Which is a good thing I suppose? This weekend was kind of uneventful but I got some work done. Friday was a good day with going to the Justice Revival at the Vineyard Church in Westerville, OH. I missed Shane Claiborne the previous night though which is a bummer :(. Really wanted to hear him speak because I read his book this past summer while I was in California.

Speaking of California, I'm waiting for my internship opportunity to give me the yay or nay. AHH! It is so frustrating waiting for something you want so badly! Story of our lives, eh? I know that God has some amazing stuff planned for me but its definitely a bummer when you know you can't control what you want. But then again, it's definitely a good thing... Less stuff for me to worry about :)

So friday, heard the Justice Revival about mentoring and basically being a servant of God. It was pretty good. I have not been in awhile. They brought up Isaiah 58:6 through I'm pretty sure 14... and used that in their service.

6 Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

13 "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Saturday was a great lazy day. I went swimming for the first time in forever. Since I think this past summer in August. I swam out in California when I was on vacation and I have not been since. Bummer cause it is awesome! I have goggles and everything :) Watched two huge surfing movies too. Riding Giants and Step into Liquid. Amazing people those surfers. I do not know why I love this culture so much but I just do. I love that with this sport you do it for the pleasure. It's like a drug that is amazing for you and they say once you catch your first wave... you're hooked. I want to be part of that. SO BAD. But so yes, Saturday made me want to buy every surf video available. :)


Riding Giants Trailer

Step into Liquid trailer

Rest of saturday just worked... and it was so dead. Weird. My dad came home that night after finishing a 190 bike race. 190!!! I am so proud of my father. I admit that for awhile we didn't like each other. At least i did not. I thought my father was childish and socially handicapped for awhile. But I love and appreciate him so much. He tries so hard in everything he does and he finally found something he's good at. He's good at everything after awhile because he has incredible dedication and willpower but this time he is really amazing. He has lost about 50 pounds and at the beginning of his journey in biking he could barely bike 10-15 miles. Now he is finishing 190 miles in about 12 hours in less than a year. What progress!!!

<>My dad skiing in the Alps in the 70's :) What a stud.

But when he was sitting down on my couch, drinking green tea with his 40 spoons of sugar (ha!), he had me sit next to him and just held me in his arm and I cuddle next to him. I just snuggled up and felt his warmth. I love my father. Ha, i was watching Rock of Love: The Reunion last night... and as trashy as that show is, there was a very touching moment. Destiney, a contestant on the show, lost her father two weeks ago due to liver cancer. She started bawling and even Bret Michels shed a tear. I cannot imagine my father gone. Who would help me? Who would comfort me when no one else would? Who would believe in me? I'm tearing up as I write this. He is freaking incredible. I'm so proud of him. I have the best father in the world.

Sunday, no work... means homework. Finished French and enjoyed my sunday with Bethany and eating taco bell. :D I need to stop filling my body with crap and go back to eating raw, healthy, veggies and fruit. I was good up until like a week ago when I ran out of food money. :-P P.S. Taco Bell ran out of beef last night? Seriously. I don't eat beef (or just meat for that matter) but... taco bell? Out of beef? Seriously? ha!

But anyway, French test today... :) gotta study. Talk to you amazing people later :)

It shocks me how much stuff is made with conflict. Conflict with animals, conflict with people, and conflict with countries. Although I hated, despised, loathed my anthropology class; it was pretty eye opening to see what was going on in other parts of the world. I have found different websites that show the practices of different corporations or websites that give a real view of what countries are going through to build their economy.

I would love to consume without conflict. Does anyone know of cool, good quality companies that do not test on animals, exploit labor, etc. and still have beautiful things? Its really all about price because I'm a student... but I feel I'm more willing now to cough up the cash if it means no one was hurt in the process - human or non.

P.S. there is 15 inches of snow here in Columbus! Anyone else hit by the storm?! Mind you, it was 70 degrees on Monday last week. It's now Sunday and its a total of 18 degrees. Oh Columbus! I am so confused by you.

Here are some pictures taken by one of my co-workers:

Obviously as you can see I put up a new layout for march. I still need to put up links and finish up the bottom a little bit. But, meh, it'll stay for now. I need some ideas for the header... I want to put myself into it and more images but I'm lazy... and I have no recent pictures of myself.

