Epic Fail

Typically, I have rather dull weekends filled with homework and maybe a dinner and movie with friends. Well as I stated in yesterdays post the day was good, minus the allergic reaction. Today, however took a turn for the worse. I managed to stub my toe and hurt it crack I can no longer feel it, so it probably broke. It also rained this morning. I had just gotten back from church and had to park sort of far away so I decided to run to my apt. I didn't think the stairs would be wet, but they were and I managed to slip up the stairs full force. Both of my shins took a beating and so did my left arm. Basically my body hurts. My body took a beating this weekend, sunburn, allergic reaction, possible broken toe and 3 limbs have bumps and bruises. On top of all of that its supposed to rain everyday, hardcore until Friday morning. I wanted the rain and yes its cooling things off quite nicely. Its not supposed to get above 80 this week which will be nice for a change. Thats about the only good thing that will come out of this. I guess I also learned my body can take a handful of crap thrown at it and still fight to live another day.

Biggest Loser

Today was a rather fun day. Minus the fact that I got burnt and had a minor allergic reaction to something. Despite all of that I was able to witness a section of the biggest loser. Down at the beach the biggest loser people were in town and I was pretty stoked. I love watching that show and love Jillian, she's pretty kickass. I didn't get to meet either of them, but watching overweight people try to run a decent distance down the road and having people cheer for them was an overwhelming experience. You can see the pain on their faces just trying to cross the finish line, but then friends and family are there to cheer them on and help them finish the race.

I didn't stay very long, and headed to the ocean for a nice swim. My friends were with as well. The current was quite strong and we were swimming against it which I guess added resitance more or less. The water was very refreshing and salty...but I suppose that's the ocean for you. It's safe to say I had a pretty succesful day, and now the sun is long gone and the day is nearly through. I'm still itchy and have a welt on my feet...not sure what thats all about. (and the Benadryl isn't doing squat for it.) So I am toughing it out. I'll probably wake up with a swollen eye or lip or something bizzare. I'm just hoping its nothing bad. So another end to a pretty good weekend. (Yes I say end to the weekend because tomorrow I will be at church then I will be working on homework ALL day...and thats not fun.)

FALL...its almost here!

Fall...its almost here!! This is my favorite season, however living in the south does not allow me to enjoy fall...ever! The first day of fall is the 23rd. I always thought it was on the 21st, but its not. Surprise to me. I'm sure there is some scientific explanation for it, something about the location of the sun to the earth, but I don't really care about that.

Normally, I love fall because it gets cooler and the best holidays are coming up. Obviously, I don't get to enjoy the crisp, fall air for at least another month. By then, most things are dead and we don't get 'fall' as the north knows it. I also love fall for the amazing colors, but again we get a grand total of maybe 3 days that allow changing of leaves, before they all fall off the trees. I only have to suffer through this one last year and then next year I can head back up north and be able to enjoy fall again.

I also love fall for football. I love fall because its the season that reminds me of grade school days and many memories I had from that season. Ahhh soon it will be fall here, I just have to hold out a few more weeks.

My Blessings

I do a lot of thinking and most of the time its not usually the best. But today I was thinking about the things I've been blessed with. (These thoughts are mainly in anticipation of Thanksgiving.) I wrote a thank you letter to my parents today, which I plan on giving to them on Thanksgiving. I like to think its heartfelt and it will probably make them cry. Anyways here are some of my blessings:

*My family- this includes, but is not limited to, my parents, brother, sister and her husband, my aunts and uncles and cousins and my grandparents. We are not exactly the closest bunch (I mean that location wise). We are some crazy people and we don't always get along, but thats what makes us a family and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

*My friends- I have some extremely close friends that I would kill to have with me right now and some close friends who I love to have around and have a good time with.

*My faith- Where would I be without the knowledge of my Savior? There will never be enough thanks to my Lord and Savior for all that He has done for me!

*Good health (well for the most part)

*The ability to overcome difficulties and hardships

*Days that are full of sunshine. Mainly because I can watch the sunset on my balcony every night.

There are plenty of other things that I am thankful for, these are just a few!

