Confessions of a Drama Queen

2010-01-18T00:04:00.000-08:00

The Canadian figure skating judging system is in major need of less Paulas and more Simons. For realz.

First, the U.S. mens' final today was very edge of your seat, nail biting worthy and exciting! Though he did not make the Olympic team like I had hoped, Ryan Bradley did a wonderful job on his LP today. I was so proud of him! He really took the mistakes he made in his short and used them to fuel a spectacular performance. Unfortunately, his SP did cost him, but it sure was close between him and Johnny Weir. Only 7 points. Is it terrible that I was sitting there hoping and praying that Ryan would manage to edge Johnny out of third? Had it only been based on the LP, he would've gotten silver. Ryan truly was the second best skater of the day.

The 'best' label, however, goes to Jeremy Abbott hands down. Wow....and...wow. He basically blew everyone out of the water today. A near flawless program. In fact, I didn't notice a single mistake. Of course, I'm not a figure skater, so maybe I'm not knowledgeable enough to have spotted them. If there were any, they were very minimal. Jeremy ended up finishing 25 points ahead of silver medalist, Evan Lysacek. Again, wow. While Ryan is my all-time favorite male skater, I wound up spending most of my time watching Jeremy's routine with my mouth hanging open. Ryan still owns on the entertainment and audience interaction factors though. I would love to see him skate live some day! And Jeremy too!

And our Olympic team is gonna be, as expected, Abbott, Lysacek and Weir. No shake ups :-(

So, I always wind up with some sort of drama or frustration issues after these kind of things. This time around I found myself fairly content, but slightly disappointed about Ryan, knowing that we do have three strong skaters who made it on the podium and will in turn be going on to compete in February. Johnny and Evan have a little work to do on their LPs before Vancouver. Though today may have just been a result of the pre-Olympic jitters and a fluke. It happens.

Anyway, the drama didn't come until after watching the mens' final at the Canadian Nationals. They have a couple of pretty good guys up there. Not quite at the level of our American men, except for Patrick Chan that is. He's "above" the level of our guys. After his LP, he received a higher score than Jeremy's skate. The commentators at the U.S. mens' final today were talking about how Jeremy had edged into the amazing category with his cumulative score of 263. So then, Patrick's score of 268 should indicate that he managed to out-skate Jeremy, right?

Wrong. Okay, let me state that I really do like Patrick Chan and I think that he's a great skater. I enjoy watching him and hope for the best for him at the Olympics. But there is NO way that he skated better than Jeremy today. I'm aware that it was different countries and different judges, so you're gonna end up with different opinions. I am starting to wonder if we need a universal figure skating judging boot camp before the games in February. I can't seem to remember either Jeremy or Patrick's exact scores on their LPs. After a little calculating of what I recall their SP scores being (Patrick - 90, Jeremy - 87), Patrick must've gotten roughly 2 points higher than Jeremy received on his LP. Patrick had no quads in his program, Jeremy had one and landed it nicely. Patrick made a few noticeable mistakes (even I spotted them) and as previously mentioned, I didn't see any in Jeremy's skate. How does that work out?

Yes, I know they weren't judged by the same people. It sure would be curious to see how each of them would have fared had they swapped countries for the day. Man, Jeremy's scores might've been off the charts if he had skated in Canada tonight, while Patrick would've received a rude awakening here in the states. Personally, after watching him skate, I would put him right below Ryan. Not just because I'm biased and madly in love with Ryan, but to be honest I don't think he's on the level (yet!) of the top four we saw today. They showed a clip of Patrick's SP before his LP and even there he made a couple of mistakes. Which tells me that his SP score was considerably inflated along with his LP.

Someone on twitter the other night tweeted about how they were shocked that Patrick scored higher than Jeremy did on Friday without a triple/triple combination in his program. I tried to mentally give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he must have been so amazing that he didn't need the points from that combo. After today, I'm starting to think that the Canadians are just plain over-scoring their athletes. What they don't realize is that this is actually hurting them by giving them false expectations. I really hope that Patrick tries to track down and watch the performances of his Olympic competitors at their National competitions. Because if he just goes off of the comparison of his score to others in order to determine who his biggest competition will be, he's gonna be in big trouble.

I had every intention of just coming on here and making this a quick rant, but as usual when I get going, I have a hard time reeling it back in. On another note, the Australian Open is going on right now. Unfortunately, they're not giving us free live feed of the matches :-( I loved that the US Open did that in September! Now, I have to resign to listening to the Australian Open radio and watching the scores as they change. It's so much more fun watching it live though. Oh well. I'm actually listening to the Nadal/Luczak match this very moment. So far, it is tied 6-6 in the first set. But I'm gonna have to go to bed and won't get to finish listening to it. Hopefully, Rafa comes out on top. On the ladies' end of things, Maria Sharapova has already been knocked out of the running. She lost to Maria Kirilenko. Bummer. Justine Henin and Roger Federer are the ones I'm hoping win this year. So, we shall see.

I really need to go to bed. I'm heading up to Seattle later today to go see the 100 Monkeys concert in Seattle with Stephanie tonight. Yay! And the ladies and ice dancing competitions are happening later this week at nationals! So, good night! Oh, and remember that Pigs Can Fly! (showing some Jeremy love :-)

Too much time on my hands...

2010-01-15T15:46:00.000-08:00

I need a job! Though I have been attempting to be somewhat productive by working on my room and getting it ready for whenever I'm financially able to move out to my own place. Do you know how hard it is to organize 26 years worth of stuff? I probably should throw some things out, but I'm too sentimental for that. One of the positives of having a lot of time is that I've had the chance to rediscover things I used to love and discover some new infatuations. Primarily music and movies. I recently found a whole bunch of my old CD's. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed the music of the late 90's. Was that really more than 10 years ago? Eeeek!

