Dancing through life - a.k.a. OH BABY!!

Goodbye, summer...

2007-08-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

I drove up to Salem the other night to visit my old roomie Kristina....she's transferring to Biola and I'm pretty sure she's leaving a hole in my heart at the same time. We had a blast together. It was definitely one of those end-of-a-season kind of nights. I have a new roomie though... my 3rd roomie in 3 semesters... stable, eh? Her name is Adrian and she seems really really sweet. I get to meet her in a few days. She's from Alaska!

I'm SO excited to get out of this house... I love my family but man, I just can't stomach two more summers at home like this. I'm sure in 2 weeks I'll be eating my words as I take 20 credits and work 10 hrs on the weekends. Summer with chores and rules and curfews will sound awfully nice. Or just sleep in any sort of quantity might sound nice.

I have four more days nannying. It's been a bunch of fun. These girls have been a treat to work with. Occasionally they could be a bit of a handful, but it's good anyway. And it doubles as practice for when my own children are 20 times the handful because they would be their mother's children. It'd come standard. Maybe I should do more of this practice business...

Jon and I had been planning for a date night last night for a week or so before I head back to school. It ended up being a night in Portland, which is always a treat. We found a pizza restaurant downtown called Old Town Pizza and it was in this big old building that was probably a house or something at some point. It is rumored to be haunted. Inside it was really dark and just lit by candlelight and there were tons of different rooms to sit in to eat. We ended up at this little table in the corner underneath an open staircase. The table was an old sewing machine table minus the sewing machine. I think Jon was a little claustrophobic but he didn't really admit it. He just kept saying afterwards how dark it was so he was afraid it would have been a bad place to be. I thought it was charming. I guess if each of us were to get haunted, I'd be the one to come out unscathed. The pizza was great though! Afterwards we had planned to walk along the riverfront there downtown but it was kind of a rainy evening so it was darker earlier... and there were some shady personalities down there. We abandoned that plan rather quickly. We were parked really close to a Max station though so we decided to ride down to the Lloyd Center and Jon called up his sister to meet us since she lives in Portland and we had a couple hours to spare yet. I was kind of thinking "uh, it's a date, dude." but we don't get to see her as often as we used to so it was good to visit. Lloyd was kind of boring (sorry Lloyd..) so we decided to drive to Mt Tabor which Beckii said is one of 2 extinct volcanoes within city limits in the US. The other is in Bend. Good job, city planners of Oregon. Well we took a few wrong exits so we ended up just driving around Portland which was fine. Portland is pretty at night. Except when we missed a little onramp that was impossible to see and tried to turn around on another street that happened to actually be just a little driveway thing into a homeless camp. I think we blinded 'em. We headed back to my car eventually and headed for the airport.

My cousin Christian is going to be living with us this year. He's 15 and needed to get away from the situation he was in at home in Michigan. He flew into PDX last night hence we moved our date up to Portland to pick him up. He arrived at like 11:30 so we didn't get home until 2:30. He chatted with us for a couple of hours but dropped off as we were going through Salem. We didn't talk much about the fact that he was here for the reasons he'd be here but we did talk about Oregon a little bit. He'd never been out before. He said three things: 1) There are a lot of pine trees here! 2) The air out here smells really good. 3) So where do you guys shop at? Haha. We played the "Say that Oregon word" with him and he did pretty good actually. He had mostly easy ones though, like Oswego and Tualatin. The good ones he was sleeping already... Siuslaw, Willamette, Albany... I did brief him on life in Corvallis: DUCKS ARE BAD. BEAVERS ARE GOOD. GREEN IS BAD. ORANGE IS GOOD. He didn't really get it. He will in time. All in good time. The rooming situation is gonna be a little different with him around. I think my parents want him upstairs and since I'm only home on the weekends that means he gets my room. My brother Matt is planning on moving out soon also and it'd be for good, so it looks like I'll get his room downstairs. Just like that, goodbye room!

I need to post about our reunion in Michigan still... but it'd be a long one and I've spent too much time on here today. Maybe I'll just do a bunch of pictures.

CRAZY!!!

2007-07-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

This is insane. My brother and my very best buddy are now dating one another. I am so happy for them!!! A little jealous of Matt's time with her because now she is coming to visit him more than me, but also pretty un-jealous because hey! this could mean the best friend status may graduate to the sister status! waHOO!!!

