My Crazy, Busy Life

I'm very excited because I've signed up for 3 classes next semester and changed my major officially to practical writing- which is more in the area of magazines and nonfiction rather than the creative writing that I usually lean towards. I'm trying to be a little bit realistic while I indulge myself in taking a major in such a competetive, hard to enter field. I'm taking practical writing, literary journalism, and american dialects. I told Becky M.- one of my coworkers- about it and she told me not to, because she had been told by several people that it was a really hard class and poorly taught. annie told me though, that she had taken it, and that it wasn't that bad. There were several profs though, and I am resting in the faith that I got one of the good ones, and that if I didn't I'll still be able to do a good job. And at least its only meeting once a week. with working full time, the only time I have available to take classes is in the evening so this fall i will be in class monday, tuesday and wednesday night. I have a meeting thursday nights and then friday will probably be homework and cda stuff. at least I can do other work while I'm doing my cda classes. and honestly, I still hear what is being said. I think that the cda program is made for people who aren't used to college, because the words are printed up on screen and then repeated verbatum by the narrator. More the better for me. They do ask some questions that you have t answer of the true/false variety and if you get it wrong they take you back to review. add to that all greeting and fellowship committee and library and I have the makings of a nervous breakdown. No actually, I think that I will be able to handle it all, and I have many people who are warning me and holding me accountable to not get overwhelmed. I have running through my head a seldom heard song from one of the Veggie Tales videos. (I really liked this one, but I guess it wasn't as popular) "Busy, Busy, dreadfully busy, I'm much too busy, for singing this song. Busy, Busy, horribly busy, much much too busy for you." Hopefully, I don't end up with that same attitude.

I found this article online and though its long, I really enjoyed a lot of the points, and it sets a nice contrast to a great deal of the media coverage of Michael Moore's new movie. I hate how the media will all jump on the bandwagon and never say anything new about a story even though they may claim to have a new story every night, and how they all band together with one persepective, even if they have not thouroughly examined what they are speaking about.

www.christiancounterculture.com/articles/michaelmoore.html

So today I'm all grown up- again.

Yup, its my Birthday today. I always feel kind of melancholy on my birthday- another facet of my over-analytical mind. I tend to look back at the last year and wonder what I could have done better and what will happen in the coming year. This year has brought many changes with it, some good, some bad. But I think I do too much taking stock of my life. To quote Minnie Driver in Grosse Point Blank, "Leave your livestock alone- and then, get out of town." I think thats what I really need- a vacation. To get out of this blasted sameness that I've been stuck in for too long. I haven't even been to say, Grand Rapids in far too long. I think I need to take the Lisa tactic of taking a few days off, even if I don't go anywhere major- just go to the beach or something. Everyone's been telling em that I need a vacation. What I kind of want to do it go someplace where no one knows me and meet a bunch of new people. I guess school will accomplish that though- I've signed up for 3 night classes now, in addition to my CDA stuff. I'd like to join a writer's group, but I'd want it to be a Christian one, and the only one I've found around gives assignments in order to motivate people to actually write- aren't yoou supposed to write because it is your calling- your life's desire, not because you are supposed to write about firworks for the month of July? I guess I'm more melancholy than usual today because recently I found something I wrote way back in the day when I was 12, all about what I'd be doing in 10 years. I thought that when I was 22, I'd be married with kids, a published author, a botanist, marine biologist, in the army, peace corps and involved in various philanthropic endeavors. Even though my dreams were truly outrageous, I would have liked to achieve at least one of the many goals I set for myelf. Oh well, the year is young, and so am I- though a little less so than yesterday. Do you have to remind yourself on your birthday and several days after that you are a year older? I kept saying to myself- "I'm 22, I'm 22." But it still hasn't sunk in. Now I'm in the boring part of my adulthood- nothing big until 25- when I'll be a quarter of a century old.

I forgot to mention what I got for my B- Day-
I got my climbing shoes!!! I'm so excited- now I have to go out and do me some climbing. I think they're exactly th same type as ang and lisa and annie, but I knwo that I like those and can climb well in them, so It's cool. I also got a gift certificate to gander mountain from my bro. since he never knows what to get me. My mom's also giving me a shopping trip this monday to kohl's since she gets this one day something percent off cupon. This is good since my clothes are looking alittle raggedy, and funds are lacking, but she asked me what I needed and I thought of one thing, and then another and another came to mind- I'll have to think on it a bit before we go.

We also went to see Bourne Supremacy tonight. I had loved the first one and its usual a let down to go to a sequel because its never as good- as was the case here. It seems like they always try to do things bigger instead of sticking with what worked from the first one. Not that it was a horrible movie, it was just predictable. and what I guessed happened from the trailer did happen. Maybe I should just read the books. They're usually better anyways.

