Monday, December 19, 2005

corporate christmas partay



well i guess one of the things that makes you feel grown up is going to the office christmas party. nevermind that my office christmas partay was held across several ballrooms with thousands of people in attendance. ross brought over roses and then we drove in his camaro to work, where we caught a shuttle downtown to the convention center (this took approx. 1hr!). when we finally arrived downtown the party was in full swing, we caught part of the cirque show dealy, got our picture taken, and browsed around the international food buffets. we walked around and heard different bands in the different rooms. we met up with some friends from work and hung out with them, eating dessert and watching a simulcast of the doobie brothers from the other room. the older crowd was living it up, all they needed was some candles or something to fully enjoy their doobie experience. the doobies were looking quite old i must say. afterwards we walked around the riverwalk a bit until the park & ride bus line went down and then caught a ride back home. it was quite the partay.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

christmas times

the times of christmases past:
well the past few years as a college student i've moved back home for most of december. way back in the day i can recall going to extended family's homes for christmas, but for the past few years, we've stuck to our house, and other family has come to visit us before and after the big day. but generally in our house, a couple kids get up early and sit in their room whispering. but its been the trend it seems that my dad actually wakes US up, otherwise christmas might not start till noon or something if we had our way. at any rate once we're all up, we each take turns opening our stocking, generally youngest to oldest, except last year i think we reversed it. then we have breakfast, usually monkeybread. then we take a break for everyone to get dressed. then we all gather in the living room and one person is selected to be the santa person. for the past 5ish years this has been me, probably because my name starts with s, i'm not sure. at any rate i go to the christmas tree and find one gift per person and distribute them. then we take turns each person opening their gift. then we have a second round, etc till all the presents are gone. sometimes someone might need to open 2 if they have a lot of presents and someone might have fewer presents (but quantity does not always indicate quality!). but eventually we finish about time to eat lunch or something. a lot of times in the afternoon we will go to see a movie. and thats pretty much how we do christmas.


the times of christmases present:
this year i get about 5 days rather than 30ish days off for christmas. matt & bree will be coming in for a short while, from london, rather than up from college station. i put up my own christmas tree. saturday night ross and i are headed to our corporate christmas party downtown. we went downtown and saw the lights. i also hope to drive around to one of the nice neighborhoods and look at some more lights. its just really not that cold. i still have a lot of christmas shopping to do. we will have christmas in graham, year 2. can you say christmas bonus? whoop.

the times of christmases future:
???

my christmas tree


so here's a pic of my first christmas tree. its obviously artificial, i picked it up at target, along with a few ornaments & candy canes & lights. its very relaxing to just sit and watch the lights. ross came over and helped me put it up, on the 1st of december. we drank egg nog and i made him watch its a wonderful life, because its one of my fave movies in the whole world that i watch every year around christmas, and he'd never seen it before. so it was pretty fun, and i'm really glad i went ahead and put the thing up. now, if you come to visit me in, say, march, and its still up, please help me take it down.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

its not like you couldnt see it coming, but still

well, devoted reader, i regret to inform you that it has happened. yes, thaddeaus has attacked and murdered bling. i normally feed them when i get home from work, at 5 or 6, sometimes 7 or 8. occasionally i'll forget or something and just feed them whenever, sometime before i go to bed. well today, after church, ross and i went out shopping and such, and then we ended up going to an 8pm showing of the chronicles of narnia movie (it was ok, i think i actually like the old movies better, surprisingly enough). so, i got home rather late, to find bling attacked and dead, and thaddeaus just sitting there all alone. i wonder if he's lonely or if he now feels as if he has conquered the aquarium. perhaps now i'll get a verry large fish and see if it will eat thaddeaus. or maybe ross and i will have frog legs for dinner tomorrow nite, give him a taste of his own medicine.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

christmas time & the riverwalk

so here's a first: i was getting my haircut and the lady asks me, so do you have kids? no ma'am i most certainly do not. ok, so maybe its not the first time people have wondered that, i distinctly remember feeling rather awkward sometimes while caring for my younger siblings at the mall or such, but at any rate its the first time someone has directly asked me that. i did feel better after it became clear to me that the haircut lady had simply asked the question so as to transition into a rant about commercialized Christmas and how no one bakes or makes homemade presents anymore like they did (and no lie she actually sad this) "back in the day."

sometimes i like to torture people with thoughtful questions. one i enjoy pulling out of my arsenal is what is the best christmas gift you've ever received? but perhaps my favorite of all is what's the best christmas gift you've ever given?

i've enjoyed many wonderful christmases at our hizzouse. and despite the fact that matt and i enjoy kidding our parents about asking for basketball shoes for christmas a couple times, we got some pretty dang good presents....

there was the year matt and i both got new bikes. oh yeah. back in the days before one drives, one's bike is of upmost importance. and we got cool ones. in fact, i took mine to college with me. at any rate my dad hid them in the guest bathroom. after we'd opened up all the other presents, he somehow lured us into going in there (probably he told us we'd better clean it before guests arrived or something) and we were elated to find new bikes.

there was also the year we got a basketball goal. if my memory serves correctly my dad set it up in the shop in the backyard. thats right folks, we had an indoor basketball court...with a tin roof. i remember playing out there in the rain, it was so deafening. but, and forgive me matt for saying this, but matt and i would have big ol tournaments. i forget exactly how we played, but we'd represent certain college teams, and probably have some sort of free throw shooting contest to determine who moved on in the brackets. good times.

one year we got a pingpong table. there was much ruckus going on early in the morning as it was being assembled. my favorite part of that christmas was watching my grandmother and grandfather duel in a ping pong game. that ping pong table provided many hours of entertainment.

there was also the year i got my guitar. my brother and ER spent some time picking out just the one they knew i would love. my family hid it in the guitar case of the guitar i was borrowing at the time, back in my room. j-jo got her keyboard that year too.

that same year i believe it was, my brother bought me a ring from james avery that he knew i wanted, but had cut out of my christmas list because i really wanted the guitar. it totally surprised me and i think its been one of the best christmas gifts i've ever gotten.

tonight i participated in the commercialization of christmas. ross and i went down to the famed riverwalk, and took one of those little boat tours to check out all the christmas lights. it was pretty cool and we also had some good bbq at the county line. thats all for now, check in next time for a glimpse into christmas traditions of my past and things i'm doing this yr, my first christmas out on my own.

ross and me at the riverwalk...

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

word of the day

logorrhea: excessive talkativeness

yes, i am quite familiar with this. it is quite frustrating to me.

fish update: bling is hanging in there, under the watchful eye of thaddeaus.

work update: its alrite. put in a nice 12 hr day today, which is contributing to my lack of literary prowess at the moment.

when i get some new batteries for my camera, i will upload a picture of my most fabulous christmas tree. until then, thats all i got.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

a visit to the nurse

so growing up in midland where there are effectively no (as in zero) trees, i was convinced that i was not allergic to anything. besides peanuts. i had a rude wake up call when i moved to college station. i am having a ruder wake up call here in the s.a. metropolis. the deal here though is that claritin pretty much rules, except it didnt do anything for my eyes. my itchy red swollen eyes that i wanted to just rub and rub and then just wanted them to go away. so for 2 weeks i kept thinking, this shall pass. finally i had to cave in and go see one of the nurses at work in hopes that i could get some stronger medicine that would take care of my allergies.

sharon goes to the clinic.
sharon waits for 25 minutes.
eyes are itching and red. i think my coworkers probably believe i'm on crack.
nurse comes out and asks who was next, woman cuts in front of sharon and 3 others.
sharon waits more.
sharon finally gets to see nurse.
sharon explains itchy eyes.
nurse stares into sharon's eyes.
sharon is uncomfortable.
nurse wonders could it be pink eye.
sharon reiterates that, while possibly pink eye, most likely ALLERGIES. PLEASE GIVE MEDICATION.
nurse suggests to wash my hands often( i later read that this is one of the job functions of the nurses at work, to encourage healthy habits)
sharon stresses that she does wash hands, please give me medicine
nurse cannot prescribe medicine, please come back tomorrow and see the doctor, after all, 'if you've been putting up with this for 2weeks, 24 more hours wont hurt you'
sharon's eyes itch and remain red like someone on crack.

so i went back to the doctor today. she talked with me for about 5 minutes. was like hmm sounds like allergies. let me give you some medication. this is more like it. 15minutes later, thanks to our onsite pharmacy, i was connected with eye drops and allegra. surely the next few days should go better.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

thaddeaus and pierre

so i had bought these fish. and a frog. a cute little water frog. he is an albino clawed water frog. didn't know there were albino frogs? join the club. but he's quite cute. his name is thaddeaus. i also bought a catfish (pierre) and a bala shark (mo) and a bright orange mali (bling). i love these fish and they are quite entertaining to watch and they have a nice little home here at the apartment with me.

then it happened. i was finalizing my snack preparations to be the snackmaster of thanskgiving and about to head down to c.s. i look over, and, thaddeaus is trying to shove pierre down his throat. never mind that pierred is about 2x larger than thaddeaus and there is no way he could fit. nevertheless, thaddeaus has shoved pierre's tail in his throat and is trying to shove him further in, meanwhille pierre's whiskers are shriveling up and pierre is breathing laboriously. i banged on the glass and yelled at thaddeaus to stop. horrified, i watched as he ignored me. i continued banging on the glass and finally he spit pierre out. but it was too late. pierre lasted a few hours more but then passed on. the next day thaddeaus attacked mo, my shark. MY SHARK. now i'm just down to bling. he eats so much i think thaddeaus is scared to take him on for fear of choking. or maybe he's just fattening him up, then getting ready to move in for the kill.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

see, this stuff is real

Kiss fatal for girl, 15Sat, November 26, 2005
By CP


SAGUENAY, QUE. -- A 15-year-old girl with a peanut allergy has died after being kissed by her boyfriend, who had eaten peanut butter.
The girl died this week, a few days after being kissed.
The teenager, who lived in Saguenay, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City, received a shot of adrenalin immediately after being kissed, but did not recover.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2005/11/26/1324591-sun.html

Sunday, November 20, 2005

the verdict


well i finally picked out a new car. thanks for all your input. yesterday i bought this car, its a 2001 chevy impala with just under 12k miles. its got a nice v6, 3.8L under the hood and a great interior. i hope to see you soon so we can cruise around together.





