Bears are easier than penguins

Okay, who’s confused by today’s title? Everyone? Good. I had the strangest dream last night and I just thought that I would share it with all of you. You could use a good laugh. As a bit of explanation, I’ve been having dreams lately that relate to school. I suppose because I’m not there right now and kind of wish I was. Anyways. Here’s what happened:

The first thing I can remember is that I was at Camp Judson, sort of. It’s the strange, distorted version of Camp Judson that I end up at every once in a while when I dream. So, the important part here at the beginning is that I’m running around camp with socks on, but no shoes. I can’t remember what it was I was doing, but I have the sense that it was somewhat important. Then I was going back to my cabin, probably to get some shoes. (For anyone who knows the layout of Camp Judson, I was in cabin 18 or so, out on that arc, though the hill was much less steep.) Someone decided to carry me there, I think it might have been Jesse, and not because the ground was rocky and dangerous to bare feet, but because the ground was wet. Apparently I just couldn’t get my socks wet. ;)

So then I was in the cabin with Suzy and Sara. The door was supposed to be able to lock, but we couldn’t get it shut right, so a bear came in. The bear came up just past my waist on all fours and had really soft brown fur. Suzy and Sara were freaking out, and I was scared too, but I was right by the door so I had to deal with it. For some reason the bear had a collar, so I grabbed it by the collar and shoved it out the door, at which point the door closed and locked properly.

Here there is a void in my memory of the dream. I know there was a halfway logical transition, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was.

Anyway, next I was on a cliff with Dianna, and we had to catch a penguin. For school. It was somehow related to a project that we were doing. And there were penguins on the cliff. But you had to be careful trying to catch one because they would jump off the cliff into the water below and get away. But we managed to catch one and were sitting in a hammock with it. The hammock was hanging out over the cliff. When we got out of the hammock, I accidentally dropped the penguin off the cliff, which meant that we had to go catch a new one. Only I wasn’t with Dianna anymore. Now my partners were Mandy and Jess Blackington (percussionist in the band, Sully RA next year). We tried several times and didn’t manage to get one. They just kept jumping off the cliff.

I went back one last time by myself to find that the cliff was now like an entryway, with one set of doors leading off the cliff and one set leading up the path away from the edge. In the entryway were four penguins, one of which was very small. So I decided that I would catch the small one and put it in my violin case. (Don’t worry, it was my old violin case, the good violin was never in danger) But the wind made the doors open and the little penguin and its mother got away. Another penguin was hiding in a corner, but I managed to grab it. Unfortunately, once I had my arms around it, it started growing bigger. Which meant that I was having a very hard time holding on to it. Jess and Mandy came back at this point, but I don’t know if we managed to finish our project, because that’s when I woke up.

So there you have it. This is the sort of dream that Kim tends to have when she is not sleep deprived. Real people in almost real places doing very strange things. Make of it what you will. The part that seems strangest to me is the penguins. I mean, Kevin is the penguin person in the family, not me. Oh well. After all, it was just a dream.

This afternoon I have my interview at Hy-Vee. So I may soon know what I’ll be doing for the rest of the summer. I’ll be sure to let you know what happens.

God bless.
-Kim

Mistress Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockleshells and marigolds all in a row.

Of course, that’s Mary’s garden, not mine. The Kinder garden grows mostly on prayer. Today was day one in the gardening saga. My mother and I made our annual trip to Medary Acres Greenhouse while Dad started digging up our little garden plot in the backyard. We got the usual plants—tomatoes, eggplant (which never seems to grow properly) and bean seeds (I LOVE fresh garden beans)—and we also decided to try carrots, pumpkin and buttercup (not a typo, this kind is squat and green) squash. And my mom of course got her usual pansies and moss roses as well. I opted for a coleus plant, commonly known as wizard rose. It has no flowers, but the leaves are reddish-pink in the center. It’s silly, really, but I figured, why not?

Then I got to play in the dirt with my dad. He did all the hard digging, and I raked the dirt and tried to get rid of all the little plants, such as crabgrass and walnut trees, that had invaded our garden since last year. And I kid you not about the trees. Squirrels bury nuts in the garden, and in the spring we have tiny little trees sprouting up. Darn squirrels! :P

Anyways, we didn’t get the whole thing dug up, but we were able to get the tomatoes, eggplants, and various gourds into the ground tonight. I guess the beans will just have to wait another day or so.

Hmm, this is a rather short post. But, I suppose I do owe you a break from my usual rambling blather. So go to bed early or find some other way to make good use of the time you’ve just saved. ;)

God bless.
-Kim

My car has special needs...

Well, I don’t know when I’ll get around to posting this one, but I thought I’d start writing it now nonetheless. Today my dad and I began the adventure of trying to get Beegee up and running again. For those of you who don’t know, Beegee is my little blue car. A 1989 Pontiac GrandAm who has certainly seen better days.

