Cosmopolitan

I think my new favorite place is Cosmopolitan Park in lovely Columbia, Missouri. Honestly. I need some time to truly explore the place, even though according to some it's just "soccer fields" and something else... [I can't remember what else was said] but I think it's neat regardless.

Autumn

I love autumn!

Oh goodness.

It is definitely fall. And I'm so glad. It's still pretty warm most days, but there's that 'feeling' in the air; you can simply tell that it's autumn. Beautiful. The leaves are starting to change - but some trees have already dropped most of their leaves! It's pretty strange to think that this week includes the arrival of October.

Time flies.

Mornings

I like to think I am able to be a morning person. I mean, I try my best to be cordial to people. I don't bite their heads off. I don't walk around like a zombie or talk like a mummy. I can get things done if need be. Once I'm up, I'm up. I'm good to go.

However, I'm definitely not much of a morning person around my family.

Why is that?

Is it because I don't feel like I need to be cordial to them at all?
Is it because I don't feel like I need to make a good impression?
Is it because I don't feel like I need to take their feelings into consideration when I'm rude?

Honestly. I'm really going to try and work on this whenever I'm home.

Rhythm

I have finally found my rhythm for shooting in basketball!

It's beautiful.

Three bounces. One pass to self. One bounce. Right foot step towards line, left foot follow. Shoot.

Swish.

Music to my ears.

Prayer

GOD ANSWERS PRAYER.

Just thought I'd let you know.

Nap

Today I took a nap in a pile of leaves. I listened to music. A sweet breeze danced through the air.

It was nice.

Drama

I DO NOT LIKE DRAMA.
LEAVE YOUR DRAMA AT HOME.
I KNOW THAT DRAMA IS NOT JUST A PART OF HIGH SCHOOL.
I KNOW THAT DRAMA EXISTS IN YOUR LIFE AS THE YEARS PASS.
BUT SERIOUSLY.
LEAVE YOUR DRAMA AT HOME.
I DO NOT LIKE DRAMA.

Disappointed

I'd rather have somebody mad at me than disappointed with me.

But maybe that's just me.

Monkey, Revisited

Ohhh, monkey.
I love you.

... I seriously don't know what to say or take a picture of today - if it's not already obvious to you...

Auburn

So after getting back from hanging out tonight with some kids, I went to chill in Lang lobby. The television was turned to ESPN. Awesome. They were showing highlighted plays and going over the day's scores and everything. Ok, great. Wasn't that interested - until I see the glorious AU come up on the screen. WAR EAGLE! I figured I would tune in and see what had happened, seeing how I haven't watched a single game this year. They played Louisiana State (the fake tiger team). They were home. They were wearing the beautiful blue, white and orange. Everything had gone really well; they were ahead up into the fourth quarter - until there was one minute, six seconds left... that's when it all went downhill. LSU totally scored. TERRIBLE. I was seriously frustrated. I'm not even always thaaat interested in what's going on, but honestly. Man. Last minute loss on the home field? Ugh.

Soccer

I missed the game.
I took a nap.
I woke up when I heard a couple voices in the room.
I groggily asked, "When does the game start?"
... "It's over."

What?!

I was so upset.

I really needed to catch up on some sleep.
So I laid down at 1:00. Set my alarm for 4:00.
The game's at 4:30, I would be good to go.
First of all, my alarm didn't go off.
Second of all, my roommates even told me they were actually in the room right before they headed over to the game. And they asked each other if they should wake me up. Obviously the decision was to not do so...
Alright, so it was partly my own fault, because when I checked my alarm I saw that I had set it for 4:00 AM - and not 4:00 PM. Oops!
Seriously, though. I was so stoked to go and support the boys. Our little cheer group had worn jerseys again today and everything!

Oh well.

At least there's another game tomorrow - and it's super important because the opposing team is supposedly incredible.
And I am not going to sleep through it!

Redundancy

I tend to be pretty redundant. I can't help it. Sometimes I simply like being redundant. It just sort of happens. I think at times we all fall into a rhythm of redundancy. Seriously, we can't help it, you know? Life can totally be redundant. Honestly. It's like... I don't know how to describe it. But I'm pretty sure that your life can be redundant once you start living through the same things over and over and going through the motions day after day, week after week, etc. Sometimes it's nice, though. I do kind of like it. Oh goodness. Redundancy.

It's actually hard to be redundant when you're trying to be redundant...

