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Ooh, purty!
Jul. 18th, 2004 07:56 amHee, living in this apartment definitely has it's ups. I now live on a beautifull tree-lined street, and when the sun peeks up (which I get to see every morning since I'm off to school by 7-figgin-30-AM!) the light filters through the trees and everything is so surprisingly peaceful.
... And then you have apartment mates that hold noisy sleepovers without consulting the rest of us. And who seem to have an aversion to cleaning the plates that they use. >___<
Other than that, I'm actually pretty content here. As stated before, Esther is a kind and courteous room-mate. She's also hardly home, so I really do get lots of time to myself. And when she is, I'm usually studying, and she's always nice enough to shut the door and stuff. I wish I didn't have to spend so much of my time studying (apparently, it's quite shocking to my room-mates-- all except for Brittney, who's in the other bedroom, who studies as much as me-- because we're both Bio majors) but, eh. It's what I'm here for. And I really do enjoy it.
There's so many new things I'm experiencing. I'm really getting the social dorm-experience that I never got on-campus. For instance, my good friend and ex-small-group leader, Lisa, just drops by and chats with me. I get to cook for the guys upstairs and chat with them about all kinds of Godly things. I can run down one flight of stairs and across the hall to study with a friend, instead of hiking a mile up and down hills. And when we had a little parking situation (too many cars, not enough spaces, as a result of Esther staying longer than planned), a quick cry for help on the GraceVine (GOC bulletin board) got me a spot in a building a half-block away. It's so neat, the people at GOC. I honestly never knew that this is what it would be like when I started attending a regular fellowship. I'm probably missing out a lot by not going to Big-Church with them, but I'll be silly and stubborn and go one baby-step at a time. Big traditional churches (like Grace Community Church) still kinda make me uneasy. It's interesting. At Reality I had the best Pastor I've ever seen, but no fellowship (all the kids my age were kind of cliquey-- not intentionally so, but it was just hard for me to get to know people, especially since I wasn't around all the time); at Grace, the Pastor is nice but just not to my liking, but the fellowship is phenomenal! I wonder what it'll be like when I find a church that has both!
Mmm... Lessee, what else. Oh. Dad starts at San Onofre on August 16th. He's really excited, and even though the rest of the family has very mixed emotions about leaving AG, we're behind him 100%. He's worked so hard and sacrificed so much for the past 20 years (I just about cried when he sold his scuba diving stuff recently-- it made me so sad to think of how much he had given up, but he was at peace with it), we all strongly believed it was our turn to help support him. And this move really is a blessing in several ways-- Mom 'n Dad will be much closer to Brea, and I anticipate she's going to have a harder time leaving home for college than she thinks. She was already getting kind of nervous about it. She's such a funny girl-- she's completely mature, independent, and just completely amazing in some aspects, and then completely dependent in others (and I don't just mean cooking and cleaning. ;) ). I'm so excited to see how she'll grow over the next few years. Oh, but, right-- the move. So, yeah-- Mom 'n Dad will only be an hour away from her, and about an hour and fifteen minutes away from me. I can go home a lot more frequently, which will be nice-- especially if I end up going to gradschool out of state. And another thing-- so many changes are happening back home, community-wise, that I'm almost glad we're moving. It hurts to see how much developement is running rampant. It'd be one thing if they were adding things that we needed-- but they're building duplicates, and stupid chain-things! We don't really need a Panda Express or another Starbucks-- we have plenty of Mom'n'Pop chinese food restaurants which are *way* better, and we have too many coffee places as is. We *really* don't need another bank or Rite-aid-- especially within a half-mile, on the same street, as others of the same brand! Aiyah. And then they're putting stoplights on every single intersection on Grand in Grover Beach. Grand is a quick straight-shoot that connects from the very easternmost part of AG to the beach.. People take it to get from one place to another, quickly! If you add all the stoplights people are going to stop taking Grand-- and instead of shopping more (which is, I'm assuming, the goal), no one's going to take Grand at all, and all the shops will go belly up! Aiyah. So, yeah... Maybe moving before they destroy my precious home is a good thing. ;p