Monday, November 14, 2005

who knew?

so tonite i made a trip to walmart to check out the boardgames. it brought back many memories from my youth. games like dont break the ice, guess who, battleship, electronic battleship, clue, monopoly, chinese checkers...they bring back fond memories. i settled on purchasing chinese checkers and scrabble for our playing pleasure.

after a close game of chinese checkers, i proceeded to play the best game of scrabble i've ever played in my life. yes, it was incredible, and i have no shame in exulting in that fact. our agreed upon dictionary was of course the ever popular....dictionary.com though i personally think merriam webster (m-w.com) is superior. at any rate, i learned a new word: en.

Printing. A space equal to half the width of an em.

And what is an em you ask?

Printing. The width of a square or nearly square piece of type, used as a unit of measure for matter set in that size of type. Such a measure for 12-point type; a pica.

so there ya have it. ya learn something new every day. that was my learning.

for a co-worker today, another lesson was learned. while in the company store burning some time during lunch hour, we were smelling a candle. a really gross smelling candle labeled Christmas cookies/ biscuits de Noel. the lesson was not that biscuits is french word for cookies, but rather that noel (fyi) is french for Christmas. who knew? sometimes you give the lesson, sometimes you receive it, but discovering new stuff is pretty much the coolest thing ever.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

pick a car any car round 2

acura rsx










honda accord

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

there's got to be a better way














i'm 'on call' this week in case any horrid disaster should befall the computer world. this adds to my array of technicalness one additional cell phone and one additional pager, leading to the ridiculousness that is the picture above. surely, there is a better way.

day light savings time. nice to get an extra hour. terrible to lose it again in the spring. is it worth the hassle? i prefer the morning darkness when i'm not awake as i'm driving to work in the first place over the sadness that comes with darkness at 6pm as i'm leaving work. is daylight savings time worth it? is arizona really got it more together than us? surely, there is a better way.

made a return as an alumni to texas a&m this past weekend. it was excellent to hang out with some family members. it was strange to sit on the alumni side. it was awkward to be informed that the seats i had purchased in the MSC were on sale because the owner was in the hospital from a heart attack he had suffered the previous evening. i thought additional alumni were going to go into a state of shock as the team was dismantled by....iowa state?!?! surely, there is a better way.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

pick a car, any car

so here's a fun little game for you. its called help thesharester pick out a new car by voting for one i'm currently considering or suggesting a different one for me to consider.

1. VW Passat








2. Honda Accord



(no pic)


3. Pontiac G6













4. VW Jetta









5. (fill in blank)

o great

so i'm trying to comment on my own blog and at first cant figure out what letters are on the stupid word verification thing, which as mentioned previously, is not really a word at all. but apparently its trying to verify that i'm a person rather than a computer. so if i cant figure it out, what does that say about me?

just another day at the office

dying to know what it is that goes on during my days at work? so am i!! this is a snall sample of what a typical day sounds like:

hey will you log on to IMS and ISPF and do the RL14392s and the CL19854. and if you dont mind taking care of the R6500 report today too.

o thats easy, we just roll up the c1492 and c3045 and c1032 components to get that.

yeah you'll have to ask the SME and then bounce it.

call up the DSA and see if you can get VPN to SCP.


its pretty ok i guess, but i wish i'd taken greek in school. cuz it sounds like they are speaking it at work.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

congratulations!

go astros.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

a post about lance

so this is kind of a random post because i've been away from my fave place of gresham for quite some time now, but i just wanted to mention what an incredible guy lance is. he is the youth minister at ggbc and he and his wife jen are some of my bff fo shizzle. they are probably the reason i ever went back to ggbc, because that first summer i went they invited me to help at the youth in the evenings, and then would also invite me out to go see movies or chill at their house. then this past summer i got to help out with the youth ministry some more, and go to centrifuge & world changers. pretty much lance is the only person that i've EVER seen eat 10 dumdums at one time. and it was pretty much hilarious. they have a difficult task at their church but they also have some of the coolest youth ever and they do a rock solid job of helping students grow in Christ and leading students to know Christ as their Savior. anyways, he & jen rock my face off. i wish that you could know them because i'm convinced they are 2 of the most coolest people in the world.

p.s. did you talk to joe today?

Friday, October 14, 2005

escalators

i'm not gonna lie. one of my favorite things about work is the abundance of escalators. there are not a whole lot of escalators in midland, zero in particular at midland park mall, so i can remember as a child particularly finding great pleasure in riding up and down an escalator. you'd think i would have grown out of this by now, but i must admit that i still enjoy it. a lot. i've never seen taller escalators than those buried deep underground in the tube in london. you quickly realize that you must stand on the right, walk on the left because some people, are in quite a hurry. sometimes you are that person. and people standing in the middle=uncool. but anyways, those things are huge!! we don't have any so huge at work, but we do have about a bazillion of them.

this morning at about 7.15am I was groggily making my way up the maze of escalators from the depths of the parking garage (which is really quite the process). I'd almost made it out when I decided to try to clip my ID onto my jeans pocket (hooray casual fridays). Normally this is not quite such an ordeal, but perhaps because it was so early in the morning or perhaps in my excitement over the escalators, i dropped my ID. I was already nearing the top and I could see the steps disappearing viciously into the floor. I think I then uttered an audible gasp. Two scenarios flashed through my head, the first that my ID card was simply sucked into the stair sucker never to be found again, costing me a small fortune and some job repercussions, not to mention some humiliation. The other scenario was the ID card catching in the stair sucker and causing the whole escalator to jam, and leaving it painfully obvious to security just who screwed it up, since my name is on the ID. Luckily, I, butterfingers, was able to snatch up the ID just before it was sucked away. And I clipped it on my jeans and went to work.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

now that's more like it

so yesterday i didnt' have to go to training class, instead i got to work alongside my mentor, learning how to prepare some reports and about systems that i will be using. he also took me around to meet some people from other teams that i will be working with. i did take a few hours of online training classes, but just doing something at least semi-productive for most of the day made time go by sooo much faster than sitting in class, and it made the day much more enjoyable. of course other factors include a sudden change in the weather from gross hot to oh my goodness chilly but INCREDIBLE and also casual dress friday. or maybe it was the frappucino i had. either way, yesterday was pretty alrite for being at work on a friday.

further excitement came from realizing that i'd had my contacts in the wrong eye for the past 3 days or so. my left eye is significantly more blind than my right eye, but somehow i'd messed up my contacts and somehow NOT FIGURED THAT OUT for 3 days of being blind. but yesterday at work i couldn't figure out why i couldnt see my mentor's computer screen even after he'd adjusted the resolution. it dawned on me as i practiced closing one eye, then the other, that i could only see blurryness out of both eyes, yet my contacts were both in. sure enough, this morning i switched them and it all became clear.

last night i went with some folks from church downtown to investigate 'first friday', a street market similar yet quite inferior to portland's saturday market. so we walked around looking at street vendors and listening to local bands. it was alrite, but portland clearly has it going on in this type of venture. today i was going to meet up with some friends to watch the red river shootout, but as i drove up the place was flooded with burnt orange vehicles and everyone walking in was plastered with tu fan gear. if it was all maroon and howdys, this site would warm my heart, but hypocritically this site makes me nauseauted and wonder what extremists/losers are inside. it was too much for me to handle. so i turned around came home...and turned the game on tv to pull against all odds for the sooners.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

quote unquote

from alias-

syd: marshall, its me
marshall: oh yeah, i know. i gave you your own ring tone. so. did you find the bomb?

syd to weiss: i will see you soon. God knows i have plenty of frequent flier miles.
weiss: i was just thinking about d.c. in the summer. i'm a sweater.

*if weiss goes too, then i officially cannot STAND alias.

from Bible study-

jeremy: sara and i, on our honeymoon, i got to hold an alligator. yeah, it was so cool. oh yeah, and we went to the holocaust museum. i'm really good at planning stuff like that obviously. thats why we dont celebrate our anniversaries, because i clearly would mess a thing like that up.

from kara's away message-
people just totally came over and caught me in my robe. i can't decide if that is sexy or loserish.


from my brain-

hip hip hooray for friiiiiday.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

i'm sorry

an online card from my mom that will make you laugh.

