That tall geeky girl who lives in Hubbard

11:10am: Soo...
I have switched to Xanga, after much contemplation. Please don't think me a traitor, Live Journalers! See it here: www.xanga.com/foxtrot407

9:37am: Back at School
I thought it would be a good idea to update now that I'm back at school. I got back at 4am Friday morning after a long ordeal the night before. We originally left at 6pm Thursday night, and it takes 5 hours for me to get back by car. HOWEVER---our car broke down in Flemington, NJ. It sounds like it could have been really bad, but God was so good to maintain that car as far as it went, and the place it broke down was (coincidentally? I think not) right in front of the dealership of the company that made the car. So they welcomed us in and offered us coffee and let us use their phone (SO hospitible) to call for help, because what is Flemington, NJ? Where my mom went to high school! So she had this network of people she knew to call (again, coincidental? I think not). She got a hold of her best friend, who was also her maid of honor, who drove over to rescue us. Being sooo generous, my mom's friend (Gaye) let my dad and I use her car to drive back to Oreland and get my mom's car. So when we got there, I took my mom's car and followed my Dad (in Gaye's car) all the way back to NJ, where my mom and Gaye were chatting and catching up on the events of their lives. Then we continued on to school, and we didn't get in until 4am. My mom slept in Ashleigh's bed (since she's not back yet) and my dad slept in the beau parlor for a few hours before continuing on to Vermont, where they were going for a long weekend to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Moral of the story: the Lord PROVIDES! Not just provides, but blesses, even when the initial event was a problem. So praise him for that!

After actually getting to school...
Elaine and I went to Wal-Mart and went exploring around Smith and Northampton on Sunday after church, since we realized that even though we pretty much live here, we don't get to some places often because we're sucked into the bubble that is Smith College. So we went to the Campus School playground and played on the monkey bars and the swings. Then we went to the Bridge Street Cemetary (where Jonathon Edwards, the famous old pastor, and some other old historical people are buried), but parts of it were closed off, so we couldn't go closer to see what the graves said. We also went into the church library, because I hadn't been there before. I checked out a book about Spiritual gifts. It was fun.

I'm looking forward to people coming back. I want to see everyone again!

4:51pm: I AM HOME.

7:52pm: O meu espírito se alegre em Deus, meu Salvador.
Lucas 1:46

I enjoy reading the Bible in Portuguese :)

5:17pm: Pest Control
Exciting event of my day: THERE WAS A CENTIPEDE IN MY ROOM! It was big and hairy and gross. Yeah, yeah, make fun of me for making a big deal out of the centipede. My roommate saw it running across the room and screamed, and so she put her trashcan on top of it (it has a little lip on the bottom so it trapped the centipede). I grabbed the Dirt Devil and sucked it up, and we thought it worked, but suddenly it fell out of the Dirt Devil and into the trashcan (which was empty, by the way)!! Then I grabbed my roommate's water bottle and poured all the water into the trashcan, and it started swimming. Ashleigh (my roomie) grabbed some dish soap and poured it into the trashcan, and finally it died. I should have taken a picture.

Good times.

10:25am: Tomorrow I go HOME!
It snowed today! Not just wispy little flakes that make a little lacy veil over the grass, but some good, chunky, hefty snow! I wish everyone wasn't taking exams so they would go make a snowman with me. Although at Smith, maybe it would be more appropriate to make a snow-woman. Whatever. Some people did that in front of my house last year.

Anne Hulley e-mailed me this morning asking me to go to the Smith bookstore and buy her son Nate a French-English dictionary. (PS. for those of you who don't know, Anne Hulley is a woman from my church--her and her family and the Winnicks make us dinner all the time. They're the best ever). Why? I don't know. She is a spontaneous person sometimes! But I have no problem doing that. I just don't know anything about French-English dictionaries. I need to return her fondue pot, too. Erin--you have it, right?

The plane leaves at 6:10pm tomorrow night. Can't wait!

8:55pm: ...done?
I think I'm done my work. Weird? Yeah...

Today I finished my history paper, which is something I wanted to do yesterday, but the Smith website was down and I couldn't do any research on the databases or catalogue until this afternoon at like 4pm. I thought about researching the old fashioned way, with the card catalogue in drawers, but Jane (Neilson Library expert extraordinaire) told me those haven't even been updated in about nine years. So...I finished it today, setting my goal for 5:45, dinnertime. Do you know when I typed the very last word? 5:44! Praise the Lord for grace to finish things on time. I just revised it a little, just for a check-up in case I made any stupid mistakes. I think it'll be ok, but I haven't sent it to my prof. yet, just in case I decided to revise a little more. Something's telling me I won't really be doing that, though...