Oh! Had an excellent time with Erin and Lan yesterday. Even though I showed up hellaciously early (sorry sorry!!!). I left aroun 9-ish, but traffic was so light-- before I knew it, I was there! Beautifull day, though. Got to about mid-90's, which made me very glad that we had Air-conditioning wherever we went. So, yeah. Got there, played with Bean (Rosemary didn't come out of the bedroom until after noon), admired their birdcage and their apartment as a whole, and promptly had ice-cream for breakfast while Erin and Lan introduced me to Animal Crossing. Then we hopped in the car to run some errands, listen to NPR (a first for me), and went and visited Omar's, or what I'd like to call, 'A Bird-Person's Dungeon of Financial Doooooooooooooooooooooom.' Very beautifull birds there, though. Never saw so many under one roof-- and what surprised me the most was they had a little hand-sanitizing station, and once you sanitized your hands, you could go play with any one you wanted! And people were doing just that! (Although this one woman [well, more like a girl-- prolly close to my age] just did *not* listen to the Macaws when they let her know they did *not* want to be played with. She got pinched [bit, without breaking skin] by both of them.) Erin went straight to the African Grey, while I was happy watching a beautiful female Eclectus. Erin of course played with her, picked her up-- she was the sweetest, most laid-back bird I'd ever seen! She liked to nibble fingers (I think she had a hand-sanitizer addiction), and was just a joy to watch. Erin actually walked her over to the counter to ask if she'd keep her striking plumage (it was quite unusual), and whether or not they accepted down payments. ;) I didn't pick up any birds, nor did I pet any. I'm just not familiar with any of them (except cockatiels, and most of them were sleeping), and I didn't trust myself to be calm if they started nipping me. I certainly didn't want to cause a scene like the other girl with the Macaws. The kids in the store were amazing, though. They had such a fearless, gentle nature. They knew exactly what to do, and they treated all the birds with respect. I'd never seen such behaviour in a pet store! Erin and I talked about it a little bit on the way back to the car (I resisted the Wall o' Toys, but I might go back and pick up a few things, if the chance comes up. :3 ), and we both agreed kids raised with birds tend to have that kind of sensibility and sensitivity. I think it also has to do with the fact that bird-people parents are good role-models for kids. I don't know if I'll ever get a large parrot (don't think I'm up to the challenge, although I'd love to play Auntie Kris to Erin's bird when she gets it ;D ), I hope I can have that calm demeanor with any other animal companions I pick up. The easy relationship between Erin and her cats, for instance, is something I'd like to develop when I get my own. Mom was always good with animals, but she was never overly enthusiastic about it, and Dad has his own reserved way of taking care of animals. (He really doesn't like our dog, Tasha, because she's so dumb-- but when he gives her baths he's always so gentle, and he really wouldn't hurt any pet.) I'm excited to raise an animal by myself-- Deke and Kona (but mostly Deke) I had that chance with, but because I'm so far away from them now, they're really more like Mom 'n Dad's birds. (Kona loves Mom, and Dad and Deke are so cute. n_____n )
Lessee.. Oh, after Omar's Erin and Lan took me to Tea Station (they refused to take my money, so I slipped them some in the bird bag.. Muwahahahah! You can put it towards your bird-fund, Erin!), which was awesome. I ended up getting a Pinneaple Jelly tea (which had really excellent Boba), while Erin and Lan got a Coconut Milk hot tea, and shared a honeydew slushy thing. We had this really wierd edamame (my first time having it-- not too bad), milk toast and a strawberry milk shaved ice thing. Just really fun!
After that we headed back.. Erin had gotten a call while we were out about a store having the wedding dress she wanted to try on. We were going to go see it, but the store closed too early. ;p However, Erin's making plans to steal me to head out to Glendale and see her try it on. Squeeeee! And I think we have plans for me to accompany Erin and Lan apartment hunting Tues. afternoon. I'll have to make sure all my homework's done beforehand! But, anyway, Erin showed me nethack (which is beyond me, but fun to see how excited they get about it), Lan helped me with some annoying computer problems, and I played with the cat toy. Muwahahah! Then we started dinner (I made the meatballs), and proceeded to play with Brenn's mind-- half of the conversation was Erin talking, and half was me impersonating Erin! Muwahahah! I dunno if she switched and tried to impersonate me after I left... But, yes-- dinner was excellent as always, and I got to watch the first episode of CardCaptor Sakura. Clamp = preeeeeeetty. Oh, that reminds me-- I have to burn Inuyasha and Fruits Basket for them.