I got a pedicure! And a sister! Oh BABY!!

2007-07-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

Weddings. Are. Amazing.

I went to a friend of mine's wedding last week and it was pretty good because I saw a bunch of friends and my favorite professor was the pianist and it was great to see the bride and groom FINALLY get married. But. It was just good friends.

THEN, I went to a wedding Saturday - Jon's brother's. It was AMAZING!!! But I'll back up and recount the entire weekend because a) I had five days of work off in a row instead of my normal 7-days-a-week blahs, and b) trips to visit Jon's old stomping grounds always deserve a day-by-day synopsis.

Oh, actually I'll back up one extra day to talk about the 4th because I had off then too. I just wasn't in Washington.

Yay 4th of July! It was supposed to be 90 degrees in the valley so we high-tailed it to the coast. It was so so so beautiful there!! We got there around 11:30 so we stopped at a great restaurant in Newport called Georgie's. My dad and I stopped there on a trip once just after I came back from Iowa and they had this aMAZING oyster stew (we are big oyster stew buffs) but then when we were there this time they swore they've never made it!! We must be crazy, but we HAD some and it was INCREDIBLE. No kidding! Anyhow, the clam chowder was pretty great and the view was lovely, so we were fine. Haha, the waitress asked us once if we were Whitney's friends and we were like, Whitney? Who's that? Well, it turns out Whitney was the water girl, and she looked uber familiar, but nothing like someone we knew really well. Jason and I figured she must have been a mat girl from Newport's wrestling team or something, so we wrote on the comment card "Hi Whitney! Sorry we didn't recognize you at first!" Turns out, it wasn't even the girl we thought we recognized. I don't know how she thought she knew us, but we sure didn't know her after all. But we said hi anyway! After our super awesome lunch, we went down to the beach and did a little geo-caching. It was pretty fun, although I got a little scratch on my leg from the blackberries which wouldn't have been a problem except I was planning on being in wedding pictures and so I didn't want any scratches on my legs showing up. It took us a while to find the cache because they had two coordinates - one for the beginning of the trail, and the other for the actual cache location. However, at first we didn't realize that the first was just for the beginning of the trail so we were madly - I mean MADLY! - searching in the brush around there for the cache going IT SAYS IT'S HERE!!! when we realize, oh, the clue says that it STARTS at this point. Duh. So, we hiked down the trail and up and down some side trails and found the cache, left a golf ball, and took a really cool little bendy masquerade man. We walked up and down the Jetty and by this time it was getting REALLY windy so we went back to the car. We also looked for a cache at the Oregon Coast Acquarium but realized we probably had to go IN the acquarium to find it, so we weren't interested anymore. Then we hit up Yaquina Head to go to the rocky beach since it was probably the only place with shelter from the wind. We were pretty pooped by this time so we hopped in my dad's monster truck and headed home. We really wanted to watch the fireworks on the coast but since Jon and I had to head out the next morning for WA, we decided driving back home at 11:00 would be kinda stupid. So, we went down to Corvallis at 8:30 to save a spot on the lawn to watch the Corvallis fireworks... they were rumored to be better than they've been before since it's Corvallis' 150th anniversary. So we wait for two hours, my family finally shows up as well as a couple of Jon's friends, and the fireworks begin. THEY WERE AWFUL. So bad. Terrible. Worse than I've ever seen Corvallis do fireworks. They were just really boring and not showy and thrown together and not entertaining in the least. Poo, Corvally. Poo.

WELL, here comes the Washington trip!!

Thursday: We drove off at 9 am and arrived around 2:30 in Lynden at Jon's grandparent's house. You know how I've wanted to get a pedicure for, like, an eternity? Well, Jon's sisters and mom and I had planned on getting them when we were all in Washington. I suppose they forgot about me, because they got theirs Thursday morning while Jon and I were driving up. I was pretty bummed. Anyway, so we got to Grampa and Gramma's (actually, Jon's siblings pronounce "Grampa" more like "Grappa") and chatted a bit and then headed to Edaleen Dairy which has THE MOST AMAZING soft-serve ice cream. No joke. It is incredible. I mean seriously, it's the first thing we did in Lynden after saying hi to the grandparents. Then Jon had to head to his brother's bachelor party and I went down to Bellingham where the girls and my hotel room was (and mom and dad's) and went to dinner at this super great Greek restaurant. It wasn't the one that's in Lynden which is also amazing, but it was really good anyway. We got dessert to go (mmmmmm, baklava) and went back to the hotel and watched Disturbia. It's a scary movie!!! I don't get scared by much in the way of creepy movies because they're all so not real or possible. But this one was pretty close to reality! So, it was good to see the girls again since Katie has been at camp and I'm not going to see her all summer now. Sad!! Beckii and I shared a bed. I told her it would be the night of her life. Apparently it wasn't. Not for me either.... I was stuck in a corner.... the whole night....

