Seeing new places

I am currently in the Tokyo airport.

I have a 12 hour layover before I head to Hanoi, Vietnam to visit Renée. 

I was planning a trip to Okinawa, Japan, but those plans were canceled so I decided to head over to South East Asia and join Renée in her adventures. She has been visiting different countries in the area and it sounds amazing. We have not seen each other in too long, (like always). So needless to say, I am as excited to see her beautiful face as I am to travel to new places. 

Taking the time off from school should not be too hard. This quarter's classes are pretty easy. The hardest part will be taking an online midterm while I'm traveling. I don't expect any issues, but I spoke with my professor about my concerns of internet failure in the middle of the exam anyway. He was very understanding and said to just try it and if it fails, I can just take the exam when I come back to school. How awesome is that? I also have to remember to bring back some beach sand and shells for him. (He teaches marine paleoecology, among other classes)

To pass the time on flights and in airports, I brought two books to read. The first is "The Silver Linings Playbook." I have almost finished it already. It's a really good book. I like the style of the writing; it's very... human. The other book is "And The Mountains Echoed." I'm not sure what to expect with this one. I borrowed it from a friend, so I'll take his word that it's a good one. 

 It was hard to sleep on the plane. The only movie option that I interested me was "Big Hero Six." And of coarse it was entertaining. It even played with my feels a bit. 

There were two "free" meals on the plane. I say "free" because I'm sure the cost of the meals were included in the ticket purchase. They were wonderfully delicious for airplane meals though. Not too bad. Not too bad at all.

Sitting in front of me was a young boy, maybe 5 years old or so. He was quite entertaining. Continuously turning around and standing  in his seat to hold a conversation with me. Little chatter box he was. He showed me his various transformer toys and told me some of his favorite things in his life. He made me smile.

Because I don't ever get much sleep on planes, I'm going to get some rest here at the airport. I will conclude with a quote that not only is applicable to my current activities, but also to life in general:

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page." - Saint Augustine

What am I doing here?

My best friend has gone to China to teach conversational english for a year.
I've only just seen her but I can't help but miss her. We haven't spent a whole lot of time together in the last 5 years. Only a few days together every six months to a year.
I'm happy for her though. I hope that she finds joy in her new adventure. From the sounds of her blog, she already is.

My job for the school year has started up again. I learned that someone I used to be friends with freshman year is teaching at the elementary school I facilitate after school childcare at. It made me feel sheepish to come to the realization that I'm still in school while many of the people my own age have graduated college and moved on to their life careers. And for a short moment, it had me wondering whether I wasted my time goofing off instead of getting my career on track.

On the other hand, I quickly came to the understanding that I have had many life experiences that many others don't have because I made the choice to hold back on school for a quarter here and there so that I could do something that I would truly enjoy. Being a snowboard instructor at Mt. Baker for example. There is no way I could have gotten good grades while battling the thought that I was missing out on a good pow day. So, many times I just said to myself, "Fuck it. Take the quarter off." And you know what? I don't regret it for a minute.

Through out the last few months I have become aware of the fact I will be in school for a really REALLY long time. If I want to go forth and get a masters in Geology as well as in teaching, (after I finish my Bachelors of education in Earth science, then start teaching at a high school of coarse), I shouldn't be concerned with how long it takes for me to finish this task. I have a set goal, and I will accomplish said goal. It is the journey that I should appreciate. I want to take advantage of my youth, not to spend my time in a building all day, but to gain life experience in a diversity of activities and life accomplishments. With my time off, I have taught 9 year olds how to shred the mountain gnar, been a nanny to wonderful young children, worked terrible hours slaving away in a stock room, traveled down the coast and across the country, and learned how to shred on water.

This is more than I could have ever asked for. Thank you universe for giving me the opportunity to have such an amazing and beautiful life.

I may have hard days and a down attitude sometimes.
But I truly do love this life.

All smiles at the Y

When I got to "work" yesterday, (I call it "work" because, really, I love it too much for it to be considered a "job"), the kids were outside playing on the playground. On Wednesdays, they have early release at 1, and I have my own classes til 2 so I go in after that. Anywho, they were on the playground playing and having a grand ol time being kids.