Ugh.. Okay, spent a good half-hour on this. Think I'll go head to the grocery store, and then settle down to work. Gah, and this stupid crick in my neck/neck-ache just won't go away. Anyone have suggestions? (Bren, thanks for the Icy-hot idea.)
... And then you have apartment mates that hold noisy sleepovers without consulting the rest of us. And who seem to have an aversion to cleaning the plates that they use. >___<
Other than that, I'm actually pretty content here. As stated before, Esther is a kind and courteous room-mate. She's also hardly home, so I really do get lots of time to myself. And when she is, I'm usually studying, and she's always nice enough to shut the door and stuff. I wish I didn't have to spend so much of my time studying (apparently, it's quite shocking to my room-mates-- all except for Brittney, who's in the other bedroom, who studies as much as me-- because we're both Bio majors) but, eh. It's what I'm here for. And I really do enjoy it.
There's so many new things I'm experiencing. I'm really getting the social dorm-experience that I never got on-campus. For instance, my good friend and ex-small-group leader, Lisa, just drops by and chats with me. I get to cook for the guys upstairs and chat with them about all kinds of Godly things. I can run down one flight of stairs and across the hall to study with a friend, instead of hiking a mile up and down hills. And when we had a little parking situation (too many cars, not enough spaces, as a result of Esther staying longer than planned), a quick cry for help on the GraceVine (GOC bulletin board) got me a spot in a building a half-block away. It's so neat, the people at GOC. I honestly never knew that this is what it would be like when I started attending a regular fellowship. I'm probably missing out a lot by not going to Big-Church with them, but I'll be silly and stubborn and go one baby-step at a time. Big traditional churches (like Grace Community Church) still kinda make me uneasy. It's interesting. At Reality I had the best Pastor I've ever seen, but no fellowship (all the kids my age were kind of cliquey-- not intentionally so, but it was just hard for me to get to know people, especially since I wasn't around all the time); at Grace, the Pastor is nice but just not to my liking, but the fellowship is phenomenal! I wonder what it'll be like when I find a church that has both!
Mmm... Lessee, what else. Oh. Dad starts at San Onofre on August 16th. He's really excited, and even though the rest of the family has very mixed emotions about leaving AG, we're behind him 100%. He's worked so hard and sacrificed so much for the past 20 years (I just about cried when he sold his scuba diving stuff recently-- it made me so sad to think of how much he had given up, but he was at peace with it), we all strongly believed it was our turn to help support him. And this move really is a blessing in several ways-- Mom 'n Dad will be much closer to Brea, and I anticipate she's going to have a harder time leaving home for college than she thinks. She was already getting kind of nervous about it. She's such a funny girl-- she's completely mature, independent, and just completely amazing in some aspects, and then completely dependent in others (and I don't just mean cooking and cleaning. ;) ). I'm so excited to see how she'll grow over the next few years. Oh, but, right-- the move. So, yeah-- Mom 'n Dad will only be an hour away from her, and about an hour and fifteen minutes away from me. I can go home a lot more frequently, which will be nice-- especially if I end up going to gradschool out of state. And another thing-- so many changes are happening back home, community-wise, that I'm almost glad we're moving. It hurts to see how much developement is running rampant. It'd be one thing if they were adding things that we needed-- but they're building duplicates, and stupid chain-things! We don't really need a Panda Express or another Starbucks-- we have plenty of Mom'n'Pop chinese food restaurants which are *way* better, and we have too many coffee places as is. We *really* don't need another bank or Rite-aid-- especially within a half-mile, on the same street, as others of the same brand! Aiyah. And then they're putting stoplights on every single intersection on Grand in Grover Beach. Grand is a quick straight-shoot that connects from the very easternmost part of AG to the beach.. People take it to get from one place to another, quickly! If you add all the stoplights people are going to stop taking Grand-- and instead of shopping more (which is, I'm assuming, the goal), no one's going to take Grand at all, and all the shops will go belly up! Aiyah. So, yeah... Maybe moving before they destroy my precious home is a good thing. ;p