So the first thing we did this afternoon was to take off the flat rear tire and put on the donut, with the idea that we would then drive to a gas station and put air in that one, as well as the front two which are a bit low. Unfortunately, Beegee wouldn’t start. So we tried to jump him from my dad’s little red station wagon. That didn’t work. Apparently we need the better cables, which are in the van. So we took the flat tire with us to run errands and got it filled up. I can only assume we’re going to put it back on before we try to jump the car again.

Now, I’m really hoping we can get Beegee to run again. It’ll make life a lot easier for us this summer if I’m not constantly borrowing Kevin’s car or the van to go to work and other places. Besides, Beegee is a good little car for the most part. He’s the only car we have with a CD player and I’m just plain used to driving him. Although, he does have his little quirks. For instance, the radio keeps playing after the engine has been shut off for about a minute, unless, of course, you nudge the wiper control. So if it’s raining and you forget to turn off the wipers, the radio stops right away. Then there’s the thing with the oil. I have never changed the oil. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s running on old oil. With Beegee, you just end up replacing the oil. I know that’s a bad thing, but I really don’t know what to do about it. We may take a look at that this summer too.

One thing that really makes Beegee mine (in spite of the fact that I don’t actually own him or pay for him) is one thing I’ve done to the interior. If you’ve ridden with me before you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a sticker on the inside of the windshield that reads: “Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.” It makes me smile every time I slide into the seat.

***

And the saga continues. It is now rather late at night, and my car still does not work. We took a break from the car to see Star Wars, and then ended up having dinner with Amanda and her parents. Then Amanda came over to help with my car. And I am proud to say that the two of us girls changed the tire back from the spare to the newly-inflated actual tire all by ourselves. Not that it did us any good in the long run.

So then we started trying to jump it again. Using the van, we got my car going and it seemed like we were in business. But before we could get the van out of the way to drive out of the driveway, my car died. So we jumped it again. And it died. So we jumped it again. And it died. Again. Then we got it running (if I kept my foot on the gas) and we were going to have me drive it around the neighborhood to get it warmed up or whatever, but it died when I put my foot on the break to shift gears. So then we tried again with my dad driving (just to prove that it wasn’t only my bad driving) and it died again. So we’ve given up for now. Apparently my little car has more issues than we thought it did.

So, let’s end this post on a happier note. After failing with the car, I set out for WalMart with Amanda and Kevin. While we were there we encountered Brandi, who I hadn’t seen for quite some time. Happiness ensues at the meeting of long-separated friends. :) At WalMart I randomly purchased the Phantom of the Opera on DVD and a spiffy Star Wars poster of Jedi. It features prominently Yoda and Obi Wan, my two favorites. It also has Wookies on it, which is cool but, they’re not Jedi, so it is a bit perplexing. But it’s too late at night for me to be using big words. So I think I’ll wrap this up and go to bed.

God bless.
-Kim

Still Searching...

Well, I had told myself that I wouldn’t post until I had a job, until I had something worth posting about. At this point, though, my lack of job is at least as interesting as having a job. So I guess I’ll just write a post anyway.

So here’s what’s happened: I stopped in at Dairy Queen the other day and they seemed encouraging about me being hired, so I stayed home Wednesday to wait for their call. What they offered me was a few evenings during the week and weekends. Now, that’s not the most appealing schedule, but after deliberation, I decided that I could make it work. So I called them back, but the manager was too busy to talk to me at that time. So I waited. And low and behold, I got a call from Hy-Vee. They want to interview me next Tuesday. A job at Hy-Vee would theoretically be much more regular and easier to deal with than Dairy Queen. So we’ll see how things work out. Please pray for God’s wisdom and provision in this situation.

And what else has been happening to Kim in the last few days? Well, I got a letter today that says I may be needed for jury duty later in the summer. In Sioux Falls at the federal court, no less. Hopefully they’ll decide they don’t want me after all, but I will do my duty if I must. Even my mom has never had to serve jury duty, and they send this letter to me, when I’ve been old enough to serve less than two years. Funny old world, ain’t it? ;)

And even though you probably don’t care, I’m going to keep all of you up to date on my summer reading habits. No, Dianna, I haven’t finished 1984 yet—I got a bit distracted. I am really close though. No, right now I’m reading a book that Suzy turned me on to: Captivating by John and Stasi Eldrige. I highly recommend it to any woman who wants to know more about what God intends her to be. I’m willing to loan out my copy, but you’ll have to get in line behind my mother. ;)

Tonight I went on a walk because I hadn’t been out of the house for nearly two days. Waiting for phone calls does that. So I went as far as I could on the bike path through the neighborhood and spent some talking to God. Out loud. Which is something I haven’t done very much (the out loud part). I really felt a connection, like I was actually having a real, personal conversation with the Creator of the Universe. There’s nothing quite like it.

