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

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.

and have a nice day

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.

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.

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.

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. :)

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!"

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"

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...

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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

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

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....

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!

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."

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.

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

"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

it is not surprising at all to me that the internet at my apartment complex just happens to be down these couple days when i need to use it extensively while writing 2 research papers. thus i have contributed even more hours to the info lab this week, rather than writing from the comforts of my own home.

so last thursday i accidentally slept through my afternoon class. and by accidentally, i really do mean accidentally, as i fully intended to go. however, i was so tired from having been awake so long that i NEVER heard my alarm. the same alarm that wakes me up every morning. and 2 phone calls. i was dead to the world. thus my perfect attendance streak ended at 5 days, or 2 1/2 weeks. however i am attending all classes today and thursday, and so probably will only have missed 1 class all of april, which is pretty outstanding for me.

in other news, i had a good weekend that included dinner with m&r&l, lots of sleep, island party and all-nite party with triple chunks & friends, church, wedding shower, chapel, and writing a 15 page paper! i dont think i've been to sleep before 2am and usually an average of about 4am for the past 11 days...trying to soak in the college lifestyle while i can, but honestly, i'm totally backwards on my sleep/awake times and can't seem to fix it!!

i am looking forward with great anticipation to thursday, at which point all that will be standing between me and graduation will be 3 measly tests. all the work of the past 2 weeks will be shoved into distant memory.

last night while at the computer lab, i was chillin with team awesome and we were sorta laughing at some younger students complaining about a class project they were working on for a class we'd taken previously. at the time, we too thought the class was difficult. now we laugh at it. it was so much easier than the classes we've been faced with since. we could do the project in like.....5 seconds. and so it dawned on me, that yes, maybe i have actually learned a thing or two here at a&m. while i wont bore you with computer geekdom, here are just a few general things i've learned while at a&m.

being a senior, now i know.....

1. attending every class is not only an unrealistic goal, it is also an unnecessary goal.
2. how to direct freshman, visitors, and otherwise lost individuals on campus.
3. the backroads of bryan/college station.
4. daily schedules and bedtimes are overrated, just go with the flow.
5. too many nights with too little sleep will make you sick. literally.
6. your worth does not consist of what organizations you are a part of.
7. you might as well just ask, the worst thing they could say is no.
8. how to appropriately proffer a soft howdy and smile when people walk by
9. the peak and nonpeak hours at the rec center
10. how to pay bills
11. you dont have to pay to take the buses
12. the sonic on harvey is much faster than the one at rock praire, even if the harvey location is further away
13. instant messenger is your friend, but also your enemy
14. stuff is expensive!
15. putting God first, above everything else, is the way to go...

quote of the day comes from an intense like whoa episode of 24 last nite:
edgar: i asked him if i could go instead of you, and he said, no, you were the best analyst we have......and he's right, chloe, you are the best analyst we have.
chloe: (sighs and rolls eyes) i know.

well, its over. sorta. my senior info project is completed and submitted. the presentation looms next week, along with 2 papers of substantial length that will consume this weekend and the beginning of next week. on wednesday morning i met team awesome up at the info lab at about 10:30am. about 24 hours later, i came home. team awesome had some serious crunch time coding and documenting but the end result = high quality. team awesome has been....awesome.

i spent some serious time sleeping on thursday and today. after i sleep tonite, i think i may start to feel a little better and a lot less like i might fall over and die at any moment from being tired and sick. and hopefully i can get sorta caught up on my life that does not consist of spending lengthy amounts of time in a computer lab.

today of course i spent with little L and as we usually do, we had a little CMT going on in the background as we played with toys that laugh at you. i'm not sure why they make toys for kids that laugh at them. anyway, there was this one song by i forget who and it was called "dont ask me how i know" and thus i've compiled my own list.