*i hope you already read it b/c i broke the link b/c i dont want the whole world to know my parents email address. but it was a super funny card. holler if you missed it and i'll send you the link.

Monday, October 03, 2005

go figure

so it wasn't quite the weekend i had envisioned, but i guess is should have seen it coming when vaughn was killed on thursday night. i mean, talk about a downer of a way to start things off. but lets say beforehand i felt maybe a bit like a piece of chewed up gum, and afterwards i felt like spit out gum on the bottom of someone's shoe who just happens to be climbing to the top of a mountain.

there is definitely something therapeutic about seeing friends from old school times, particularly when everyone is doing awesome in life and are succeeding at levels you had previously only dreamed about together. to see what God brings into fruition in your friends lives is pretty much awesome. also having been exclusively hanging out with people i've known for less than a month, seeing old friends was particularly pleasant.

so tonite i hit up barnes & noble for one exciting night. ok, so it was better than watching more tv, but perhaps doesn't warrant the word exciting. but one can always find interesting books there. there were two that stand out in my mind from tonight. the first alarmed me: it was entitled God's blogs, and apparently the author had made up postings for God's blog. imagine. typing God's blog for him. imagine that there's a book about God having a blog. crazy times.

the other one was a lexicon of intentionally ambiguous recommendations (LIAR) when writing refrence letters. you can be honest without being brutal, a key skill you must admit, by saying things such as the following.

I cannot recommend this person too highly.
I recommend this candidate with no qualification whatsoever.
He has made immeasurable contributions to our firm.
In all the discussions she and I have had over the years, her salary never came up.
I simply can't say enough good things about him.
I am sure that whatever task she undertakes -- no matter how small -- she will be fired with enthusiasm.
I am pleased to say that this candidate is a former colleague of mine.
She is always trying.
He is a difficult man to replace.
She is one of the most discriminating people you'll ever meet.
He will take full advantage of his staff.
She takes a lot of enjoyment out of her work.
His input was always critical.
I found myself frequently raving about her work.
I would place this student in a class by himself.
She is now ready to strike out in a career.
He is resigning a position that he has held with our firm for years. I truly wish there were more people like him.
We were teetering on the threshold of bankruptcy last year, but her efforts pulled us through.
For the services he has rendered to our firm over the years, we find ourselves deeply indebted.
She works without direction.
He works effortlessly.
To get the job done, we need ten employees like her.
Attacking a difficult challenge, she doesn't think twice.
You should seriously consider initiating an offer since she probably won't apply herself.
When he worked for us, he never did anything halfway.
We were forever asking her for new ideas.
You can't offer this man too high a salary.
How did she manage those who worked for her? Quite fairly.
There is nothing you can teach a man like this.
She was never away from the job too long.

(no, i didn't sit there and write all these down. they are from here

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

blog killer

i've been reading up on some blogging legalities, and it seems that once again in our society the misdeeds of a few have brought punishment for everyone. blogging about the workplace is generally considered taboo and is becoming increasingly illegal to mention much of what goes on behind those walls, or in my case, the compound. a pretty cool compound, but still. add to that a layer of intense information security native to my particular workplace, and the many funny comments and happenings, and also the strange little interesting things that go on are not bloggable. which really threatens to kill, or at least hamper, my quote based theme and also much of the events that would give me material to blog about. but i'm trying to get the hang of relating my life to you without being shady in the blogger world.

p.s. did i mention, as a follow up to an earlier blog, that i bought with birthday moolah from my parentsies Adobie Premiere Elements & Photoshop Elements???? heck yes i did!! much greatness. so little time to enjoy.

those words

those words
they sink in deep
deeper than my own thoughts
right into the core
of who i am and
who i want to be
and it hurts worse
than i want to admit
and i'm not sure what
to do with
those words

waiting

you didnt look comfortable as you
sat there waiting for your turn
and it seemed like the comments of those
that passed by
hurt you more than the things you'd seen
and the memories crowded around
you served more fury than satisfaction
maybe if given a chance to redo then
you would not choose the same track
but as you sat there waiting
i was watching and i was
waiting for you

if you want me to

IF YOU WANT ME TO

The pathway is broken
And The signs are unclear
And I don't know the reason why You brought me here
But just because You love me the way that You do
I'm gonna walk through the valley
If You want me to

Cause I'm not who I was
When I took my first step
And I'm clinging to the promise You're not through with me yet
so if all of these trials bring me closer to you
Then I will go through the fire
If You want me to

It may not be the way I would have chosen
When you lead me through a world that's not my home
But You never said it would be easy
You only said I'd never go alone

So When the whole world turns against me
And I'm all by myself
And I can't hear You answer my cries for help
I'll remember the suffering Your love put You through
And I will go through the valley
If You want me to

--ginny owens

Monday, September 26, 2005

musical faves

probably when i'm old (if i ever have to be old) then i will read this list and scoff at my pitiful music tastes, but simply to provide myself that pleasure, an alphabetical top ten for the month of sept 2005 here at the sharester apartment, as denoted by my itunes counter:

bless the broken road, rascal flatts
gone, tobymac
i'll fly away, alison krauss
my happy ending, avril lavigne
shoot the moon, norah jones
strong tower, kutless ****most fave****
this fragile breath, todd agnew
we fall down, kutless
who i am hates who i've been, relient k
you and me, lifehouse

would you rather

so this coming weekend i'm headed to be a d-now leader at a friend's church and he has provided us with the now infamous 'would you rather' questions, to foster discussion among the students. now, any ggbc youther would probably attest to the fact that i am far from a novice at asking such questions, particularly on long road trips as i'm driving uber cool vehicles, i.e. mini-van, but perhaps you are unfamiliar with the exercise. i thought i would discuss them with you, my bloggy friends, over the next few days to foster discussion on my blog. as in the comment section of my blog.

so. would you rather...

1. be lied to or about?

hands down one of the very most important things in the whole wide world to me is honesty. probably being lied to is the thing that makes me the most angry out of everything else. being lied about really stinks too though, but i've gotta think you've at least got your reputation to go on there so people can judge for themselves if its truth or not. lying sucketh.

2. grow hair out of your nose or out of your ear?

like this seriously makes me want to hurl. i think nose hair grosses me out the most.

3. get a job making lots of money doing something you hate or doing something you love and make close to no money?

this is kinda touchy with me right now. i have definitely put enough thought into this over the past year to last us all a really long time.

4. have the mild or hot sauce from taco bell?

when i was a kid and my mom ordered taco bell she always got us mild sauce. so for the longest time i always got mild sauce for myself. then i went through a wow-taco-bell-is-so-disgusting-i-hate-it-like-none-other phase for quite a while, then i went to the northwest where there is umm zero mexican food and so i was like taco bell isn't so bad. and so now i go there some. but one time i was like hmm i'll try hot sauce. and i like it. so, in a word, hot sauce from taco bell.

5. drink sour milk or eat baby food?

baby food. fo shizzle. i'm kinda particular about milk. first off, i dont really care for it. at all. but it is necessary for things like cereal and smoothies, etc. but if its more than like 2-3 days old i'm out. its sorta like tennis players who use a new can of balls every time they play. thats me and milk. i like to open a new one every time.

6. be punched in the stomach or be kissed by a member of the opposite sex?

is this like really a question? i guess it is if you are working with junior hi students, but seriously, no question here.

7. do 10 push-ups or 10 sit-ups

sit-ups. i've been doing a lot of sit-ups lately. i'll be like laying on the couch and realize i forgot my tea in the kitchen and i'll have to sit up and then go get it on the commercial.

8. lick feet or sniff armpit hair?

feeeet.

9. eat ketchup plain or mustard plain?

mustard. despite what j-mase says, i'm still not that into ketchup.

10. be forced to eat throw-up or lay in a pile of doggy doo

let me just say that in my question asking, THIS would never be one because i detest throw up so much that the thought of it makes me pretty nauseated.

mmm on that note, thats all for now. i had another stimulating weekend of....doing pretty much absolutely nothing. i am spending this week pulling 10hr days at work in order to have friday off so i can go up to dallas for said d-now.

special shout out to my freda & amy cuz i heart ya and i miss asking questions with you while making power bracelets.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

this IS my happy faaayce



um, don't be such a crab.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

back in the rowing seat

wednesday i finally gathered up the courage to investigate one of the workout centers at work, and also finally remembered to take my tennis shoes with me to work. they provide the rest. i glanced around the cardio room and with great delight spotted 2 rowing machines tucked away in the far corner. so yesterday and again today i rejoiced in my return to rowing which provided much pleasure last spring. so...yay.

this hurricane stuff is quite crazy, i think it must be quite the interesting year to be at aggieland, but i obviously am not there. i am safely tucked away in san antonio.

i think there is actually some validity in going to bed and getting up at a consistent time helps your body get into a nice groove. i'm slowly adjusting to a 'normal' schedule, and its getting easier and easier to get up and then to fall asleep at night. but i've got to say its kind of boring. i sort of miss the excitement of staying up randomly late and getting up really late and meeting up with friends at like 11pm to go hang out. but, last night i got my first paycheck, which helped ease the pain.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

my new couch

so here ya go, by popular demands, visualization of my new furniture in my new apartment. more pics later, but for now:

one can see my new furniture stuff




and also my nice table, courtesy of the hopkins....gracias



and my ghetto tv set up with my tiny tv that hopefully will all be replaced soon

Monday, September 19, 2005

non-competition clause

so matt and i seriously do have a non-competition clause i believe that went into effect roughly about the time we were both at a&m-ish. but i need to also post where i went camping this summer.




this is me leading worship at said campout.


when one cant think of anything to blog about, one can always post pictures. today was perhaps one of the most boring of my life. i spent many hours listening to a lecture on mainframes. i felt like a nerd. but ya know, what can ya do. so my internet and furniture came on saturday and the aggies won so overall it was quite the stellar day. i'm starting to feel like i have most of the things i need. i bought some spoons so i'm no longer eating cereal with a measuring spoon. which is nice, because measuring spoons are so deep its kinda hard to get the cereal out. but anyway, i'm like up past my stinkin bed time because i'm such an old person now. that is just great. getting up at 6am.