Hands Held High by Linkin Park

Turn my mic up louder I got something to say
Light weights step to the side when we come in

Feel it in your chest the syllables get pumping
People on the street they panic and start running

Words on loose leaf sheet complete coming
I jump in my mind and summon the rhyme, I'm dumping

Healing the blind I promise to let the sun in
Sick of the ways we march to the drum and

Jump when they tell us they want to see jumping
Fuck that I wanna see some fists pumping

Risk something, take back what's yours
Say something that you know they might attack you for

Cause I'm sick of being treated like I have before
Like it's stupid standing for what I'm standing for

Like this war's really just a different brand of war
Like it doesn't cater the rich and abandon the poor

Like they understand you in the back of the jet
When you can't put gas in your tank

These fuckers are laughing their way to the bank and cashing the cheque
Asking you to have compassion and some respect

For a leader so nervious in an obvious way
Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay

And the rest of the world watching at the end of day
In their living room laughing like what did he say?

Amen

In my living room watching but I'm not laughing
Cause when it gets tense I know what might happen

World is cold the bold men take action
Have to react or get blown into fractions

10 years old its something to see
Another kid my age drugged under a jeep

Taken and bound and found later under a tree
I wonder if he had thought the next one could be me

Do you see the soldiers they're out today
They brush the dust from bulletproof vests away

It's ironic at times like this you pray
But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday

There's bombs on the buses, bikes, roads
Inside your market, your shops, your clothes

My dad he's got a lot of fear I know
But enough pride inside not to let that show

My brother had a book he would hold with pride
A little red cover with a broken spine

On the back, he hand wrote a quote inside
When the rich rage war its the poor who die

Meanwhile, the leader just walks away
Stuttering and mumbling for the nightly news to replay

And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day
both scared and angry like what did he say

With hands held high into the sky so blue
As the ocean opens to swallow you

Amen



This is an older song by Linkin Park, but still rings true to this very day. The world is falling apart all around us. There are wars being fought in the middle east and in our own homes. More and more suicide bombers than ever before. Innocent people being killed or subject to other worse situations. The rich complain about crap that the poor could never begin to pay for. But its the poor cleaning up the wrongs of the rich. Why should I give a darn about the mistakes of a billionaire? Why should I feel bad for that person? I should be allowed to stand for what I believe in without being harrassed. What happened to our freedoms? Look at this situation with the mosque being built (supposed to be) down the road from the World Trade Centers, and how insane this topic is becoming. You have one group of people who don't want the mosque to be built because it's disrespectful to the families of the victims of 9/11. The other side supports the building of the mosque because Muslims have the right to worship and have their freedom of religion. We have idiots burning the Koran because that will make all of this hate between nations stop. What is happening to our country? We seem to have lost all sense of direction and purpose and reason for which this land was founded in the first place. We have presidents who can't seem to get their acts together and figure out what to do with our country and situations going on in the middle east. Then we watch these public figures struggle to tell us what is going on and they lose their credibility. Some day you wish for peace, but that peace won't come til the last day and the earth is destroyed and believers will go to heaven and unbelievers will go to hell. Pray for this country! Pray for our president and government! Pray for the world; that we don't just set aside our differences during world events like the olympics, but all the time.

Yeah Me!!

I have been struggling for sometime to get back on some sort of exercise routine. I get one day in and I'm like I can't do this everyday. I've been told it takes 14 days to make a habit stick and takes only 1 day to break it. This can be applied to anything we try to do. Then I told myself maybe my motivator for working out, isn't what it should be. Typically, my mindset is to lose weight and get down to a certain weight loss goal, however this time around I'm thinking about my health. I want to make my lungs and heart stronger. I want to have more energy again! But hey, I'm not going to say losing some pounds would hurt. I'd love to get to my goal weight, but I got to start with baby steps.

I had thought for awhile about creating a competition so to speak with a few friends, to make it a little more worth my while, added motivation so to speak. Then it occurred to me I don't know which friends of mine would seriously put forth the effort to do it. I guess I won't know unless I ask, but right now I'm going at it alone. I have a set goal of where I want to be come the end of the year, granted that is a few months down the road yet. But like I said you gotta start somewhere.

I just bought some Zumba dvd's to do in the comforts of my home and it came with a fitness plan and an order of how you should do the exercises. That has been fun. I've done it 3 days now and according to the plan today is my day of rest. Then I'm back on for 3 more days and off again. This plan is only a 3 wk plan and I'm sticking with it. I will see where I'm at at the end of the month. Now that the weather is getting cooler, I will be able to walk/run outside and not die from heat exhaustion. I know that there are different classes offered at school which I will have to look into and see what interests me. Otherwise, I'm well on my way to where I want to be. I just got to stick with it!

Disappointed...