Now, I know I’m being rather random tonight, but maybe one of you could help me with something. There’s a song, just the chorus really, that keeps coming back to me and I can’t seem to remember what it’s called or who wrote it. They play it at the Crossing:

“I wanna be romanced be the King of the Ages,
I don’t want to sing of a passion I’ve never known
I wanna get lost in the beauty of Jesus
And dance through the night, before Your throne.”

So, yeah, if you could help me with that one, that’d be great. I think that’s all for now. If I don’t post again before then, have a great Memorial Day weekend.

God bless.
-Kim

The awesome culmination of a great year

Okay, so I finally got back to Brookings Sunday night around 7:30 in the evening. I had quite an eventful weekend. ;)

Thursday evening we went to the new Star Wars movie. It was awesome! Because some people don’t like spoilers, and because I’m too lazy to spend too much time on this one subject, I won’t go into much detail. Let me just say that, in spite of some incredibly cheesy lines and questionable acting, I loved this movie. It got under my skin. The whole time, you know what’s going to happen, that Anakin is going to turn to the dark side. But at the same time, you want only the best things for these characters you’ve come to love. So I was torn--I wanted to change what was happening, but obviously there was nothing anyone could do. I will say this, parts of the movie made me cry. And I almost never cry, let alone at movies.

Moving on to Friday. Friday morning Jesse helped me move the rest of my stuff over to grandma’s house, where it would stay for a few days. Then I had my last final, in Intro to Christian Thought. I know Bender is supposed to be the hard teacher, but I like him a lot and this test was really easy. So easy, in fact, that I finished in 20 minutes and was the first to leave the classroom. I started singing as I walked down the Glidden fire escape, I was so happy to be done with all tests. Then I got to 409 pretty much my whole room so that I could check out. And since I no longer lived in GI, I spent the next two hours in the caf, hanging out with random different friends. Then, when Dianna was finally ready, we set out for Windom, MN for a party. At the party we played random games such as ping-pong and Frisbee, and then after dark we lit a fire. For further details, see Dianna’s blog. Then Jesse showed up with his Chevelle, pretty much the coolest car I have ever seen, and took us for a ride. (That reminds me, I wanted to get a picture of you by that car, Jesse. Maybe you could get something digital and e-mail it to me?) Yes, we went very fast. Yes, it was insanely fun. It was pretty much the highlight of my evening. Well, that and playing with the swords Casey’s family has hanging on their living room wall. Sting, Glamdring, Anduril, Excaliber, to name a few.

So, yeah, we came back to Sioux Falls Saturday morning. Dianna went home to unpack, and Jesse and I crashed at my grandma’s house. Before dinner we taught Jesse to play Mexican Train Dominoes, and he beat us soundly. I declare a rematch in the fall. ;) The weather was great, so after grandma took us to see the new sculpture walk downtown, Jesse and I went on a walk around the bike path and didn’t get back until about two hours later when it was starting to get dark. It was a lot of fun. We saw a deer lying down in a tiny grove, and we saw what we think was a fox, we saw a goose right up next to the trail, and we saw some ducks fly over us when we stood on a bridge over the river. And no, I did not get lost. I knew basically where we were the entire time. ;)

Now for Sunday. Grandma’s church’s men’s group was serving breakfast, so we went up there for that and stayed for church to hear grandma sing in the choir. In the afternoon it was USF graduation. I actually got paid for playing in the band for that, which I hadn’t known before. I will say this: I’m glad our school is relatively small. Even so, we had to play the march six or seven times before everyone was in their seats. Honestly, do they have to stop and talk to the faculty while we’re playing? Oh well, at least there were a few measures where the choir sang without the band so I could rest. My left arm is actually sore today from that. I suppose I’m just weak from being away from marching band. Anyways, after graduation we got to try to fit the rest of my stuff into our minivan, and it all actually fit, amazingly enough. And before we left town my mom wanted to visit Coldstone just to say she’d been there, so we all got ice cream.

I still have yet to unpack the vast majority of my stuff. That’s on the schedule for later today. In just a little bit I’m heading out to hit the pavement and find myself a summer job. Pray it goes well.

God bless.
-Kim

The Worst is Over Now

Well, it's midway through finals week, and I can breathe again. Since I banned myself from blogging for the past few days, I'll catch you up on what important or just plain interesting things have been happening.