Saturday, September 17, 2005


and have a nice day

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

just when you thought it couldnt get any better

so today i learned something very exciting. already i had been told of the only corporate wendys, which of course comes along with a frosty machine. now, frostys are good. BUT today i learned, that at one of the cafeterias here there is a.....icee machine. yes, its true. i think i'm going to get one tomorrow. :)

i also had an early success story from today while .....playing with tinker toys. at work. getting paid. to play with tinker toys. with grown men and women. the instructions were to build the tallest, widest, longest structure possible without talking. it only takes a semi-conscious aggie to think of working together as a whole room rather than 5 different tables. today i was that aggie.

today also marked the end of general employee orientation. tomorrow i was given the morning off, and then all of friday off. i'm not sure if this is a good sign or not...perhaps its a disturbingly calm before the great storm. or just a perk of having a good manager, who knows.

Monday, September 12, 2005

first day

so today was my first day at work. granted, it was just orientation and not really work, but i'm getting paid to be there, which differentiates it from school. i now have my official ID card which comes with a zero tolerance policy of forgetfulness and a steep fee if you lose it. it comes with a fancy schmancy lanyard though with a retractable stringy device for easy swiping. one can also use the ID to purchase lunch, starbucks, and anything else you felt like buying there, which could be dangerously convenient for some. along with starbucks, cafeterias, etc, there are also plenty of subways, the ONLY corporate wendys in the world, pizza hut, chick-fil-a, and other nice places to eat. top that off with 3 gyms that have free fitness classes, weight rooms, cardio rooms including dvd/cd/mp3/cable tv on EACH cardio machine, locker rooms equipped with all toiletries, workout clothes, lockers, saunas, etc, there's even a post office...because the place is so big it has its own zip code. there are nurses clinics and testing clinics, even a pharamacy. and one begins to wonder why you even rent a separate apartment.

so the place is huge and on a large amount of land with beautiful landscaping. in fact today while i was eating lunch, we saw a deer wandering around outside, which was a nice touch. i suddenly felt very young as we went over all the available medical benefits and 401k plans, not feeling quite ready to go there just yet, but here i am. and here we go.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

starbucks in san antonio

well i've made it to san antonio. my parents hooked me up with all sorts of fun stuff before they headed back home. now i'm just all alone, unpacking and waiting for work to start next week. i have all kinds of fun stuff set to be delivered to my apartment, but not until the 17th. until then, i've been renting alias dvd's from blockbuster. right now i'm at starbucks checking up on emails and such. there's a girl to my right studying a book thats fatter than....well, its really fat. and i'm thinking wow, i'm quite glad that i am through with school. there's also some other people to my left. i feel really bad for this lady A)because she is being interviewed for a job, all the typical interview questions and B)because she is being interviewed in a rather condescending way for said job by not one, but two ladies about 10 years younger than her. how awkward. i hope she gets the job.

i made my first expedition into downtown san antonio today, to the federal building there to ask for a new social security card because mine is lost. this might have been rather simple a few weeks ago, but turned into a rather lengthy and kinda smelly process today due to a large number of evacuees from new orleans flooding the building. but i survived and made it back and its all good.

Friday, September 02, 2005

headed out

hey blog friends. just wanted to give you a shout out that in the morning i'm mooooving. my parents are coming down with me to lend a hand...and a u-haul. anyway, i won't have internet at my apartment for about 2 weeks, but no fears, i will make some updates from my laptop from like starbucks or something because i have some fun stories i want to tell you about, and i know you will anxiously be awaiting news on my new life and such. besides, i won't know anyone so i will probably need to, you know, blog a lot to fill my time. much love to oregonians who i miss like none other, say hey to joe for me. and also aggies, midlanders, and other such friends, that should all come on down for a visit asap, provided that asap does not occur all at the same time for everyone, because my apartment is only so big. o. and gig'em ags, lets btho clemson. yay for college football. :)

Thursday, September 01, 2005

comment spammers

i guess some business folk felt badly about seeing 0 comments on my blog posts. however it doesnt bother me so much that i desire to see their advertisements. thus, i have relented and turned on word verification for comments. this means that it makes it slightly more difficult for YOU to comment, which i was hoping to avoid. now after you sign in i guess one needs to type in a word to ensure that you are an actual person rather than a spammer machine thing. i deleted most of the spam from my last post, but left the fat loss comment because i thought it was funny comment and here at thesharester we are all about funny. anyway, i'm sure the comment word verification will not hinder you from commenting, in fact, it might be sort of fun for you. almost as much fun as turning on my electricity was fun for me today. but probably not nearly as much fun as trying to figure out which internet and tv package to purchase, all of which are seeming to be a lot of money. does one really need internet and tv???....why, yes, i think so.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

texas size road trip

well its hard to believe i've only been back in texas for one week, it feels like a month or so. probably because i've been driving pretty much the whole week. but its been fun. i was able to enjoy a conference with my mom and grandmother. we stayed near the reunion tower in dallas and so we went up and enjoyed smoothies and a revolving tour of dallas from the top of the reunion tower. we also ate at pappadeaux which rocks my world. i also was able to eat a #14 with chicken at rosas in ft. worth with my grandmother and do some shopping, including at the new ikea store in frisco which is somethin else. pretty crazy, but cool.

also this week i had the opportunity to catch up with a lot of college friends (shout out especially to my triple chunks!! and to melanie, lisa, will, eveyln, chara, and the J's) and some old school midland friends too which was tahiight.

anyway, now i'm just waiting and preparing for this weekend as i make the big move to the new apartment/new city/new job/newness. i shall leave you with a quote from one of my bestest pals:

"p..s i know i will see you again soon, but if something very terrible happens and we dont' see each other, meet me at the east gate. okie dokie??"

you know you've been in oregon awhile when....

you feel a twinge of guilt about THROWING AWAY your 'pop' can after looking around and not being able to find a recycling bin

you indulge in sonic every day since you've been deprived for the past 3 months

you almost feel sick because it is so stinkin hot

you assume the person's name you cant remember starts with an 'A'

every rascal flatts song reminds you of the youth at ggbc

you find yourself saying "so here's the deal"

you wonder why people say baah instead of bye at the end of their phone convos

your mind still jumps at seeing texas license plates

you keep looking in the rear view mirror thinking you will see a glimpse of the mountain

you hear the phrases "all yall" and "fixin to" and they kinda make you think twice

Thursday, August 25, 2005

saying goodbye

well the time finally came for me to leave the northwest for awhile...i flew back to texas yesterday. once home i enjoyed a double delight of rosas and then sonic with my dad. my drink of choice was cherry limeade, and yes, evans, i thought of you as i crunched that wonderful ice.

so my last nite in oregon was abbreviated as i had to leave at 4:30am to head to the airport. but it was a fun nite. hit up youth group and ate some ice cream and said goodbye to everyone. then several of them came over and we just chilled and hung out all nite until it was time for me to go, as in, we didnt sleep. there was some moments in there when we thought we wouldn't make it, but come 4:30 everyone was still awake, standing on the corner in the coldness waving good-bye. and it rocked my face off.

so basically i heart ggbc and i miss you guys a ton already, and it was no fun to leave. but i hope to see you again soon. much love.

so now the blog turns from college and the best summer ever to entering the real world. i've got a week or so of down time, then comes the big move and the new job...this could be interesting!