"dont ask me how i know"

1. you dont ever want to have a 'hello kitty' backpack
2. putting masking tape on hotel room doors does not ensure students have not left their hotel rooms
3. GAP perfume doe NOT taste good. in fact, it will make you gag. it is hard to get the taste out of your mouth.
4. skittles can be used as an assault weapon
5. metal pots should not be microwaved
6. rubber things should not be put in the dryer
7. the plastic part of the shower curtain goes inside the bath tub
8. sometimes you should check the oil level in your car
9. you should never set your slip n slide up to where it goes across a sidewalk
10. there's always somebody watching


"spin" --by lifehouse

i'd rather chase your shadow all my life
than be afraid of my own
i'd rather be with you
i'd rather not know
where i'll be than be alone and convinced that i know

everything i know has let me down
so i will just let go
let you turn me inside out
cause i know i'm not sure
about anything but you wouldnt have it any other way

and the world keeps spinning round
my worlds upside down and i wouldnt change a thing
i've got nothing else to lose
i lost it all when i found you
and i wouldnt change a thing

well we got clobbered in our championship basketball game. when your 6'8" guy is your dominating hero, and the other team shows up with a 6'8" hero of their own, things apparently go downhill. combine that with our guys hitting zero shots and their guys hitting 100% of their shots, and you get the ugly defeat that was my final intramural game at a&m. get this though, my company has intramural sports. when i learned this, i knew that this is where i had to work.

in other news, our project continues. we have been living in a different dimension than most of the world this week. on sunday afternoon, i coded from 2-5:30pm and then from 9:30pm-4am. yesterday i coded from 2-5:30pm and from 10pm-3am. AND still got up for my 8am class. yes, that is dedication. no, that is certainly not like me to be so dedicated to class. but i'm hardcore about my april class commitments, as i said i would be. one more today, and then just 3 more days of classes!!

last nite after our game i picked up a large vanilla coke from sonic to serve as my caffeine boost that would propel me late into the night. i was dismayed to discover i'd been handed a straw that was too short for my drink. i was then embarassed to discover that it didnt matter, because i had several extra long straws from sonic in my car, because thats how many times i've been to sonic recently. in fact, i started looking at all the sonic peppermints i have, and i really wish that you could redeem them for sonic cokes. like 20 peppermints, one free coke. i would like that.

a good weekend? yeah! seriously, a bit much time spent coding on the computer, but overall, a fine weekend.

+ friday with little L
+ dinner with m&r&l = NICE...or medium well, however you want to look at it
- info lab working on project from 7.30pm to 2am on fri nite= UNCOOL LOSER
- info lab working on project from 10am to 2pm saturday= UNCOOL LOSER
+ looking on the internet for an apartment
+ leading worship for youth nite in caldwell = WAY TIGHT, this evening rocked
+ watching matt & ryan freestyle rap
+ watching aladdin with friends...old school
+ church
+ lunch with evelyn
- info lab working on project from 2pm to 5:3pm on sunday afternoon = UNCOOL LOSER
- working in info lab when i should have been taking sunday afternoon nap
- majorly sick with allergies = disgusting
+ chapel!
- its the last chapel for me :(
+ championship intramural basketball game tomorrow nite
+ being on a project team with team awesome
- knowing that this weekend alone i've eaten more meals at the info lab than at my house
- dreaming about writing code for our project while trying to sleep
-way more info project to be completed = SICK


---psalm 63:2-8---
"i have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. because your love is better than life my lips will glorify you. i will praise you as long as i live, and in your name i will lift up my hands. my soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. on my bed i remember you; i think of you through the watches of the night. because you are my help, i sing in the shadow of your wings. my soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me."

if i was going to get to interview someone that was applying for any job anywhere, NO LIE, this is how the interview would go.

-------------------------------------
umm hey hows it goin. this is going to be a "situational interview". i'm going to give you a scenario and you basically just tell me how you would react ok?

1. you are driving with your windows down, singing happily and perhaps rather loudly. in short, you are groovin. when you stop at a red light you notice the person next to you also has their windows down, and are of course looking at you.

2. you drop a string of "your mom" jokes on someone, only to find out a few minutes later that their mother actually died a few months ago in a tragic accident.

3. you: oh my gosh, i looooove [insert something you loooooove here]
other person you are trying to impress: sick. i hate [thing that you stated you
looooooove]
you: ????

4. your roommate's clothes are in the dryer. you need to put your clothes in the dryer. your roommate is not home.

5. you have taken a test and your score is a 76, however the teacher made a mistake and you should really have an 84.

6. you have taken a test and your score is a 104, however the teacher made a mistake and you should really have a 110.

7. you have taken a test and your score is a 94, however the teacher made a mistake and you should really have a 85.

