Friday

Time for another Friday 5 2.0. I hope to have some exciting stuff to post in the next couple of weeks, but until then you may have to settle for Friday 5's.

The Question:

When was the last time you stayed up all night or most of the night? How was school or work the next day? What's your stay-coherent technique on days like that?

The Answers:

Jen:

I thought I was going to have to write about a few months ago when both of my kids alternately puked all night, but, alas, I remembered a more recent late-nighter that is much happier and less gross. =)
Our church has an annual girls retreat at Log Country Cove near Marble Falls. 20 or so log homes are rented for the weekend, and there are 10-18 women assigned to each one. There is a "hostess" (who makes contact with each of the women assigned to her cabin before the retreat and generally keeps the weekend moving along) and a "presenter" (who presents the actual teaching sessions planned for the weekend). I have served as a hostess for two years now, but this year held a bit of a surprise. =)
I got my list of ladies in my house a couple of weeks before the retreat, and there were only a couple on the list who I didn't already know. One was "Mary Smith", and her contact info was all the same as my presenter's info. I thought that was a little wierd, but my presenter told me she was a friend from out of town and that she would forward any correspondance from me to her.
Soooo, we all arrive at the retreat on a Friday (this was about 3 weeks ago), and a car full of girls pull up to our cabin, As I walk over to give them a hard time about taking so long to get there, etc, I notice that one of the girls in the car looks eerily like one of my best friends, Jenna Spears. But Jenna lives in Atlanta. As I got closer and realized it actually WAS Jenna, I laughed and cried and exclaimed "shut UP!!" all at the same time.
All that to say, that night was pretty much a school-girl slumber party. We stayed up till the wee hours of the morning chatting and laughing. And then my ridiculous body decided it should still wake up at 6:30am in the spirit of routine.
My coping mechanism the next day was pretty much to just keep the adrenaline going. I SOOOO could have used a nap, but instead rented a boat with a bunch of girls and went skiing for the first time ever. I even did a backflip off the boat (just to prove that I really AM still young and hip.... or something...).
There came a point that night when I hit the wall though. I pretty much knew that if I didn't go to bed right then, I was either going to get really mean or be reduced to tears over nothingness. So, off to bed I went, followed by Jenna, where I feel asleep in the middle of a conversation. =)

Cory:

well, as it happens, i stayed up most of the night last night. sadly, no Ladies/80s, but i helped a friend move some furniture and talked, then i went home stayed up watching movies on AMC with way too many commercial breaks. i just can't not watch Stargate...

my coping techniques are going to be drinking lots of water, and since it's friday, i might put some music on at work. i will probably hit the breakroom coffee machine a few times too.


Rachel:

I got 2.5 hours of sleep on Monday morning after getting home from Manhattan at 2 a.m. My pals and I went to see David Bazan at the Bowery Ballroom. He didn't start until 11 p.m.! That's late for us old people! The show was super awesome, and it was totally worth exhaustion throughout the next day. We drank coffee on the car ride home and so I didn't get to sleep until 3:30. I was up by 6 to write more on my paper and to get to an 8:30 a.m. class. Woooo!

My stay-awake plan: drink lots of water, drink lots of green tea, don't rely on coffee, eat very little sugar and eat light meals. Sugar makes me get really tired. Oh - stretch a lot, too.

Lissie:

the last time i stayed up all night, or practically all night, was two thursdays ago for my cousin's bachelorette party. we got in and slept for about 3 hours before we were up and running for day-before-wedding festivities and prep.
the next day wasn't awful like going in to teach kindergarteners has been after an all nighter. i had enough shots of espresso and family drama to get me through the day. it was saturday that i paid the price. word to the wise: don't spend 8 hours walking around and dancing in 3 inch heels if you have to wear heels at all in the following week. your feet will hate you!


Kimi:

The last time I stayed up all night was last March. I had gone to see Dirty Dancing on stage in Chicago that day and then ended up talking in my friend's (now boyfriend's) apartment until about 6:30. This was a Saturday night. I do unfortunately work on Sunday mornings because I work at a church. So I drove straight from his apartment to my church which took about 1 hr due to the nasty road conditions. It was one of my busier days at work so I was running the entire time, but I remember very little of that day, except several kids telling me that I looked really really bad and asking me if I was sick. I got home from church around noon and then slept until 5:00PM, when I headed out with him again to see another movie.

Almost

Friday Five... a tad bit gimpy... 3 out of 5....

The Question:

tell me both of the things you don't want to put on your blog because 1) was too embarrassing and 2) was too awesome, but awesome only to you and you're afraid other people wouldn't get the significance.


