El Verano Proximo!

http://www.continuing-ed.calpoly.edu/travel_mex.html

I am currently obsessed with the idea of studying in Mexico this summer. I do wonder how long this will last.

Perfection

Sitting on the edge of a bluff overlooking a wide bluegreen ocean, the warm sun on my shoulders and a cool breeze on my back, eating a peanut butter, honey and raisin sandwich while watching shore birds and sea otters below, the sounds of the waves crashing into foamy white swelling over me.

Weekend Woohoo.

Just in case you can't do math yourself:
"The UN Development Program reports that the richest 20 percent of the world's population consume 86 percent of the world's resources while the poorest 80 percent consume just 14 percent."

Here is my weekend without the pronoun "I": Had a fun weekend. Went to Disneyland --- looked in shops, rode the Matterhorn and Space Mountain, did really well in the Buzz Lightyear ride, explored Innoventions. Spent three hours at Marie Callendars with the Huberts and Hammorks (mmm lots of pie and quiche and salad.) Went to breakfast with Nana (mmm lots of tea and oatmeal and muffins and fruit and hash browns.) Carved a big pumpkin named Boofus and a little pumpkin. Had mucho funo.

This is one of my stranger posts. I blame it on my brain trying for the past hour to understand the WTO.

You Can Be Addicted Too!

Here is a fun game that also strengthens your logic muscles!
Play Sudoku!
You need to insert the numbers 1-9 across all the rows, down all the columns, and in all the 3x3 boxes.

Pumpkin Patch

Here is a true/false test for you:
T/F It is okay to leave bags of burnt popcorn in the middle of the parking lot.
T/F It is okay to move someone's doormat next to the mailbox.
T/F It is okay to throw giant chocolate chip muffins onto my windshield.

If you answered "false" to the previous three questions, you are a decent human being. If you answered "true," you are a careless person who lives somewhere near me.

We went to the Avila Barn today. It is super-crowded but fun to watch everyone and look at the animals and go in the hay maze and try all the free samples. I got three cute little pumpkins and one medium sized pumpkin.

Days left to CSET sectionIII.....14. Eeek.

Fall Retreat '05

I just got back from Fall Retreat and it was so good. I met so many people this weekend and had real conversations with them – that was one of the best parts of the weekend. We stayed at the Hyatt in Thousand Oaks, which is a fancy-shmancy hotel that is gorgeous. There is a fountain inside and beautiful paintings, friendly staff and outside a nice pool and lawn and gazebo. We got some crazy discount because I think it is usually quite expensive to stay there. I drove down with Lianne and three guys, which was fun, and I crotched until it got dark. We got a late start so we hit traffic coming out of SLO but not in Santa Barbara or Ventura. I missed the first talk, but I met with my D-group (discussion group), which turned out to be who I hung out with a lot of the weekend. Then I went to my room and met my roommates (one of which was Erin, just by coincidence!) Saturday morning I got up for worship/prayer and a continental breakfast then Brandon Fisher spoke about our relationships with other people. For lunch we went to a nearby church and had Subway sandwiches and had time with our classes where we talked about our responsibilities and challenges as juniors. Then I watched a bunch of guys and eventually girls play a somewhat dangerous, painful and strange game called buck-buck. I went back to the hotel and worked on my linguistics homework in my room for a while and then I discovered the lovely back part of the hotel. I had dinner with my D-group at the hotel, and then we broke into men and women. Debbie’s talk was about loving other girls and was really good. After D-group, we all met in the main room for line dancing! It was a crazy good time that lasted well past my bed time. This morning Brandon spoke about being an ambassador of Christ. Then I said goodbye to my D-group and went to Lianne’s boyfriend’s house for lunch. His parents were so welcoming of a whole bunch of us and made us tri-tip and chicken that was super-yummy. Then I drove home with Erin and two guys that I met and we played “would you rather” and the alphabet game most the way home.

Butterfly and Sunflower

My mom took this picture. Beautiful, eh?