8. you are at a fancy shmancy social event with recruiters and while trying to balance the glass & plate and shake hands with these uber important people, you drop you glass, spilling beverage everywhere

9. you are sitting outside eating at a restaurant. suddenly, a few tables over, a girl's chair breaks and she falls down to where she is essentially sitting on her bum on the ground, amidst the broken pieces of her chair.

10. you are playing basketball and someone blatantly trips you. the ref calls a foul... n YOU.

thank you for your time.
------------------------------------------------------------------


well today marked 2 weeks of perfect attendance at classes. if i attend all classes on tuesday, this will eclipse my record for this semester (set the first 2 weeks of school) for certain and i believe for this entire year.

one of my profs almost said something funny today, but i didnt have a pen. who goes to class without a pen?



--2 Corinithians 1:20-22--
"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the the 'Amen' is spoken to us by the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

in exactly one month i will be graduating from THE finest university.

but WOW does a lot need to be accomplished before that point. most of that in the next 2 weeks. yeah my life's pace definitely picks up a bit at the end of the semester, particularly for the past 2 semesters. being in senior level classes is rather different than the lower level classes i have discovered to my chagrin. the horrors of spending essentially an entire week in the computer lab finishing a website had slowly faded from my mind. a semester is just long enough to forget the pain of finals and team projects. i find myself remembering some of the fun we did manage to have and wonder if it really was that bad? and now that time is upon me again. and i clearly remember, YES, it WAS that bad. it is tempered by the fact that this is the LAST time to endure this semester ending frenzy as an info major. also helpful in this process is the finest team ever to spend the next two weeks with. the times spent with team awesome, coding, yet also laughing, eating, throwing things, and generally just being awesome will constitute some of the finest memories of my college career.

but i'll still be glad when its april 28th. it is certainly more fun to look back on these times than to be in the middle of them.

april class attendance: still perfect! only 5 more days to go!....too bad they dont say any good quotes these days. they are killing my blog here.
hours spent working on projects yesterday alone: 8 hours
hours spent writing today: 3 hours so far, and the night is young...


whatever You ask of me
i know my answer will be yes, Lord...yes, Lord
whatever You desire, I won't say no
whatever You ask of me
i know my answer will be yes, Lord...yes, Lord
wherever You call me, I'll gladly go

--ross king

-psalm 94:19-
"in the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul..."

ok here's another one of these deals, b/c everyone really liked the other one apparently...

10 things i enjoy...
1. playing basketball
2. taking a nap
3. deep conversations
4. playing the guitar
5. seeing God change people
6. figuring something out on the computer
7. learning new stuff
8. helping other people out
9. being right
10. making other people laugh

9 music groups/artists that rock my face off...
1. Lifehouse
2. Jeremy Camp
3. Third Day
4. Jennifer Knapp
5. Chris Tomlin
6. Ross King
7. Switchfoot
8. Caedmons Call
9. old school FFH

8 places i like to eat...
1. Rosas
2. Olive Garden
3. Wendys
4. Outback
5. Wings N More
6. Double Daves
7. Subway
8. Pappadeaux (sp?)

7 characteristics i look for in a guy...
1. sense of humor
2. athleticism
3. blue eyes
4. hottness
5. a heart that's pursuing God
6. outgoing-ness
7. leadership-ness

6 names i've been called...
1. sharone
2. sharone full of bologna
3. matt's little sister
4. shevron
5. eat here
6. the First Sister (while matt was mr. president)

5 dumb things i do all too frequently...
1. make the hot sauce packet squirt everywhere
2. mix up my words (poor little boys i babysat during the summers named monty and rusty sure got really tired of me calling them ronty and musty)
3. drop my drink (in the words of Will, "o its ok, no one will notice...until they slip and fall on their face")
4. trip on the uneven parts of the sidewalk (if you've been to a&m at some point, you are probably familiar)
5. get a little confused while driving (if you want to know a secret way out of the dfw airport so you dont have to pay, just let me know and i'll help ya out)

4 cleaning things i need to do more often...
1. make my bed (sorry mom & dad)
2. clean the dust off my ceiling fan (where's bree when ya need her??)
3. are you for real supposed to clean baseboards or whatever?
4. mop the kitchen

3 people i'd really like to meet...
1. Joshua, from the Bible
2. the apostle Paul
3. some guy who wants to marry me someday....haha jk.