Friday: Jon's mom Sue loved her pedicure SO much that she offered to take me to get a pedicure and she got a manicure herself. We got an appointment and while we waited we went to Anna's house (the bride) and tied white ribbons on these beautiful pots her mom had been growing for months. There was some drama about us skipping out on it to get our nails done... But it wasn't my fault, honest!! Anyhow, once we got to the nail place they started on Sue's hands right away and set me in the water to soak for a while. A while turned into 45 minutes. I had raisin feet! So... the pedicure wasn't what I'd hoped it would be but it was nice to get it done finally. Then the lady did the wrong color!!! I picked one that would match the sash on my dress perfectly and she had another one that was a little more raspberry than the deep red I'd picked and she insisted it was the same color and the one she had was a better polish. So my toes weren't quite matchy match match with my dress. So... the pedicure wasn't what I'd hoped it would be but it was nice to get it done finally. Then we had lunch with the fam at Red Robin, walked around Bellis Fair mall for a while, and went to this crazy awesome Japanese store that has all Japanese products that are like "all-American" looking. I wanna go back there. They had home decor stuff that had sayings like "I am at the top of happiness!" and "Best happiness through life." Teehee. Then we searched around Bellingham for things for the Rehearsal Dinner table. We got Andes mints and Annas cookies. It was pretty great. Then we came back to the hotel and got dressed and went across the parking lot to the hall where the dinner was. It wasn't really a Rehearsal dinner because there was no rehearsal beforehand. But it was all family and close friends (I think about 50 people) and a yummy dinner. We played Balderdash by making words out of the initials of people at our table and then passing our words around. Jon's and my table was a little lame - his aunts and grandma weren't very good Balderdash players. When we'd read a definition someone would correct our wording or say "Get it!?" which would give away whose card it was... No fun. Oh well, other tables had a blast. Since there were so many J names and also so many Dutch people, we adopted the Dutch pronunciation of the letter. One word, then, was SMAKJASS. Pronounced "Smack ya ass!" Heeheehee!! Rehearsal dinner down, Bedtime to go, and Wedding day next!!!

Saturday, 07-07-07: Wedding day!!! We slept in. Hahahahaha. Till 9 or so. Then all us girls primped up and showed up at the park where the wedding was around 11. Anna and Andy decided to do pictures before the wedding, so they were already in full swing. Anna was beautiful!!! So was the park, so were the girls, so was everyone. It was just a beautiful day. I got in a family picture or two! Yay!! For the ceremony (They wrote their own vows!) we all sat at tables, and then remained there for the reception. For entertainment they had a three-part skit about how Andy and Anna met, began dating, and got engaged. Random people volunteered to play the parts of Andy and Anna, and Jon was one of them. I didn't realize how much of a ham he is! It was pretty funny. He's very animated and goofy. Anyway, so the skit was broken up by dessert and then dancing lessons since Anna is a dance instructor. She had a couple of friends teach us very simple and quick lessons of the Box Step, the Jive, and the Electric Slide. The whole shabang was over by 5 or so and then we cleaned up. Oh, how we cleaned up. Finally we got back to the hotel and GOT OUT OF OUR STRAPLESS BRAS!!! The girls and I had the same dress but different patterns so we matched... sort of... but consequentially were all strapless. Then we were pretty darn exhausted but went to Grampa and Gramma's for leftovers of the rehearsal dinner food. Gramma is super skilled at making something out of nothing.. We ate pretty well! And got rid of all the leftovers. Then we went back to Bellingham for bed. As we said goodbye to Grampa and Gramma (we thought for the last time on this trip) Gramma said to me "You're a part of the family now. I can just tell." Yay!!! Yay yay yay!!!

