due date, and the rest at 7ish right before I left. My mom happened to be up that day and was laughing at my half-hearted (no. not even half) attempt. I didn't have any poster board, and didn't plan on getting for a project that's a waste of my time. I went out to the garage, found a box, cut one side off, and wah lah! poster board. As I was walking out the door my mom said, "If you get an A on that, I'm going to seriously question the level of education you're receiving." I got an A.

Since I know so many people are still up, glued to their computer screens, desperately awaiting my World Cup final review, I decided to blog even though, really, I should be sleeping. Yesterday, Canada vs. USA battled for third. Obviously the US won (3 to 1) but shouts out to Canada for going from 12th ranked to 4th in one tournament. Then, today, again I skipped church, and the ever-so-important lunch outing afterwards, in order to watch the final between Sweden and Germany. Germany was the favorite, so I was rooting for Sweden. I won't go into all the graphic details of the exact minutes in which the goals were scored this time, but it did go to Golden-Goal overtime, in which Germany won. Congrats to Svensson and the rest of the Swedes though; they got further than anyone ever expected. muy bueno.
On an equally, if not more exciting note, I don't have to see children tomorrow. Schools are out which means no after-school care. Beauty. I think I'll write a... I don't know, but I'm gonna write something in my free time.

Today, while passing through the commons area at school, I saw guy eating homemade pb&j sandwich. Salutes to him for not claiming to be a "starving college student," and then spending $20 a week on vending machine Big Grabs.
Song line: "I bought a ticket to the end of the rainbow, watched the stars crash in the sea..." How much does a ticket like that go for these days?
Great Quote by Thomas Aquinas: "The splendor of a soul in grace is so seductive that it surpasses the beauty of all created things."

“If Jesus appeared at your dining room table tonight with knowledge of everything you are and are not, total comprehension of your life story and every skeleton hidden in your closet; if He laid out the real state of your present discipleship with the hidden agenda, the mixed motives, and the dark desires buried in your psyche, you would feel His acceptance and forgiveness.” ---Brennan Manning

wow. Jesus, you're welcome at my dining room table any time.

So here I am, up entirely too late...again...and treating myself to a bowl of ice cream. Unfortunatley, the ice cream is a "quick fix" of sorts, to properly reign in the onset of depression due to the USA's crushing defeat tonight. Canada also lost, (but we all knew that was going to happen.) And now, I vow to stop blogging about soccer (with the exception of the end result next week). The motive behind it all though, is this: No one here cares, so I figured I'd just throw it out there into the realm-o-blog and let more people not care.
Here's something we should care about though:
"No one who is whole is self-sufficient. The whole life, the complete life, cannot be lived with haughty independence. Our goal cannot be to not need anyone... It is easier to extend friendship to others than to receive it ourselves. In giving friendship we share strength, but in receiving it we show weakness. But well-developed persons are never garrisoned behind dogmas or projects, but rather they are alive to a wide spectrum of relationships." --Eugene Peterson
Thank you friends. Even though I don't like to admit it, and I try to talk myself out of it, and I forget it sometimes, I NEED you.

Women's World Cup 2003. I'm loving every minute of it, though, when it's all said and done, I may have a ulcer. Tonight Germany played Russia and had an impressive 7 goals to their 1. Six of those were in the second half, and three of those six were within five minutes (57th, 60th, and 62nd minutes). Then, Fourth-ranked China went head to head with twelth-ranked Canada. Up until this year Canada had played in three World Cup tournaments and never won a game. Tonight they came out and scored in the seventh minute and then maintained their 1-0 lead for 83 more minutes. HUGE upset. Special shouts out to our neighbors to the north (you know. The true north strong and free). Semi-finals on Sunday: USA vs. Germany and Canada vs. Sweden. I, for one, think that a Canada vs. USA match for the whole sha-bang would be fantastic.

"How I Like My Cereal" by Katherine Riskey
In a word, 'damp'. "Damp" implies:
-The milk will not raise the cereal at all.
-I will not taste the milk.
-There will only be enough milk to make the cereal stick together. This means that there will be no milk left over when the cereal is gone. (This works best with Rice Krispies.)
The End.
If you didn't want to know the above information, you should not have continued reading after the title. Work on your time-management skills.

Sitting in the computer lab at school meant to be at www.studyspanish.com. No thanks. I'd rather be blogging. That would make for a fantastic license plate frame. More later...