For some reason I've been feeling pretty tired today. Maybe the semester is at long last catching up with me.

My roommate and I saw a crow devouring a sparrow outside of Chapin the other day. It was pretty gruesome. Oh, the circle of life...or the food chain. Whichever you prefer.

To all exam takers: you are awesome. Don't sweat it! Everything will be fine :) If you have to take a test in Seelye 206, take one at 9am on Monday or Tuesday! I'll hand you your exam!

Can you believe Christmas is in one week from today? Wow.

Luke 1:46-55.

10:17pm: Through this changing world below,
Lead me gently, gently as I go;
Trusting Thee, I cannot stray,
I can never, never lose my way.


Hymns are beautiful.

1:21pm: Classes are SO OVER!
I am so grateful that classes are over! All I've been doing for three weeks is writing papers. It's been a long few weeks. First I wrote my history paper, then 20th Century (Dance History), then Balanchine--all 10+ pagers, which isn't so bad, but for three weeks...it's been long, especially because history was a research paper and I combed through 28 books to get my sources.

In any event, I am very blessed to only have a short history paper to write as a final, plus edit my 20th Century paper. Home is soon! I'm looking forward to it.

I don't know how I'm getting home for Christmas. Aunt Ginny's in the hospital, and we aren't going to Vermont for Christmas day anymore. Hmmm...

11:49pm: Is it really December?
How have the weeks flown by? I feel like just yesterday was October. I'm suprised it hasn't snowed intensely yet. I've gotta say I've been looking forward to whenever that happens.

Thanksgiving was lots of fun. Elaine came home with me because it was too far for her to go home, which was neat. It was nice to relax and spend time with friends and family. I won't be home again until after Christmas--we're going to Vermont for that week.

This week I've been super busy writing a 10-pager on Nijinska's "Les Noces." It's a ballet...SO AMAZING, I might add. Totally abstract. I'm really not into the whole tutu thing right now. Stravinsky's music in it--also incredible. Watch it if you ever get the chance. I've been watching it over and over and over again to really understand it, although sometimes doing that is pretty desensitizing. I think it's going pretty well, though. Next week's challenge: Balanchine's "Stravinsky Violin Concerto." Even MORE abstract. Rock on!

The Hulleys are my favorite people ever. They're this family from my church that cooks (really really good, not Smith food) dinner for Intervarsity every month, but this month they're doing it every Friday (which means I went there tonight). We sang Christmas carols too, since it's advent. I love being at their house so much! Afterwards, Jesse, Erin and I went to the Lamont House mocktail Winter Weekend party. They had acapella groups there, which were neat. And now I am back in Hubbard--I did a little to my paper, but I really need the DVD of the ballet which is on reserve. The library's closed at this point, so I did what I could, and I'm going to resume work tomorrow morning.

I'm out--sweet dreams, everybody

9:38pm: Home sweet home...
I am SOOOO excited to go home tomorrow! It will be so nice to see my family, dog, and friends. I've done the majority of my work due next week; I have been blessed NOT to have a lot of work!--although it will get busy when I get back as I prep for my two papers...not going to worry about that now, though. Tomorrow I'll be in PENNSYLVANIA!

8:56am: I'm done my history paper and it's sent off! Hooray!

6:51pm: Getting tired...but I will be sustained!
So...like the title to my entry...I'm getting tired, and am really looking forward to Thanksgiving...a few days to rest and eat MEAT (not that I'm complaining about the whole vegan food thing...ha). My schedule has been busy lately. Not really hard per se, but long-going. I'm pretty non-stop. Today, I went from church class to brunch to 2 hours of work on my paper to Little Shop of Horrors (Emily, my old roomie, was in it and she was wonderful even though not on stage a whole whole lot), then home for another 2 hours of work, dinner, and in about 15 minutes I'm going to the dance concert. My paper is 8 pages now. I wanted it to be a bit longer at this point, but it'll be okay. About two more pages and it'll be finished. I take Sabbath from 7pm Saturday until 7pm Sunday, so I won't do anything tomorrow afternoon. There's the option of freaking out about that, but I'm choosing not to. Philippians 4:13! -I can do all things through Him who gives me strength!- and He hasn't let me down yet :)

7:12pm: Yikes!
Wow, I've been going through all kinds of literature about study abroad. It's so overwhelming! I met with the professor in charge of the Smithsonian internship this afternoon, and it sounds AMAZING, but I can't even apply to that until February--which means I should probably apply to go abroad just in case that doesn't work out. I've been looking over things on New Zealand, Australia, and Brazil. I think it sounds hard to go to Brazil...EVERYTHING would be in Portuguese! If I went to the Smithsonian, though, I couldn't go to Brazil at all, because they don't allow people to come for only the US second semester. The University of Otago in New Zealand has Portuguese classes, so if I go to the Smithsonian I could go there second semester and not fall too behind on Portuguese. There's so much to think about...I should go to the study abroad office tomorrow and do some research.