Sunday: Got up early to go to church so we could see Grampa and Gramma one more time. Just Beckii and I and we hoped that Ryan and Jon would meet us there also. Fat chance. We got there late so didn't even get to sit by them... just could see them, but they couldn't see us. Kind of a dud. We met up with the boys after church and went out to the Rusty Wagon Wheel (except Jon called it Rusty Bucket so that's what I think of it as now) for some stuffed french toast. mmmm. Got back to the hotel, packed up quick, and drove off to head home. It was my mom's birthday too so we stopped and picked up some flowers and brought them home for dinner with my family. A good end to a great weekend!

Ok, I'm finally done!!

I went to a wedding.

And I got a pedicure.

P.S.-

2007-06-21T07:58:00.001-07:00

I still want a pedicure.

I'm a nanny.

2007-06-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

I learned something this week. Hanging out with a 10-year-old is pretty fun. Getting paid for it is almost as fun. Driving to the 10-year-old's house is not fun. Here is a list of the wonderful get-in-touch-with-my-childhood things I've done in the last week:

- shopping in the girls' section at Old Navy
- get origami books at the library
- sitting on the floor of the bathroom and fold origami paper, getting frustrated only occasionally
- curling hair
- making 3 trips to the craft store, the third time to purchase Shrinky Dinks
- 2 trips to the bead store "making" earrings (she lined 'em up, I strung 'em)
- two Shrinky Dink extravaganzas. number one: teddybears. number two: elephants.
- baking chocolate chip cookies
- making friendship bracelets complete with pretty little beads
- swimming at Otter Beach, a kiddy water park (I sat in the sun - the lady said "mom won't be able to swim...kids only today" - it cost me a dollar to do so. at least she had the respect to call me mom.)
- tomorrow: teddy bear picnic in the park
ahhhh, the simple life.

I've also been volunteering 6 or so hours a week for Love INC, which is an organization that sets up volunteers from churches who want to serve in the community with people in the community who need help. I work in the office updating forms and stuff since most of the ladies that volunteer aren't so computer-literate. Since most is computer work, I have been doing a lot at home too. I love this job so much though - especially being in the office with people in constant prayer and an overwhelming heart of ministry. I like it so much, I've decided to change my minor to Women's Ministries. That's the closest minor my school has to Learning How To Serve People In An Organized Fashion For The Lord. It includes counseling and a marriage and family course so I'm pretty fired up about it.

Jon is getting pretty fired up about school himself. He's about ready to start the Graphic Design program full-force (he's been taking generals up to this point) at LBCC, and yeah, he's pumped. He's working on covering his bases though by checking out the art schools in Portland since they offer Bachelor's degrees and LB doesn't - only Associate's. Tomorrow after the teddy bear picnic I'll have to change from 10-year-old brain to 20-year-old brain and take a trip up to the Art Institute of Portland with him to tour and check it out. We'll see what we think of it. As for his job, he's still pumping gas. I need some patience here. Badly.

We said bye-bye to Jon's sister Katie who's going to be at Camp Firwood all summer. The house won't be the same what with Kate gone and Beckii moved out - Jon, Ryan (who just got a girlfriend so probably won't be around much anymore), Mom, and Dad. That's it. I'm not so sure it'll be my first-nature hangout anymore since the major topics of conversation will no longer be girl things (boobs, period, period, boobs), but guy things (grunt, grunt, snort, grunt). Sigh.