On every other day of the week, I go in before school gets out and I set up the gym with tables and other stuff. When they get out of class, most days, they're supposed to do homework if they have it, and read if they don't have homework. This only lasts for about a half an hour, then we go outside. I swear to you, they think the first half hour is torture for them. I feel like I'm constantly telling them that it's homework and reading time every 5 minutes. The older ones are generally pretty good at being quite and doing their thing. But the younger ones, man. The kindergartners are a rough crowd. I've been working on teaching them how to read (and most of them are pretty good readers by now). But when you have 7, 5 year olds to teach how to read in a group, it's hard to keep their focus on you and not each other. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching them how to read, and everything about this job, but sometimes... sometimes it's hard.

Anyway, my point is that yesterday, when I walked onto the playground, it just put the biggest smile on my face. They were having so much, care free, fun. And then, when they finally noticed I'd gotten there, a handful of them ran up to me in excitement, and gave me a big group hug.

Moments like that make the tough times worth it.

Are you there?

I sat on my back porch a few weeks ago. As I watched the beautiful pink and orange sun set behind a small cluster of magenta clouds in the light blue sky, so many curious questions and wonder filled thoughts flowed through my mind. A woodpecker pecked away at a telephone pole, birds sang their cheerful tune.
I looked around.
I thought, "beautiful."
I realized how short our time really is here; I need to enjoy what is right in front of me more often; take a moment to just sit, take it all in and just breath.
The trees were a gorgeous bright green, shimmering with a hint of sparkle from the sun's goldenrod kiss. The bird's song warmed my heart, while the bright red hot sun warmed my face.
I wondered,
Where is he?
Can he really be gone?
Can he see me?
Does he know I'm thinking about him?
I miss him.
Does he know he's gone?
What if he isn't there?
This went on for some time.
The sun disappeared below the horizon.
The birds' song continued.
The chill of the spring evening air drove my heavy heart back inside.

That's not all that's new...

That's right folks. There's more.

New glasses
New hair

Winter turned to Spring, bringing in the time to create anew. That is what spring is all about. Transforming what was, into what will be. Spring is the thaw of winter's harsh cold; it brings warmth, new life, and new beginnings. What was once cold and lifeless, can be brought from the dead; reborn.

Hey! Guess hwhat?

I got a mac.
Not a new mac,
But one roughly 6 years old.

It isn't perfect.
It needs a new battery,
It will only stay on if it's plugged in
But that's good enough for me.

It's much better than my other computer, you see.
For it's an old dell and is slow with many problems.

But not this nice mac.
It is fast and sleek.

No more terrible work place!

Hey there.

So I have some amazingly awesome news...

I no longer work at Ross!!!! WOOOOOOOHH!

I am a nanny for a pretty cool family now. This is my first week doing it. And so far it's been fun. There is a 4  year old boy that I spend the day with Monday through Thursday. Then 3 other kids 8, 12, and 14 years old that go to school, so I only ever see them before and after school for a little while.

So I pretty much just hang out with a 4 year old boy all day long. We play games, read Dr. Sues, color in coloring books, watch Avatar: The Last Airbender, and stuff like that. Sometimes we go on little field trips to Menchies, a frozen yogurt place around the corner. And in a while I think it would be fun to go to the aquatic center and swim. There is also a park near by, so we can go play on the jungle gym :D

I am so happy that I don't have to work those ridiculous hours anymore. It feels a little strange also, to be getting paid to do something so easy. But I won't complain... I like doing this. The little boy is so darn cute.

Well, that is all.

Ta ta for now.

"We are family do do do do do do" (in a sing song singing voice)

Hokay.

So.

A lot has happened in the last four weeks that I don't particularly want to talk about at this current moment in time. But what I do want to talk about is Family.

I don't know about you guys, but I love my family. I think my family is fan-freakin-tastic. I just saw them over the holidays for the first time in longer than it should have been. And it was great to see their beautiful faces. No really. I realized when I was there, that my family is a good lookin group of people.

But for real. Of the six main grandkids, there are the "older kids" and the "younger kids". For my whole life up until now it had always been: older kids: Ror: 26; Sissy: 24; and myself: 21. And of the younger kids: Maggie, Logan, and Levi: 14, 12, and 9 respectively, and Jack: 10. But this winter we decided that Mags is now part of the older kids. Now, 14 is a lot younger than the rest of the older girls, but she's in high school now. And that means she's practically an adult. And now it's kinda separated into boys and girls.

