Finals Begin.

So it’s 9am, and my first college final starts in an hour and a half. Sure, I should probably be going over my English lit notes, but for the first time in my life my grades are good going into finals, and I don’t have to scramble to get them up. Plus, I know this stuff and I’m not worried about not doing well. I just read Christopher James’ blog and that made me want to write in my own.

I cannot wait to see all of my friends from home. After being such a large part of my life for such a long time, it’s been weird to only talk to them every once in a while, and even then only hear their voices. I called a few of them the other day because I needed some help with one of my papers and I knew they would be able to help me, and I realized that things really will be different when I come home. And I’m scared. Not that I think we won’t get along, or we won’t have anything to talk about, it just won’t be the same, and that makes me sad. I knew this coming here, that once I left in August, things would never be the same and now, four months later, the time has come to once again return home. And I’m scared. Not that I don’t love it here and don’t want to have to deal with the millions of questions that everyone will ask me about school. I’m excited to answer those, Valpo really is the perfect place for me. But it’s just me out here, and some people just won’t care as much as I want them to. They’ll listen to me talk about my friends and pretend to care, all the while wishing they could just start talking about how great life is for them at __________. It’s hard because I know I’ll be the same way. Part of me will want to hear all about other colleges, but part of me won’t because then I’ll have to come to terms with the fact that we are growing apart, and there are certain people that I just am not willing to lose. I’ve found that the people that I talk to from home and want to see most are the people that are still living the life I am familiar with. Katie, Danny Boy, Alex Marie- I know what they are talking about when they talk about their lives because they, while having also grown as people, haven’t grown away from what I know. But even with them, talking on the phone is different than seeing them in person, which I’ll do next Monday. And I’m scared. Scared because I’ll have to admit all of the things I’ve been trying to deny since I got here. Scared because I know we probably won’t care as much as we used to. Scared that I won’t feel like I belong when I go “home.”

i love you, but i'm scared.

Less than Two Weeks left at Valpo!!

I miss the days when the weather was above freezing. It hasn’t climbed above 30 all week, and the wind chill makes it usually feel in the single digits. I’ve never been this cold. It’s not very much fun. I learned today that going outside in 20 degree weather with wet hair is not a smart idea. I know, I know- it’s common knowledge to most, but I’m new to this. The worst part of it all is that we haven’t had a real snowfall yet, and that makes me sad. I was looking forward to the snow and Oregon has gotten more snow than Valpo. Chicago got almost a foot last weekend, but we barely got a dusting. I’m going to be very sad if it doesn’t snow before I come home- which is in only 12 days!!

I can hardly believe that the semester is almost over, and that I’ve been here for four months. My classes are coming to an end, and I can say that I’m proud of the work I’ve put out in my first semester of this crazy college education. My finals should be pretty easy, and are spaced out well, so I’ll have plenty of time to study for them individually. Dad flies in next week and heads out to Valpo on Friday. Surprisingly a good number of my friends will still be around, so he can meet them. I was afraid the campus would be pretty empty. We then spend the weekend in Chicago and fly home Sunday night, the 17th. I really can’t wait.

I’ve talked to most of my close friends pretty regularly and I’m uber excited to see them in such a short time. I’m looking forward to plenty of Dawson, movie nights and a trip to FX. I’m glad that even though I’ve been gone for so long, a part of us will never change, and we’ll always be able to remain the close friends we’ve always been. It’s going to be unusual to be away from my new friends. It’s surprised me how well I’ve gotten to know each other in the last few months. I’ve eaten dinner with the same six people every day since August and to think that I’ll be celebrating Christmas, my birthday and New Years without them is a little strange. They have become my family, and I’m sure that they’ll be getting numerous text messages over the three week period. I’ll just have to remember the time difference and make a point not to call them too late. Three weeks seems like a lot of time, but considering the number of people that I want to see before I fly back, I have a feeling I’m going to be rather busy, and January 8th will be here before I know it. Time literally flies by and it’s hard to stop and absorb it all sometimes. Luckily that’s why I’m born right after Jesus- it gives me a reason to have EVERYONE over for some fun. (by the way Dad- I’m having people over on my birthday, hope that’s okay!)

Other than that life is good, as always. I suppose I should mention that facebook doesn’t lie- I am in fact in a relationship. His name is Brett and he’s from St. Louis. At this point it’s new and I’m just interested in seeing where it goes.