A list of my thoughts, in order to please Heather:
(a) Flowers - Jon got me flowers for no reason the Saturday before last. A big boquet of Stargazers. There is one bud left to bloom. They've lasted 2 weeks already! They're beautiful!
(b) Allergies - YUCK. They are so bad this year I am downing all the Claritin my body can muster and blowing my nose every 12.5 minutes. Poor Jon just so happened to get my flowers on the very worst day of my summer allergies, and I just so happen to be allergic to lilies. It's a wonder I didn't run off the road as I sneezed my way home with my boquet in tow.
(c) Sunburn - One dollar at the kiddie pool and I turn a lovely shade of lobster. I swear the sun was at my back. Apparently not. My back remains like the lobster's tummy, and my front has turned the lobster's back. What's wrong with this picture? Where are my antennae?
(d) Weddings - Two weddings two weekends in a row! I am so excited. Chris and Dierdre' better not have kids right away. Andy and Anna better.
(e) Homework - Yes, homework. The Bible study I'm doing has homework. I wouldn't be able to get away from school even if I tried.
(f) Stalking - I am officially a legal stalker. Jon's brother just recently began dating a girl after a month or so of correspondence through Facebook. Who was up on every detail even when the silent man refused to let out a peep? Me. And guess what. She's my friend now. Ahhh, Facebook.
(g) Ralph - Rest in peace, good buddy. My Ralph Lauren sunglasses that have graced my schnozz for two years now were lost at Willamette Park two Sundays ago. I miss Ralph.
(h) Spoons - Angela brought me back 8 cute little dinky little spoons from Holland. I am overjoyed. I wish I had a hope chest.
(i) Bed - I'm tired. Goodnight.

1/4 done with summer already...

2007-06-02T23:45:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this super late... So if it's incoherent, you can just quit reading whenever you so desire.

Well it looks like summer is gonna be a restful one, seeing as a good quarter of it is gone already and I've got just two part-time jobs. They're good ones, and I'm left with plenty of free time. My first job is on the weekends and I help out a lady with MS for a few hours in the mornings. During the week I'll be nannying for two super cute girls for a few hours too. Total: 28 hrs a week. Not a ton, but I have a friend who will be driving a combine 14 hrs a day, 6 days a week. THAT IS INSANE! She's got endurance I haven't got. I'm going to try to get some voice students also, but I don't know if I'll get much. Maybe I should advertise in the GT.

I get to see Angela tomorrow!! Pretty excited about that.

My puppy is full grown. She is a woman... had her first heat cycle. I called it her puppy period but for some reason that doesn't go over very well with people. Still tiny and under five pounds though! I should be careful when I claim ownership of her.. she's not really mine. She's my mom's... I'm pretty sure that my mom gives that dog more attention than she gave us when we were little. If not, we were treated pretty well and I should be bowing at my mother's feet.

I went mother-of-the-groom dress shopping with Jon's mom yesterday. She needs a dress for Jon's oldest brother's wedding, which is on July 7. It's really hard to find something a month before the event...too late to order anything... She has some options and a backup outfit now, so at least she'll show up with something on! It was almost nervewracking to be in a bridal shop with my boyfriend's mom though.... Not between the two of us really, but because (a) all of the employees thought I was the bride, (b) there were wedding dresses everywhere, which doesn't help my desire to get hitched slash my knowledge that it's not gonna happen for a few years, (c) well there is no 'c', I just thought it would be more impactful if it was trifold awkward. But it wasn't. So I'm a liar.

I really really really really want to go see Wicked!!!

I also want a pedicure.

speaking of sad...

2007-05-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

i just realized that there have only been ten views to my blog. how depressing.

almost a month later

2007-05-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

It's been three weeks, and I still have no traces of even a job opportunity. Yes, I have my weekend job, that's 8 hrs total per week. But that's not enough to cover private school tuition. I was really frustrated about it, but a wonderful friend of mine reminded me that I don't exist in the world in order to find a summer job, so I shouldn't get so bent-out-of-shape. So. I'm still looking. In the form of opening the yellow pages and calling through every business that might have an opening for me. But lucky me, I still get to sleep in!

I went to the northwesternmost corner of Washington last weekend with Jon's family. Hooah, Lynden! Jon was in a good friend's wedding on Saturday and his brother's fiance had her bridal shower on Sunday afternoon, so I went to both. It was kind of a whirlwind trip though, since we left Corvallis at noon on Friday and returned to Corvallis at 11 on Sunday. Lots of driving. But it was fun to see Jon's grandparents and his hometown for a second time. Of course, it was also nice to see him in a tux. But I think for when our wedding rolls around after an eon and a half, tux companies will have invented more flattering fits for my uber-tall, skinny boyfriend. Anna's bridal shower went well. I didn't know many people, but it was nice to meet a few super-importants to the Brim family.. the kind of people I'll get to know more in the future. Beckii and Katie got the superfun job of taking pictures, and I thought for a moment I'd have the superfun job of scribe, but Anna's REAL sister-in-law came and took my lovely notebook and insisted on doing it instead. Alas. Someday, she'll be sorry. So I oohed and ahhed over plates and towels and ate cake. That's right, I stuck it to her good. Oh boy. There's already animosity between me and the in-law-in-laws. What is that called, your in-laws once removed? And it's not even in-law yet. Oh, boy indeed.