Here are the girls:

Sissy, Mags, Ror, and myself.

I could go into this whole story about how awesome my cousins are, but I'm feeling very lazy about this so I'll just say I'm impressed and proud of them for being so darn smart and talented. And I shouldn't be surprised because I feel like my uncle is a great father and it's no wonder why they're so great, because he's great.

On a side note, I just made some fruit punch and it tastes like crap. But the orange chicken I made is delicious.

I'm fairly certain that I have the best Grandmother on the planet of the Earth. It may be because she was there in my early years. It may be because she is MY grandma, so that automatically makes her better than yours. It may be because she makes the best food anyone could ever ask for. It may be because her hugs are the swaddle of pure love.

It's all of these things and so much more. I know you will read this Gram so I'm just saying that I love you so so so so so so so so so much :)

Family means the world to me. I love them so much. And I feel privileged to have the family love that we share because I know that some people don't get that in life. And we are a little spread out; the hub in Pennsylvania, with branches in Michigan, Sissy and I in Washington, and Ror in San Fran; But that shouldn't be a reason to not see each other. It was only a few years that we went without seeing each other, but so much has changed in our lives that I never want a gap that big again. Everyone is growing up, and I don't want to miss out on that. I mean, Mags, Logan, and Jack play instruments, they all play sports, Mags is thinking about playing lacrosse (one of my favorite sports!) and I want to be able to see these things happen and their skill and knowledge bloom like flowers. And when I get older and have a career like my aunts and uncles do, things might change, I may not have the time, blah blah blah, excuses excuses.
But that's just what they are.
Excuses.

So.
From now on (or at least the next few years), I will go back home more often. I'm already planning something epic for this summer. But I don't want to ruin the surprise. We will talk about that when the time comes.

P.S. Renee left last week. It was good to see her. Our time together was shorter than expected, but we'll talk about that later.

Tata for now.

Free avocado for everyone! :D

Oh my glob.

I've been working on a geologic timeline of Earth for a total of about 7 hours so far... I think I have another hour or two before I'm done.

Lunch break

Walked over to subway. Got the us[ual]. Footlong BLT on honey oat bread with lots-o-veggies. Avocado being one of my things I like on my sammies... They totes didn't charge me for the avocado! I love it when that happens!

... Back to studying for finals.

Oh, Renee, where art thou?

Guess what today is?!?!?!

This afternoon I am driving to Vancouver to pick up my bestie :D

Renee and I go way back:

We met in the fourth grade. She was that weird horse girl though, so I didn't really want to be her friend. Then two years down the road we enter middle school. I decide that it is okay to be friends. A lot happened in middle school. A lot more happened in high school.

Long story short: during high school we practically became one until we left for college.

When it was time for everyone to go to college, Renee went to Nova Scotia. As much as I am sad that she left and miss her oh so much, I am glad that she went out and did something different. She is going to take a lot away from the experience of being so far away from everything that she once knew. She's made lots of new friends over there. I have met some of them through this invention called Skype. It's like being together. Only, you're not.

Anywho, she only ever came home to visit during winter holiday, and summer break.

BUT LAST SUMMER SHE DIDN'T COME HOME!
DUN DUN DUN...

So it's been a whole year since I've seen her last.

And I can't wait until I get to see her face when I pick her up from the airport!!!!!

WAAAAAaaaaaaaHHHHHHhhhhh!!!!!!!! (With arms flailing up in the air)

^That is me not being able to control my excitement.

Autumn, you make me smile :)

Boy oh boy was this a good weekend.

Friday right after school, Autumn and I went to 

Jalapanos for some Big Mamas.

           

On the walk to Jalapanos, we saw this on the side of a building:

        

THEN! We went to Rumors. Got some long islands.

While we were at Rumors, we took pictures in a photo booth! 

I forgot that we had taken pictures in a photo booth until the next day coming off the mountain. It was in my jacket pocket still!

You make me smile, Autumn :)

Then Saturday on the mountain was mostly a gray. It snowed lots.

Sunday on the mountain: Great!

There was a good amount of fresh snow. Sunny and blue skies for a good part of the day. Rode pretty hard. By the time I got back to town, I just kinda passed out. I was exhausted from the awesome day.