I love you all and I can’t wait to see you!!!!

South Bend, Indy and Chicago… Vickie’s Tour of the Midwest

Well, I’ve been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, and I’m really excited to see Sissy tomorrow when she swings through Valpo on her way to Iowa, and then picks me back up Sunday and I get to see what life is like in Maryland. Three weeks ago (seriously, the time FLIES by) I went over to the University of Notre Dame to visit my friend Lisa Bunn because it was her birthday. She and I worked together at Cold Stone this summer and discovered that we also went to Nike Soccer Camp together when we were little. She’s pretty much the only person that I know from home within a 500 mile radius of me and since it had been almost three months since I’d seen anyone I knew, I was excited to see her. Plus she’s one of the most optimistic people I know and I knew we’d have a good time. Seeing the Notre Dame campus made me realize just how much I wish Valpo had cool architecture- but the Christopher Center (the library) looks pretty cool, and the plans for the new student union will make us look a little more modern and a little less 1960s. It was really fun to sit and talk with her for a couple of hours. She went home for their fall break so she caught me up on all of the Cold Stone gossip and we bonded in our mutual dislike of the Midwestern landscape. I was planning to spend the night out there but remembered at the last minute that I had to work the late shift and had to catch the last train home. Oh well, just gives me reason to head out there at another time.


Happy Birthday Lisa!!!

The next day I dragged my friend Beth, who lives across the hall, into Chicago to see Mat Kearney play the House of Blues. I’d seen him play at a church in Canby last summer, but it was a very acoustic show. I love his music and it sounds even better with a full band. Beth had never really heard of him, but she ended up liking his music and asked to borrow my CDs when we got back. The weirdest thing was getting off the train and walking down Michigan Ave. and realizing that we really are growing up. Neither of us had been to the city without our parents before and we were excited to think that we’re now big bad adults. We also stopped for some McDonalds, which I haven’t had since I got here, and it was just what I remembered- delicious. Overall it was a really great trip into the city- I decided we don’t do that enough.

The next weekend Beth, Katie and I went down to Indianapolis to see RENT! on stage. It was PHENOMINAL! We’d looked into getting tickets after we watched the movie about a month earlier, saw that it was playing in Indy and decided it was worth it to go. Even though it’s not the same cast as the movie it’s still amazing. To hear those voices in real life just makes the characters come alive, and I’d already fallen in love with the story. We hit up Circle Center which left Beth a little paranoid (she’s definitely a small town girl) and I enjoyed the best cup of hot chocolate ever… gotta love Godiva.


This is me and Katie outside of The Murat Theater in Indy.

Other than the fun weekend adventures, my time has been spent sleeping, reading, studying, watching movies (if you haven’t seen The Departed yet you should.. it’s really good.) and getting soaked in this terrible weather. If you think it rains a lot in Oregon.. psh, try living out here. They try to tell me that it isn’t always this bad, but from what I’ve seen the rain never stops. And it’s cold and windy, which just makes walking to class miserable. Everyone is getting excited about going home tomorrow, and while I’m a little sad to have to wait another month, I’m really excited to see Maryland and meet Billy’s family again. Somehow he got us tickets to the Maryland/Wake Forest football game next Saturday and I’m really looking forward to experience football at a big school. 91,000 people is a helluva lot. I think our football team won 3 games all season, but I never wanted to sit in the rain and watch them play. Our basketball team seems to be doing well, and is fun to watch. I’m officially a member of VUCRU, which is our student section- complete with matching t-shirts.

As you can see, life at Valpo is good. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving week, and I look forward to seeing many of you soon!!!

Much love-

the high today was like 37.. and it's only October.

