Summer 2010: Pre-Craziness

Camp JOY Preparations
Today was my last day of work until camp actually starts! Holly & I drove around the ghetto of Columbus, delivering flyers about camp to all of the housing projects. Definitely an interesting experience. Fortunately, we didn't have to walk door-to-door like we initially thought we would. Thank goodness. It was fun getting to know Holly a little more, though. We had a few little adventures, like being stopped by the same train 4 times (and accidentally driving back behind some theater neither of us knew existed...). Good times. Oh, I did find out that I'm only getting paid like $5 an hour for all of this. Not exactly what I was expecting, but since God kinda gave me the job (no, for real--He did. I'm not just saying that), I figure I'll be okay. :) And really, I can't complain too much--at least it's a job, and the type of job I really wanted at that!

Trip to Europe!
One week. I am so excited! For real, I can't wait. It's going to be awesome. I'm ready for lots of adventures and new things, and that's pretty much guaranteed. It's also going to be fun getting to know some new people. More friends is always a good thing. :) Let's just hope that it doesn't rain the whole time, like it's currently supposed to... However, if it does, please don't do it on the day we visit Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Apparently, when they've visited in the past, it's been too cloudy to really see anything, but seriously, I am dying to see this in person:

That view right there? Number one thing I'm excited about. I'm getting the urge to jump up and down just thinking about it. You have no idea! So seriously, rain and cloudiness--take the day off on June 9. You deserve a break.

Classes. Ugh.
Unfortunately, before I can even think about hopping on a plane to leave the country, I have...

• Approximately 1,100 pages of psych books & articles to read
• About 20 or so pages to write on said books & articles
• 18 hours of class to sit through

All by next Thursday. Funnnn. Then, of course, there are the post-trip assignments. But whatever--I get a trip to Austria, Switzerland, & Germany out of it. It's totally worth it. (Just making my life a little more stressful than usual at the moment. Heh.)

Music, music, music
For some reason, music is so much more enjoyable for me to listen to during the summer (and that's saying something, but I really enjoy music all the time). I don't know why. It's weird, I know. But anyway, like I said in my last post, I've been listening to Mat Kearney a lot. "Closer to Love" is definitely one of my favorites. I also really like "All I Have," "Where We Gonna Go From Here," and "Here We Go." Good stuff. I've also been listening to The Postal Service quite a bit. I didn't used to like them all that much. I'm not really sure why though, because now, I like them a lot! Oh, and one of my favorite songs of the moment (I had never heard it until about a week ago, but I discovered it hiding on my computer): "The Fear You Won't Fall" by Joshua Radin. Sooo pretty! I love guy/girl harmony and I love really chill music like that. Good combination.

All that being said, I am going to be super, super busy for the next month. I'll try to update you guys about my trip and camp and such ASAP, but that may or may not be until July. We'll see, I guess!

Bookstores and adventures!

Listening To: "All I Have" by Mat Kearney
(For whatever reason, I've been semi-obsessed with his music lately. I like his style and I like his lyrics. His album City of Black & White is my favorite at the moment. Good stuff.)

I love bookstores. I could stay in them for hours on end and not ever get bored. I've done this twice within the past week, and still don't feel like I was in there long enough. I get so inspired in them--I like and am interested in so many different things and there just isn't enough time to get to all of it! Every time I go, I have to restrain myself from buying out the whole store. (My bank account does not share my love for bookstores. Heh.)

A couple of days ago, I had to go to Barnes & Noble to get a book for my psych classes before my trip. This resulted in my spending a good amount of time in the psychology section. The book I had to buy was Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I'm pretty sure I would have bought it anyway, even if it wasn't required. It's basically about his experiences in a concentration camp during WW2 and then he kind of talks about it from a psychological standpoint. Very interesting. (I've always been fascinated by the Holocaust. The fact that I'll be visiting Dachau on my trip was a major selling point for me! Speaking of Dachau, I'll be there in two weeks! Yessss.)

Anyway, after wandering throughout the store, I found the children's section. Best. Section. Ever. I absolutely love kids' books, especially the classics (i.e. Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, stuff like that). I discovered a copy of A Little Princess and absolutely had to buy it. I had never read it, but always wanted to. It is sooo good. I love stuff like that. I also found The Magic Treehouse series that I LOVED when I was a little kid. I read those books countless times in second grade. They are what first inspired me to visit the Amazon Rainforest (it's still very high on my list of places I want to visit). They tended to make me feel like I've been feeling today: dying to go on some sort of adventure!