I have made a recent discovery that more or less makes me very angry and disappointed. In one of my classes the professor was randomly selecting students to read sections of material. I read and don't mind reading. She called on another person...who happened to be a student athlete. He sat there in silence. She asked him why he was reading, he said, "I don't read very well." She asked him how he could be college student and not be able to read? Well for him, he is attending college on a football scholarship. I noticed that other students were having trouble reading very easy words...at least to me, words such as: subtle, indictment, and retaliating (these are just to name a few). I'm sitting there shaking my head in complete confusion because the readings aren't that difficult and seriously by now you should be able to pronounce most words. So what gives? I don't care if you're a freaking student athlete and you are here solely on scholarship and you can't even read...there are some flaws in the system. I don't know how much this happens across the nation in all campuses, but I'd imagine it happens more than I think. It's disappointing because so many of these athletes can do so much better, but because they get a free ride, they don't. Unfortunately, I'm guessing he won't be in the NFL once he graduates from college...so then what does he plan on doing? It irritates me that colleges are so focused on making sure there football or basketball teams are top notch, they don't care about academics when they are recruiting. How about all of these other students who aren't athletes but yet still struggle to pronounce words? Is it just that they struggle when reading in front of a group of people? Or do they really not know the word and don't care, because mommy and daddy are paying for their education anyways, so as long as they show up to class it doesnt matter.

I really am disappointed in my generation. I honestly think we are going backwards and not forwards. As much as people like to think technology is growing and will be useful and benefit students, it's making people stupider. Don't get me wrong there is lots of useful information on the internet and its nice to have a cell phone, but I still take time to read a book and research in the library. What is happening with our students and the way college's recruit student athletes? What's more important: finding an athelete who will win a championship for your team and sucks in the classroom or finding a student who excels in the classroom and on the field? (apparently you can't have both qualities...if you're great at a sport it doesn't matter how you do in the classroom.)

COCKROACH!!!

I had never seen a cockroach out in the wild or in a house until I moved to S. Carolina last year. I had encountered a few of them, but always forced my roommates to chase them around and catch them. Last night, I had to take matters into my own hands. It's been nearly a month since I moved into my new place and hadn't seen any sort of bugs...minus a few fruit flies. Last week Friday my roommate had said she saw 2 cockroaches in the past week, so I knew that I was bound to find one. Well sure enough it happened. I saw it crawling up the wall towards the ceiling and I can't reach that high, even standing on a chair! I had to wait for it come closer to my level, but as it got closer it got bigger and grosser! It got closer to my level and I had a cup and piece of paper ready, however it fell off the wall and I lost it. Now I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep unless I caught the darn thing so I looked under, behind and basically tore apart my room and didn't find it. I decided to take a break and just sit and wait for my enemy to come out on its own. I saw it start crawling towards my closet door and it went under. Then it came back out and went into the living room. That little bugger was fast! I had to basically pounce on it with the cup. I slid the piece of paper underneath and ran outside so fast and made sure it was out! I hate cockroaches probably more than I hate spiders. At least with spiders...many of them are very small and you can smack them on the wall and clean it up no problem. With cockroaches...they are never small and they are probably really gross if you smack them. I don't need cockroach inside on my wall. Cockroaches make me think of gross and dirty places and in my places that never get clean. I hate to think that there are more just hiding around but i know they are. Our place is far from dirty...it's probably the cleanest place in the whole complex. My duty for the day is to tidy up a little more and make sure there aren't as many places for the roaches to hide under just in case I encounter another one!

Hurricane Earl

I never really thought about the impact a hurricane really can make on a community or towns and places it hits. I was so pumped a few days ago about Earl and desperatly wanted it to make landfall in S. Carolina. I figured that we wouldn't be so lucky to have it hit us, and I figured right. However, being the nerdy person I am wanted to go down to the beach and check out the waves. There really wasn't any beach left by the time I got down there. The waves were already massive. There were postings all over about rip currents and signs that said 'no swimming'. I was surprised how many people were there, but after today we aren't really supposed to have much to worry about.

After standing on the pier today looking at the massive waves and the beach basically completely underwater, my hair being tossed wildly about due to the wind and the clouds overhead getting ready to dump some rain, it made me realize how big this storm is. It made me thankful that I dont have to worry about this storm hitting here. It would be quite something to see something that huge roll in. Just given the fact that a beach that normally is clearly visible was no longer visible clearly shows the force of Earl. We are just barely getting touched. I can't even imagine what it will do as it makes its way up the east coast. No one should ever want a hurricane to make landfall, duh, but I wanted to say I was part of something huge. I'd still like to say that someday, but I won't wish it to ever happen. Don't ever mess with the force of nature because it will always win.