2 ways i release stress...
1. throw darts
2. play the guitar

1 thing i want to be remembered as...
1. verrry nice!

quotes from greg matte, speaking at breakaway

"so basically we were just putting the fun in dysfunctional"

"and my grandfather told me, just remember, us gray haired folks probably have shoes that are older than you are"

"just remember that when you're around someone older, they are wiser. they may not be as cool as you are, but there's a wisdom there."


5 signs that spring is in the air:

you wake up from a nap and its 7pm yet still light outside

your car becomes stifling hot, making it difficult to breathe when you first sit down inside

you want to wear a sweatshirt in the morning but in the afternoon you are burning hot

school seems to have been going on forever and all you want to do is be outside, not inside at class

things melt if you leave them in the car. on friday my deodorant melted because i left it in the car with my change of clothes while i gave a presentation. this is not cool, if you were wondering, and unfortunately beyond repair. i'm not sure what this says about my brand of deodorant. i mean, thats what they advertise you know, the hotter i am, the more it should work right? apparently, at some temperature level it simply just melts into one big mess. but you dont hear them advertising that now do ya? i think they should put a warning on the package.



5 random things said to me this week:

"so were one of your parents in the military? you seem very disciplined..." (we were playing mafia, and i'm like the narrator...i dont get any more relaxed. so this really caught me off guard)

"i didnt know you liked country music" (its the guitar, really, what can i say)

"so are your parents prolific(??) protestants or devout catholics to have so many kids?" (excuse me?)

"aren't you going to have a bunch of kids some day?" (in a word, no. but thanks for playing)

"in my 10years at a&m, that was the best project i've ever seen, and that presentation....it was just perfect. what a way to go out!" --my professor who is leaving after the semester is over (i think there was a few tears in his eyes....niiice)


in case you were curious, an update:
this week i attended EVERY class of mine, thats right perfecto attendance.
also this weekend, i wrote roughly 20% of one paper, and 40% of the other paper.
and, two days this week we worked on our project.

unfortunately, all that classing yielded zero quotes. i'm not sure if i'm just so bored that nothing is funny to me anymore or if the classes were just not that funny.

countdown to graduation: 34 days
number of days left to go to class: 6 days
remaining assignments/tests in undergraduate degree: 16

Nothing Else I Need

when i think of all i've seen nothing
compares to what you give
and to drink of what you bring you quench
the thirst for me to live
i am satisfied by what tenderness you've
shown to me and i empty all that i am

and you fill my life you're everything to me
there's nothing else i need anymore
and i know you are everything to me and
there's nothing else i need anymore

i have tasted and i know this fire birthed
inside will only grow and i've sought all that
this world tried to offer me and it led me
to your feet and i empty all that i am

and you fill my life you're everything to me
there's nothing else i need anymore
and i know you are everything to me and
there's nothing else i need anymore

i will lay down all my needs and you will
come and make them new
to make you my only desire my desire
and you fill my life you're everything to me

and you fill my life you're everything to me
there's nothing else i need anymore
and i know you are everything to me and
there's nothing else i need anymore

there's nothing else i need.....

--jeremy camp

"I hope each of you is getting straight up krunk about presenting at the CMIS board meeting."--Will, in his email to team awesome

intramural basketball playoff victory last nite...yay! thanks to will and markum for coming out and getting krunk.

link to some quotes from simon, of american idol judging fame, courtesy of cynthia
simon's quotes

apparently with my "things i heart about my time at a&m" lists in 2 previous posts, i have convinced the skeptics that 3yrs actually IS a satisfactory length of time to enjoy college (as opposed to 4), and that i have actually managed to enjoy college personally in my 3 yrs. so i am cleared for graduation on all fronts it seems.

when you've just gotten home for the evening at 11pm, having been gone since around 9am, and your friends call and want to play cards, and its a wednesday evening, and you have class at 8am in the morning, YOU would probably decline to go hang out. i lack this ability. and it seems several of my friends do too because suddenly there was 8 of us up at the MSC trash talking while playing taboo and generally just hanging out. this, my friends, is what college is about. o, and getting an education, etc.