I am a freaking baking addict... Heck, just kitchen addict. I love how kitchen utensils look and what they can do. I swear, I'm going to have the most p-i-m-p kitchen next to Emeril or Paula Dean. haha! The past couple days I've made raspberry-banana bread and big, fat, chewy heathbar cookies... cause I didn't have chocolate chips... and I'm not a fan of chocolate anyway. Follow the links and try out these recipes for yourselves... The raspberry-banana bread was okay... needed more flavor.. It was a "healthy" version of the bread so of course I didn't add butter or oil... but it still surprisingly came out moist... a little crunchy on the outside but good inside... my roommates liked it.. it was gone by the end of the day. When I came downstairs in the morning, there was just one end piece left. I rule in the kitchen!!

Snow. In Ohio there is a lot of it. I'm kind of tired of this white stuff. But I was walking to French yesterday morning and the snowflakes were falling down in chunks... and I looked across the oval and for the first time I was like "wow... it's actually really pretty" cause I'm usually too tired of trudging through the snow to notice. But yay, take in God's beauty once in awhile :)

"Some nights alone he thinks of her. And some nights alone... she thinks of him. Some nights these thoughts occur at the same moment. And Ray and Mirabelle are connected without ever knowing it. But Mirabelle, now feeling the warmth of her first reciprocal love has broken away from him. And as Jeremy offers her more of his heart, Mirabelle offers equal parts of herself in return. One night, sooner than she would have liked, which made it irresistible... they make love for the second time in 14 months. At this point, Jeremy surpasses Ray Porter as a lover of Mirabelle... because what he offers her is tender... and true." - Ray Porter in Shopgirl

EDIT (7:00pm):
1. What is your prefered type of candy?
I like sour things. I'm not a hard candy person... although I do like some jolly ranchers... but my favorite candy by far are sour keys and cherry blasters (both only found in Canada... oh how I miss the motherland! :( )

2. What is your favorite meal?
I love anything with roasted veggies... and bbq pineapple... and I like tomatoes... sushi is amazing too. Dangit, don't ask a growing foodie what her favorite meal is! Its everything! Everything delicious of course... ;)

3. If you could only have one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
anything my mother makes... or sushi. yummm :)

it would be cloudy today. I got my bike back from roll today and i am so happy its warm enough for a ride out away from campus. My bike was in for it's check up... I can't really tell a difference from before i brought it in, but the brakes are working a little better... and maybe because it's still icy out in some certain areas. Its getting to me, how crowded it is and how cold the weather has been. I definitely cannot wait for the first time I will be able to wear just a tshirt and jeans outside with some flip flops. Anyway, I just rode down neil ave. and back to look at all the houses in the Victorian Village. I wish I was able to afford the houses down there. 2 bedrooms are around the 800-900 dollar range and I just can't afford that... sharing a room even! Ugh.

I think I'm becoming my dad... I want to get more bikes and start collecting them... I just freaking love bikes. I want a cruiser, and fixie, and a mountain bike that i can take on trails. I have this cruiser/mountain bike mix right now but with the shock absorbers... its more of a city bike to just take me around.

But yea.. my mind. Its been cloudly lately. Just a blur and it's been fatigued out of it's mind. That doesn't make sense. Either way, I feel like my brain is about to quit on me. This is the quarter from hell and I cannot wait for the next three weeks to pass so I can start on relaxing a little bit during spring break. Then taking a smooth 18 hours for spring quarter... hopefully that won't kill me like these past 20. I honestly will avoid taking 20 hours again at all costs... especially during winter time where i feel half as motivated to go to class. meh.

speaking of class... I have two exams to study for that I shouldn't be procrastinating on. no fun for me this weekend.

save meeeeeee.

:(

I've been slacking a whole ton... not on purpose... I just get so tired that my brain feels like its putty oozing out of my ears when I am reading my homework. But at the same time, life is pretty good right now. Things aren't really going wrong and I really realized how awesome my friends are due to a comment that was made by a new friend of mine. He said that my friends are really awesome... and I was like.. Yea... YEA they ARE! haha.