I know that it has been a long time since I’ve updated this, but there hasn’t been that much excitement and with midterms I was focused on studying a lot  I’m pleased with my midterm grades, and so far my classes haven’t proved to be too difficult. It’s really hard to believe that I’m more than halfway through my semester already, I’ll be home for Christmas before I know it! We had Fall Break the weekend before last which signaled the halfway point of my first semester of college and let me tell you- everyone goes home for that even though it’s only a four day weekend. The only people left on my floor were me, the RA Sandy, and a couple of girls on the swim team since they had a meet that weekend. I was invited to go home with a couple of my friends but since the dorms were still open there had to be people working the front desk, and since I didn’t have family to visit and everyone else did, I figured it’d be easy to make a few extra bucks. It meant a lot of movies and time to myself, which was actually pretty nice. It’s hard to get that around here most of the time- there are people everywhere. I was really glad when my friends came back though, I was getting a little stir crazy. I even crocheted myself a scarf since it’s going to get colder than cold here in the next few months. We had our first snowfall on the Thursday of Fall Break, and since then it’s stayed pretty cold. I think today’s high was like 37. Mom sent me some boots and a down coat she found on sale at the Columbia outlet, and then came just at the right time. She also arranged to have a cake delivered to me during fall break- yellow cake with chocolate frosting, my favorite. Thanks mom, it was delicious!

I’ve talked to Nate a lot recently since we were excited to cheer our A’s on into the second round of the ALCS, only to see them get swept by the Tigers. This World Series has proved to be interesting just because there are quite a few students from the Saint Louis and Detroit areas, so people get pretty heated while watching the games on the big screen in the lounge downstairs. I haven’t decided who I want to win yet, but I’m leaning a little more toward the Tigers I guess. To be honest I’m just glad to be watching good baseball. Lizzy has sent me a couple of different dress ideas for the wedding and I’ll be out there to visit her for Thanksgiving in a little less than a month which is hard to believe. I’m excited to see Maryland and the life she has made for herself out there and to meet the rest of Billy’s family so I can say I’ve met them at least once before the wedding. I’m also looking forward to just seeing some of my own family- three months is a long time to go without a fellow Chambers around.

I have a feeling that the next few weeks will fly by. I’m hoping to make it out to Notre Dame on Saturday for my friend Lisa’s birthday. She and I worked together at Cold Stone this summer and she’s totally a fun person to be around, so that should be highly amusing. I’m also headed to Chicago for the first time on Sunday to catch the Mat Kearney concert at the Chicago House of Blues, and I’m really excited for that. I love his music, it’ll be a small taste of home, and I’ve been itching to get into Chicago for weeks. Valpo only satisfies me for so long. Next weekend I’m headed down to Indy to see RENT! on stage. I watched the movie for the first time this last weekend and fell in love with the story- I’d already memorized the soundtrack. I checked it out online and it’s playing Indy on November 4-5, so Katie, Beth and I are going to make a day trip out of it. Thanks to Gramma Kingston for helping me with the tickets- I’m really excited about seeing more of this beautiful state. (ok so that was sarcasm.. it’s pretty ugly out here, but I’m excited to see Indy.) Other than that, school is moving on as usual.

Changes, Changes Everywhere

So this last week has been interesting because my friends at home finally started school. It’s really hard to think that I’ve been here for six weeks, and I really can’t believe that they haven’t started school yet. I’m excited because I don’t feel like I’m the only one moving on with life now, and I can see how their college experiences mirror and vary from my own. I’ve been gone long enough now that the subtle differences are starting to hit me. The biggest is just how many people here I don’t know. Growing up in West Linn meant going to school with the same kids every year of my schooling, and even if I wasn’t friends with all of them, I knew who they were. I don’t even know all of the names of the kids in my classes this year, let alone anything about them. That is definitely different from what I’m used to. I’m meeting a ton of new people, and I’ve made some great close friends that I feel really comfortable around, but it’s weird to not be able to sit and tell stories about Ms. Patteson’s 3rd grade class and middle school madness. I knew coming out here would mean that I started all over, but I think I failed to understand just exactly what that meant. I’ve found myself missing people that I wasn’t necessarily friends with, but interacted with on a daily basis, and became part of my routine. I’m getting into a new routine with new people in a new place, and I’m sure that over time, it would be weird to think of life any other way. I think part of why I’m thinking about this now is because this last week a lot of my friends had birthdays so I talked to them more often than I normally would. Almost all of them are going to school with people they know well, so seeing all of their pictures has made me realize just how new everything out here was to me.

