How can you look at this face and not feel jolly?

Here are some of my favorite photos that I've recently come across. Naturally, one of them is of Sufjan Stevens (my future best friend) but some of them are just plain cute (scroll down to baby.jpg). And this one was just funny to me, because ladies, this is what we all look like.



Babies! I can't wait to have my own kids. Okay...I can wait, but still - babies are really cute. You can't deny it.

Friends are pretty dang awesome too.

My summer break is going great so far, basically I'm just chillaxin, raising support for Daytona Summer Project in two weeks. Holy cow, I'm excited.

Ode to sophomore year!

Goodbye, goodbye! I am soooo done with this year. Okay, mostly just this semester (Fall '07 rocked my socks) but still I am definitely mentally exhausted and more ready than ever to leave school behind for a few months and just chillax. I look back at this year and all I see is change. Change and improvement. And that is good.

Ode to: love, and chilling thoughts of the future, and even chillier nights in the library at 4 am; frustration and anxiety over school, jobs, internships, work study, boys, teachers, advisors, presidents, friends; happiness and jubilation over all these things and more; dressing up for formals only to get sweaty and sore dancing the night away; driving to Harris Teeter at 1 am for Twizzlers and munchies; mumbles under the breah to similarly disgruntled and aggravated roomies; long walks on campus with a special someone; bated breath, rushed words, light-headedness, easy conversation, crooked smiles, everlasting friendship.

Did I mention how monumental this year was? Monumental and memorable.

I found these amazing kids, my fellow CRU leaders:

I aced Biology Research and Writing with a killer review paper and oral presentation on "Adaptations to Wintry Trauma in Perennial Softwoods":

I made more friends than I ever have before:

And grown in my relationship with Christ on turbo-speed. Even if it is far from perfect, I'm still more satisfied with and dependent on the Lord than ever.

Delightful, stressful, ever-mindful, scrumptrulescent, savory, tender, juicy, dramatic, comedic, laugh-out-loud, crying-into-shoulders, prasing-God, greensward-hopping, sophomore year.

Roomate issues

Sometimes, I don't understand God.

My roomate and I, we started out as best friends and now we are almost completely the opposite. It's heart-wrenching.

We had a screaming row this morning, and I have never had one of those in my entire life. It was honestly the worst experience... that I am even capable of that much rage, screaming at her things I completely regret and some things I can't even remember. It was that bad.

I guess I stretch the best-friends "no boundaries" thing too much. I mean, of course now I see that, but not when I was in the middle of my semester, thinking everything was peachy keen, besides me knowing that my keyboard typing is incessant and annoying. And all of this rage just builds up, without me knowing, until this morning at 5:30 when I accidentally woke her up. But it wasn't me being inconsiderate, I was in horrible pain and making "pain noises" or whatever, and honestly wasn't thinking about McKenzie or anyone else, just the intense pain going on in my legs! I mean, come on. She completely unloads on me after deliberately trying to piss me off, turning on all the lights at 6 am, banging boxes around, making an all around disturbance until I finally give up and ask her what the heck is going on... and she proceeds to tell me, her face red and positively SCREAMING, that I am completely inconsiderate for having been in pain and moaning, when she had an exam this morning at 8:30, which I had no idea about. I told her that maybe if I had two brains, one could encompass the pain in my legs and the other could be considerate and force me off the bunk bed and out of the room. She seriously said, I don't care, you could have left the room and moaned down the hall. Uhhh...whatev.

Basically she made it clear that I'm a bad roomate, or simply that the both of us don't work together, which I think we both knew from the beginning. But seriously... I just couldn't fathom anyone being that incredibly pissed off (especially at me) ever. It stinks that God allows these emotions... but maybe they're good also.

My friend Denise is amazing, and I have such other amazing friends who can hold me accountable instead of just criticizing me. Which is what everyone needs, especially Christians.

I need to just pray for peace and patience about the whole situation and find some scripture to define it.