Reason I've been feeling that way today: I spent the afternoon sitting in the floor at Books-A-Million reading this:

I would've bought it if it hadn't cost $25. Pretty much every single thing in this book looks awesome and I want to do all of them. Well, almost all of them (I could probably do without going to Antarctica, as cool as it would be to say I've done that. Not high on the list). But for real, that is the kind of stuff I am dying to do. There are so many things that I want to try--I just haven't had the chance to (yet!). Seriously, that's pretty much the only reason I would want to have a high-paying job: to travel and do awesome stuff like that (I kind of hate the fact that every sport I would actually really enjoy are the ones that are ridiculously expensive to do). Sigh.

My other find of the day wasn't all that spectacular, but it did make me really happy to see. I was in the travel section (one of my favorites) and picked up a book about Tennessee. They had a section about the Cherokee National Forest, including a short mention of Chilhowee--picture included. The picture (not the one to the right--that one is mine) just so happened to be from the Sugarloaf overlook, which is my absolute favorite place to watch the sun set. Kristi, Mike, Jon, and I were up there a couple of weeks ago, just before the semester ended. I think it was one of the best nights I had all semester long--maybe even all year. Definitely one of my favorite memories. That fact just made finding the picture even better, because it was of the picnic table that Kristi did her homework on that night, and you could see the rock that Mike and I sat on to watch the sunset in the background. Ahhh, good times.

Edit (05/24/10): I didn't really want to write a whole new post just for this, but this picture is awesome (click to make it bigger--it looks better):

Credit

How cool is that?! I just wanted to share. :)

Sorry--I can't help myself!

The header was bugging me a lot (I couldn't help it), so I decided to play around with it some more. I like this much better. :)

(Before/After)

I've been looking at a ton of design blogs tonight. I love that stuff so much. It makes me wish I had more time to do artsy stuff (and also that I had a huge house to decorate...and the money to buy all the stuff...). Sigh. Oh well. I found some awesome stuff though, and I feel like I have to share it!

Harmonie intérieure

I. Love. This. Site. Oh my gosh. I'm not sure if I would actually use a lot of it in my own home (though I might), but I love how it looks. Seriously.

Check out the pictures of the designers' house, too. Love it.

Fancy Frills

I really, really like this blog. She finds a bunch of different cool, design-related things (graphic, interior, fashion, etc.) and posts them. Some of my favorites... (The pictures are linked to her posts.)

Good stuff. I like it.

(This is the kind of stuff I like when I'm not doing outdoorsy stuff like hiking, or playing Ultimate Frisbee, or studying psychology, or writing, or finding new music...haha. I like having lots of different interests. Too bad I don't have time for all of them all the time!)

The Day of Awesomeness

Awesome Thing #1: This picture.

I love them so much. Seriously. I am so thankful for every single person in that picture. They are some of my favorite people in the entire world, and I'm so glad they're my friends! (That night was pretty awesome, too--playing a bunch of random sports in the rain, including Ultimate Frisbee, rugby, and some random game Jon & Tuna invented that made no sense, followed by an adventure in the fountain...oh yes!)

Awesome Thing #2: I drove somewhere that I had never been before today...and I didn't get lost a single time. If you know me, you know that this is definitely an accomplishment. I was very proud of myself (and relieved, too--being late for an interview was not high on my list of things to do for the day).