10:57am: Ending and beginning
Friday, at last--although it's going to be one busy weekend! Tonight is the Midnight Cry (yay!) from 8pm-2am (Come! It's going to be awesome--all night praise & worship marathon), and tomorrow morning I have class at church at 9am. Ha, who's not sleeping tonight? ME! I have a 10-pager to write for history (due in a week), which isn't really that bad, but I have 28 books to sort through before writing it. At least the topic is interesting. I'm strongly considering just sleeping all afternoon so I can be awake and alive at the MC and for paper-writing tomorrow.

I'm trying to figure out what to do next year. There's a Smithsonian internship for American Studies/ American History/ whatever majors that's the fall semester next year. That looks really cool, especially because I'm interested in museum work as a career (although who knows where God's bringing me?). I'm meeting with the professor in charge of that next week. Then, I need to figure out where to go second semester. At first, I was thinking southern hemisphere, because that way I'll be able to start the year off with them (their fall is our spring). I'm still thinking that, but the question is, which country? I thought about Brazil, but the website on that program made it seem like you could only begin during the US fall, which wouldn't work if I went to Washington. So... I don't know. Australia? New Zealand? Those seem to be the places I'm looking at right now. We'll just see where God brings me...

2:18pm: It's been a day
I just finished my Portuguese test. It was okay...not great but not too terrible. I'm just thankful it's over.

I have a pretty crazy month coming up. Next week, I have to finish my History research paper (10-15 pages-ish), then comes Thanksgiving (soo looking forward to that), then a 10 page paper for 20th Century Dance and another 10 pager for Balanchine. It's going to be quite a week after Thanksgiving...fortunately my only final is in Portuguese, and although I will have a final essay for History, it'll be during exam week (I think...?). Fortunately God's got it covered...

MIDNIGHT CRY-NOVEMBER 12-SMITH COLLEGE
Are you coming?

4:43pm: One hour
Do you ever feel like some days, you just can't think in Portuguese? Well, I do.

I'm in one of those awkward frames of time when I don't have enough time to really get anything accomplished, but time enough to feel wasteful doing nothing. I should probably read for history...okay, I'm convicted.

1:37pm: Beautiful Sunday
I love Sunday afternoons. They're such a peaceful time for me. I don't do work because it's my Sabbath, so I can just rest, go outside, and breathe the beautiful New England air.

It's been a good weekend. On Friday night, I went to the Mount Holyoke dance concert with Sophie. It was fun. They had some great pieces. One of my favorites was a modern/ballet fusion piece, which started out with a single dancer and had no music. As she danced, you just kinda zoned in on the movements and tried to analyze them. Halfway through, though, she put Red Sox shorts on over her leotard and tights and a baseball cap and repeated the entire dance--but this time, it was to a jazz version of "Take me out to the ballgame." Watching it the second time, you realized that every movement she had been doing was inspired by baseball gestures! It was cool. At first, you think it's this contemplative and reflective piece, but then you realize, no--it's just a fun baseball dance! And then, there's the West African dance...always awesome! Saturday night was Lois' birthday party. That was lots of fun.

I also went to the gym for the first time this year. Ha, ha. I can never even tell how to use the weight machines. I think I'll stick to dance to keep me in shape...

11:07am: Spontaneous return
I've pretty much abandoned this Live Journal, but I thought it would be fun to make a spontaneous return. Why not, right? Another mindless internet social site for me to get addicted to.

This morning I had the Civil War. We talked about Bull Run. I really don't follow battle patterns. I guess little lines and dots just don't make sense to me...to me, battle is just a bunch of angry people getting together and going crazy and shooting each other. But apparently there's such thing as battle tactics...go figure.

I'm grateful that it is now the weekend. Tonight I'm going to see the MHC Dance Concert, and I don't really know what I'm doing tomorrow. I might go to Lois's birthday party, or at least some of it. Maybe the SASA Jam, too. I missed that last year. And, oh yeah, lots of homework. I really gotta get cracking on my History paper. I checked out 15 books from the library on Wednesday for it; the girl at the desk looked at me like I was crazy. Who knows, maybe I was. There's a lot of material to plow through.

