the vest

i went shopping today and saw a full rack of these vests. okay, i wore a vest like that about 12 years ago. im not sure it was cool then, and i dont think it should be now. uhhh. why? why are they trying to bring those back. the rack was full for a reason; no one really wants to wear that sort of vest. Rumor has it that Abercrombie is bringing back the vest as well. o brother

rebellion

everyone has to do it once in a while. i gave in to trendiness.
last week i made the call that most parents probably dread but semi-expect to get when their daughter moves away to college.
"mom, can i get a tatoo?"
okay, i didnt ask that question, but i did ask about a piercing.
i would just like all of you to know, that it was well thought through, as i am still the same old practical, analytical julie. if you are strongly opposed, you can call me and i will give you my list of reasons.
it doesnt show up that noticeably in pictures with this sort of light anyway












--do i like it: yes

--did it hurt: it pinched when the needle went through, but other than that, it was cake

--is it hard to blow my nose now that i am conveniently sick: not a hard as i thought it would be

i cant believe i spent time on this, i love you girls

Four jobs I've had:
1- DCA
2- Barlow
3- Modern Language & Lit Dept
4- Political Science & Criminal Justice Dept

Four movies I could watch over and over:
1- Return to Me (i do watch over and over...)
2- The Wedding Planner
3- Entrapment
4- Italian Job

Four places I've lived:
1- Navajo Dr.
2- Waco Dr.
3- Magnolia Ave.
4- ... to be announced

Four TV shows that I love:
1- Alias
2- Law & Order
3- ummm, ER for lack of a better answer
4- Gauntlet, monday nights with the girls, 231 B

Four places I've vacationed:
1- Washington DC
2- Washington State
3- Paris, France
4- Barcelona, Spain

Four of my favorite dishes:
1- Chicken from the grill with rice
2- Mole
3- Barbecue Chicken Pizza
4- Salmon Sandwhich, no tomatoes

Four sites I visit daily:
1- BBC
2- for the sake of space, mels blog, and elsewhere
3- kimmysun's blog
4- www.calbaptist.edu

Four places I would rather be right now:
1- at the beach
2- sleeping in my bed in Utah
3- getting a massage
4- snowboarding at Basin

Four people who must now do this survey:
1-i wont make any of you do this
2-half of you reading this
3-have already
4-done it anyway

Big Bear

Big Bear is a little town that is up in the San Bernardino mountains, along the lines of Eden/ Liberty area. it takes about 1 hr and 45 min to get there if you go in the afternoon and about 1 hr to get back at night. i have heard alot about it cause everyone has told me how quaint and cold it is up there...

yesterday morning i walked outside to go for my morning jog and i saw my friend Brooke, who decided to join me (she actually already had run, but since she trained for a stinking half marathon, she is in good enough shape to tag along with me as well). The mountains looked so beautiful cause it snowed this weekend (not in the city though, of course) and she just said, well what are you doing this afternoon-- lets go!
so i left a class early, so i could go to work early, so i could get off early and so we drove to the mountains! we just walked down the main street, went to dinner and drove home, but it was so fun! Brooke is amazing so it was nice just to really hang out for a while and talk. Plus, i got to see snow, get some use out of the beanie i brought back to school, and best of all, i got to see the stars. They were seriously fabulous. There were no street lights or anything, and there was no smog! i usually can count the number of stars i can see in the sky (no joke), so the blanket of stars and the 30 degree air just took my breath away. it was a pretty great way to spend a Tuesday night if you ask me.

fun dips

you know that candy that you had when you were little and it is basically pure sugar. it turns your mouth colors and gives you a bit of energy.
well a friend on my hall had a bunch of valentines fun dips, so we all started eating them around midnight on monday. im not sure what really happened in between eating the sugar and busting out the sharpies, but shannon, krista, courney and i ended up giving each other tatoos. we started with some very tasteful ones on the ankles, but eventually things got a bit out of control and we ended up signing the bottoms of one anothers feet. there is really no way to explain all that and make the situation sound normal or sane. but we had quite a few laughs ( mostly because we are all pretty ticklish!)

the road to recovery

as you all know, i am recovering from a black eye. i guess i would not really call it black anymore though. now it looks like someone with a really big mouth just kissed me on the eye because it is only a little maroon below my eye and on the lid.

a kiss sounds nice, but i did not look "kissed" at all last week. i looked more on the battered side. saturday, you saw, and i was snowboarding so most people just thought i had done some crazy trick and wasnt so lucky with the landing (however, there is still respect for trying).

sunday it looked like this...



i tried makeup that day, but it hurt to put on, and i ended up crying it all away. i would walk outside and have to squint or wind would blow and my eye would water.
i kind of banked on the fact that it looked like a birth mark, so people didnt really ask questions at church.



monday was a different story though. i opted for no makeup cause it hurt to put on, i dont like the feeling of makeup, and it all would come off anyway.



i got alot of questions that day, but the thing that was worse than being asked "what happened" over and over again and having to tell people that i was playing catch and didnt catch it, was the fact that i had counseling that night. yes i have counseling every monday night. im supposed to go for a class i have. i got the most blatant stares the second i walked in the place. i wanted to wear a sign around my neck that said "ill break up with him tomorrow."