The Answers:

Cory:
1. embarrassing: I wore a full suit last week because i had an interview. i got this suit when i was a senior in high school. that's been 10 years ago. the pants are extremely tight now. all day i would have to take bathroom breaks every 20 minutes because there wasn't enough room for me and my breakfast/lunch in my pants. ugh.
2. awesome: at the ladies/80s last night, i was dancing up on the stage, and girls came up to dance with me (and others). it was really cool, but i didn't really know what to do after that because i really wasn't after the girls, i was just there to have fun. ha.

Lissie:
1. embarrassing: this one is a little tricky. i usually block embarrassing things out. but after sitting here and mulling it over for a bit, i guess i'll just come out with it: i might as well face it, i'm addicted to love. bwahahah. no, that's not it. but once i typed "i'm addicted" it just had to follow. i'm addicted to sex and the city! some of you are likely shocked...understandably. at one time, i would have said this would never happen and because of that i'm slightly embarrassed. however, i accidentally ended up with all 5 seasons on my computer and after catching an episode on tbs, my interest was piqued.
while my feelings on some of the things going on are firmly "NO!" and i find myself constantly pausing to ask chris if he thinks people really live like this, i am delighted by the friendship the girls share (reminding me of some of my closest girls), find myself constantly laughing at the accurate portrayal of female neurosis and am touched by carrie's genuineness. she's a real girl, struggling with choices and issues, who usually wraps up the episode with a true sentiment that gives me hope about life and people.
2. awesome: this too was tricky but that's cause i kept thinking of awesome things that i meant to blog about but didn't. that i would have blogged ixnays them from the category.
i guess the most awesome thing that people might not get is that chris and i have been openly annoying/frustrating each other a little. it's awesome because it represents depth and familiarity that comes with time in a relationship. we're learning how to talk through things (me saying "you're BOTHERING me!!" or him just saying "this makes me mad") without letting it fester. and, best of all, we've never said goodbye without ultimate sighs of contentment and reassurances of feelings. i never knew that i'd think of issues in a relationship as awesome but i do.

Kimi:
1. embarrassing: I have been experimenting with fiber intake lately so as to help in weight loss and possibly regulate myself even more. I have now had two attempts with major fiber dosages. As it turns out, fiber apparently has the opposite effect on me as it does on most people. Not pleasant. Apparently, my body is just too used to the intake of junk to handle "good" stuff.
2.awesome: my instructor talked with me last night after my shared lesson with my partner with Ray Rivers, and said that he had heard that most of the lesson was focused on my partner. He asked how it felt to have passed up my partner's skill level in so little time. Potentially dangerous information, but nice to have the complement.

Relient

I saw Relient K at the House of Blues in Chi-Town last night. The band were amazing as usual, but apparently I am old.

5 years ago at a Relient K concert, I would have been in the very front, right by the stage, and jumping for every song.

Relient K yesterday, my back hurt from standing for so long, I longingly looked on the mosh pit from the outside rail, and did not jump at all. And at 10:00, I was so ready for bed.

While the music was outstanding, it brought back memories of times when I was younger and was much less inhibited. Not sure, why, at the age of 23 I am feeling so very very old.

However, Ray is in town tonight and tomorrow, so maybe that will make up for feeling so old and lame.

Sporty

I had an interesting weekend.

I shot one of these...


and on my first try, hit one of these...

But I didn't just hit it. I hit that top right circle.
With a shoulder that had been pulled out of socket the night before.
Awesome!
I took one shot. I hit the target and handed the crossbow back.
Always good to end on a good note.

Anyway, the moral of the story...
Should you ever see me with a weapon in my hand,
you should run... fast....
I apparently have beginners luck on my side.
I am sporty!

Arkansas

Things I have learned about Arkansas

• People sit on their front porches and watch other people drive around.
• The level of accent varies drastically, but apparently all people who make announcements over PA's have the thickest accents.
• Mosquito's are invisible, but effective.
• I am allergic to Arkansas as a whole.
• Bill Clinton is not from Little Rock, but his picture does in fact hang in the State Capital.
• The State cooking utensil is the Dutch Oven.
• The State musical instrument is "The Fiddle."
• Arkansas's reputation for violence and weaponry was cemented when a legislator stabbed another legislator at a duel.
• Rice is the state plant, but I'm pretty sure it is really Marijuana.
• There is a bridge named, "Big Dam Bridge," which I first believed was a description instead of a title.

New

It's been a while so I thought I would venture to do an update.

Chris and I spent 46 hours this week painting a mural in the basement of the Methodist church. He was off work and I owe him big time for working like a dog on a week off. But the mural looks good and I am just that much closer to completing the projects I promised I would start here. The other big one should be starting in the fall it is a midweek program. I promised to get one of those up and running, so I will be pleased when it finally hits.