(c) Joan Barnett 2005

Knott's and Fireworks

Once again I am at work with nothing to do – yay! I had a really good weekend and wish I was a better writer so that I could tell you all about it in an interesting fashion. But I’m not, so here is a rough explanation of what I did. I had Friday and Sunday dinners with my parents which was so so nice. I went to Knott’s Berry Farm with the Huberts. My favorite rides were Ghostrider, Supreme Scream, Accelerator, Jaguar, and The Silver Bullet. We had Mrs. Knott’s Fried Chicken for lunch. Around 5:30, we drove over to Disneyland because I hadn’t seen the fireworks yet. We ate at McDonald’s right outside the park (I didn’t eat much since I was full from lunch) and then we met the Hammorks at that little restaurant we always go to that is at the hotel. We stayed there a long time just hanging out and then danced our way over to Tower of Terror. Toni just met the height limit so we took her on. She was excited at first, but after the first big drop didn’t like it so much. Then we got a spot in Disneyland to watch the fireworks and some of us went on Big Thunder Mountain. Disneyland is so crazy with everything blocked off for the fireworks, with traffic rules that make it slightly difficult to get to where you want to go. But the fireworks were sooo good. It was a representation of a bunch of the rides at Disneyland, some of the ones that aren’t there any more, but mostly ones that are. The Haunted Mansion part is the best. During the fireworks some old man tried to plow me over. I was right on the edge of the roped-off area, and he was in the walkway trying to pretend he wasn’t. Luckily some cast member came and told him he couldn’t stand there. After the fireworks we stood in a huddle mostly making fun of people walking by and talking about the fireworks. I felt like a rock in a river. All the people pushed past our little huddle. Then we sat on a bench while Stevie and Chip and Sammy and Cynthy entertained us with random dancing. On our way out we stopped at the candy store and I got a delicious peanut-covered caramel apple that I ate in the car on the way to the Hammorks and we all sang quite loudly the whole way there.
On Sunday we went to GSLC in Inglewood with Ashley’s grandparents. It was the church’s 70th anniversary, but kind of sad because hardly anyone attends anymore. Church was very weird to Ashley and Lindsay and Chip, but to me it just reminded me of my younger years at Good Shepherd Goleta. We sang hymns and did some liturgy and read a psalm and said the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed and all that Lutheran stuff. Then we went to the potluck, which was really boring at first because they made us listen to a bunch of people talk about the good old days without giving us food. Oh here is the funniest part of lunch. Ashley and Chip were talking about how the pasta salad wasn’t very good, and Ashley had a big pile of both pasta salad and potato salad on her plate. Then Grandma Bev comes over and we find out that she made the yucky pasta salad. So Ashley discretely covers her pasta salad with her potato salad so it doesn’t look like she didn’t like Grandma Bev’s dish. Later Grandma Bev, who is known for eating everyone’s leftovers, asks if Toni has any potato salad. She didn’t, but Mrs. Nancy says that Ashley does. Ashley keeps saying “I’m not done yet” and “I can eat all this” and Nancy doesn’t get the hint. So then I tell her what had happened and I’m sure Grandma Bev was wondering why the whole table was giggling. Later I whisked Ashley’s plate away as I refilled my drink.
Yesterday I had a midterm in geography. Now geography is a two hour class. It always had been a two hour class. It probably always will be a two hour class. But for some reason I had it in my head that I only had an hour to take the test. So I was rushing through the test because it was quite long, and I finished just in time and scooted out the door to math. As I walked into my math class, I really thought I was in a dream. The depth of my confusion is something I had never felt. The teacher was the same, but I didn’t know anyone. So I just stood there with a confused look on my face while the teacher handed me a sheet of paper. Then I searched through my backpack and found my schedule and read that I was supposed to be in geography for two hours. Ohhhhhh. I asked the teacher if I could stay in this section today, and she said yes, and that I had looked really confused. The feeling was so bizarre. And throughout the class I still felt like I was in a dream and kept checking to make sure that I had all my clothes on and weird things like that.
Last night for dinner I made those raviolis from Costco and I put fresh tomatoes and fresh basil on them and made green beans, all from farmer’s market and it was quite delicious.
Today is my busy day. Work to school to AWANA to IM soccer. 8am-9:30pm. I think I have an hour for lunch and an hour between classes, though. I have decided that I don’t really like the word “busy.” Everyone is busy, or could be busy if they wanted to. And busyness doesn’t really mean anything because you could be busy just because you are inefficient. And people like to use busyness as an excuse. I need to come up for a new way of saying I am busy. “How was your day?” “I had a full day today.” “I had a lot of activity in my day today.” “I accomplished a lot today.” “I worked on a lot of things today.” “Can you come to ___ this afternoon?” “No, I am planning on going to ___.” “No, I would like to spend the time doing some studying.” OK maybe people would just think I am strange.