I've been helping Jon's mom in her flower beds. Weeding and such. It's a nice way to get a tan and also feel like I'm actually getting things done. But I think my mom's a little jealous, so I'll go out and help her in her garden today a while. Sorry mom, you're not paying me, and she is. I'm just like a corporate snob. But with weeds instead. I'm starting small.

I left the Dordt network on Facebook. It felt good. I don't need to know the people I'm not already friends with, because I will probably never need to.

I lost my blogging fire. I don't have anything else to write about. I think it's time to go upstairs and get dressed and start my day. I have another 100 businesses to call. I'm to the Ns. Nanny services here I come!

done so early

2007-04-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

It is so strange to be saying goodbye to friends and to be done with classes by the first day of May. If I ever questioned whether I was really like all the other freshmen, here is the answer: I definitely am. I still have high school in me and was planning on school for another month and a half. I had my last class of my freshman year about two hours ago, and now I have finals and a couple final papers to look forward to. In a week's (and a day's) time, I will be completely detached from school for four months. I was really stressed this week because of all the final strands of my life that had to be tied up by today, and I also had family in town so I took out two nights from my week to spend time with them. Tonight is our final choir concert. Good riddance. But we're still singing at Graduation so really, not good riddance yet. I was supposed to go to a hall retreat tonight too... at my RA's house. It's an hour away from school and an hour and a half home, so coupled with my super busy and exhausting week I had to tell my RA that I won't be able to make it. I felt really terrible and she tends to take that kind of thing personally so I feel badly, but there is not an ounce of me that believes that I could do all that tonight. And believe me, there are a lot of ounces in me.
I've been tempted to worry about my summer working situation, but I need to trust God that he will work it out. It's all uncertain right now... I know that I will be working for Senior and Disability Services as a homecare worker, but I don't have any clients yet and I have no idea how many hours I'll get or what the clients will be like or what I'll be doing for them. It's kind of scary. Really scary, at least to me. I was talking to Jon about it today though, wondering what I would do if I don't get enough hours and still need to work. He and I both thought it would be a good idea to teach voice lessons to young students. I think I'll put an ad in the paper in a week or two, after I know more (hopefully!) about this homecare business.
I'm also tempted to worry about my rooming situation next year. My roommate is transferring (isn't THAT a taste of my own medicine!) and I really don't want her to because I'll miss her immensely, but I know it's what is best for her. So, once again I'm without a roommate and have no idea what the fall will be like. Heck, right now I don't know what anything will be like. Everything in the next 6 months is completely uncertain except for three things: I know what courses I'll be taking next year, and that it's 20 credits. oh boy. I know that no matter what, Jon and my family will still be loving and supportive. I know that God is taking care of me and even though I know practically nothing else, trusting Him is what I need to do. Aside from those 3 things, your guess is as good as mine.
There are a lot of things that I'd like to accomplish this summer in addition to make money so that I don't have as many loans to pay off next year:
- Learn one piano song every two weeks.. I really need to brush up on my piano skills before Keyboard III next fall.
- Go over the lessons and chapters in my music book that I missed last term and that we skimmed over in class. They are all very valuable things to learn.
- Read! Here's what I have so far: Redeeming Relationships, a book one of our faculty has written and just published. I picked up a copy on Wednesday and got it signed. Born Again, How Now Shall We Live, A Lesson Before Dying, and Living By The Book.
- Do pilates at least 3 times a week. I've been walking up the hills here this term and have gotten just enough exercise to counter the evil greasy food at the dining hall. But I have a feeling that I won't be very active this summer unless I make myself do what the nice Australian lady does on the DVD.
- Stay on top of devotionals. It's easy to do at school because "everybody does it" and it's kinda drilled into us. But in the summer it goes waaaaaaaay to the back of my priority list. I need to work on that.
- Volunteer for Love INC 2-3 hrs each week, both to minister and to fulfill a CCS credit for school.