Saturday, August 20, 2005

video editing and railroad tracks

today i worked on making video with highlights from our world changers trip last month (the one with all the roofing). it was a lot of fun A)because i heart video editing and B)there was lots of funny footage from a really fun trip with really fun people. my favorite footage is that of youth minister lance eating 10 dum dums at the same time while singing.

anyway, i have done actually a lot of video editing this summer for various trips, events, etc. i have only been using windows movie maker, which comes free with windows xp. now, while it is just fine for elementary movie making, i made a mistake. tonite i went and helped someone out and got to play around with adobe's premiere elements. this, my friends, is like movie maker on steroids. it made me wish i'd been using it all summer instead of making rinky dink movies in movie maker. i KNEW it was nicer. i had contemplated purchasing it for myself to play with. however, now that i've touched it and seen it with my eyes, movie maker will never be the same. its like going back to front page from visual studio. its like going back to typewriter from computer.

one thing thats kinda random about gresham, is i mostly go down one road, division st, to the church and back, to the church and back, etc. sorta like midkiff in midland. anyway, there's a train tracks crossing between where i'm staying and the church. this makes college stationers shudder and want to pull their hair out. its like the worst thing ever to be caught by a train. and then there's that awful feeling of not seeing a train for a week-ish and then getting stopped by TWO in like one hour when you've just bought a lot of ice cream at h-e-b, or something like that. but the awesome thing about the train tracks in gresham are just for the Max, the public transit train thingys. the little lights come on, the thing dings, the crossbars go down, and the train goes by....for like 2 seconds. and then, in less time than a red light its over, and you can keep driving. i'm so used to college station trains that when i see the lights go on i get kinda frustrated, and i'm like rats its the train, but then i'm like oh yeah, its like 2 seconds long. its getting stopped by the train without the inconvience.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

camping

so last weekend i went to the church campout. generally when i think of camping i think of camping as it is in texas...think: circle 6 ranch in stanton. but camping in oregon is rather different. we drove a couple hours to the coast, and voila, the pacific ocean with a nice beach, complete with golf course, hiking trails, boat ramps, etc. and its stinkin cold in the night time. i wore 3 shirts, a sweatshirt, 2 pairs of pants, cuddled up in a blanket by the fire and was almost warm enough.

we happened to be there during the meteor shower, so i went as "the adult" (haha) with some of the youth down to the beach late that night to watch the meteors. i took my guitar and we sang and lay in the sand watching the stars. also we had a campfire and made s'mores of course. i only stayed for one night. i went up friday night, led the worship time for church service saturday morning, and drove back with a friend that afteroon to be back in time for church that night. it was just the right length of camping for me.

so i decided the way to camp is to have a trailer/RV/some cool place to chill in, and most importantly sleep in at night. some scream that "thats not camping". to them, i shrug. to me, camping is falling asleep on the couch in front of the tv. i think my family's been camping about exactly once (not counting a glorieta experience) and it was miserable. probably due to the fact that the wind was blowing so hard the tents kept collapsing. and the park ranger wouldn't let the dad's park their trucks by them as a windblock, because it could damage the grass. and to that i say, grass??? you mean that brown dead stuff? but i digress. i was wanting to say that camping is a whole stinkin lot of work. all the preparations to go, the unpacking when you get back (Which, as many of you know, i detest), the dirtiness involved, all the work to prepare meals, etc. i think in spite of all that i might enjoy camping somewhat except everytime i go i always have severe allergies and end up being miserable for days afterwards. but what i do like about camping, particularly in beautiful places, is just being outside doing fun stuff and just marveling at the awesomeness of what God has created. maybe i'll go again...in a year or so.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

the best of

you should be excited that thesharester has now surpassed the century mark in number of posts. welcome to post #102. this morning i awoke at 5am. and couldn't fall back to sleep. one of the things i did to occupy my time was sift through my painfully overloaded email inbox. this annoying task brought back many fond memories of past times, and i share with you some quotes, since i know you probably, like me, are missing the quotes.

courtesy of team awesome's awesomeness...

Ok, info lunch is a go for me. Not a go-no-go, which I know can be confusing since we learned all about those, but rather just a go. --lisa

The baker at 12?? I’m feeling the cookies. Holla back --lisa

I didn't realize there was quite that much work (i.e. we had to write a proposal?? For real, I must not listen to a word that man says) and now I feel pretty bad. Anyway, I'll try to even it out next time. Please don't hate me. --lisa

Willy needs everyone’s screenshots ASAP (aka not 11pm tomorrow night) so he can review all of them and make them look not look like 4 different people made them!
--markum

Hello friends-
I propose INFO lunch soon.
Thank you. That is all.
--will

I second the proposed motion. --lisa

Ok, new plan. No kickboxing. working out is for losers --lisa

thus, i will be at wcl sometime between 4 and 5 to work on stuff. based on
this somewhat large time frame,whoever gets there first can start working or check their email repeatedly,whichever option seems more appealing. --lisa

I hope each of you is getting straight up krunk about presenting at the CMIS board meeting. I know I am. --will

re: dgEmployees.datasource=yourmom
I am about to work on the users manual for a little while, but I should be at the lab after our game, eating, and quite possibly showering.
--lisa


Directions to my house:
[street address]
Google map it.
--lisa

TO:Team Awesome
FROM: Lisa
RE: A Team Awesome Haiku

I heart the baseball
Cracker jacks, hot dogs, Astros, WHOOP!
Methinks Wednesday

Oh, P.S., If anyone is up for washing a car, hit me up, cause I am def. in need of that.
--lisa

courtesy of family, friends, and me writing emails while bored in class...

well, bball is going well, (haha, i used the same word twice in a sentence) --freda

Sharon,
I should have asked you sooner, but I waited because I wasn't sure what you would think about this. I was wondering if you would be willing to write a letter of recommendation for me --matt

do you think you could please coordinate your blogging schedule to where i have something new to read in class on tues and thurs about 11:30ish or so? --me

right now i'm apparently learning about quadrature amplitude modulation. hmm. --me

This is a quote from Deutsch today that I thought you might like:
“If I ingest 10 grams of cyanide, I’m gonna take a dirt nap!”-Deutsch
--markum

i think it would be a fun place to go in the winter. it seems like in some parts it would be a very cozy place. some places. cuz you know, living under a bridge doesn't sound very comforting or cozy rite now. --freda

notice i now have 50 invitations for Gmail...pssh like i even know that many people
--me

ummm can i just say PROPS to you for sleeping until noon. everyone should do this occasionally. i wish i could sleep till noon.......ah yes, thats right, i DO, fairly often i must admit --me

ok i'm sorta laughing at this girl in front of me who is writing this letter, saying she missed the q-drop deadline because she had a severe migraine. she's pulled up on google an article on symptoms of a migraine, and is listing them and saying she has a history of those symptoms. i wonder if its true, and if so why she has to look up the symptoms. more importantly, i wonder if it will work for her? --me

Happy graduation to you - see below
You might not care too much about the reserved seats since you don't get to sit in them, but the parking passes at least should make things more convenient.
--matt

what up? are you bored yet? we're...well, read my blog and you'll know. why write it twice? --cynthia

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

firin' it up

so i know i'm just a few states over to the west, but sometimes i feel like i'm in another country. or perhaps its that texas is the different country and i've finally found myself in the united states of america. but regardless, sometimes these people, whom i love, say WEIRD stuff. i've learned to ignore the use of the word 'pop' for carbonated beverages. in fact, sometimes i even say it. but to remind everyone that i came from texas i say it like 'paawwwwp.'

the other day the family i'm staying with was going to grill some hamburgers for dinner. however, up here they prefer to call it 'barbeque some burgers'. because they call their grill a barbeque. i dont know whats up with that. i dont even know how to spell barbeque i'm realizing at this moment. but the most disturbing is when they shorten barbeque to barbie. and then declare that they should go fire up the barbie. i only know that perhaps one of my sisters might just burst into tears if my dad ever wanted to go light the barbie.

however the pop and barbies are all worth it because, as i experienced monday, the coast is a mere 2 hours away, and bam, you are chillaxin the day away on cannon beach. i like the ocean. and the day before, one hour, and you are near mt. st. helens, and i went with friends exploring down in the 'ape caves' formed by lava. cool stuff.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

the worst occupation ever

so last week while i was helping to roof a house, i was convinced that being a roofer must indeed be the worst job ever. it was hot. and we were in washington. transport to texas and i cant even fathom how miserable roofing must be. it was boring. teenagers can apparently learn to do its basics in one week. i became known as the best author on our crew...because of my proficiency at creating books of shingles. on saturday i didn't even know there WERE books of shingles. after my experience i came away with many things, the top 2 being that roofing is hot and manual labor and i dont get along so i'm glad i went to college.

however today i was reminded that there are MANY jobs worse than being a roofer. today i had to go to downtown Portland for some pre-employment drug testing. i quickly decided that the people that work in this clinic must have the most undesirable jobs ever. to Barb's credit, she did seem rather cheerful. i think SHE must be on drugs to be able to maintain a positive attitude in such an atmosphere.

however even as i'm typing this i can think of even more undesirable jobs. i wont ever forget one my most favorite teachers ever in the 6th grade admonishing the boys to study hard or they'd end up being garbage collectors, intended as the worst put down she could muster. but to them, one of whom is now an outstanding musician and the other a linguist in france, and another who plays football for a division 1 school, all they could think of is that garbage collectors at least got to drive big trucks.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

insert some clever title here

i take great satisfaction in seeing those blogs birthed out of inspiration garnered from my own blog (at least i choose to view it that way) consistently out-posting my own. however, after an insanely busy month of summer activities, i find it rather difficult to find a post worthy of breaking my long silence, which leads to longer silence, which leads us to today: you better post something or people will stop checking, unless that has already happened. i find, unfortunately, that the longer you go without putting something up, the harder it is to think of something to put up, because there are so many things that have happened, or perhaps just because you are out of practice.


however you should know that i had an excellent july. august has started off wonderfully, with a white water rafting trip yesterday, topped off with enchiladas for dinner. and the second day of august finds me taking my second day off in the past 30 days.

last week i spent up in washington with some of our youth on a mission project. tomorrow i will tell you some about my experiences with manual labor. today i will leave you with the quote of july. it has to do with a system set up at the mission project for encouraging others. each participant had an envelope posted on the wall where others could leave encouraging notes, called encouragrams. midway through the week, one girl wanted to thank me for a note that i'd written her and loudly exclaimed across a roomful of people, "hey sharon, thanks for the mammogram!"