One of the most noticeable differences is certainly the weather. It got a lot colder this week, and I was a little worried since it’s only September, and it’s just going to get colder. Luckily I think I came prepared with enough clothes that if I need to, I can just layer up like crazy and run to class. I’m also hoping that I get used to the weather changes soon- it can be freezing and warm in the same day, and that really throws me off. My favorite part is the thunderstorms we have. They are hardcore thunderstorms with lots of noise, rain and lightening. The other day we had a serious downpour and I ran out and jumped in puddles all over campus, and walked back into my dorm room absolutely soaked. But it was tons of fun, despite the weird looks I got from the Valpo Visit Day kids that were getting their tour of the campus. The nice thing is that most of those stupid bugs are dead now, so I don’t have to listen to their obnoxious buzzing all of the time.
The biggest news this week was that my roommate broke up with her boyfriend of almost 3 years. It seems to me like this is something that she has been wanting for a while, and just never had the guts to do. He certainly didn’t seem to see it coming. I feel bad for him because she pretty much moved on to some other guy already, and has no problem rubbing that in her ex-boyfriend’s face. It’s kind of nice for me because he spent a lot of time in our room, and that provided a lot of awkward moments for me, but it still sucks that it had to end this way. The group of us are torn between who we are supposed to hang out with, but so far it hasn’t been that bad. We’ll have to see what happens. We also start intramural volleyball tomorrow and I’m really excited about that. Although, we practiced today and I don’t think we’re going to be very good, which is a little discouraging, but that’s ok. As long as it’s fun, I think I’ll be okay; I’ll just have to put aside my intense competitive nature- or at least attempt to.
The next few weeks will probably fly by due to homecoming, midterms and fall break. We get a four day weekend the second week of October which will be a nice break from class. It’s really hard to believe that we are already almost halfway through the semester. Time really is speeding by. I’m a little sad that everyone and their mother will be going home for fall break, but I’ll be working a lot, and as boring as that will be, it’ll give me some extra spending money which will be nice.
I hope that everything is going well back home, or where-ever you are. If you get bored, it’s always fun to have something waiting in the mailbox- I joined Netflix just so I could have mail every once in a while  and, we watch a ridiculous amount of movies out here, so I’m sure I’ll get my moneys worth.
I love you all!

Life Lesson #1: Be able to drive a stick

So I learned this lesson in two different situations over the course of the last weekend.

Reason #1: When everyone else is drunk, someone has to drive home.
My friends and I were invited to a frat party on Friday night because we have what is called “Derby Days” this week which is a week long event run by the Sigma Chi Frat. My friend Katie and I were designated co-captains for our team, so our frat brother “coaches” invited us to hang out with them Friday. When we got there we realized that is was an actual party, complete with multiple beer pong tables. Since it was packed, and we didn’t really know anyone there was no real reason to be there unless you wanted to drink. So a bunch of us walked back. A couple of hours later I got a call because since Valpo is a dry campus, you can get in trouble for being intoxicated on campus no matter what age you are. So I got to use my amazing stick driving skills in my first (of a probably many) designated driver trips.

Reason #2: When the only other person has to go to the ER, someone has to drive her there.
So my friend Beth, who has her car here, managed to ram her foot into the door jam, breaking her pinkie toe and giving herself a severe laceration. With my pending nurse knowledge I decided we needed to go to the hospital. Really, anyone would have said it, this gash was that deep. She is scared to death of needles so she tried to refuse to go, but I was not having any of that. So I drove her to the Porter County ER which is about three blocks down the street at midnight on Saturday. Let’s just say that if you ever ACTUALLY have an emergency, you might want to choose another hospital unless you have a noticeable serious trauma. It took 5.5 hours for her to even go in the back to seen, and we didn’t manage to get back to the dorm til 8am. Let’s just say we got a little loopy after about the second hour of waiting. Me and my friend Katie (Beth’s roommate) had a tripod competition,

she and Shane played that hand slappy game,

Sandy (our kick butt RA) was telling us all about what the hospital was doing wrong, because she’s also a nursing major, although she’s actually taken nursing classes…



we basically just got to know each other a little more than we were expecting I think. After a very long night, we slept for 4 hours and then got up for Waffles, which are the best part of Sundays if you ask me. One of the cafeterias does these huge Belgian Waffles and you can put pretty much anything you ever wanted on them. They are delicious, and something we look forward to each weekend.

Other than that, classes and life has been pretty routine. This is a pretty slow week for me, but I have two tests and two large papers due next week, so I’ll spend a lot of time getting ready for that. I’m heading out to Notre Dame on Saturday to visit my friend Lisa who I worked with at Cold Stone and to watch the ND- Michigan State game on the quad with a ton of ND students. My friend Shane loves ND Football, and he has a car, so he’s going to show me, Eric and Sara around campus as well. I hear it’s really pretty so that will make me just appreciate our lovely Valpo Architecture even more. My friends back home finally moved into their dorms this week, so I don’t feel like I’m the only one in college any more. I’m excited to see what they think of it.

