Wednesday, September 23, 2009

just the facts.

(From yesterday)

I started school today. For the first time since Christmas I actually have something to think about other than work! It's a little weird. I had a small moment of panic sitting in English class when the teacher started talking about all the various kinds of assignments... suddenly it all came back to me just how hard it is to keep everything straight and what it feels like when you realize in class that something is due that day. I really don't know how this year will go, because I'm usually terrible at school, but I've become a lot more dilligent and orginized in other areas of my life since I was last in school, so I'm hoping it will be different. I guess we'll see.

So let's see. I'm taking chior, English Litterature, and Art Appriciation. Today I just had English and Chior. Chior is a lot different this year (Matt, we miss you! For the first time in forever we're actually short on GUYS), but I'm supper excited because all the leaders from last year are gone and instead of walking around in other people's shadows I get to be a little more confident and help lead my section- which, by the way, might turn out to be the soprano section. For whatever reason Mr. Owen asked me to switch sections once everyone was arranged. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but at least he trusts me to handle the higher notes.

My English Lit teacher is a vast improvement on my English 101 teacher, the Communist Feminist Wicken that I'm sure you've all heard about. This teacher is a nice older lady with a perky sense of hummor. And it sounds like this class is going to be very multi-cultural and diverse, so it should at least be informative and interesting. I don't think it will be exactly challenging, but that's okay for my first quarter.

On the other hand, Art looks like it's going to be much more intelectual than I thought. I won't know for sure until I go to class tomorrow, but the text book is pretty hefty.

This past weekend I traveled to the East side of the state to visit Carolyn and witness the baptism of someone I've never met before... Carolyn and I have talked a lot about our churches and she thought this would be a good oporotunity to see hers. The Calvins were visiting friends down there too, so I was able to travel with them. I drove the first two hours with Dan and Christina and wrote in my journal, and then we stopped in Ellensburg and picked up Jacob, who had just dropped all his stuff off in his dorm room at Central. The rest of the family followed in the van at a pace that, well... allowed us to see the scenery in great detail. :-)

(From today)

When we got there we had dinner at the Petersons' and then I drove home with Carolyn (another 45 minutes) to Clarkston. It was dark and I couldn't see much but it was pretty clear that we were driving through nothing but fields and hills most of the way, which is pretty cool if you ask me. Then we started passing water, which looked amazing with the lights from the harbor reflected in it, and we drove into the city and stayed at Carolyn's new appartment, which is super cute.

Saturday we walked around downtown Lewiston (which is actually in Idaho), got our nails done (my first manacure ever!), had a picnic, blew bubbles, rode on the swings, made scones, watched High School Musical 3, and went to Carolyn's work. She works in a brick backery and there was live music. I started out reading Mr. Darcy's Diary, until Libby showed up. We talked for something like three hours... turns out she's a writer like me and we had plot lines to hash through and various characters to analize. :-D

Sunday we went to Carolyn's church and then to a park called Hells Gate (seriously) for the baptism. I thought it was really cool that they did the baptism in the river. And then they had an out doors communion service and a picnic. I got to talk with Laural and Katie and Nathan and Dexter and Sarah, which was awesome. I knew someone from almost every family in that church. Rueben has the CUTEST little girls.

Then after saying goodbye to all the Calvins except the Kina and Jake, Carolyn and I went to her parents house and helped her mom get crafts ready for Kids Group or something like that while Dan, Kina and Jacob toured Clarkston. And then we all went to the Peterson's again for the night. We watched a couple movies on creation, both of which were actually quite interesting. And then the Calvins, Dan and I went up on the roof to see the stars. The Peterson's house is really cool because it's backed into a hill, so you can litterally just walk right onto the roof from the backyard. And the stars out there are absolutely breathtaking!

Monday morning Dan had us up bright and early- and believe it or not, Kina, Jacob and I actually were ready on time. This breaks records! We went to the park for breackfast and ran into Dan's old PE teacher. And then we went to see the school where Mr. and Mrs. Peterson work. We even got to play with the instruments in the band room. And then we said goodbye to the Peterson's and took off to tour Pullman.

I will not put you through the list of every place we went in Pullman, but highlights were Bret and Cristine's house, caged grizzly bears, and a resturant that served hamburgurs I actually liked. :-) And then we had to say goodbye to Carolyn and head off for our side of the state again. On the way home it hit me suddenly that I was taking a road trip with friends, which is something I've ALWAYS wanted to do. The ride back was especially fun, I'm not sure why. I made a crossword puzzle with song lyrics and I was the only one who brought CD's, so the music was great. :-)

We stopped twice, once for gas and once to drop Jacob off in Ellensburg. I'm super jealous that he gets to live on campus and go to this amazing school. His doorm room is bigger than my bedroom, which is saying something! After that Kina had to sleep because she works at 3:00 AM, so I just sat in the back and listened to my music blarring through the speakers (Dan is a very patient guy...). Every now and then if I turned around and looked through the back window, if we had just gone around a bend in the road so that the other cars were still out of sight, all I could see was the outlines of trees against the stars. It was a weird disjointed feeling, but amazingly cool nonetheless.

And now I'm at work, trying to adjust to normal life in the northwest. I think I want it to start raining again... it feels about time for a rainy day.

8 comments:

  1. EMILY! It was so much fun getting to see you on Sunday, even if it was quite short :-) haha it was 100% worth the mile long run in flipflops to be able to hang with you and the Calvins 'n everybody else =D

    And agreed: Ruben has the most adorable daughters! haha I love them.

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  2. Uh, well, it looks like there will be daily reading in my English class, but it's short stuff so far. I guess we'll see.

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  3. Oh no. You're a couger?? I had no idea! Lol, I'm a stout huskies fan... at least I have been ever since I found out that Dan's a couger (he's courting my best friend, so it's my job to be ornary about it).

    But that's so crazy, we toured the whole campus, wouldn't that have been WEIRD if we'd run into you?? I would have been seriously confused.

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  4. The weather report says it will rain Monday or Tuesday.

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  5. "I was the only one who brought CD's, so the music was great."
    I love you MNM!

    and I'm pretty sure that being the closest thing to the Wicked Witch of the West is a requirement for all English 101 teachers. that was one of the very worst experiences of my life, and I'm actually astounded that I escaped with a good grade.
    my Intro to Novels class has a ton of reading, as well as a bit of writing, which is keeping me busy. but it's still fun. I'm thinking about taking an art history or appreciation class this year too, so I want to talk to you all about it!



    your trip sounds like it was so much fun! actually, I'm quite jealous. *grins*
    we need to catch up! I misses you....all of you actually. and I know, I'm quite overdue for a new post on my own blog....

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  6. Well, I hope you do better in your art class then I did. Mine was FAR too complicated, and I got terribly confused. it was an online class, but that's not much of an excuse. It was still rather horrible. *laughs* what textbook are you using?

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  7. Hmm well Em, if your weather there is like it is here, I think you got your wish for a rainy day :-)

    Cool cloudy slightly wetness...actually not bad for a change.... geez, I can't *believe* I just said that. *laughs*

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  8. Hey be careful what you say about the Wicked Witch of the West, I just saw wicked :) Sounds amazing Em!!

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