Can we saw off some of the United states so that Ohio can have a beach? K Thanks. I'm kind of tired of this weather.

Sorry I'm absent from this blog... I need to start updating it more. I'll get more organized and I'll finally do everything I was planning to do. Take care for tonight. :)

life is good. and I'll leave you with uber cuteness... :)




enjoooy! :)

"You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth." - Deuteronomy 8:17-18a

All I want to do is sleep and read and I can't even read what I enjoy and I can't even sleep for more than 2 hours at a time. I'm going crazy! I hate finals week!!!

Edit: Check out Sierra! she's a really cool girlie who has commented on my blog and isn't afraid to censor herself.. hmmm just my cup of tea. Enjoy her blurbs, rants, and thoughts... they're pretty sweet and dead on! :)

Its so quiet. I love it. For the first time in a couple of days I have no noise going on in my house. Right now I have everything done that I need to get done for school... well minus about 15-16 pages of French that I've procrastinated on... but I'm surprisingly not even worried about that right now. My room is finally (somewhat) clean. I cleaned the rug and so it actually looks fresh in here.

I wonder why we're so scared of silence. I hate it when no one talks for a long time and then some dipstick says "awwwwwkward!" It wasn't awkward until you said it. Thanks. But seriously, silence is good. We're filled with music and television allllll day. And people that you don't want to hear talking but you have to listen. There is noise everywhere and I'm so glad that I have silence right now. I put on some music earlier to calm me but then I just turned it off.... and it feels so much better.

I'm going to go through my itunes and weed out all the crappy music I don't listen to anymore or is just not my style.

I work 40 hours next week. Just what I need during finals week. :(

Check out this delightful video of Natalie Portman. I just love her voice and how beautiful she is. I really want to be her friend.



She talks about the five most beautiful non musical sounds to her and it got me thinking about what my favorites were.

1. I love the sound of the wind coming in through the window during the springtime. Having my window open makes me happy. I hate stale air and I just love how the breeze comes in and kind of whistles.
2. I love my friends' laughs. They all sound different and fit with each person's personality. I think my favorite is my friend Katie's. Its probably one of the most joyful sounding laughs I've ever heard. :)
3. This is musical but I love My mom singing the polish lullaby she always sang to me when I was little. I think this winter I'm going to record her singing it so I can play it when she's away. I'm 20 years old but I love having my mom cuddle with me and tuck me in. I hope I can offer the same amount of love to my children that she has shown me.
4. The sound of the ocean. I just love the seagulls, the crashing, the sun even seems to make a sound.
5. The sound of the coffee machine just blurbing and babbling when it makes my coffee. I freaking love coffee and it just tells me that its almost ready :)

Wow, that was actually a lot harder to think about than it seemed at first. I'm going to have to pay attention to a lot more stuff now. :)

alright, I gotta get to class. But I love you all. Have an amazing day

what are your favorite non-musical sounds?

Today we salute you, Mr./Ms. Buckeye Student. You, adorned in your buckeyes, teach us that there is no limit to the things you can do with nuts. Sure, your drunken shenanigans have been in every newspaper and magazine in the country, but you know that you were doing that on purpose. Where others attend college soley for a good education, you preach of true higher education. With a major at OSU, an automatic minor in leisure activities and drunkology. You preach of a world where it's okay for someone to get drunk at 7a.m. and pee in public. You ask "Why can't we have bars in the library, and have beer pong as a varsity sport?" So crack open an ice-cold Bud Light, Mr./Ms. Buckeye Student, BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THAT THERE ARE ONLY A FEW PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT 20 DEGREE WATER FEELS LIKE IN NOVEMBER!

Today is the Mirror Lake Jumper Inner's day of celebration for michigan week. it is currently...37 degrees out and is probably going to get a lot colder. I'm so pumped. Despite all the crap thats at the bottom and the water probably tainted with disease... its probably one of the most fun nights ever... Seriously, these kinds of traditions are why people want to go to a University like Ohio State.

I'll show you a youtube video of the chaos that ensues... SO PUMPED!