That's all I can think of now... I'm sure I'll add more things, and I'm equally as sure that maybe 10% of the things I hope to do this summer on that list will actually get done. Ok now that's a self-fullfilling prophecy. MariAnne, 100% of those things will get done! YES! I AM DEDICATED!

Things that I have to get through before next Saturday when I'm completely done...
- Sing in the choir concert tonight... ugh.
- Write a paper for my Bible Study Methods class
- Go to a job interview at 1 on Saturday
- Study for my American Thought and Culture exam at 8 am on Monday
- Study for my Music Theory exam at 10:30 am on Monday
- Practice voice in order to be ready for my jury at 3:30 on Tuesday
- Study for my Bible Lit NT exam at 8 am Wednesday
- Help my roommate record an audition tape for BIOLA
- Sing in a friend's piano jury
- Pay my $100 room reservation fee
- Pack up everything I own
- Find a place for my loveseat to live for the summer. It will miss my dorm room, and I will miss it.
- Find more people to interview with so I can actually have a job
- Get used to the idea of living without Kristina
- Perform at Graduation on Saturday
- Sigh ten million times

engagement

2007-04-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

I HAVE A RING!!!!

(before you start hyperventilating and calling me and freaking out, sit your hiney back down and shut up and read)

This evening, my darling friend walked into my room, knelt, and offered me a ring. It's beautiful, three-stones, and shinier than nobody's business. No, the friend was not my boyfriend. The ring is not valuable. And I am not engaged. So many people around me are getting engaged these days, so I thought I'd try to join up with them. Sadly, it's not happening. But it's fun to walk around with a fake hand-me-down $8 engagement ring on my left hand like I've joined the ranks of the evil bride-to-bes cooing all around the block.

Easter and Michigan

2007-04-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Easter is SOON! I love Easter, but I think my favorite church holiday is actually Palm Sunday. It's one of those days that always blindsides me. It's obvious when Easter is coming, but I seldom think back a week and plan for Palm Sunday. But I love it because (a) Jesus is declaring himself king, and (b) we sing the song Hosanna, Loud Hosanna. I LOVE THAT SONG!!! When we were little we would come in on Palm Sunday singing that song like only 2nd graders can, and wave palm branches and afterwards go back and sit with our families. It's just so happy and wonderful. I realized this year with a pang of sadness that I was missing Palm Sunday when I was sitting in my boyfriend's church where I've been going regularly and they are have those new-fangled worship services devoid of hymns and symbolism. No Hosanna, Loud Hosanna, and no palm branches. The pastor mentioned Palm Sunday once in the sermon, in reference to the fact that Easter is next week. So, my favorite holiday came and went, and some of my joy with it.

I'm kind of confused and without direction right now in the area of church placement. I always feel at home in my family's church, but I also feel like it's just not the place where God wants me right now. When I'm at my boyfriend's church, I enjoy our togetherness and the pastor's sermons and the united body of believers. They pray a lot. I like that. But the worship is not something I especially love, and I really want to get active but I don't feel a lot of opportunity even though it's a large church. I really miss singing hymns, too. They're such a part of me that when I was looking through my hymnal today to find a song to sing at my home church on Sunday for Easter I just got so melancholy and nostalgic. *sigh* I think I'm just gonna have to deal with it. But it'll be super nice to be back home for a visit this Sunday, and to sing up front too.

My parents bought the plane tickets the other day, so it's official: I'm going to Michigan at the end of July!! We're having one of our Nikkel family reunions which happen every 5 years. This time, for my grandparents' 55th (or is it 60th?) anniversary we are going back to where my grandma grew up. My cousins live there, too, and we're all renting out this manor/estate thing to live in and occupy for a week. All 50 of us. It is going to be SO fun. I love family reunions!! Most people I know definitely don't, but my family actually loves each other! And this year not only are all of us going to be there for once (usually not EVERYONE makes it but I think this year every single stinking one of us will be there), my boyfriend is coming, too. He came to Thanksgiving with my grandparents when I lived in Iowa, and I think he was pretty intimidated, but maybe this time it'll be a little easier for him. Especially since he has my brothers to fall back on instead of me, a girl. We're flying into Chicago on the 28th of August, a day before we have to be in Michigan, which means we are staying with my old pastor's family. I get to see my good friend Rachel, his daughter, who has stayed in touch with me throughout the 12 years we've been apart. She and Jon get to meet each other, which will be nice for everyone since they'll each know who I'm talking about when I say "Rach said this" or "Jon did that." It is just going to be a really refreshing, amazing trip. I can't wait!!

now i know my ABCs

2007-04-03T21:56:00.000-07:00

What's in a name?