Monday--Asaph's Cow, the college literary magazine came out. My short story was the first piece in the table of contents. That was fun. But even better, Dr. Hart, who was my communications professor last semester, wrote me an e-mail to say how much he liked it. That was cool of him. That afternoon I locked myself in my room to write a 5 page paper for LAR, which actually turned out pretty well. (Apparently Cole never getting back to me about it was a vote of confidence) Then after Cru a bunch of us played Mafia in the GI lounge. Yes, I love that game! I was Mafia twice in a row and totally killed everyone! (literally, yet not; If you've never played, you'll just have to be confused) then I was a townsperson and got bumped off pretty quickly, but it was still fun. I also took the time at one point to draw an invisible box on the marker board across from my door. ;)

Tuesday--Reading Day. Ah, the joys of no classes. I believe this was the first time I ever spent an hour in the caf at breakfast, thanks to Jesse and Erika and random conversation. It was fun. Then I attended the last chapel of the semester, kind of sad really. And guess what I spent the rest of the day doing? That's right, I conjugated 36 Spanish verbs in 11 tenses along with the command forms. Thankfully I was allowed a break when the USF faculty served us "Late Night Finals Breakfast" in the caf. It was really good.

Today--Spanish final at 10:30. It actually went pretty well, for which I am very grateful. One part I had trouble with was the preterite forms of "dar." Nothing I put looked right, so Dra. Duyos had to help me. Well, now I feel silly. The reason it didn't look right is because it's an irregular verb and it isn't supposed to look regular. Geesh. And I so knew that last night and even at breakfast this morning. Oh well. Dra. Duyos ended her time with us by saying how much she enjoyed having us in class and saying that we'd all be succesful at what we planned to do. She remembered that I'm a writer, which pleased me. For everyone else she had to ask what their plans were so she could tell them that they would succeed. Anyways. LAR went quickly: I handed in a paper, got a paper back and filled out a survey type thing on the class. Then we helped Dianna move a lot of her stuff home and stopped by Target so I could pick up my allergy meds. It would be bad to run out of those during finals, don't you think? This brings us up to now, when Dianna and I just got back from taking advantage of the sale at the bookstore.

Theoretically Suzy is moving home tonight. I'm gonna miss my roomie! It will also just be weird when she's gone. An entire half of the room will be completely bare. then it'll really feel like the year is ending. I know I'm already done with half of my classes, but this place still feels like home. This is where my "family" is, all of my good friends who I see every day. Not that I won't be glad to be home with my real family, I love my fambly :D (odd spelling intentional). It's just one of those things. But I think I'm done talking for now. We'll see if I can come up with anything good later.

God bless.
-Kim

Finals Week

Okay, real quick post today. This is finals week and things are gonna be pretty crazy. Everything really important I have will be done after Wednesday, so you won't hear from me again until after that. And please hold me to this. If I take the time to post a blog between now and then, you are free to smack me.

-Kim

Ah, who needs a title anyway?

Well, here I am again, recovering from another eventful day. Jesse brought me home yesterday along with most of my stuff from the dorm room so that we wouldn't have to deal with it later. It's amazing how much stuff can fit in that Caddy, though I really shouldn't be all that suprised. One thing I know, I do not want to bring that much stuff to school next year. No way. Anyways, Dianna came too so we spent the whole drive to Brookings with the three of us in the front seat, which was a little awkward but actually kind of fun. I think Jesse and Dianna would have to agree that the highlight of the trip was dinner with my family. And if any of you have ever been to Saturday night dinner with my family, you know exactly what I mean. Just sitting at the table talking about anything and everything and ending up in random bouts of laughter--what more could we ask for?

So, yeah, when we got back to campus it was time for the hoe-down. And yes, I wore my cowboy boots. ;) After all, I am a Midwest girl, so it's not much of a stretch to go country. It was actually a lot of fun. I learned a new line dance and they played a lot of good songs early on. Jesse was kind enough to dance with me, which will probably only give more strength to the rumor around campus that we're dating. Honestly, some people are obsessed with the idea. Anyways, it probably wan't a good idea to eat the food they had out because I got a stomach ache. It was weird though, just sharp pains in the left side just below my ribs. It's happened before, but it was worse this time. So Jesse took me outside for some fresh air and Dianna and I left the dance shortly thereafter. In spite of this, the hoe-down was still fun on the whole.

My room is really empty now. It almost feels like no one actually lives here. I think what makes most of the difference is that Suzy took the curtains down. We were the only ones with curtains, and now that they're gone I realize what a difference they made. Now it seems real that this place is only a temporary home, and we will be leaving in less than a week. It's kind of sad, because I like it here, but at the same time I'm really looking forward to going home for the summer.

In other news, I'm afraid I may be getting sick. Aside from the lingering weirdness in my stomach, my head feels sort of like it's floating and I can't seem to stay warm. Last night I had the blankets up over my head and was still cold. But, there's nothing to do but simply carry on. It's finals week and I must finish the semester well. Which reminds me, I should be doing homework instead of writing this post, so I'll go do that now.

God bless.
-Kim

So many boxes!