So, I'm usually at school when I write my blogs. And most likely in the mac lab in the Com building.

In the twenty minutes that I've been at this computer, 3 people have tried using the one next to me. They move the mouse around. Nothing happens. They look around the edges of the screen. Nothing. They look confused, then walk away.

A fourth person just walked up These things started happening again. So, I told him where the monitor power button was. haha.

There's an app for that!

So, I have a dictionary.com app on my iPhone.

Everyday it comes up with a word of the day. I like to try and guess what the word of the day means before I read the definition, by using my root word knowledge that I learned in high school (Sultan, you know what I mean (I wonder if other schools taught root words like Sultan?)).

Anywho. Today's word of the day was "biblioklept."

I totes broke it down: Book. Thievery.

Definition: A person who steals books.

BOOM. Who's good? Me. lol...

It wasn't that hard...

The sun is "mass" awesome.

Haha. Get it? The sun has an awesome mass.

I know. I'm hilarious.

I just walked out of the com building to find my physics professor standing at a table with two different telescopes. I asked him what they were for. One was to be able to see hotspots on the Sun more clearly, and safely with your eyeballs. The other one was to get a look at the atmosphere of the Sun.

Thats right folks. I looked at the Sun's atmosphere today.

In case you were wondering, there are a lot of hotspots on the sun.

Then as I was walking away, I started thinking about how crazy everything is.

Like everything.

Like,

The WHOLE UNIVERSE.

How we currently are on a planet, that is rotating around a giant ball of gas. We use energy from this giant ball of gas that we are currently rotating around. It makes day and night possible.

OUR ENTIRE EXISTENCE IS DEPENDENT UPON THIS GIANT BALL OF GAS THAT WE ARE CURRENTLY ROTATING AROUND AND IS SUPER FAR AWAY FROM US!!

Crazy concept. I know.

And the distance between us and this giant ball of gas is huge to us.... But minuscule to the rest of the universe. Like we think it's so far away. But there is so much more that is even farther away.

Think about how many other possible planet types there are out there?

I kinda got lost in all of the crazy thoughts that were going on in my head about how small we are and nothing really matters in the spec of things...

When really, everything does matter.

To us.

To the universe, nothing matters. Because it will just start over eventually and disappear as soon as it appeared (right? that's how it works?).

But to the people; living here and now; the smallest little choice can effect someones entire life.

Just think about that.

Oh my gosh. Just stop talking.

K guys, this is gonna be a long one.

Last week:

Class was canceled on Tuesday. Good thing too. Cuz I wasn't gonna go anyway.

Didn't go to class on Wednesday either. Hitched up to the mountain to go snowboarding on the first day of the season instead.

Very worth it.

In order to earn my pass for the day, I had to shadow a lesson. I'm glad that I did because I learned a lot about instruction.

It was definitely a good day on the mountain.

So much powder.

In the words of Great Scott: "Gnar gnar, pow pow."

Upon returning home, some friends wanted to go down to Duvall for a little "get together." Went to that. Had a ball. Mixed white wine with peach four loco. Hahaha. It was actually delicious.

Thursday: Thanksgiving!

Made a turkey. Had a very small group of friends (and by small, I mean three).

We said things we were thankful for. Most of which was friends and family.

I am also thankful for glasses. Contacts are a luxury. But glasses? Those are a necessity. I would have for sure been knocked down by the survival of the fittest rule by now had it not been for glasses.


Saturday and Sunday:

Spent the weekend on the mountain learning how to be an instructor.

Learned lots. I really think this will be fun.

Took a picture:

Pretty sweet, huh?

Sissy cooked us dinner on Saturday night.

Turkey pot pie.

So good.

Good job Sissy. And thank you.

Sunday on the mountain, I learned how to ski.

In the morning, the new ski instructors taught the new snowboard instructors and in the afternoon, we taught the skiers. Just to get a feel for what a real lesson will be like.

Skiing was actually pretty fun. At first, I felt like a giant bird that had big bulky feet that I didn't know how to control. By the end of the lesson, I was mobbin down the slopes. Still felt awkward. But more confident and in control.

K.

So not as long as I thought it was going to be. Just a long span of time.

Snow covered tales

When we spoke last, I had mentioned epic weekend plans? Well it was indeed quite fun.