Awesome Thing #3: I got the job at Camp JOY! (I pretty much already had it anyway, but I had my interview today, and it's official.) Yaaaay! I am super excited. My interview went really well. It was cool to finally meet the director (she and I have been talking on Facebook for a couple of weeks). She's cool and we seem to be on the same page about a lot of things, particularly spiritually speaking. That was definitely a huge relief! Anyway, I start my training and such on Monday, which involves getting paid, and that is something I definitely need. This means that I will be pretty busy from then until the beginning of July. The month of June is going to be crazy--I literally have something to do every single day, except for a couple of Saturdays. (I also won't have access to my phone for most of it, so if you text me in June, make sure it's on a weekend!) Seriously though, I am so relieved that I'll have stuff to occupy me. I need to stay busy. And who knows, maybe I'll be so exhausted from it that I'll want a lot of nothingness for a month in July. Heh! I have a couple of pending plans for then anyway, so hopefully those will work out. :)

Awesome Thing #4: I got all A's this semester!!!!!!! I am sooo excited about that. This is the first semester that I've managed to do that (there's always been that one class that I get a B in. Freshman year, it was Carmen's Spanish class and College Algebra. Last semester, it was Stats. Actually, I was kinda relieved to get B's in them--they were pretty rough!). I did have a little bit of a scare when I checked WebAdvisor the other day and discovered that I had a C in Ethics. Um, what?! I emailed Alan McClung ASAP, and he told me that he apparently didn't have a midterm grade for me. I don't know what happened, but I definitely turned in that exam! I let him know, and he basically took my word for it and changed my grade to an A. I love that man. Officially, if I didn't already. He's awesome.

P.S. I made a new header thing for the blog. It needed something more spring/summery. I like it in theory, but I feel like something is missing. I haven't figured out what yet, so it'll do for now. (On a side note, I love those tire swing pictures and I love that dress. I am so glad I bought it.)

P.P.S. I just killed a big spider that was crawling on my desk. Ugh. Another thing to be proud of myself for, I suppose.

End of the semester adventures!

Sorry for my lack of updates...life kinda picked up after break, I guess. Just in time, too--I was starting to lose hope for the semester altogether! The last month of it ended up being really great though, at least for the most part. :) Get ready for a picture overload.

I've done a lot of random fun stuff, but two of the biggest: Thunder and the Owl City show!

A few weeks ago, a group of about 11 of us went to Mike's house for Thunder Over Louisville (a big fireworks/air show to kick off the Derby). That was definitely fun, even if it was a little chilly at times...

Kristi, Mike, Will, Jon, Jaynese, and I walked around downtown Louisville for most of the day, doing exciting things (or not) like visiting Fourth Street Live...

We found a bookstore somewhere along the way, so we spent awhile in there (Kristi and I found Boyfriend Training Flashcards, so we decided to test the guys' knowledge. Fortunately, they're doing well enough). We eventually made our way back to where Mike's parents were holding down the fort to watch some of the air show.

We met up with the rest of the crew (aka Christy, Courtney, Pookie, Jesse, and Emily) at Panera for dinner, after which we proceeded to take a million pictures by the fountains outside.

Girls:

Guys (this picture is proof of why I love them):

After dark (and a little bit of a delay...), we got to watch some awesome fireworks!

After church the next day, Kristi and I decided to reunite with the tire swing in the backyard.

Sooo much fun (especially when the guys helped us out by pushing us)! All in all--definitely a great weekend!

Next up was the Owl City/LIGHTS/Paper Route show in Atlanta! In a word: amazing. For real. After making it to ATL, we found a place to park and discovered the adventure that is an Atlanta parking garage:

We then found a semi-sketch-looking deli where we got some surprisingly great food that we ate while waiting in line at the Tabernacle:

First up was Paper Route. I'm not really a fan in general, but they're really good live!

Next: LIGHTS! I love her, and she is just as amazing in concert as she is on her album. Not to mention that she's one of the cutest people ever.

And finally...Owl City! Adam Young is just awesome. Even more awesome? Throwing Matt Thiessen into the mix!

And, of course, Breanne Düren (the girl whose voice makes "The Saltwater Room" one of the best songs ever), who is quite possibly the most adorable person alive:

So yeah--definitely a good time! I am so glad I decided to go. It was definitely worth the money!

The rest of the time, I've done fun stuff like hiking (twice) with some of my favorite people:

We ended up going past the marked trail to climb up to see two other waterfalls. The second time around, this involved Kristi, Will, and I climbing rocks and hacking our way through the forest. Gooooood times!

And now I'm home for the summer. Sort of. In about 4 weeks, I'm off to Europe, and after that, I'm probably going to be working something called Camp JOY. I'll definitely have to update you all on that one! It'll be a good summer, I think. It's entirely possible that I won't go crazy this year. Let's hope so, at least.