Okay, so I decided to take a break from packing to write a quick post. Honestly, I had no idea I had this much stuff. Of course, my dorm room does have a lot more storage space than one would think. At least, that's what I keep telling myself. Wanna hear something really weird? I have one box that's completely full of just shoes. And that's not even all of them. Honestly, I had no idea I was such a girl. ;) Anyways, the main point of this particular post is just to give me a chance to sit down for a minute and figure out whether I'm done packing yet or not. I think not quite yet. All I can really say is, loading the car tomorrow is going to be Interesting. Well, back to packing--I may write something else later and I might not.

God bless.
-Kim

Morning again?

Hmm, interesting things keep happening to me in the morning. Today my Art History class took a field trip to see St. Joseph's Cathedral. It was really cool. I almost wish I was Catholic, just so I could go to that church. Although, it wasn't quite what I was expecting. We've just been studying Gothic cathedrals in class, but this one is a mix of Romanesque and Italian Reniassance architecture. (For those of you who don't understand that last sentence, just smile and nod.) The stained glass and the intricate reliefs were the most beautiful parts of the church. There's also a pretty cool organ in the balcony. And here's the fun part. We were set loose to just wander about and look at the place, so guess what I did. After looking at the transept and the apse, I lay down in the center aisle (which is actually called the nave) to get a different perspective on the place. I think most of my classmates now think I'm weird, but they should have realized that before now. Also, we sat in the pews while our teacher explained the architecture to us, and I spotted a grate under my feet. Can you guess what that made me think of? Of course, Mouse coming up through the grate in the church in the movie last night. And let me just take this moment to say that Ladyhawke may be old, but it's still a good movie.

In other news, this is a day of last things. I believe this is the last Thursday chapel of the year, so I'll be heading there in just a few minutes. Today is also my last violin lesson of the semester. And this evening is my last band concert of the year. Everything is coming to a close. It kind of puts one in a reflectory mood, but I have time to reflect at the moment. I must now off to chapel.

God bless.
-Kim

An alarming morning

Well, some of you have already heard about this by now, but I figure it should be shared anyway. Kevin, at least will get a laugh out of it. I had a rather interesting morning which was actually far too short. That's the first problem, my alarm clock didn't go off. I woke up with time to get ready for class, but I didn't have time to go to the caf for breakfast, which made me sad. So I was getting ready for class when all of a sudden the fire alarm starts going off. And I just think to myself, "TECH-no! You have got to be kidding me." So all of us who were still in GI had to run outside. Unfortunately, it was raining, so we took refuge in the lower level of Jordan. Half the girls had been asleep when it went off and the rest of us were in various stages of readiness, so we were an interesting assortment of refugees. Now the funny part is that this guy came through on a tour visiting campus. So he came out of the office down there and was confronted by about 20 girls, most of them in pajamas. I wonder what he thinks of our school now? So, eventually they let us back in, but I was still late for Spanish. The good thing is that we never accomplish anything in the first few minutes of that class, so it really wasn't a big deal. But it certainly made this morning interesting.

-Kim

A prank-filled night

Well, I have now participated in my first official college prank. It didn't exactly work out the way I had planned. It's kind of a long story as to how the idea first came to me but it involved Jesse wondering whether a horse would fit in the CB elevator. So we got a picture of a horse, brought it up the elevator and stuck it on his door. Then we put ducktape over the doorway kind of haphazzardly. Now, we had asked Adam to help us in this by getting Jesse out of the dorm. Note to self: don't trust Adam when pranking. He got Jesse and the two of them pranked us while we were pranking him. And they were serious. It was a solid wall of ducktape from the floor to about eye-level. They would have gone to the ceiling if we hadn't come back so soon. And yes, I am keeping the horse and the Darth Vader mask.

Speaking of Darth Vader, apparently Sarah is absolutely terrified of him. Something about being traumatized by the movie at age two. So, Dianna was wearing the mask and we decide to scare Sarah, not knowing how freaked out she would get. Now, Dianna does a pretty sorry impression of Vader's breathing and she was wearing a bright yellow shirt, but Sarah freaked nonetheless. I actually felt bad that she was brought to the point of tears, but at the same time it was hilarious. I never thought that anyone could be terrified of Darth Vader. I mean, come on, it's Vader.

Anyways, there were a bunch of guys outside GI with water balloons and giant slingshots going after Mindy, but half the time the balloons blew up in their faces. It was kind of funny to watch. And of course, on third floor I was fairly safe because they couldn't aim properly.

So all-in-all it's been a rather interesting night. I suppose it's related to the fast approaching end of the semester. We shall see what other madness ensues before we all leave for the summer.