i'm constantly hearing in lectures/speeches/conferences/etc that flexibility is key..."you just need to be flexible". and i want to say, hey, I'M flexible here, it seems its YOU that aren't flexible. i PLANNED to go to bed last nite, but when friends called, i was FLEXIBLE to change my plans. often i PLAN to go to class, but in the morning i'm FLEXIBLE to change those plans. i PLAN to study ahead of time for tests to avoid cramming the night before and i'm FLEXIBLE....ok just kidding on that one, i dont even bother planning that. but anyway, i guess my point is, i agree, we all should be VERY flexible. it will make you enjoy your day...or at least make you really tired during class!

apparently an approaching graduation will make you sentimental.

more things i heart about my time at a&m, in no particular order:

1. pancake breakfasts at the hoovers...the chef's hat just puts it over the top. or that its at 6am.

2. info lunches....team awesome: dominating the info dept. since 2003

3. peer mentorship award banquet.....awww thanks guys

4. tutoring elementary students....that did not wish to have a tutor

5. coordinating disciple nows at the BSM

6. leading worship for youth night in caldwell

7. star of bethlehem presentation

8. being witnessed to (by my brothers best friend's girlfriend) while, ironically, having my quiet time on the academic plaza

9. ice skating & cheesecake factory trip to houston

10. moving into my first apartment

11. that one night during finals week, that matt, bree, megan, and i laughed really hard, and i had that sticky gooey hand....we were sleep deprived.

12. trying to change megan's car battery and finally giving up and asking for help from tall matt, who did it in what 15 minutes?

13. walking all the way home from a football game and finding $20 on the ground

14. selling back books

15. appealing a parking ticket and getting it waived

16. teaching at Impact conferences over spring breaks

17. third day concert at reed arena

18. coaching my upward team

19. making a forbidden yet o so sweet trip to the roof of the msc

20. playing with nerf guns and giant frisbees in the middle of the night at wehner

21. getting lost on my way to history of american seapower the first week of class my freshmen year

22. accounting tutoring sessions at subway with julie

23. finance cramming sessions with bree

24. working out with bree

25. spending some evenings reading at barnes & noble

26. derek webb concert at rudder

27. mitte society planning with lindsay

28. monday night upstream leaders prayer meetings

29. learning that you can bike from northside to west campus in about 3 minutes if there's no train

30. doing that community survey with evelyn...one of the most difficult things i've done

31. getting letters in the mail from my mom

32. lolly's volleyball tournaments that brought her to a&m or at least to sam houston for a saturday

33. chick-fil-a outbound meals....beautiful

34. coffee station study times with lauren

35. jason's deli weekly lunches with megan

36. BSM summer missions banquet

37. hearing the SBP election results at sul ross

38. FBC Bryan youth choir musicals

39. FBC Bryan Christmas musical with matt & bree

40. thanksgiving at m&r's

41. Beth Moore Bible study on Sunday nights

42. running the multimedia screens at FBC Bryan

43. whataburger study nights.....ohhh the fun times had at whataburger in that corner booth

44. sunday lunches at matt's apt

45. getting a job offer

46. getting my aggie ring

47. "running" that 5K on a saturday at 8am with bree that one time

48. watching the presidential election results and eating rootbeer floats at matt's place

49. our commissioning deal to send evelyn off to brazil

50. having the freedom to skip classes

so last night at the Bible study i'm in at BSM, we took this profile deal, and it kinda matches your 'personality type' with your spiritual gifts, blah blah blaaaaaah, it is kind of interesting stuff. this includes the DISC model of human behavior that reveals i'm passive/reserved. hmmm what a shocker. if you would like more insight into supposedly understanding and working with me, read on, otherwise....i'm not exactly sure why you're reading my blog. unless you're looking for funny quotes, which is a valid point, but you should come back another day.

apparently, according to this, i am generally passive/people oriented, characterized as steady, stable, shy, security-oriented, servant, submissive, specialist. thats right, a specialist. WHAT the heck i'm a specialist in they did NOT say.

however in stressful situations it appears my passive/task oriented side comes into play, making me more cautious, competent, calculating, compliant, careful, contemplative.

i'm not sure but i'd say my older brother is a blend of the other 2 letters, the active/outgoing ones. D (active/task) being dominating, directing, driving, demanding, determined, decisive, doing. and I (active/people) being inspiring, influencing, inducing, impressing, interactive, interested in people.

how can 2 people that came from the same 2 people be sooooo different??

my spiritual gifts, according to this = knowledge & wisdom

so then this is supposedly how they work together with my personality....