A couple I will offer the newbies of mirror lake jumping...
1.) Keep the bodypaint to a minimum, seriously. for your own good. When you jump in and it shoots into your eyes from the 2000 people that jumped into the water previously... its gonna burn your eyes.
2.) Get good old sneakers/water shoes/etc that will STAY PUT on your feet. You don't need to be contracting HIV from the broken glass/duck feces/mud living at the bottom
3.) Sing "We don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan" as loud as you can for as long as you can.
4.) The more creative your outfit the better. Wear friggin anything and bring props. Floaties are a popular choice.


Above is proof of my stupidity amazing awesomeness last year in 2006 with some friends of mine. Notice my hatred for Michigan on my shirt. I can't believe they sold michigan shirts in columbus! Granted it was at a thrift store... but hey... And I know I'm not the biggest football fan... but I know that Michigan is NO GOOD. so if you're in columbus and one of the cool 5000 people that jump in every year... I'll be seeing you there!

You may have seen us across the Oval, going to class, just like any other student there to get their four year 'in-and-out' five year degree for higher education. We're like any other student on campus except for one thing. Our 2 wheeled friends taking us to class in t-minus 5 minutes. While you're trekking to class for 20 minutes (or a half hour if you're a freshman), we are zipping by due to our incredible logic. Bike = fast. Fast = less time wasted going across this monstrocity of a college campus. I know that some people get annoyed with us, but trust me you guys are no picnic either. lets go over this and maybe we can work out some sort of schedule or something. These are some of the main/repeat offenders on Ohio State's campus

1.) The World Revolves Around My Footsteps Walker: This person is 80%-90% of people crossing campus. LOOK WHERE YOU'RE GOING. Theres a reason why there are almost collisions, cause friggin people don't look where they're going. When you're on a bike you have to look at where you're going next cause, HELLO, you're on a type of vehicle. Its like driving a car, except within people. So yea, look where you're going please and thank you.

2.) The Lets Take up the Whole Sidewalk Walker: Man, which side should I walk on? the right? left? Middle? Okay, I'll just zig zag and end up staying in the middle, not move, and have other people walk around me. Okay people, the answer is RIGHT. Stay to the RIGHT. If you were driving you wouldn't zig zag across the road and stay in the middle of two lanes. ITS THE SAME FRIGGIN THING. Stay on the RIGHT and just like on the highway (whoa!) faster people (a.k.a. bikes) will pass you to the left. Also, girls... STOP walking four people abreast. Theres other people besides you and besides me trying to get through. We don't want to fight through your conversation of "OMIGAWWWWD I got so trashed last night" to be able to walk to opposite (thank you Lord) direction of you.

3.) The Deer in Headlights Walker: You guys are the worst. You just stop DEAD in your tracks when a bike is heading in your direction. Did you have a depressing day and when you see my bike, do you get an idea that on your last day you want to see tires as your last thing on Earth? I'd rather have to veer off my path onto the grass than have to halt on my brakes just to not run into you. I'm six feet tall. Yea, I'm big. I'm so big I've gotten measured for my bike. 20 inches of beautiful bike are under my butt and its kind of hard to be stationary on it despite my height...So don't stop walking!! Don't worry... riders can see believe it or not. We SEE you even before you see us (ahh what a great little hunting scenario, eh?) and trust us, we're not going to run into you. If you stop... YOU ARE AT FAULT of the accident. Next time the screaming bike of terror coming spinning towards you, I'm just going to run you over to fulfill your sudden death wish just keep walking... cause I surely don't want to ruin my bike by running into you.

4.) The Slow as *Insert Colorful Word Here* Walker: Number 4 and Number 1 go hand in hand. These people walk so slow that they might as well not even walk to class (wherever they were going, whatever). They're talking on their cellphone, listening to their rip off and overpriced super hip video ipod, or talking to a person as if they were sitting over an intimate dinner. PICK UP YOUR FEET AND WALK. God made gave you long legs for a reason. I don't care if you're the size of a troll doll, I trust you're physically able to pick up your feet 1-2 inches off the ground to walk.

So please... read these carefully my two legged friends and students and do the opposite of the offenders. You are better than to make these mistakes over and over! Now I know that not everyone can ride bikes on campus, this is a special group... but Campus will be a much happier place because of your dedication and cooperation, just follow the rules of the road.

thanks.

Sincerely,
A Bicycle Rider