For me at least it's my identity. So speaking my name is only half the deal. You also have to spell it right or it's just not me. My future sister-in-law's name is Beckii and spells her name that way because she likes the sound of Becky but hates the spelling. I guess that's what happens when you're a graphic designer and the y makes an ugly ugly ugly tangent with the k. So she goes by Beckii instead. I'm pretty sure legally she's still Rebecca but hey. She's Beckii to me.

Most people call me by my full name and after knowing me for just a little while they understand that it's spelled MariAnne and not Mary Ann or Maryanne or Marian or Mari Anne. Even Marianne is pushing it. They also know that just because there's a capital A doesn't mean that MariAnne is not my full first name. Thus, they don't call me Mari because they understand that Mari is not my name. I can't exactly pinpoint why I don't like it that people call me by just the first half of my name, but I think it's a combination of the idea that it's with an i and not a y, and that only people who know me very very well have ever called me Mari. To me, Mary seems like an old-fashioned name, or the name of Jesus' mother. So, Mary with a y and not an i is not me. Also, growing up only my family called me Mari, and then because they only knew me through my family, the longest members of my church family also call me Mari. Consequentially, a few others have been familiar with me through such people and call me Mari as well, but they're definitely exceptions. Somehow in my brain it's okay with me if you call me Mari while consciously thinking of the i that is present. And if you have known me since I was in diapers or know my deepest loves and fears. But if you call me Mari and haven't filled either of these criterion, then you are making the biggest insult to me. I take more offense to the truncation of my proper name than I do from hearing someone tell me "F*** you." Which, if you know me, is an incredible offense. Please don't call me Mari unless you belonged to Knollbrook Christian Reformed Church from 1990 to 2006, are in my extended family, are named Heather, Geron, Karla, Keri, or a young Ali, or I've signed "Mari" at the end of a personal note to you thus have given you permission to call me by such an intimate name. And please, certainly never ever call me Mary.

The other day an admissions lady called my room and asked if my roommate Kristina would take a campus visitor. Kristina wasn't around but I said we'd do it and then the lady took my name and put it on the visit documents as she remembered it instead of using Kristina. She wrote: Mary. MY NAME IS NOT MARY, dudes. It simply is not. I'm sure when the nice girl who will be staying with me gets her letter and reads that her host is Mary Nikkel she won't think twice when she meets me and finds out I'm really MariAnne. I'm sure the admissions counselor who gives her a tour will see Mary Nikkel and recognize it as my name, since she was my admissions counselor as well. I'm sure my roommate, bless her wonderful kind heart, was only confused when I came in the room complaining about the little switcheroo and proclaimed, "I'm MariAnne, not Mary! I DID NOT GIVE BIRTH TO JESUS!"

Alas, life goes on. I've gotten less touchy about it over the years, and if people avoid the capital A I don't make a fuss. Especially when my boyfriend's family didn't know better. I'm just glad they love me enough to notice the i. It won't kill me if you spell or speak my name wrong, but I would appreciate the respect of understanding that my identity is something that I hold close. Heather, after seeing the spelling of Beckii's name, said that I should just start spelling my name <>< and trying to convince people that it still sounds like MariAnne. I might. It'd be funny. But the damage control afterward would be just too much. So, MariAnne it is. Take it or leave it, it's my identity.

Beginagain!

2007-04-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

Alas, MariAnne has finally gotten a blog site. Halleluja! After trying one account and failing (I decided my url shouldn't be "mariboberry" but "mariannitabonita" so I deleted the account and started over) I have settled with this one and just for my friend Heather, I FEEL NO GUILT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently when I use all caps and hearty punctuation it means I really believe what I say. Also apparently it was horrid of me to take the name mariboberry from blog users everywhere forever by switching names, so I ought to feel guilty. But I don't. And I punctuated it and capsed it. So believe it. No guilt.

We'll see where this goes. If this happens to be my first and last post, then you know how it went. If it's my first of thousands upon thousands of thousands of posts, you also know how it went. Peace out homedawgs.