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

sweet yummy goodness

some generous transplanted texan friends invited me over tonite to share in their precious supply of.....blue bell homemade vanilla ice cream. they have 2 family visitors up visiting from texas and they brought it packed in dry ice on the plane. it was most great. now if only we could figure out how to get sonic....

tonite was also fun because of youth group...it was water games night. we played water baseball. to bat, one stands in a small wading pool. from there on each base is also a small wading pool. to score a run one must slip and slide into a pool of water. lots of wetness and fun times.

sweet, salty, and chocolatey

so last week i made the trek up to eastern washington, practically all the way to idaho, for centrifuge youth camp. it was really a great week. there were some really funny things that happened, and funny skits and videos were plentiful. perhaps one of the best parts of the week was the snacks provided on the way up there. the pastor's family is from down South and thus quite familiar with long road trips. they provided a cooler full of drinks, even calling to ask my preference, and then brought 3 shoeboxes. one was the sweet box which had things like cookies and jolly ranchers, etc. the salty box had handi snacks, sour cream & onion pringles, and other such salty pleasures. then there was the chocolate box. at first one might think it could be combined with the sweet box but of course it cannot--chocolate is its own category. and it was full of chocolate, all sans peanuts, a most thoughtful thing.

other good things about camp were guitar jamming sessions, tubing behind the ski boat, watching a 450lb man blob someone, softball games, a glow in the dark frisbee, the cool weather, being "an adult", and the mega relays.

best sayings of the week:
"good gandhi!"
"oh my gross"

"knocketh knocketh knocketh. tappeth tappeth tappeth. rrrrrappeth rrrappeth rrrrapeth. i've come to ask your daughters hand in marriage."
"just her hand?"
"no, her whole body."
"oh. well, no."
"no?"
"no no"
"no no?"
"no no no"
"no no no?"
"yes"
"YES?"
"NOOOOOO"

Friday, July 01, 2005

i got the power

howdy doody. sorry for not posting in a whole week blaaah blaaah. would you believe its because i've been doing a missiony project? well its sorta true. i've been one busy chica. we've got a mission team head to brazil in august, and they want to take at least 10,000 power band bracelets with them. you know the ones that help you tell the plan of salvation with the little beads? so i have been making these like there's no tomorrow. and suckering everyone else into doing the same. on sunday i hung out with some friends, then that night we were watching a girly movie and made bracelets the whole time. then i took some youth to starbucks and.....made bracelets. every nite while relaxing in the evenings i'm .....making bracelets. so far my friends and i have made 400. i have one more bag of 100 to complete before sunday. then i'm going to pick up some more because on monday i'm headed to youth camp....7 hours away. i wonder how many we can make??? it pretty much rocks knowing that each one you make might help a brazilian come to know Christ. cuz if all brazilians are as cool as the brazilians i know, we want them all in heaven with us! and one cant type blog postings and make bracelets at the same time...

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

sweet stuff oregon style

1. the news channels still talking about a 'huge' lightning storm...from 3 days ago. they get lots of rain but not lots of lightning, so they got a little excited.

2. attending my first violin recital on friday

3. playing knockout at sports camp

4. the party van being pretty much the hottest vehicle in town, everyone is riding in it every chance they get...even adults, including the pastor. i'm telling you, it is THAT sweet. dont be jealous.

5. slurpees (its finally warm enough to drink them...sorta)

6. driving around with the windows down

7. hangin out with junior-hi and hi-schoolers

8. seeing good friends again

9. chillin at Red Robin

10. hearing a little five year old boy tell you, "you sure tell good stories from the Bible, i like hearing them."

bigger or better...ish

tonight at youth group we played the infamous youth group game 'bigger or better'. its similar to a scavenger hunt type game i suppose. each group started out with a penny, then hit the neigborhood asking people to trade for something bigger or better. some folks are more helpful than others. its one of my goals in life to be one of the really nice fun people when random kids knock on your door. the nicest guy we met tonite gave us an old computer monitor. i noticed a texas a&m century club bumper stickers on both of his cars, and sure enough both he and his wife were aggies. everyone went on and on about how nice he was, so i tried to convince them it was because A. he was from texas and B. he was an aggie. but mostly people just kept saying. whatd did he just call you? an aggie? what does that mean? o boy.

the knights beat the titans today at sports camp, 18-17, in a close close game. i think tomorrow we're going to play two games, one before and one after snack time. today i told some of the kids that we had about 20ish minutes at which they busted out laughing and saying ish? 20 ISH? hahahaha one of the youth helpers and i just looked at each other, unsure of what exactly was so funny about ish. silly kids. i'd at least think they'd laugh at something funny, like the fact that every time i'm demonstrating something i brick the shot or otherwise mess up. but they don't seem to notice that at all. but any slip of the word y'all and apparently ish, they collapse into laughing fits.

Monday, June 20, 2005

the midnight rescue in the party van and other happenings

thursday night i was hangin out with some friends having a girl movie nite. this time the movie was less chick flicky than traveling pants, but it was just us girls and we were having fun. well about the time our partay was winding down, i got a call around 11.30pm that requested the assistance of the party van. it seems that a youth group that was headed down to a mission trip in california was staying the nite at our church, but their bus had broken down about an hour away. i made the trip in the party van along with a toyota sienna to rescue these poor youths in distress. naturally it was pouring down rain during our entire rescue effort. we got them back to the church safely, but even more sad for them, their towed bus was then broken into at the church and most of their stuff stolen. aaaand have a nice mission trip.

saturday morning i had the exciting experience of picking strawberries out at some friends strawberry patch. this was quite fun, though messy, as the temptation to chunk strawberries at each other proved too great to overcome. i just enjoyed a bowl of ice cream with fresh strawberries on it and it was quite delish. now, i know it would have been even better had it been blue bell, but hey, what can ya do.

speaking of southern rockingness, there are, as mentioned in a comment, NO SONICS HERE. AHHHHHH horribleness. at least there are slurpees. but the real heart wrencher is that they show sonic commercials on TV, even though THERE AREN'T ANY.
just about the time you have put sonic to the back of your mind, out of conscious thought, the 2 sonic dudes are bound to show up blabbing about how good it is.

sports camp started today, and we had a blast. i think it sounds weird when people say something 'makes them feel alive', but i think i know what they mean sorta, because coaching at sports camp has that effect for me. the kids had a great time playing basketball. i used my uber cool whistle mailed to me by my doubly uber cool mom, as i refereed our game the last part of camp. it was a close one, but the titans beat the knights, 18-16. we'll see who wins tomorrow...

i had a really good weekend. friday i chilled all day with some uber cool people, saturday the berry picking experience and one awesome Bible study class at church. then on sunday i hung out with some other way cool pals of mine. tonite i sat on the back porch, that overlooks mountains covered with fir trees and watched the sun set behind the trees, played the guitar and chilled for awhile. the air up here smells different, cleaner. i think its because of all the trees. the northwest rocks my face off. what do these people do to deserve such incredible weather?

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

traveling pants & slurpees

lest you be afraid that i'm wasting away into an old fogey here in oregon, i thought i should make you aware of the fact that i attended, along with some high school girls from the youth group, a movie called the sisterhood of traveling pants on sunday night. this movie is a chick-flick to the EXTREME. based on an apparently popular book, it was not a waste of time to see, but i can think of no guy in the world who would enjoy the movie even one tiny bit.

there is a 7-11 right down the road from the church. i frequented it often last summer for slurpees. it is not uncommon to run into various staff members of the church at the 7-11 while making these slurpee runs. in fact, just today i saw the missions pastor buying a candy bar as i was picking up a big gulp coke. it is about 72 today, so there was a mad rush of oregonians in sleeveless tshirts and shorts and flipflops around the slurpee machine. i was too cold to drink a slurpee so i had to settle for the big gulp. having spent 3 years in college station, where, for some unkown reason to me there are NO 7-11's and thus NO slurpees, the 7-11 just down the road provides great happiness. a church office away from the church office, if you will.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

the party van

perhaps you are aware that my transportation last summer while in portland was a bicycle 90% of the time. i even had one of those squeaky horns should any oblivious pedestrian choose to step out into my path. this summer i have upgraded from summer missionary to summer intern, if that is indeed an upgrade, and i have also upgraded from bicycle to mini-van, if that is indeed an upgrade. as many affectionately referred to my first car (the silver camry) as Murphy, we affectionately refer to this minivan as The Party Van. just because we can. of course everyone wants to ride with me. in The Party Van. who wouldn't? for one day i was chosen to drive a Cadillac, which i thought was to be my car for the summer. it was pretty tahiight. but then i was bumped back to The Party Van. and it appears i shall be driving The Party Van for the duration of the summer. i forget really what kind of van The Party Van is, i think its one of those plymouth ones, the old school squareish ones. is blue with brown wooden panelingish...ya with me? i confess i feel a little awkward while driving it around town, i'm not quite ready for the mini-van stage of life. perhaps adding to the awkwardness are the personalized license plates "Ceil", so as i'm sitting at red lights i cant help but miserably think that people are thinking, hmm, her name must be Ceil. when, in fact, that is not my name. or maybe they are thinking hmmm, i wish i could drive The Party Van.