Welcome to Alumni!

The last few days have been relatively normal… not a whole lot is really going on. I’m getting into a routine for my classes and homework. Wednesdays have become my favorite days because I only have one class that doesn’t start until 10:10. I also learned that Sports Illustrated gets delivered on Wednesdays here, so that means that it really is my favorite day of the week. I’m working as write this. I’ve found pretty much the easiest job that exists I think. As a Desk Attendant I sit at the front desk of Alumni (my dorm) and make sure that suspicious people don’t go unnoticed, sort mail and greet people with a smile. Basically I get paid to sit here and do my homework, which is really nice. The unfortunate thing is that minimum wage in Indiana is only $5.15/ hour, and I’m coming off making $8/hour at Cold Stone. So that certainly sucks. I only work about ten hours a week, but I think I would go crazy from boredom if I worked more than that, and the only reason I need money is to pay my cell phone bill and for spending money, and I should be able to do both of those things with the small income I bring in.

Perhaps the coolest part of my job is that I get to meet a lot of different people. I’ve met a lot of the freshman football players, and apparently we had a blow out game this last weekend… it was away. I also heard that it was against a division 3 team, so that could be why. More importantly, I’ve met some basketball players. Now that might actually do me some good. This way, when people see that we make it to the NCAA Tournament this year, and watch us on tv I can say "I know that kid, his name is Paul, he's from England." and I won't be lying. They tell me that our team is supposed to be good this year, and even better next year, so don't be surprised if you see me on tv come march.

The tornado siren went off again this week and I immediately thought “that’s it, I’m moving back to Oregon.” Then I was informed that it was just a test of the system and it happens every first Tuesday of the month. You would think that would be something they told you at orientation or at least those of us from non-tornado zones. How am I supposed to know what is real and what is a test? I guess I'll just get used to it, and know that if there ever was a tornado, like there was my first week here that the siren works. And, it's fricking loud.

I went to some frat parties this weekend, and I figured out which ones are shady, and which ones are actually cool. I earned some real street cred at the Sig Eps house, because I came prepared to Slip-n-Slide. Apparently not many people did. Right now I need to get back to doing some homework before my last real day of classes for the week. Friday is another easy day which is nice, especially since I'm done with classes at 11am. I don't really have any plans for this weekend yet, but it's time for the annual Valparaiso Popcorn Festival, so we'll probably stop by there at some point. I hope all is well with all of you- Vickie

people have been asking me for my address here so i'll just post it now:
Vickie Chambers
Alumni Hall 514
1605 Campus Drive East
Valparaiso, IN 46383

College... the beginning

**i'm sorry it's taken me so long to update- I couldn't remember my access name to get into this, but I remembered it this afternoon. **

College is... amazing. Needless to say, I absolutely love it here. I moved in almost a week ago, but before we get into all of that fun, we shall start with last Tuesday.
So I was running around like crazy trying to get everything done before 4pm which is when people were welcome to start stopping by to say farewell. I managed to do that in record time, although my paycheck wasn't in yet, and I had to just forfeit that until mom could come back and get it later. Oh well, only so much I can do. So after being at my house for about an hour, Mr. Michael Boring, with the help of one Angie Colton proceeded to kidnapp me, blindfold and all and force me into an unknown vehicle to transport me to an unknown location. They ripped my jeans in the process, and I was not happy. Although, I'm freaking amazing when it comes to getting my hands out of zip-ties, I managed to break free three times. So there. So Angie proceeds to drive in circles in a very unsafe manner, and then stops at what later find out to be Willamette Park. There, there was a massive slip-n-slide waiting for me... I'm not going to lie, it was pretty freaking sweet.