I will be headed to Arkansas on the 29th of August to pick up a car that Chris' mom is giving him and I will be meeting the parents. It is kind of a frightening prospect, but he has already met mine. He actually knew my mom long before he met me and he just met my dad a few weeks ago. Thanks Sir for meeting us and treating us to lunch. But I have never really done the bring her home to meet mom and dad thing before.

In other news, I have now switched to a new instructor at the studio. Tim is expecting his third child now and is feeling too stretched between his wife wanting him to be home and needing to continue to study to keep up with his students, so he has decided to take a break for now. It was a wise decision on his part. Family comes first, but I was sad to see him go and I think he is bummed to not be dancing.

However the move to John will be a very good thing. He has spent a great deal more time lately training and knows a great deal more and I know I will learn a lot from him. Not to mention he is taller than me so I can wear real dance shoes and not have to be as low into my knees. It feels really good to stretch out after years of going so deeply into my knees. But as Ray told me long ago, learning how to dance low into my knees will just make me that much better of a dancers and will put me that much further beyond everyone else.

I think that is about it for now. Sunday School is almost over and I can head home soon. Happy Sunday!

Fall

So on Wednesday night in Ray's group, I fell for the first time in ballroom. It's a sickening feeling. I was dancing with little Alec. He is a fourteen year old that come up basically to my chest level. We were doing a really fast intricate quickstep. Crazy Sam, who has been dancing for at least 15 years now and still sucks, was doing his own thing and cut behind Alec and me. Now because of our height difference, Alec could not see directly behind me and I caught Sam leg with my leg and down I went. I was terrified of taking little Alec with me, so I pushed him off of me to ensure that he would not be injured. I tried to land as gracefully as possible without hurting anything important, eg. legs, back, head, feet. Instead I landed squarely on my tail bone.

I got up not terribly injured, but my butt was developing a knot already, but with a very bruised ego and extreme anger. You see, Sam never does what Ray tells him to. He doesn't listen and he is all over the place. It is hard to listen to Ray and do what you are supposed to when your partner is doing whatever the heck they want. So I already am severely annoyed with Sam and then because he is not doing what he is supposed to, I land on my butt. He walks up to me and says, "I did not get in the way." I said, "Actually, I did catch your foot." He says, "Oh" and walks away. Now I am seething. He made a woman fall, blames her for it, finds out he is to blame, and doesn't apologise? Really?

I find out that poor Alec went home and cried. He was so afraid that he had hurt me and that it was his fault. And while I don't typically have much sympathy or patience for Alec because he is a cocky hyper little kid, he was doing really well that night and totally surprised me.

So, here's the part where I am a bad person. The next night I am at the next Ray lesson and I am led out to the side in the direction of Sam and because Sam is never where he is supposed to be, his foot ends up squarely underneath my heel. And while this was a total accident. I felt a certain sense of poetic justice. I apologised to him and he would hear nothing of it. Oh well. Thus is the life of ballroom dancers.

California

I returned from California on Sunday the 26th. It was an amazing trip. We did a lot of amazing things. Four hours of coaching with Ray Rivers. Visited the San Diego Zoo. Several days at the Beach. Visited Old Town. Toured several ships. Pictures?

On the plane on the way there


I finally saw the Grand Canyon from the air



First sunset in San Diego



Touring San Diego by car


Took a ton of stairs down into a cave which let out onto the ocean



Chris, Aunt Fran, and Uncle Al who allowed us to stay with them and borrow their car all week. Their generosity and hospitality was amazing.


Four hour of lessons with Ray Rivers



Crawling through a submarine


View of the outside of the Submarine


The Star of India


On the Bay there were six ships which were open for tours. I took a ton of pictures for Grandpa Driver, but here are a few.

San Diego Zoo

California Highway sign in Old Town

Picture at Old Town. A very cool touristy shopping spot.

Chris and I started dating on Wednesday during our week in San Diego. I am continually amazed with God's provision and role in our relationship. My phone also died while I was in San Diego. I am currently waiting for a new one to arrive. Feel free to call and find out more about the trip. The new phone is supposed to come today. :)

Correct

It did in fact only take a few hours for the assurance to fade away into doubt. And while, the doubt doesn't feel very pleasant. I am none the crying out to God to hold me close and give me the strength I lack. I am sure His hand is in this somewhere, whether I can see it moving or not.

On another note:

Happy Birthday Sir!

Today

Today things seem evident and immanent. Like if it were a snake it would have bitten me. I like this feeling. It feels like I am in control and in the loop. But tomorrow... I'm pretty sure that tomorrow, if not in a few hours, things will not seem obvious anymore. I will begin to second guess and to doubt. I don't like that feeling. It makes me feel helpless, but it forces me into the arms of my Savior who can handle things far better than I. So I'll take either side knowing that God is sovereign.