God bless.
-Kim

Sarah Chang rocks my socks off

Well, today was a lot of fun. My family all went to the South Dakota Symphony concert. It so rocked! And yes I am a huge dork, but we already knew that. During the first half of the concert there was a guest soloist, Sarah Chang. She is so totally awesome! She's been playing since she was four years old. And she played all three movements plus encore without music. And the way she played! She was way into her music and moved with it. But she moved so fast! It was insane. It was like someone had filmed her and sped up the tape. But no, that's just how fast she is. I so wish I could play like her. During intermission I bought one of her CD's and she signed it. Woot! Then in the second half of the concert they played Pictures at an Exhibition and invited area artists to set up in the wings and paint while they played. My mom was one of them and she had a blast doing it. She painted eggs and baby chicks for the movement Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks. She also paited the orchestra itself during rehearsal including my old teacher Dr. Brawand. So on the whole, the concert was truly awesome.

And now for the theoretically profound part of the post. As I watched the concert and listened to the awesome sounds I was filled with a sort of sadness. It's been a year now since I've played in a real orchestra. I miss it. When you play in an orchestra, a good orchestra, you are driven to become better. When you are off by yourself you tend to level off. I think that part of the problem is that there is no tangible goal to work toward. With an orchestra, there's always another concert coming up. You get your music, you rehearse as a group, you work on things on your own--all the while looking toward the culmination of these things in a spectacular musical performance. Well, best case scenario. The point is, that alone it's hard to grow and progress. Working closely with a teacher helps, of course, but in my personal experience I've always improved the most when presented with a challenge in a group setting. It strikes me as being like the Christian life. It can't be done properly alone. A Christian without fellowship is like a violinist without an orchestra. "As iron sharpens iron," and all that. When they play together, musicians get better; when they pray together, Christians are encouraged and strengthened to do what they must. It seems pretty basic to me. And a Christian who isn't serving is like a violinist who isn't performing. I mean, what's the point? These endeavors are not to be undertaken selfishly. The point of making music is to share it with others, and the point of living in this world as a Christian is the same: to share it with others. I think some of us (me included) are just too used to it. We have forgotten that not everyone is a Christian, that not everyone has the same peace we have. Again, I will compare this to my violin. Something struck me recently about playing the violin: not everyone can play the violin. I know, very profound. ;) But there is a point here. I always thought it rather amusing when people (especially guys for some reason) got excited when they heard I played the violin. I always think to myself, yeah, it's no big deal I've always played the violin, there's nothing special about playing the violin. It was just one of my attributes: I have brown hair, I need glasses, and I play the violin. Wait, the first two I don't have a choice about, the last one I definitely have had to be proactive about. And it's the same with Christianity. When we've been saved long enough, we're tempted to forget that we ever weren't. To think that being Christian is just something we have, like our hair color. But it's not. It's a gift and a mission. We should not forget that.

Okay, now that I've alienated or confused everyone who reads this, I'll wrap things up for the night.

God bless.
-Kim

A rash of rude erasures

How on earth is it Friday already? It feels like this week has barely begun. Oh well, time moves ever forward whether we want it to or not.

The has been a rash of rude erasures on 3rd floor GI. There is a big whiteboard by the waterfountain, right across from my room in fact. The messages that appear on it are generally rather random and often get left up for weeks because nobody bothers to erase the board. But not anymore. On Sunday Dianna was bored and wrote on the board an essay response to the question, "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" It covered the entire board. To read this essay, look in the archives of her blog. Anyway, before it had been up even 24 hours, someone defaced it. No, they didn't erase it and put up something else in it's place. I would be able to respect something like that. No, instead someone wiped off random bits so that the essay was still present but unreadable. Now, I realize that most of the other girls didn't want to take the time to read the essay and appreciate it's quirkiness, but did that mean that they should deface it? It happened again yesterday. I had put up a note about what time the Kentucky Derby would be on Saturday, just on the off-chance that someone else cared. And now it looks as though someone ran their fingers through it. Does no one have respect anymore?

Anyway, I guess I'll get off my soapbox now. Because my head hurts.

God bless.

-Kim

Breakfast in the dark

Well, that was interesting. I just got back from the caf and I thought I should take a moment to share this with you before I even brush my teeth. Apparently this morning a squirrel got into an electrical box and blew the power to the caf. Dianna actually saw the explosion of light. Now me, I didn't know anything had happened until I got to the caf and the whole place was dark. They were still serving breakfast, but nothing was hot and all you could drink was milk because the other drink machines wouldn't run. So we all enjoyed a breakfast of cereal in the dark. And when there were only about 7 minutes left of hot breakfast, power was restored. Go figure.