perhaps also adding to my identity crisis would be this past friday night, my last night as a 20yr old so of course i was.......watching a Disney channel original movie with 2 kiddos. whats worse is the fact that they turned on the movie halfway through, so we watched that, then watched it again from the beginning, and continued watching it to the end again. as we were watching, i was perusing a book i'd picked up at the library earlier that day. meanwhile i was waiting for a phone call from a high-schooler to go pick her up from an activity at church, and drop one of her friends off as well. this was the hi-lite of my evening, picking up this young girl. on our way home, i was discussing with her my paranoia that this evening had indeed made me feel like a mom. and she said well at least you're not like a real mom to where you had to do like laundry and stuff. i would concede this point to her except for the fact that i had indeed just finished putting away the laundry i'd washed when she called for the ride.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

where everyone knows your name

well i'm in oregon for the summer these days. its a little chill and wet, i must say. and i love it. of the 3 summers i've spent away, this has been the easiest transition, due obviously to the fact that i've been here before. this makes the first day of work more like a joyous reunion rather than an intimidating initiation.

the number one thing i've learned this week is that, left to my own devices, i have the attention span of about a third grader. sitting in an office with a plethora of Bible studies to write, and registration forms to be collated, and resources to be organized...this is hard for me to sit still and concentrate. i suppose i should practice this summer, because come this fall, this shall be my life. today they brought in a brand new computer for me to set up for one of the staff members, and i was a little embarassed that that was the hilite of my day at the office. but seriously, who doesnt like new toys? at least this summer i have the hope of days filled with basketball drills, sound boards, and lighting, as opposed to papers, copies, writing, and preparing. here's to installing microsoft office tomorrow!

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

out of the mouths of.....demons???

i have discovered a new phenomenon here in the new town where my family lives. after growing up in midland for over a decade, with a "rather popular" older brother, one can get used to being asked about my relation to him. ditto with a&m. minus the decade part. i find that my family has begun a new life in a new town where apparently matt and i are out of the picture. o sure we are referenced and spoken about, but for the most part our family starts with jennifer to most people. imagine my glee when my parents friends mention to me that while they have never met me, they always keep up with jennifer since she....get this....writes for the paper.

it mostly reminds me of a story found in acts 19, where the seven sons of a jewish priest are overtaken after trying to cast out an evil spirit, with the evil spirit saying to them, "Jesus I know and Paul I know; but who are you?".......

"Jennifer I know and Bekah I know, but......who are you??" i guess nobody really knows. but i tell you one thing, i refuse to write for any newspaper.

Monday, May 30, 2005

did ya know?

i was born in california....my parents joke that that's why i like the northwest so much, because its my natural time zone

four of the chapters in the book of lamentations all have 22 verses, serving as an acrostic of the hebrew alphabet. the other has 66 verses, a multiple of the number of letters in the hebrew alphabet.

the pound key symbol (#) is also called an octothorpe.

When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel
= motel, breakfast + lunch = brunch) the new word is called a
"portmanteau", thanks to Lewis Carroll? check it out here
.portmanteaus

the title of this blog 'a day from the eighties' comes from a conversation i had with some of my upstream freshman at sbisa:
freshman: did you have a good day?
me: nah actually it was more like a day from hades.
freshman: really? a day from the eighties?
me: no, hades. sheol. hell.
other freshman: a day from the eighties? cool! i'm gonna wear long socks and big hair
and thus, a blog was born

Sunday, May 29, 2005

and that's why i love it....

i'm a little embarassed at how disappointed i am that 24 and Alias tv shows have come to the end of their seasons, both with excellent finales. its really good that they have taken a break for the summer, because it would have been hard for me to follow them over the summer, but i must confess that i'm still pretty sad that i wont be able to enjoy them for the next few months. here's some quotes from alias that make me laugh. between the witty dialogue, tight technology gadgets, and michael vartan, alias has pretty much got it made.


Syd: It was around dinner. I brought her a sandwich.
Mr. Foster: Where were you before that?
Syd: Buying her the sandwich.


Syd: Some people go miniature golfing with their parents. We go to India to look for nukes.


Weiss: When we're sharing a cell in federal prison, I'm not giving you a drawer!


Jack: Personally, I would have found it anticlimatic. That after expecting to assemble a weapon of ultimate power, you ended up with a revelation you could have acquired from a fortune cookie.

Vaughn to Syd: You talk in your sleep. You said ‘Don’t frost the pie’. It seemed really important.


Vaughn: i didnt know you wore glasses
Jack: only during surgery


casino guard: sir, i have an urgent message for you....outside
dixon: yes, of course
[guard throws dixon against wall]
dixon: hold on! what is the meaning of this?
guard: your attache just called. apparently, you're stuck in jamaica
[long pause]
dixon: i suppose there are worse places to be stuck


syd: my math skills are above average, but i cant do advanced calculus in my head
sloane: thats why you're going in with marshall
marshall: marshall who?


marshall: we're verifying the data now sir, but it looks legit...legitimate
kendall: yeah, i know what "legit" means


syd: you look great...you lost weight?
weiss: oh, thanks, yeah. i sort of gave up all the foods that i enjoy. i'm miserable, but i look really good


Weiss: vaughn you can stay with me for a while since your house is.. ashes

Jack: It must have got lost in the mail.
Syd: Your invitation?
Jack: Unless it was an e-vite. I don't read e-vites.

Weiss to Syd & Vaughn: Guys. You don't have to analyze everything you do. You can just decide to have fun. It's okay.
Syd: We're fun.
Weiss: Yeah. You guys are about as spontaneous as my grandparents. And they're dead."


Marshall: SPORK! I've got a spork!
Jack: what's a spork
Marshall: its like a half spoon half fork - will that work
Jack: that will work

vaughn: so this is where your dad lives?
syd: what did you expect?
vaughn: a bunker or something

syd: what? she's supposed to be dead
jack: so are a lot of people.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

dog eat dog

a wimpy little guy comes into a coffee shop, leaving his wimpy little dog outside, a miniature poodle. a huge, heavily tatooed biker comes in--eyes the guy, and tells him, "you might want to go check on that little excuse for a dog. i left my german shepherd out there, and i doubt that you'll have much of a dog left."

the little man goes out, comes back in, and says to the biker, "i don't know how to tell you this, but my dog just killed your dog."

"no way. how?"

"he got stuck in your dog's throat."

--from john ortberg's book, everybody's normal till you get to know them

Monday, May 23, 2005

my mom is cooler than your mom so....HA

i didnt want this weekend to end. i met up with my mom friday nite at my mawmaw's house and the fun started there and didnt stop. early saturday we headed to the big s.a. to meet with my apartment locator, who turned out to be quite nice and also quite capable. suggestion: always use a locator when moving, this makes things much smoother. we hit up several places, and the fifth and last one i knew was the place ever since we drove by it on our way into town and my mom knew it from the basketball decorations for the spurs game in the clubhouse. add one very nice and capable apartment staff member, and i've got a reservation for a new place in the fall just like that.

then the real fun began. we searched for a hotel which proved to be more difficult than one would imagine due to a apparently very large neurological convention going on (who knew??) and poor service from one hotel lady...eventually found a place for the night. then we headed back out, to pappadeaux we thought but seeing as the rest of the world was there, we hit up 'the magic time machine' where all the waitstaff was dressed up as characters....like Lilo from Lilo and Stitch was our waitress. it was a great concept for a restaurant but overall non too impressed. then we found a movie theatre and saw monster-in-law. you may be wondering why i'd go see a movie twice, and if thats the case perhaps you forget that michael vartan is my fave. besides i knew it was a guaranteed laugh to end our evening.

sunday we went and visited oak hills church, where max lucado preaches and were excited to get to hear him preach. i was impressed from the parking lot till the end of the service. they had visitor parking and friendly people to greet you in the parking lot and direct you to the right place, but even those not designated as 'greeters' all welcomed us as we walked to the building. the service was great, the sermon profound. it was cool. actually, the whole weekend was super hot, the hottest of the year i believe. which makes me all the more ready to hit up oregon next week!!!!

thats mostly all we did i guess. we went back to the apartment i liked and signed some papers, left some money, gawked at the massive USAA complex one last time, and drove back and ate dinner with mawmaw. i guess sometimes when you do stuff, you have fun, but figure you might have had more fun if you could have done it with someone else. but this weekend was incredible, and there's no one i would rather have spent it with!

this week little L and i are gonna have some maaajor quality time the next several days before i leave. this will probably remind me how much i love spending time with him, but also reinforce to me that i'm not interested in having a little baby for myself for a looooong looooong time. i like giving him back!



forbid it Lord that I should boast
save in the death of Christ my God
all the vain things that charm me most
i sacrificed them to His blood
--isaac watts

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

little tiny pieces

i'm sitting here plotting how to destroy the mud wasp nest that has seemingly appeared overnite on the doorframe of my apartment. i've been gingerly bounding up the stairs (all 3 flights of them) the past few weeks so as to avoid the regular wasps that have built nests in the stairwells, knowing that i only have to put up with them for a few days. but this, this has gone too far. how am i to lock my door safely without getting stung? i have a fear leftover from my childhood having been stung by both types of wasps. its sorta like shots, which, NEWS FLASH, dont really hurt hardly at all, though if you were to rely on your childhood memories, you'd think getting a shot was the worst thing in the world. perhaps it would just be best to go ahead and be stung to relieve me of my ridiculous paranoia. i think i'm gonna go after it with a swiffer mop handle, and knock it to the floor and beat it over and over again from inside my doorway, and if mr. mud wasp happens to be home, then i shall slam the door shut and either stay in my apartment forever or climb down the side of the apartment building from the balcony like i'm jason bourne or somethin.

thats not the only thing i wish i could beat into the ground over and over. my roommate again left her alarm set and left town and LOCKED her bedroom door so nothing can be done. last time this was only for a few days, thankfully, because it was set for 8am. this time it has the potential to be for about 12 days, yet its set for 11am, a much more agreeable time. so everyday from 11:10am to 1:09pm, i have a nice beeping goin on around the place. it reminds me of an episode of friends when phoebe's smoke detector wont stop beeping and she ends up smashing it into little tiny pieces, etc. i want to do that to this alarm clock. i NEED to do that to this mud wasp nest. but i'm kinda scared to. so maybe later....