Thank you, Mr. Jordan King, for the topic inspiration.

Monkey

The darned monkey has followed me to Missouri!

So my dad and I play this game, right? He got this little, stuffed monkey on a business trip or something (I honestly don't know how he acquired the dang thing). At one point or another he said I could have it. So I took it. Then one day I decided to 'give' it back to him, but I hid it somewhere in my parent's room for him to find. I believe the first hiding place was under his pillow or down under the sheets at the foot of the bed - something like that. He found it and then hid it somwhere for me to find. The game went on.

At one point last year, my mom sent the monkey to Utah in a box of stuff she sent me. She even included a note made of cut-out letters saying 'Ha Ha! You can't get rid of me so EZ, my Iowa Nat!' It was super cute, not gonna lie.

... So I almost wasn't surprised when I opened a box my mom sent me a few days ago and saw the monkey stuffed down into the bottom. Oh goodness. I love my parents.

Third World

Today in World Geography my teacher put up a slide that showed the world in regards to what countries are part of the first, second and third worlds. There are more countries that are considered part of the third world than I thought there were.

All of Africa.
All of South America.
All of the Middle East.
All of Latin America.
Southwest and South Asia.
Greenland.

That's right.
Greenland.

The map got me thinking... 'What exactly defines a third world country?' Honestly - we didn't even go over it in class. Most people just think of the level of economy when they think about the third world. 'Oh, well, these countries are poor, so they must be part of the third world.' But is that really all that helps classify countries as part of the third world?

I chose to let the people decide for me.
And so I went to Yahoo! Answers.

Lo and behold, the question had already been asked many a time.

Here are some of the answers people have produced:

- lack of advanced technology
- insufficient power
- [civil] wars
- lack of natural resources
- misuse of resources
- lack of educational systems
- exploitation by the Western world
- environmental issues
- more people than can possibly be fed, but an overwhelming urge to produce more and more babies (personal fave)

The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of 'third-world' is 'a group of nations especially in Africa and Asia not aligned with either the Communist or the non-Communist blocs'; 'the aggregate of underveloped nations in the world'. Both are legitimate definitions. To be frank, I don't have any place I want to be going with this, I'm just trying to say that I was surprised at how many countries are considered third-world. So I may just leave it at that...

'I'm surprised at how many countries are considered third-world.'

Cough Drops

Is it weird that I really like cough drops?

...... Because I do.

Especially honey-lemon cough drops. Oh goodness. Now trust me, I don't use cough drops unless I have to. I'm not that weird... but when I do, I'll go through a bag like the drops are candy. Ha. Well, at least my throat never hurts terribly when I have a cough!

Scavenger Hunt

Tonight I partook in a scavenger hunt at Wal-Mart (the hoppin'est place to be here in Moberly, Missouri). Tomorrow is my friend's birthday but we celebrated it today. The scavenger hunt was part of what she had planned for us all to do. Even though I'm actually feeling worse than yesterday (but trying not to let people know that because I really don't like letting people know how I feel, both physically and emotionally)... I still wanted to be there for the birthday girl (Leez), so I went. I had a lot of fun. Anyway, the scavenger hunt included doing certain things as well as finding items and such. One of the 'to-do' things on the list was get a 'jumping' picture of the team. I thought I'd include it in this post because it turned out really well so far as jumping shots go!
... Except for the fact that it looks like I have a beard...

Sick

I'm sick. : (

I'm rarely sick. So when I am, I am definitely not a happy camper.

So. not. cool.

Mud Volleyball

So tonight I played sand volleyball. Except it's been raining for the past couple days... so the sand had turned into mud, practically. One side of the court had a humongous puddle in the middle of it. This side was definitely the most fun to play on, but this side was definitely the most distracting to play on, as well. ! Still. It was super fun. After we stopped playing we all messed around in the puddles. Crazy. Everybody was being thrown in and wrestled down into the grit and grime. It was nasty... but hilarious. I definitely got the most dirty, I think. Oh well!

Later we played Signs. You know... the best game ever...
Oh and before we played volleyball some of us had played Life and Scattergories. Life, I've decided, is the worst board game in the entire world. Psh. Board game. More like bored game.

Honestly, though. Tonight was a blast.

Seven Years

September 11, 2001

Remember.

Discouraged

I'm tired.
I'm tired of thinking inside the box.
I'm tired of accepting everything that is said.
I'm tired of feeling like people are too afraid to be vulnerable and put themselves out there.