Unbeknownst to me, Katie and Chris and Lacy had called everyone and gotten them all involved and it was actually really fun to party with random people... like Nick Foey. I challenged him to a chugging contest (just pepsi of course) but naturally, I lost miserably. So then we went back to Dad's house and hung out and played Battle of the Sexes, and I'm sad to say that I lost. Yes, it's true, Vickie Chambers lost. Take note, it doesn't happen often. It was a lot harder to say goodbye to everyone than I expected. That left me pretty sad most of Wednesday, but once mom and I got to Chicago, things seemed to shift to more excitement. We went to the White Sox/Royals game on Thursday because I couldn't move in until Thursday night. The game was actually a really good one, and it reminded me why I chose to come to school out here- TWO baseball teams. Then mom and I drove out here and moved all of my stuff into Alumni 514. It's on the top floor, which sucked because that meant we had to carry all of my stuff up a bunch of stairs. The elevator is ridiculously slow so I opted not to take it most of the time. Luckily, since I came from so far away, I got to move in earlier than most people which meant that I didn't have to battle people for space. I also got more time to move all of my stuff in and get it organized and that was really nice. I had orientation on Friday which was actually pretty worthless since I had already registered for my classes, but it was good to explore the campus before everyone else showed up. Everyone else moved in on Saturday morning, and my oh my it was a mad house. I met my roommate Sam, and we get along rather well. She has a boyfriend that lives on the second floor of our residence hall so I don't see her much, but we seem to live together just fine, and that's all that really matters. I had a lot of fun decorating my dorm room.



Classes started yesterday, and it should be interesting. I really like my Biology class, but my core class is at 8am and full of football players. My Philosophy class should be good, but there is a lot of reading involved and I'm the only freshman in my Lit Studies class. We're reading a lot of the same stuff that I read last year, which will be nice, but I also have to deal with The Jungle and some Hawthorne. Needless to say I'm not super excited for that class. I had my Biology class today, and that is a class that I think I'm really going to like. The prof is interesting, enjoys what she does and knows what she's talking about.

We had some real excitement today when the Tornado siren went off. I had no idea what in the world was going on. So I just continued on my way. My new friends and I were on our way to dinner, so we walked over to the cafeteria, apparently just in time. Right after we left the RA's made everyone go down to the basement. We just went to eat dinner. Then we got excited because we could see a storm was brewing and one of my friends is a Meteorology Major. So we went on a bit of a storm chase. Not long after that the staff of the cafeteria made us all come inside and go to the middle of the building- apparently this storm was serious business. After about a half hour of fusebal we were released and found rather large hail. Billy tells me that a tornado touched down in Michigan City, which is about ten miles from Valpo. I've been here a week and I've already had my life threatened. Figures.

it was some serious hail.

well... that's about all I have to offer right now. I'm going to the Dunes on Saturday with a bunch of people, so that should be fun. I'll get some pictures of my roommate and my new friends soon as well. I hope that all is well with all of you- I love you dearly.

24 days and counting

Well... I have less than a month to go and I couldn't be more excited about going to school. This summer has been different than I expected for a lot of reasons, but it's been a good one none the less, and certainly full of learning opportunities. Mentally, emotionally and spiritually I feel ready to get on that plane tomorrow, but I'm thankful for the extra time because I am no where near ready physically. The downside of having two rooms is that I have, over the last ten years, collected an amazing amount of crap, and always found a place to store it. I'm moving into an 11x13 box that I get to share with someone else, and there certainly isn't enough room for a lot of crap. So, I've been spending the last week, and will continue to spend the next two weeks sorting through it all, finding a gold mine of "lost" items, and deciding what will and will not make the 2000 mile trek with me. I've pretty much decided that any sweatshirt or "winter clothing" item that I own will come, because I'm going to freeze my bum off and will need as many layers as I can find. That also led to me buying a new down comforter, that I absolutely love. It's black, and very, very soft. Why black? Well, I've decided that my "colors" for this year will be black and bright torquoise (much like the colors of my prom dress). I have all sorts of ideas on how I will decorate my new home, but I have to worry about emptying the old ones before I start with the fun stuff. My roommate's name is Sam, and she lives in Valpo. She works at the local Wal*Mart and is pretty much the epitome of what we college kids refer to as "townies." From what I can tell, she is a very nice girl, but all I really know about her is that she has a long term boyfriend who will also be attending Valpo. I figure I'll end up with either no roommate, or two. We'll have to see how that works. I'm in the same dorm Lizzy was in her freshman year- in fact right next door. I got my schedule for my classes and I can tell you right now I already love college life and I haven't been on campus in two years. I still need to find one more class because one of the ones I signed up for was full, but as of right now I spend a grand total of 7.5 hours weekly in the classroom. It averages out to about 2 hours a day. When I've spent the last twelve years of my life in school for six hours a day.. I am very excited to see that number go down. Plus, my earliest class is at 9:45, so I get to sleep in as well.