-Kim

Hay nubes entre mi corazon y mi cerebro

Suzy went home last night and took about half her stuff with her. So right now the room feels rather big and empty. But that's not the subject of this post. While she was packing things up whe stumbled across Chris' heart pillow in the back of her closet where we hid it after I broke up with him. I think I need to give it back to him. I always meant to do that, but that would have involved talking to him, something I wasn't prepared to do. But now I think I have to before we go our separate ways for the summer. Things cannot go back to exactly the way they were before we started dating, but I think we can be friends again. One issue though, is that I have been slowly changing throughout the course of this school year. I am not the same person I was in the fall. (even my Spanish teacher, Doctora Duyos, noticed this and commented on it) I'm not sure if even I can articulate and explain just what those changes were, but they were significant enough to alter, or perhaps release, my personality. Actually, I think that is the right word for it. Release. All my life I've been hiding parts of myself. You can read in my first blog entry about one aspect of myself that has changed in the recent past. I've even been randomly singing, if you'll believe it. In the shower, on the quad, everywhere--with no fear of being heard. I shall have to delve further into this topic some time when I've had more time to study the issue. After all, that's not what I began this post to discuss. I'm tired of feeling awkward around Chris. Now, the simplest way to avoid this would be to avoid him, but that's not a real option, nor would it be emotionally healthy. I will be seeing Chris a lot at school, especially since he is going to be living with Jesse. Now, Jesse, I hope you're not embarassed by this, but in the last few months or so you've become a sort of big brother figure to me. So your friendship is very important to me and I am thrilled to help you whenever you need it. Once you meet Kevin you'll know how big of a compliment that is. Anyway, I think I've gotten off track again. This all may make very little sense, but it is what it is. And suddenly exhaustion has hit me like a brick wall. And yes, I do realize that that is an awkward metaphor to say the least.

May God grant wisdom to us all.

-Kim

Appology

To all of my faithful readers, I would like to appologize for the last post. I realize it was completely random and far too long. Just because I have left the realm of sanity far behind does not mean that I need to drag you with me.

Of course, in no way does this mean that I will never write a spazzy post again. Being spazzy inhibits inhibitions and makes me liable to type just about anything.

So this appology applies to all future posts as well. If I go too far into the realm of modnar, well, you've been warned.

Spazzy Happy and Tired

Hello all. Just a warning: Kim is tired and therefore may not make much sense tonight. But then, when has Kim ever really made all that much sense? So this should be nothing new and no surprise. And probably rather repetetively redundant.

So today was a really good day. The sun was shining and it was warm enough to go without a coat. And I had energy today. Probably because I actually made myself get up and work out this morning, which I haven't been doing for a while. It's amazing how much better that makes me feel. Though I had sort of hoped it would make my legs stop hurting and they still hurt. My calves have been in pain since after formal and I had trouble with stairs. Though basically I'm better now and shouldn't ramble on about it so.

Anyway, I was really bouncy all day. (yes, even in spite of a deathly boring LAR class and band rehearsal with a stressed Doc.) And I think the bouncy happiness led to a temporary case of ADD which is currently still with me. :D

And now for: The Adventures of Dianna and Kim!!! ;)

Today's adventure begins as Dianna discovers she is in desperate need of food. What can save her from this plight? Only a trip to WalMart. Naturally, Kim wants to go to and can think of several things whe would like to pick up for herself.
So they decide to go. But how will they get there? Neither girl has a car and it is too far to walk. Thankfully the day is saved by Jesse, who allows the girls to borrow his Caddy. Score!
(Now for the adventure part)
This is Kim's first time driving on 41st St. So naturally she is a bit paranoid and has declared a suspension on the slug-bug game so as not to be distracted. But fortunately, she is getting used to the size of the Caddy and can handle it fairly well now. Though she does still talk to herself as she drives, which causes much laughter to erupt from Dianna.
At WalMart the girls engage in a fruitless search for Doritos and return with differnt supplies instead. Getting back into the car, the door handle decides to bite Kim's finger, which is still tender several hours later. And she had begun to think that the car actually liked her. Apparently not. Perhaps it is because she still has issues parking it.
Back on campus it takes 3 tries to get the car within the lines of the parking space. However, Dianna, having spotted Josiah, becomes impatient and leaps out of the moving vehicle while Kim is still attempting to park it. Silly Dianna. What's next, leaping from a boat before it comes in to the dock? Or perhaps jumping from an airplane before it has landed? Find out on the next installment of The Adventures of Dianna and Kim! ;)

Well, I told you I was spazzy and tired. It's your own fault for actually reading it. So, is this enough for one night? I didn't think so. 'Cause i just keep going and going and going and going and going and going...Well, the Energizer Bunny I ain't. Bunny? That makes me think of something silly...Ridiculous Captain Rabbit King, Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets are for the youth! (be afraid, be very afraid...)

I feel like just rambling tonight, even though I really should be getting ready for bed now. But I have very little to do tomorrow, so I think I can get away with it. Besides, I've had too much sugar and wouldn't be able to sleep properly right now anyway.