On Friday after school, My sister and I drove down to Seattle to go to the King Tut exhibit. We went with our dad because he was in Washington [from Pennsylvania] for work so we visited while we had the chance. The exhibit was really cool. I learned a lot about the ancient Egyptians and their lives and the pharaohs and such. After the exhibit, we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. The pico de gallo was delicious in case you were wondering.

On Saturday Scott, Kyle, Troy, and I went up to Mt. Baker. We camped in a tent in the parking lot up at Heather Meadows. Then on Sunday when we woke up, we hiked a bit and did some snowboarding.

Over the night, it snowed so much! Something around a foot or so? It covered our tent:

Mumford and Friends

I've taken a liking to the band Mumford and Sons. But for some reason, I keep wanting to call them Mumford and Friends.

Currently, I'm sitting in the mac lab in the com building. I'm between classes. I'm eating an avocado. I'm drinking an orange carrot SoBe. There are three other people in this lab with me. I don't know them.

Today is Friday.

I spent almost every day this week thinking that it was Thursday when I woke up. Not sure why.

I just got out of my physics lecture. My prof really likes to have demonstrations. Today, he had a ball going through a loop-the-loop and a recking ball hanging from the ceiling.

Recently I watched this... documentary... I guess you could call it... About how evolution wasn't real and there is a divine designer making everything and here are all these reasons why... I was to say the least... upset... almost the whole time. I watched it because I was like, "well maybe it would do me good to hear something about what other people think." No. No. I was sorely mistaken.

He (a man with a PhD in biology, mainly studying evolution, who turned creationist) just talked about how there are animals who could not have possibly gone through evolution because it just simply would not have worked. They asked questions like: "Well how do you explain the giraffe and how the sponge under its brain controls the amount of blood that flows so that when it bends down for water it doesn't get too much blood to the brain?"

He was saying that in order for that animal to work, it had to be in that exact form when it was created. But what he was failing to talk anything about was (Jean-Babtiste Lamar's theory) that everything started out simple, then grew more complex. So the population of giraffes and the other animals he was talking about, that work really well now, used to be more simple, then changed in a way to better suit the environment and lifestyle that they live in.

Anywho; It frustrated me. But it's okay. I'm over it.

Here are some really good bands I just  listened to:

Mumford and Sons
Old Crow Medicine Show
Sia
The Avett Brothers

Off to Historical Geology.

Can't wait for these epic weekend plans.

Sleep is over rated (except when you're really tired)

This weekend was lots-o-fun. Here is why:

Friday: Kyle, Autumn, and I went down south to Troy's house. We had a bonfire in the forests of the secluded mountains. We had a few beers, had some good chats and laughs, then headed to another friends house to spend the night.

We stopped at the store on the way there to get some food. I was way too tired to stay awake when we got to the house, so I fell right to sleep on the couch.

THEN!

I was woken up by a plate of breakfast goodies! We had fried eggs, bacon, sausage, and raisin toast. It was also something around 1 in the morning? It was the best thing to wake up to.
Thanks Troy. It was deeeelish.

In the morning when we woke up for realsies, the four of us went to breakfast at a cute little cafe. We then went back to Troy's house and left again. We went to Mount Soc(sp?) to go shoot some guns. It was quite fun. Troy let me drive his jeep. That was also fun.

On Sunday evening, My neighbor had a get together of mostly geology folk to celebrate the making of hard cider. He home brewed two different kinds of hard ciders and had some peeps over to drink it. That too was fun. The only un-fun thing about it all, was that I had to wake up for work at 3:30 this morning :(

But it's alright. Sleep is over rated.

Today, my lab partner and I made a poster for geology about the formation of King's Mountain in South Carolina. It looks pretty cool. I'm proud of it. We did a swell job. High five Christie.

But now, I'm off to bed. I have to work at 2 in the morning and I'm way past my bed time (as I am every night).

Goodnight

Juanita's chips are the best chips.

The other day, I went to Catherine's house. I have a whole new appreciation for Fantasia. I've always loved it. And when my sister, my cousin, and I were young, we used to dance around my grandma's living room to the songs. We would video tape it too. So I have always loved the movie; but for a different reason. Like a kid just enjoying watching the movie and listening to the music. But yesterday was the first time I've seen the movie in a long time.