I anticipate the next three and a half weeks to be very busy between packing and saying goodbye, but mom and I have scheduled our annual "A's-Mariners" game and I'll be a leader at Junior High camp for church again this summer. Needless to say I am very excited about what the future holds for me and I can't wait to get there. Right now, I'm just trying to enjoy the last few weeks in the place I've grown up.

Graduation

so this week is graduation. I feel really old. Sometimes. The problem is that I really don't feel old enough to be graduating from high school. Maybe that is the curse of having siblings that are so much older than me, I feel like I'll never be as old as they were, even when I am. We had Baccalaureate on Sunday, so I had to wear my cap and gown, and that was the first time I've felt like I really am graduating. Wearing that thing is almost surreal, and all it is is a big, green, well-insulated smock. (I now understand why Liz wore her swimsuit, it's freaking hot in that thing.) As I was sitting next to Lacy on Sunday, I suddenly realized how sad I'm going to be that it is all over. I've been excited about it ending for so long that I haven't stopped to think about what it is exactly. Growing up in West Linn means that I've gone to school with the same people for my entire life. Odds are that I won't really see them ever again, especially the people I'm not friends with. That makes me a little sad becuase we have such a rich history, I have a lot of memories with a lot of the same people. Taking time over the last week to remember elementary and middle school has made me sad, happy, and just thankful that I've had such a wide range of events and consequent memories.

Part of the reason I've been thinking back on my childhood is because of a very unfortunate event that occured this last week. My friend Jamie (the singer) lost her little brother in a car accident last Tuesday night. Douglas was seven, and over the last week, I've done a lot of reflection on my own life, including when I was his age. He was such a lively, bright, innocent and pure child, and he touched so many lives in his short time on Earth. Perhaps the most amazing thing is how strong his family is. They know Douglas is dancing with Jesus, and trust that His way is the best way, even if it means life without this precious little boy. I attended his memorial this morning and it's amazing how much influence a seven year old can have. There were so many people there, that the overflow rooms were full. He was very well loved, and I really enjoyed celebrating his life this morning.

That's about all that I have for you right now, but I'll be seeing most of you pretty soon and I can't wait!

since everyone else is doing it-

i figured i might as well too. although i'm not going to claim to be a better writer than either nate or liz, i spend way too much time on Instant Messenger for that. dad though- we'll see. so, i officially have seven days of high school left, and i honestly haven't ever been this stir crazy. i literally cannot focus at school. it really doesn't help that we're pretty much having "work time" for presentations that take all of five minutes to put together because my teachers are tired of teaching. it just makes me really wish that i was back at home in my warm bed, especially during statistics.
we started dissecting our cats the other day in biology and it's pretty darn cool. we named ours Octavius. he was a cute little kitty once upon a time, but being that i'm not really a huge fan of cats, i'm more interested in what his aortic valve looks like. it's pretty sweet by the way. i'm surprised at how many people are planning on going into the medical field later on in life, and yet can't stand to look at the insides of a cat. come on people, how are you going to handle human heart surgery if you can't go at a feline first? we get to crack open the skull on thursday, and i'm super excited about that. nothing like the brain to get me going.
we had our senior graduation dessert for church on sunday night, and it just reinstated the fact that i'm going to miss all of my friends like crazy when i get on the plane on Aug. 17 at 10:10am. ok maybe not then, but soon after that. my friends are my family. we've been best friends forever, and almost all of them are going to Seattle Pacific next year. i love them to death, but i couldn't handle that. i'm really excited to get away, and experience something new. i just hope that they won't forget all about me when i'm gone. i already know this summer is going to be amazing- if i'm not working the whole time.
i got my first pay check today, and let me tell you- it's a nice thing to have money again. and, to know that in two more weeks i'll have even more money. not only does scooping ice cream at good ole Cold Stone earn me money, but i'm working so much (31 hours this week alone) that i hardly have time to spend it, which is a very good thing. i really like my co-workers, so i hardly see it as work. and i'm excited to be seriving people on a regular basis. i always have been the little waitress girl.
well- that's all for now. i have to go finish some english homework, and plan for bible study. i can't wait to see all of you for Graduation- it's going to be a real party.