I want a challenge.
I need a challenge.

I want to be asked questions.
Questions that push you to practical insanity.
Questions that don't necessarily have answers attached to them.
Questions that make you feel as if you know absolutely nothing.

Does that make sense?

This is how I grow the best, it seems.
And so right now, I'm not growing a whole lot.
I'm learning.
But growing? No, not growing - or at least not as much as I'd like to be.

Basketball

I played basketball on a team in third grade. I played basketball each year in middle school during the basketball unit in gym. Otherwise, I've basically never touched a basketball. Yet I've decided to play basketball here at Central. My friend Loree has also never truly played basketball, and she has inspired me to go out for the team. There are technically basketball tryouts, but we're basically shoo-ins because there are only six other girls interested in playing. Loree and I have a friend (Anthony) who's a really great player and he's been helping us out a lot, getting us ready. We're not doing too bad, if I do say so myself. We've got a month before tryouts and two months before the first game, so hopefully we'll be well on our way to actually getting time to play.

I'm so excited! I really am. Never before have I had the desire to play, but for some reason I now have this ridiculous desire to play basketball. It's as if the desire is pushing down on me like an enormous weight. I can't wait to seriously get started.

Hunger

This school serves dinner way too early! Man.

That's all I have to say.
I'm hungry.
Ich habe Hunger.
Ana jo'aaneh.

Tolerance

This is my religion box. Each of the six sides represents a different world religion.
Sikhism.
Christianity.
Buddhism.
Hinduism.
Islam.
Judaism.
This is one of my favorite things in my room. It's nice to have a daily reminder of the fact that I am not the only person in this world who believes something. Christianity is not the only faith in this world. I've had this box for about four years; I got it at a School of Christian Mission that I went to with my mom and a few women from our church.

Stars

Looking at stars when I'm out in the country and there aren't many lights around to take away from their clarity and brightness is, by far, one of my favorite things to do. And on basically the same note, starry skies are one of my favorite sights in the whole world.

Typical, I know. But hey - it's true.

It's even better when you see a shooting star and a falling star in the same night. Oh yes.

Remember!

I think I need to start bringing a journal with me everywhere I go so that when way cool things happen, I can jot them down and actually remember them when I want to tell stories.

Man.

Seriously though, I'm really not good at remembering short-term things. Like... things that happened to me fifteen minutes ago... or things I was thinking about saying but then forget what I was thinking about... yeah. Hm.

School Reading

Usually reading assignments for school aren't very exciting.
I'd much rather choose a book on my own and read it for pleasure than read a book that I have to read - no matter how truly good it is!

That's not the case here, though. Trust me when I say I have a lot of reading... but I love every bit of it. It's really encouraging to look forward to doing your homework, let me tell you.

Cheery

I woke to a very dark and stormy morning. It was cold. It was wet. It was windy.
But for some reason, I knew it was going to be a great day.

I put on a bright outfit and went to my first class with a smile on my face.

Pentateuch. We finally started the study of Genesis - so, so, so interesting. I love it. And Mr. Summa is a hoot, lemme tell ya.
Breakfast. Man oh man... I love the fact that the cereal container that is labeled 'Honey Nut Cheerios' actually contains Honey Nut Cheerios, and not regular Cheerios like some colleges... cough, cough, University of Utah, cough cough.

Anyway...

Chapel. The guest speaker spoke of service and being obedient to God. This seems to be the theme of the week for me, and I'm glad.
Geography. Kind of boring, but nice to just sit and listen and not have to freak out about notes since he just went over slides, word for word. Three cheers.

Blood donation. I was really glad I was able to give blood, because the last few times I've tried to give my iron count has always been too low. O-negative, yeah yeah yeah!

Like I said - as soon as I woke up I knew it was going to be a great day. And it truly was. Nothing exactly eventful happened, but I think having a good attitude about the day helped a lot. Not to mention that I really felt the presence of God throughout the entire day. Beautiful.

Mondays

I don't have classes on Monday.
Ever.

I like this.

Irritation

I think it's funny when the smallest things are the biggest sources of irritation for people.

Is that mean?

Honestly though. I highly suggest you just sit down and talk to someone - with your main objective being to find out what irritates them the most. I'm not saying find out so that you can learn how to get under their skin... but it really is a source of interest for me.

I know, I know -

"You're so weird!"