Monday, May 16, 2005

my first post as a college graduate

well, that was college. moving on. haha just kidding. i finished everything up on wednesday and then spent all thursday feeling a little bit emotional as i said goodbye to some friends and threw away alot of stuff.

the fam and my g-parents came in town for graduation this weekend. we had a nice lunch at outback on friday (thanks dad!) complete of course with bloomin onions and such. i was a little nervous about graduation friday night, that it would be insanely boring. but it turned out to be less horrid than i expected. when i was walking across, shaking hands with all the important peoples, no lie that the pres. of the association of former students, asked me "are you matt's sister? thats just great". and i was thinkin, uh yeah that is just great. i'm literally walking across the stage picking up my diploma and THATS what you have to say to me?? o well. what can you do. after i walked across, i was able to sit right next to markum & will and we could talk so it passed by quickly. our speaker, the CEO of Pier1 Imports wasnt too shabby. in fact, when we mentioned his name, my g-ma was like ohh class of '61? yeah, i know him (my g-dad was class of '61). and i was like uhhh hellooo? why arent we fostering this relationship!?!?! haha just kiddin. sorta. couple quotes from his speech:

"yeah we all had not only guaranteed jobs back then, but also choices. see, we could choose the air force, the navy, the marines, or the army...."

"my final piece of life advice for you is this: always shop at Pier1."

on saturday my uncle graduated with his masters (yay!!) and we celebrated our graduations some more with a cookout. then my mom and the kiddos, we went shopping and then to my place to swim. i'd forgotten that saturday afternoons my apt. complex has 'margaritaville' complete with dj and drinks, etc, so we had quite a different experience than i had imagined when i suggested the idea. of course sat. nite we hit up wings n more. then 2 of my sisters and i hit up a late showing of michael vartan's movie "monster in law". you may think of it as j-lo's movie or jane fonda's movie, but i think of it as michael vartan's movie. and thats why i went and saw it. and enjoyed it. i'm not sure its really that great of a movie. but it did make me laugh. and it had michael vartan.

this week is going to be nice i think. i'm in college station just chillin, taking care of some stuff. today i became a proud new owner of an iPod shuffle, a graduation present (thanks mawmaw!). i've spent most of the afternoon messing around setting up my iTunes and all that jazz. i'm not sure about the product yet, it seems pretty tight, but i'll give a product review later i suppose. i also got a picture montage of my little cousin, made especially for me by M&R....i'm gonna miss that little dude! and m&r too! another graduation present is from my parents, and that is one very expensive piece of paper put in a frame. my diploma. it kinda gave me some chills when i opened up because it looks tahiight. i cant wait to hang it on my wall in my new place.

thats all for now, because in about 30min team awesome is gettin ready to have one krunk nite!

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

been there, done that.


your mom goes to college. but i DONT. muwahahahahahaha.
the good, the bad, the funny

the good:
- hanging with my brother
- fun family times
-laughing at the same old stories with lolly and shawna
- 2-on-2 basketball and one quite intense game of horse
-watching baseball
- watching 24 on one sweet television with my friends!

the bad:
- chicken nuggets not showing up to play their softball game
- george fowler, again. next week he will be forgotten.
- rockets v. mavs game 7

the funniest:
"o you're moving to san antonio?....isn't that where c.s. lewis' church is!?!?!........errr max lucado."

Saturday, May 07, 2005

tuesday nite team awesome had one incredibly awesome road trip down to houston for an astros game. when we were purchasing our tickets, the agent informed us that the "$5 tickets are $1 tonite" so we got $1 tix!! then, there was quite a few empty seats so we "upgraded" our seats to the next level, and found ourselves in very nice seats. we had lots of laughs and ate ballpark food. and hit up starbucks on the way home. this was one fun fun time with team awesome.

so my brother flew in last nite from london! he's in a friend's wedding this weekend, then tonite we're making the trek to our parents house together. so i'm sure we will enjoy our car time together. if one thing is true about matt and me, we are never at a loss for something to talk about with each other, thats for sure. so, get excited!

also get excited that graduation is 6 days away, and only 1 test remains!!

i'm currently "taking down my room" as i'm going to take half of my stuff to storage (i.e. my parents house) today and the rest next week. i'm not going to lie that i'm a little excited about the prospect of not moving every three months. the thought that my entire life wont change every 3 months is a little unnerving. because at least for the past few years, if you dont like something, you know that you should just hold on because its bound to change in about 15 weeks anyway. but here's to venturing into the unknown world of consistency, hoping that its gonna be good! at any rate, there will be less packing and stuffing all my worldly belongings into the grand am.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

from "the interpreter":
nicole kidman: "what do you do when you cant sleep?"
sean penn: "i stay awake."

you should see the movie, its very intense, nice dialogue, and overall most interesting.


friday i went to the bank and a car wreck happened right next to me. it rather shook me up. i literally did the jaw drop, cover your mouth thing as i saw two cars slam into each other right next to me with the smell of burnt rubber as the tires screeched and that sickening crunch that sounds so much less disgusting in movies somehow. and yes, i did talk to the police as a witness, being the good citizen i am. but only after i deposited my checks at the bank!... being the good self-centered american that i am.

so this sunday was my last official sunday at fbc bryan. it was really sad. if you would have told me at the beginning of this year that i'd be this sad about leaving this church, i dont think i really would have believed you. last sunday they recognized the librarian for FIFTY years of being the librarian at fbc brayn. this sunday, they gave me a shout out for ONE year of running the multimedia screens. i was kinda embarassed. the librarian started the library in a small closet, and today it has over 11,000 volumes. i wonder what the "media screens" will be like in 49 years?

since i dont have anymore classes, and its much too early to begin studying for finals, i borrowed 'the bourne identity' to read, the book that is. its pretty different than the movie, and the most significant disappointment to me is that matt damon is nowhere to be found in the book.

countdown to graduation:
days: 12
classes: 0!!!!
tests: 3


"let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. it is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it." -a.w. tozer

Thursday, April 28, 2005

"while preparing to leave the SCC, I looked outside and loudly commented on my disappointment with the fact that it was raining. Though I got many funny looks, to my surprise no one else showed any disappointment. I came to find out that this is because the sprinklers were on." -kara

from alias:
syd- what the heck are you thinking?
sloane- i'm sure you mean that in the most polite way.

"well and then you have a group of consumers that we group into the ID ten T problem. does anyone know what that is? no? perhaps if i draw it? ID10T." -norton

and THAT folks is my very last quote from my classes here at a&m because I'M FINISHED WITH CLASS. WHOOOOP!

so umm, i KNEW there was a reason that i spent so many hours shooting freethrows in my driveway in midland. this morning i went to my final basketball class and saw on the grade sheet

sharon josefy D 64

now, i'm taking this class pass/fail and it is required for my graduation, meaning that i need 6 more points in this class. never fear, if i can hit 5/10 freethrows, i shall get the 6 points i need. calmly, or perhaps not so calmly, i quietly nailed 9/10 to give me a 74. the following is the conversation with my coach that ensued...
coach: alrite, that puts you at 74.
sharon: sweet. thats passing right?
coach: haha, yeah. barely.
sharon: thats how i like to operate
coach: just enough to get by?
sharon: o yeah. everything else is wasted points.
coach: well in that case, it seems you could've slept in one more day (each absence is minus 3 points)
sharon: i know! what a bum deal!

see, he understand me very well.

now, NO NEED to be freaked out for me here. i SO was never in any danger of failing that class and not graduating. i still could have done dribbling exercises, more shooting, or extra credit assignments. there was 20 pts of credit that i never even attempted, which makes my 74 actually very impressive. but i just needed a little drama in my life to see if i could hit the big shots under pressure.

SO, with that out of the way, i'm all cleared for graduation!! only 3 tests stand in my way. and i have a whole week before they hit, so lets get this partay started!!





i'm so afraid of being alone
i cant feel your arms around me
i'm holding on tighter
to the things i can touch
clutching my dreams and desires
trying to embrace
you and myself
and it doesnt work
forsaking one i cling
to the other
gazing at you
this is where i want
to be forever