I seem to always be saying that it has been too long snce I've last written and that I'll do better from here on out, but I can't promise anything. and whatever regularity I may have as of now will be out the window once we hit september. The River will be starting for real, I'll be doing my cda stuf, taking classes and working full time. I'll also be moving- something which I should be really excited about, but for some reason I just can't drum up any enthusiasm for the idea. Maybe its the memory of just over a year ago (wow- I hadn't realized that annie and had passed the 1 year mark, probably since she's gone- and neither one of us killed each other. or anything- amazing.) I was running errands until 10 tonight, and I was working since 9 so my brain is a little fried. Our theme right now is around the world so I was looking for books on Guatemala and Bulgaria, since thats where Jake, evvie and fidanka are from.
also, I've been debating what I should do with my hair for quite some time now and today I finally went and just bought some random hair product. It's supposed to give my hair the "messy" look that is popular right now, and it really did, but I'm just not sure about having my hair be kinda stiffer than usual. I'm used to it having nothing in it at all, so this is a little odd. I think I'll try it like this tomorrow though. It might keep my hair looking nicer (weird for a stlye called meesy) since I'm outside in the wind with the kids. I know I'll be hearing it all day from them though, "Did you change your hair?" "Why did you do that Miss Carrie?" "Your hair feels funny." We can never do anything to our personal appearances without comment. at least we teachers get the honest truth from someone about these things. I also bought new post-its and some other writing supplies. I've been having massive writer's block this week and I'm trying to motivate myself with some new toys- a trick which sometimes works. My block is proabably due to stinking vbs!! ahhh- 170 kids every day. Man, I could write a book on Tuesday alone, but that shall have to wait for another time.

Haven't written in a while


I was told that I haven't written in a while, and I really didn't think about it till I came here tonight and saw that it was June the last time I wrote. I've just been in a sleep depreived stupor the past couple weeks, which is my fault- as usual, but I do my best thinking and writing late at night, and its my only time of privacy. As Lisa said, we had wonderful fireworks on the 4th- watching illegal ones and shooting off legal ones. Thankfully, the weather cleared up in time for us to have a fire and S'mores on the beach. I've been working hard and overcommiting myself fro the River, but its all stuff that I really want to do. I'm involved in youth and children's minstry, greeting and fellowship, and I was kind of elected to organize the library, which I mentioned to the guy in charge of a lot of the ministry groups and he says "Yes, we'd consider that a small group" so now apparently I've become a small group leader. Oh well, at least if I'm in charge we will make sure to have some good theological books, instead of simply the stuff that was 25 cents at someone's garage sale. I want people to be able to come to the library for answers, not just when they need something to pass the time. and this way I won't buy all the books for myself.

I have a really great story along the same lines as Lisa'a last post, but it shall have to wait for another time, my eyes are closing as I type.......

My Parents Secret Lives as International Terrorists
My parents made a recent trip to Maine by way of Canada, and on their way, they almost weren't let into Canada or out of it. When they came to the border, they were asked the three usual questions:

1-What is your name? ........Fre- um... Alfred Henderson
2- Where do you live? .........Kala-.........Mattawan, Michigan
3- What is your job? .........Policema- .....Firefighter

The Public Safety Officers for Kalamazoo are advised to tell the border patrol that they are firefighters instead of Police officers because if they say police, their car will definelty be searched. However, because he paused on each of the questions, their car- down to the suitcases, was searched thouroughly. When they finally cam to the border to re-enter the US, they practiced on the 2 hour wait on the bridge as to what my father should say. Sadly, all of this practice was wasted when they were told to pull through and drive on and set off a "Gamma Ray Alert!" a siren blared, their IDs were confiscated and they were shuttled into a windowless room made complete by signs warning of Body and Strip Searches. Finally, it was explained that they had set off the warning system for radioactive material, that is in place to guard against people smuggling dirty bombs into the country. After several more hours of waiting, they were told to drive through what amounted to a giant, truck-mounted X-Ray machine, and told that if they turned too quickly as they went through and clipped the corner, it would cost them $90,000. Needless to say, they had no dirty bomb, and it turned out that what had really happened was that the people behind them had pulled forward too quickly, and they had recently undergone medical tests that had involved radiation, such as a barium enema.

Probably the funniest part of the whole situation is imagining them sitting tehre- my dad trying to be proper and professional while secretly trying to explain to his seargent why there is a federal investigation about him, and comfort my mom at the same time, who is worrying about being put into a jail cell or some other claustriphobic horror. I had wished that I had been on the trip with them when they left, but I think that I am getting much more enjoyment out of the situation from this end than I would if I had been with them.