"Sweet, soft, and sensitive type believers who seem to have an unusual amount of information about so many things often have the gift of knowledge. They are slow to share, but when asked, have an answer for just about everything. They are more shy, than outgoing. They usually dont volunteer their knowledge, but are ready once asked. S type personalities with the gift of knowledge are faithful and loyal. They dont like hurting others and want to always help others with their knowledge."

"Passive/people oriented Christians with the unusual ability to make wise decisions often have S type personalities with the gift of wisdom. They are not hard and strong about most things, but do have unique insights when it comes to right and wrong. They are often sought out by others, because of their loyal and faithful way of dealing with problems. They are more quiet than most people, but when they do share their wisdom, people are often amazed.

They tend to be humble and need to speak out more. But they often demonstrate wisdom that few people ever imagine."

and apparently i should be more assertive. oddly enough, that is about the 4th time i've heard that....this week. so watch out or i might....assert you.

i'm not too sure on these spiritual gifts deals...i'm never quite sure i've got the right ones marked down. i think on this one i took in the ninth grade i somehow scored NEGATIVE on showing mercy, which is like impossible and i think it means like you're not saved or something, but hey, what can i say.

and i'm not entirely sure that i'm convinced that i actually have a personality.

but these things are supposed to help us understand each other, so......understand me ok?

if you send me your spiritual gifts and your personality, i will tell you what my cool book says about you.

10 things that made today cool:

-waking up BEFORE my alarm went off at 7 (there is something to this theory about going to bed early)
-today was the last info 477 lecture, yesssss (now if only there wasn't that hideous project looming so largely)
-lunch at dalins deli on northgate with the info guys and peter
-chatting with M online about....pizza rolls! (get excited.)
-guest speaker in info439 (read: get out of class early, no hw)
-telephone convo with cy
-no one being in the workout room when i went down there to work out (its always nicer that way)
-racking up the very nice points by helping a friend with their excel formulas (because honestly i'd rather help with your hw then do my own, so hit me up. you never can tell what i'll agree to do)
-breakaway (and getting soaked in the torrential downpour following breakaway)
-even more very nice points for helping the roomy with computer stuff

quote for today:
"apparently sugarless gum may kill dogs. and its proven that after they die their breath starts to stink again. its lose-lose."

some things i heart about my time at a&m, in no particular order

1. fightin texas aggie football games--my faves being the ou game my freshman yr, and the ou game this yr, etc.

2. fightin texas aggie baseball, basketball, volleyball, SOCCER, tennis, etc.

3. my kinesiology classes...tennis & basketball

4. upstream triple chunk group 14....spring retreat was the most amazing weekend i've ever been a part of, and fall retreat and the whole yr were pretty stinkin tight too

5. shaving cream fight on the academic plaza with the terrible twos

6. the night of the tech game my freshman yr, even if none of us got to sit together at sweet home alabama

7. leading worship, eating ice cream, philosophizing, and laughing in houston with chris hoover and co.

8. leading dnows on several weekends my freshman yr

9. mktg with conant, java with mrs. p, and mgmt with dr. welch

10. spending way too many hours computerizing with team awesome (code red! the rash is getting worse..........)

11. playing and watching intramural basketball

12. soccer, sand volleyball, and tennis with triple chunksters

13. tennis, sonic, and nite church at grace with a good friend

14. fbc bryan sunday school class

15. chapel

16. breakaway

17. j-jo's spring break in c.s.

18. matt's campaign

19. muster

20. family times at m&r's in bryan

21. double daves, wings n more, freebirds, and koppe bridge

22. business honors trip to the astros game

23. weslee and me going to houston for the rockets game and shopping

24. megan, magan, and i going to houston for a rockin jeremy camp concert (stop! i think the road is gone?!?!?)

25. wedding dress shopping with bree

26. the weekends my sisters stayed at my apt.