here are the pictures of tuesday, and you can see that i still definately had a black eye (i thought it would have been healing a bit better by then). my cheek was the part of my face that actually got hit with the ball, which is made more evident by that lovely yellow tint. i think the blood in the eye has a nice effect also.






















finally, on wednesday i was able to use makeup. and things have just gone uphill from there.



you know what, it wasnt so bad. my face hurt, would be really swollen in the mornings, and i got stared at alot, but i totally got used to the fact that the left side of my face looked a little droopy. but really, its kind of fun and now i have a good story and pictures

o my heavens

i have not blogged in a while due to internet issues. the internet is completely a blessing and a curse.
well last week was not too bad, the weekend was wonderful, and i anticipate this week being even better. half of that will be up to me, but i think i have done pretty well so far. i think i set a new record last night by laying down in my bed at like 10:30. i woke up when the roommate got home (at which point i actually got under my covers) and then a bit later to take out contacts and brush my teeth, but basically i got 9 hours of sleep. that is 3 hours more than the usual goal for the night. and, another blessing, the black eye is almost healed!
i have pictures of the weekend and the eye that i will post later when im not sitting at work.

spice up your life

well im not sure i can handle much more spice cause things are pretty crazy right now.
i did get more sleep this week than i did last, but six hours is sadly still the goal. however, homework is not the only thing consuming time this week, thankfully. tuesday i went out to dinner at the Macaroni Grill and we colored all over the table paper. we came back to school to catch the end of a basketball game and then they had karaoke night.
ashley, lori, tot (lauren), and erika did a lovely preformance of the Spice Girls.











last night erika and i went to Bakers and then sat in her car for probably an hour taking pictures and talking. here is one of the many famous "car shots"

youre looking at it

i went snowboarding in so cal today. we went to mountain high, which is like the Wolf Mountain in the area. though its bigger, its not a ton better. but i was prepared for that. plus i was in good company, so we had a few good runs and many laughs.
the weirdest part was driving up, my mind didnt know if it was getting prepared to hike or board. we actually did see hikers on the hill opposite ours, as the snow is only located specifically on the runs, not even in the trees under the lifts. i wore a thermal and a tee shirt and was hot multiple times.

basically, all of the runs fit in this picture.




and yup, you can see my black eye. here it is, up close and personal. it was a bit worse today. though it wasnt that black and blue when i woke up, it was much more puffy. i couldnt see out of it very well. hopefully it will be better tomorrow for church.

shiner

so one time, on a friday afternoon i decided to go outside and play a little catch. the weather was beautiful, so i threw on shorts and a tee shirt. before you knew it, i had a mit on and some friends and i were displaying our sweet skills. mind you, the mit was borrowed and on the "too big" side of the scale, but i made it work. we were running around in the grass, laughing and talking.

after we had been playing a while, the ball was once again thrown to me. everything seemed normal, but as the ball fell into that oversized glove, my little smokies just couldnt maneuver well enough to keep the ball in the glove. yes, the ball bounced right out of the glove and landed on my cheak.


at least thats the story im telling people. what really happened was i got in this fight with some burly girl who tried to steal my banocca, and when i told her to step off, she said that Biola's girls football team was better than CBU's! the nerve! i took her out, but as she crashed to the ground she got a swing in. however, that story is not nearly as cool so i think ill just stick with the baseball one...


it actually wasnt too bad last night

long days and lack of time

since the last time i posted i have gotten about twelve more hours of sleep. 2 1/2 the night i posted, 4 1/2 wednesday night (though that was a bit weird since they were not consecutive) and last night i got 6 1/2 fabulous hours (i was so excited).

overall, the week was fine though. I was super busy, but i somehow never got truly tired. I was a bit worn out but i didnt really have a problem keeping my eyes open. I made time to work out and be one-on-one with God, went to all the meetings i had and still spent time with some amazing people, and now im finished.
ill admit though, this week is in the running for the longest weeks ever, and im glad its over. im sure i wrote about one of those last semester but this one puts up some good competition. i kept thinking how it was going to fine cause the end was near, but the days blurred together and passed so slowly. yet i never had enough time. so ironic.

at our 3 hour Rwanda meeting (okay that time didnt pass so quickly...) we talked about how the people there have such different agendas and priorities.they are never on time. some of our leaders were just there, and a man explained to them that we have watches but they have time. going there will be such an experience. i cant really describe it more specifically than that right now.

sorry for being all over the place but today was wonderful. partly because it wasnt yesterday, but partly because it is 77 degrees outside, i got to just sit and talk to different people throughout the day that i havent had time to see lately and because i do not have to finish all my homework tonight. ill be boarding tomorrow but for now i think i am going to join the people i can see out mind widow who are throwing a baseball around... i live in california...

marathon

surprisingly enough, i did not fall asleep in any of my classes today. shocker, seeing as i went to bed at 3:30, putting me at about 4 hours of sleep.

too bad i have so much homework this week that last night will have to be repeated a few times. and yeah your thinking that i am a procrastinator right now, but yea, i am not! I truly did lots of homework this weekend, but with work and meeting etc. its difficult to find much time.

so here i am, drinking my only hope for making it through the week. had one last night and it got me through, and it proved to be faithful once again. that and i think God is giving me a bit extra endurance...












yessss...
























and this will be buzzing in 3 hours and 10 minutes (well less than three hours by the time i finish this). o joy.





















o well is probably more appropriate.







goodnight, goodmorning, whatever, im off!