The Kentucky Derby is this Saturday. Post time is at 5:04 (yes, PM) for anyone who cares. I'm excited to watch it. I've always liked horse racing, even though I never watched it much. Probably because it's not shown on standard chanels. But I've read about horses and horse racing practically forever. The books being The Black Stallion series and the Thoroughbred series. (which, by the way, has a main character named Ashleigh, which made me want to spell my name Kymberleigh for a while. it was a phase) So with all of that reading to whet my imagination, the prospect of seeing the real thing again practically makes me drool. ;) I won't post a comment on who I think will win, though when I've had more time to look at the field, you might get an answer out of me in person.

I wish I had more time to practice my violin. Actually, I should make more time to practice my violin. Everything in life is a choice. Although, sometimes there is only one right choice, such as in the matter of whether or not to do my homework. What I actually want to do right now is learn how to fiddle properly. And I know this seems completely random, but because of Jesse I've been listening to Barrage all night and now I can't get the fiddles out of my head. Darn that Old Joe Clark!

I suppose that's enough rambling for tonight. In fact, I doubt if anyone will bother to read al the way through to this sentence, there's a lot of stuff to get through that really has no bearing on anything. It's all just a product of my spazzy happy tired mind. And yes, I'm basically just making this up as I go along. Life is just more fun that way. ;)

God bless.
-Kim

The Joys of Ice Cream

Today has been a good day thus far. After chapel Mary randomly asked me to have lunch with her, so I did. We went to Uno Tomato. (They give USF students a 10% discount there. Did you know that? I didn't.) We had a lot of fun just hanging out and talking about random things. Well, not so random, a lot of it related to band and music-ness in general. But it was fun because Mary is an awesome person. Then on the way back to campus she treated me to ice cream at the Dairy Queen drive-thru. So all in all I had a good time.

Well, the sun is shining and the air smells sweet, so I think I'm going to go spend some time outside lying on the grass. But before I go I'll leave you with an Irish blessing that appeared on today's page of my daily calendar:

May the sun always shine on your windowpane; may a rainbow be certain to follow each rain. May the hand of a friend always be near you; may god fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

And yes, that applies to you even if you're not Irish. ;)

God bless.
-Kim

Modnar

Hello all. I'm tired and my head is fuzzy, so this may or may not make any sense. Actually, parts of it should make sense, but when viewed as a whole it may seem completely random. Oh well.

I have no opinions. Well, now that I've got your attention I should probably ammend that statement. I know I have opinions, but usually I don't know what they are until I am presented with a specific situation. Like during discussions in LAR, I know easily whether I agree or disagree with whatever is being said, but often I can't find the words to express it until the opportune moment has passed. Actually, that happens to me a lot, both in and out of class. That's why I like writing. You have as much time as you need to find the right words. Maybe it's just that I'm afraid to share my opinion. I'm afraid that I will be ridiculed and rejected if I say the wrong thing. Which is, of course, a foolish notion. I shouldn't say things for acceptance, I should say things because I believe them to be right and true. Even so, I'm having trouble coming up with a topic for my LAR ethical argument paper. Grr.

I watched Secret Window yesterday. I was afraid that, as a writer, it might freak me out. Not so much. But here's a mission for all of you. Don't ever let me become a recluse. I talk to myself and inanimate objects enough as it is. Just watch, someday I'll go off to a cabin in the mountains to do some writing and they'll find me crouched in a corner muttering about beavers and ducks. ;)

Actually, I feel a bit like a recluse right now. I've been hiding in my room to theoretically accomplish things. Instead I've done quite a bit of random thinking, a bit of journaling, and now I'm writing a post for my blog. Incredibly productive, aren't I? Oh well. The point I think I was trying to make was that I can manage to make myself feel isolated in as crowded a place as a college dorm. I think part of my problem is that I feel like I don't even have a roommate anymore. Suzy is gone pretty much all day and when she gets back it's late enough that I'm going to bed. So the only time we're both here is when I'm alseep. So often times I have the room to myself, which allows for the playing of loud music and also solitude. Now, solitude is the good side of lonliness. Solitude is a good thing until a certain point. That point is generally when I start staring at nothing and begin contemplating the complexities of stale muffins and suchlike. The lack of social interaction makes me a bit stircrazy. Though if I could actually use this time to get homework done or work on my story, it would be a good thing. But somehow that seems to not happen so much right now. Mayhaps it is the dreaded spring fever. If that is the case I should be alright by the end of May. Unfortunately, I need to concentrate right now to get myself to the end of May.

So, what have we learned from this? Kim is weird. But we already knew that. so now you just have more specifics, which may or may not be a good thing. Oh well. best wishes to the whole crew (crew = enough people to row a small boat--darn, that one was funnier earlier. Dianna even called me witty for it)

God bless.
-Kim