27. when megan, john, byron, and i went tubing on the guadalupe

28. my spring break trip to london

29. the night we stayed up till 5 playing daniel's card game

30. late nights playing spades and eating cookies

31. the times m&r came to dinner at my place

32. the time m&r made my dad play charades

33. fridays with luke

34. the day i substitute taught a 3rd grade class

35. sittin around playing guitars and worshipping together

36. the trip to san antonio to interview with USAA

37. kelly coe and me camping with a bunch of craaazy terrible twos guys who tried to set the lake on fire

38. pulling all nighters....often just for the fun of it, sometimes for studying purposes

39. afternoon naps

40. the times i cooked dinner with travis and ryan

41. the rowing machines at the rec

42. quiet times in all faiths chapel on rainy afternoons

43. partays and general good times at chateaux cheval or whatever the heck it is

44. playing poker and swinging and going down slides in the middle of the night with upstream leaders

45. driving meals on wheels with nancy on thursdays

46. the time matt made me get dressed up and go to a formal with him.....at sbisa, sitting across from the food services director.

47. late night IM chats

48. visits from my grandmothers, shelby, emily m, weslee, etc

49. walking at bee creek park and sonic runs with megan

50. missions discovery weekend in arlington

....

in doing 2 very innocent things, i find myself with 2 brand new time wasters to enjoy. at this point you are probably thinking that i, of all people, do not need MORE things to waste my time on. but you are probably just jealous of my mad time management skills that enable me to appear to do absolutely nothing at all.

new time waster #1
while innocently trying to communicate with my brother & sister in law, they discovered, in a word, skype. skype is incredibly cool. it uses voice over IP technology and voila your computer=telephone. and if both parties are on their computer=absolutely free. to anywhere in the world. you can also, from you computer for roughly 3 cents a minute, call any landline or cell phone. amaaazing. this is particularly handy if you have a brother & sister in law living in london. you should download it yourself and call me!

new time waster #2
while innocently just trying to help a friend edit an audio file, i downloaded a free audio editing program called wave pad. its fun to play with.

time waster #1 + time waster #2
in order to use skype, you need to have a microphone. and so yesterday i ventured out to old wally world for the first time in literally many months and bought an uber cool "skype certified" internet chat headset with microphone. it even has interchangeable color plates. this is pretty tight stuff. BUT this also leads to infinitely more fun with wave pad, when you can record your own audio files!

so if your looking for something to do:
1. download skype and call your friends/family/random strangers
2. buy a tight microphone headset and....have fun
3. practice editing songs

if that doesnt sound like fun to you, then geeze. i dont know what does.

i did tear myself away from my new toys long enough to go to 5 innings of fightin texas aggie baseball "batting practice" until the chill air and my flip flops just couldnt stand each other any more.

attention: 8 more days of classes EVER for me in my undergraduate career. can i just say whoop?
countdown to graduation: 40 days.

to be fair, i've included an easter quote from myself, recorded by bekah

"I eat things that make me thin...wheat thins, thin mints - thats my diet!"
-the OnE & OnLy, ShArOnE-


so basically senioritis or spring fever or whatever it is, THAT is kickin my boo-tay right now. if the first 3 weeks of march seemed like a mere 3 days, the last 9 days of march felt like nine stinkin years. we've finally made it to april, and in just over 3 weeks, i will have completed a semester project (with team awesome!), and written two papers, of 15 pages each. hmmm. april toils bring may diplomas?

so here's my resolutions for school in april:
1. resolved. to go to all my remaining classes. i.e. no more skipping. i.e. stop laughing. i.e. i'm serious.
2. resolved. to begin my papers BEFORE the week they're do.
3. resolved. to use the project workdays in the syllabus to actually work on the project.

APRIL FOOLS.

haha just kidding, those really are my resolutions. i know that you are still laughing at my resolutions, but you just watch. i really can do things i want to do. i'm gonna suck it up and finish strong here. ok, now i'm laughing. i'm really tired of info classes. hopefully may will come soon!!

april fools day doesnt carry quite the same charm it did in elementary school. what kind of person are you when april 1st no longer makes you gleefully think APRIL FOOLS DAY, YES!!! and instead you think, dang it april 1st, my rent is due and i dont have any more checks.



-psalm 70:4-
"Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, 'Let God be magnified!'"



the light i was following
suddenly seems quite dim
or maybe its just my eyes
clouding up on the earthly prize
doubt wrecked the confidence
that was driving my heart
and the plans you've laid
have never seemed a larger maze
as i sift through every desire
my head's barely above the mire
but as i'm struggling all alone
i think i can hear a heartbeat
and its not my own...