Oh! Had an excellent time with Erin and Lan yesterday. Even though I showed up hellaciously early (sorry sorry!!!). I left aroun 9-ish, but traffic was so light-- before I knew it, I was there! Beautifull day, though. Got to about mid-90's, which made me very glad that we had Air-conditioning wherever we went. So, yeah. Got there, played with Bean (Rosemary didn't come out of the bedroom until after noon), admired their birdcage and their apartment as a whole, and promptly had ice-cream for breakfast while Erin and Lan introduced me to Animal Crossing. Then we hopped in the car to run some errands, listen to NPR (a first for me), and went and visited Omar's, or what I'd like to call, 'A Bird-Person's Dungeon of Financial Doooooooooooooooooooooom.' Very beautifull birds there, though. Never saw so many under one roof-- and what surprised me the most was they had a little hand-sanitizing station, and once you sanitized your hands, you could go play with any one you wanted! And people were doing just that! (Although this one woman [well, more like a girl-- prolly close to my age] just did *not* listen to the Macaws when they let her know they did *not* want to be played with. She got pinched [bit, without breaking skin] by both of them.) Erin went straight to the African Grey, while I was happy watching a beautiful female Eclectus. Erin of course played with her, picked her up-- she was the sweetest, most laid-back bird I'd ever seen! She liked to nibble fingers (I think she had a hand-sanitizer addiction), and was just a joy to watch. Erin actually walked her over to the counter to ask if she'd keep her striking plumage (it was quite unusual), and whether or not they accepted down payments. ;) I didn't pick up any birds, nor did I pet any. I'm just not familiar with any of them (except cockatiels, and most of them were sleeping), and I didn't trust myself to be calm if they started nipping me. I certainly didn't want to cause a scene like the other girl with the Macaws. The kids in the store were amazing, though. They had such a fearless, gentle nature. They knew exactly what to do, and they treated all the birds with respect. I'd never seen such behaviour in a pet store! Erin and I talked about it a little bit on the way back to the car (I resisted the Wall o' Toys, but I might go back and pick up a few things, if the chance comes up. :3 ), and we both agreed kids raised with birds tend to have that kind of sensibility and sensitivity. I think it also has to do with the fact that bird-people parents are good role-models for kids. I don't know if I'll ever get a large parrot (don't think I'm up to the challenge, although I'd love to play Auntie Kris to Erin's bird when she gets it ;D ), I hope I can have that calm demeanor with any other animal companions I pick up. The easy relationship between Erin and her cats, for instance, is something I'd like to develop when I get my own. Mom was always good with animals, but she was never overly enthusiastic about it, and Dad has his own reserved way of taking care of animals. (He really doesn't like our dog, Tasha, because she's so dumb-- but when he gives her baths he's always so gentle, and he really wouldn't hurt any pet.) I'm excited to raise an animal by myself-- Deke and Kona (but mostly Deke) I had that chance with, but because I'm so far away from them now, they're really more like Mom 'n Dad's birds. (Kona loves Mom, and Dad and Deke are so cute. n_____n )
Lessee.. Oh, after Omar's Erin and Lan took me to Tea Station (they refused to take my money, so I slipped them some in the bird bag.. Muwahahahah! You can put it towards your bird-fund, Erin!), which was awesome. I ended up getting a Pinneaple Jelly tea (which had really excellent Boba), while Erin and Lan got a Coconut Milk hot tea, and shared a honeydew slushy thing. We had this really wierd edamame (my first time having it-- not too bad), milk toast and a strawberry milk shaved ice thing. Just really fun!
After that we headed back.. Erin had gotten a call while we were out about a store having the wedding dress she wanted to try on. We were going to go see it, but the store closed too early. ;p However, Erin's making plans to steal me to head out to Glendale and see her try it on. Squeeeee! And I think we have plans for me to accompany Erin and Lan apartment hunting Tues. afternoon. I'll have to make sure all my homework's done beforehand! But, anyway, Erin showed me nethack (which is beyond me, but fun to see how excited they get about it), Lan helped me with some annoying computer problems, and I played with the cat toy. Muwahahah! Then we started dinner (I made the meatballs), and proceeded to play with Brenn's mind-- half of the conversation was Erin talking, and half was me impersonating Erin! Muwahahah! I dunno if she switched and tried to impersonate me after I left... But, yes-- dinner was excellent as always, and I got to watch the first episode of CardCaptor Sakura. Clamp = preeeeeeetty. Oh, that reminds me-- I have to burn Inuyasha and Fruits Basket for them.
Ugh.. Okay, spent a good half-hour on this. Think I'll go head to the grocery store, and then settle down to work. Gah, and this stupid crick in my neck/neck-ache just won't go away. Anyone have suggestions? (Bren, thanks for the Icy-hot idea.)