Speaking of being at the library, I also went to "Trapped!: Modern Day Slavery in Brazil", a lecture put on by the Portuguese department. It was so fascinating! I have to admit, I thought it might be another Smith rant on the world and the government, but it was really fascinating and it made me really really REALLY want to go on mission there. What else am I supposed to do with this random interest in Portuguese God gave me? I have such random interests in general, I think. History, Dance, Portuguese...you know, the like. But it's cool, because God gave me interests for reasons, and I don't really know what they are, but he'll do something with them. I guess I just have to wait and see what they are.

Wow, this really turned into a novel. I think I'll sign out now. Bom fim de semana!

3:34pm: In response to a certain LJ user whom I shall refer to as jonasepsilon, I am posting again, as reading posts is all that jonasepsilon lives for.

That said, today has been a not-so-bad day. 20th Century was a bit dull, but I can live with that. I had a good ballet class this afternoon. Sometimes things just feel right when you do them, and today was one of those days. So hooray for that.

I almost lost my AIM forever. My computer had this weird psycho moment yesterday and crashed, and then AIM wasn't working at all, no matter how I tried to enter it. So I uninstalled it and then redownloaded it. Bad part: I lost all my saved away messages. I suppose I will have to live with that.

I went on thefacebook.com today! It's weird, yet I am entirely addicted. You can't even do anything on it-- who made that up? Oh well. I like to read other people's profiles. I'm such a stalker.

Tchau for now, y'all.

5:26pm: Stayin' Alive
Just a post for no real reason other than it seems like everybody on LiveJournal (well, Jesse and Erin) died or something.

10:30am: Uneven gums, uneven world... hey, that should be a song title
What's sad now is that I know nobody is reading my LiveJournal, yet I continue to post. Now that Erin is camping and Jesse is still in Laos, I have a total of zero people reading my postings.

I am currently counting down the days until camp starts. I'm getting somewhat bored of having no real task to do at home other than buying groceries and prepping for camp/writing lesson plans. Oh, and paying waaaaaaaay too much for gas. I guess I shouldn't complain. It's supposed to be like $6 a gallon in Europe. Note to self: don't move to Europe. You can't afford it nor will you ever be able to afford it.

Well yesterday was Lisa's birthday, and today is John's birthday. Happy Birthday to them!

My sister got her braces off yesterday, and now her teeth are sparkling white (as opposed to sparkling silver). I told her she looked sooooooo pretty (right in front of all the orthodontists--she was humiliated, but that was my aim. It's my job as big sister). She stared at herself in the visor mirror in my car when we drove back and complained that her gums were uneven.

1:20pm: A lazy Sunday afternoon
I'm so excited! Everyone from my youth group and all the Pepper leaders want to take a road trip to Smith this fall and come to Intervarsity and the Hulleys' house! I told Elaine about it and she's excited too! We're definitely holding them to it...

Otherwise, I'm bored. And it turns out I'm NOT working at the Pike Restaurant. I was either seriously confused or seriously decieved that I had a job. I worked for 3 hrs last Monday, but apparently that was an "interview." ARGH.

Well I have no more comments. Bye!

2:17pm: Do I hear an Amen? AMEN!
Wow, Jesus spoils me SOOOOOOOOO much! Today I went back on the job search and called people, and then a restaurant who told me no yesterday called back and said they really DID need someone for mornings four days a week! So I went there and talked to the lady, and there was a slight miscommunication because she thought I could work mornings until August whereas I can only do that til late June because of camp. So I thought she was going to give me this awful lecture and kick me out but SHE OFFERED ME A JOB ANYWAY! I was psyched. I am going to be a hostess at the Pike Restaurant now. Then on my way home, I almost got into a car accident because 309 is the craziest highway in the world-- when I was clearly merging on, some crazy car switched into my lane! But Jesus made sure my brakes were working! Then I got home and the mail had come. I got two things from Smith, one that isn't actually for me (they confused me with someone who already graduated) and one from Sherry Marker, my Scribbling Women prof, who sent me my last essay and a really nice letter! And I babysat today and got more money than those people ever pay me. Yeah, I was sooooo spoiled today.

3:16pm: AARrrGGhHHHhhHH
I need a job a LOT. My parents want me to get another job other than the one teaching at camp, and I was offered one at a retirement center but it's a HALF HOUR AWAY. Far, right? I thought so. This is frustrating. I need some serious grace right now.