I appreciated the music in a different way than when I was a kid. The music is beautiful. But I didn't understand the language of music back then. Now I do.

And I could see, in the animation, the way that it went with the music and I could see patterns in the artwork that I never saw when I was a kid. Like in the beginning; violins play. And there are these lines in the animation that I never really knew what they were before. But know I know. They are violin bows moving in actual motions that the musicians are playing them to.

But the song that really got me was the one that has the earth's evolution. It started out with the whole start of the universe thing then moves on through the evolution of life and there were extinctions and the way that they portrayed the extinctions was that the screen went black. It was pretty cool.

I fell in love with the movie all over again.

While I was at Catherine's we painted our nails:

We also ate a whole bag of fiesta size Juanita's chips and salsa and sour cream. I ate almost all of it by myself. It was delish. 

The end of one. The beginning of another.

Today was my first clinic for becoming a snowboard instructor for Mt. Baker. Let's just say, I'm stoked.

On the flip side, yesterday was the last game of lacrosse that I will play for quite some time. It was a good game. We played Western's alumni players. We won. Then afterword, the girls team, the boys team, and alumni from both went downtown for some pizza and beer. It was a good ole time. Good. Ole. Time.

This morning when I walked into the building where the clinic was, I didn't know anybody. I just sat down at a table with some people. We introduced ourselves. One of the guys that was next to me, said that he was 17, about to turn 18 on the 18th. He was a senior in high school. He asked me if I've graduated high school yet.... I laughed.

So there's this new trend in body modification in Japan where people get saline injected into their foreheads. Then the technician sticks his finger on the center of the bubble and puts pressure on it to make it into the shape of a bagel... They're bagel heads:

Doodles

I know this is a pretty plain thing to enjoy, but I love sandwiches. All of my classes are in south campus and in order for me to get subway all last year, I would have to go all the way to north campus and by that time, the line would be way too long for it to be worth it. But this year, they put a subway in south campus. I'm glad. I can get out of class and right into line and there is almost no wait.

They aren't just any subs though. They're really good. I get all kinds of veggies with bacon.

Anywho; I picked up my car last night after practice. It looks nice. They did a swell job. They even cleaned out the inside all spic and span.

I just started reading books on Goodreads. Have you heard of it? It's this website were you can read books for free. I have the app on my iPhone. I was perusing the books that they offered and I came across this book called James Potter. I was like "no. way..."

I loved reading the Harry Potter books. My mom always got them for me for my birthdays. I've never cried during a movie before. I cried when Dumbledore died (in the book).

James Potter is the sequel series to Harry Potter. James is his son. I've only just started reading it, but it seems that it will be a good read. I read some reviews on them (there's multiple books out already) and they seem legit. It's written by a different guy, but in association with J. K. Rowling. I guess that means he just asked for her opinion sometimes.

In physics today, I felt like doodling more than listening to the lecture. Here are my doodles:

The only thing going through my mind was how excited I am to start my training to be a snowboard instructor this year at Mt. Baker. The clinics start on Sunday. I have to pay $90 for the clinic fee. That doesn't seem right. They should be paying me.

On Saturday, I have the last lacrosse game I will probably ever play for Western. This is my third year playing and I've loved every moment of it. But school has gotten harder as the years go on and I work to pay for all my crap so juggling all of that and doing sports is just too much. So after tomorrow, I'll be done with that.

I'm sad that I won't be playing something that I love. I enjoy the camaraderie of my teammates and the fun of competition. I like the physical exhaustion that overwhelms you when you run across the field trying to beat out the girl you're marking. Then when you do. It's like... awesome.

On the other hand, I'm glad that I will be able to have more time on my own schedule and not have to plan everything around practices. Lacrosse really takes up my life.

Also, when the snowboard season starts, I'll be instructing on the weekends, and we have tournaments on the weekends. So it is actually impossible to do both. Yes. I am choosing snowboarding over lacrosse.

I love snowboarding. The way you are free. One with the mountain. All that jazz. It's true. I feel one with the snow; the rocky mountain terrain underneath. I feel it; it's energy; I live it; I ride it.

I become it.

You can forget everything about your life when you're up there. Nothing matters because it's so far away (an hour and a half or so drive time). All you need to focus on is what's underneath your feet at that very moment in time.