Despite the lack of depth in several of their songs, I really love my old Aqua CD. Yes, the group famous for the "Barbie Girl". "Be a Man" and "Turn Back Time" are actually really good songs and the rest of their music is just fun to bop around and be silly too. They did a song called "Doctor Jones" and I'm wondering if it's a reference to Indiana Jones. There's a line in it that is in Temple of Doom (more on that later). Hmm.... I also found some of my BSB and Hanson albums. Plus a whole bunch of singles. Remember those? They may still make them, but I haven't bought a CD in so long, so I don't know. They were great for if you liked a particular song by an artist, but maybe had heard that the rest of the album wasn't all that great. I remember buying them for like a dollar or two back in the day. My friends and I used to collect Hanson and Spice Girls singles, since those were our two favorite groups.

I'm actually listening to one of my uncovered CD's right now, the Aida original Broadway cast soundtrack. I wish they would bring the show to Seattle, I love it! Princess Amneris is my favorite charactor and my fave songs are "My Strongest Suit", "The Gods Love Nubia" and "I Know the Truth". Elton John and Tim Rice did such an amazing job with the music!

So, one of my new discoveries is Ariana Grande. This girl is super talented and she's like 16 years old! I had seen that Amanda Bynes had sent her a comment on Twitter one day and ended up clicking on the link to her youtube channel to see who she was. Before I knew it, I had watched like every video on her channel. From the looks of it, one of her favorite past times when she was younger was putting together amazingly edited videos. She was on Broadway in the short-lived show called 13: The Musical, which is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence performed by the first all-teenage cast ever. It actually looked like a great show. I'm kind of bummed they ended it already. Anyway, here's one of my favorite Ariana videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sEjGp2WmDA Talk about some major multi-tasking and I so want one of those looper thingamajigs! I'm looking forward to seeing Ariana on the upcoming Nickelodeon show, VicTORIous. I really hope they take advantage of her phenomenal voice.

Okay, I'm tired of being careful about correct punctuation. No more quotes and italicizing. Lately, I have been on a kick of watching movie series. The other night was all about X-Men. So, I know I previously blogged about how horrible the third installment, X-Men: The Last Stand, was. But after watching it again for the first time since seeing it in theater, I may have to retract some of the ranting. While it still doesn't hold up to the first two films, it's really not all that bad. I think it's growing on me. Yay for second chances!

Now, this is not the case for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I'm in the middle of an Indy-fest (Indy being short for Indiana) and last night I watched Raiders followed by Temple of Doom. I think I've seen Raiders at least once a year (if not anywhere between 2-5 times) since I was born. I was like 3 or 4 when I fell in love with Indiana Jones. He was my second crush after Luke Skywalker. My family has been big fans of the series for as I can remember. Raiders and The Last Crusade are staples in our family movie times. While I really love The Last Crusade (Sean Connery totally makes the movie!), Raiders just has a little bit of a headstart since it was the first movie to come out.

You would think that Temple of Doom should be in that mix since it was second in the series, right? Prior to last night the first and only time I saw it had been about 18 years ago when I was in 3rd grade. All I remember from the experience was an annoying Asian kid, an even more obnoxious blonde lady, people eating monkey brains, some priest dude ripping out the heart of another guy and just completely hating the film, in general. After watching it last night, my opinion has not changed. I had to resist the urge to turn it off 10 minutes into the film. The reason I love the other two is because of the humor and charactor development. Temple of Doom lacked both. Cheesy dialogue, bad acting, scenes brinking on being horribly offensive/racist and over-the-top disgustingness. The dinner scene was seriously one of the worst things I have ever seen. Now, I don't mind a little racist humor every now and again, as long as it's not outwardly offensive or rude. After watching this movie, you would come to conclusion that people from India are Satan-worshipping, voodoo-doing, eyeball/snake surprise/monkey brain/cockroach eating freaks. I'm aware that they probably do eat some things that we would not consider appetizing by any means here in the States. I have been to the Philippines, so I've had some eye-openers when it comes to food. But this was so ridiculously overboard and gross. And a 7.5/10 rating on IMDB? Really? I'd give it a 2. It completely lost the continuity of the other two movies. I had watch part of The Last Crusade afterward to remind myself why I loved Indiana Jones. "Ah, Venice", "Look what you did, I can't believe what you did!" Love that movie! Oh well, I guess even Lucas and Spielberg are entitled to make mistakes and Temple of Doom was definitely one of them :-( Tonight I plan to finish The Last Crusade then watch The Crystal Skull, which I have not yet seen. I've heard mixed reviews, so I'm feeling a little pessimistic, but we'll see.

I saw Avatar last weekend with my sister. All I can say is WOW! They could have done without the spurts of foul language, but aside from that I was blown away. I don't think I've ever cried over blue people before, lol. I can't wait for the sequels since it's supposed to be a trilogy!

I got a leopard print Snuggie for Christmas....and I'm actually starting to like it. While I still think it's a silly fad and that they really do look like multi-colored Monk robes, they are pretty comfortable. In fact, I'm using mine right now :-) Today is the start of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships! I guess the pairs are just about done with their SP. Sad day for Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker :-( There were some twittered updates that Keauna fell twice. It's okay, they still have the long. I'm pulling for them to make the Olympic team! Tonight is the Men's SPs. Unfortunately Universal Sports is only airing like an hour and a half of live coverage. I hope they're smart and show all of the frontrunners (Evan, Ryan, Brandon, Jeremy, Adam....and even Johnny) during that time. I'm gonna be bummed if I don't get to see Ryan's routine. To celebrate the week of figure skating festivities, I created a lovely backround for my laptop and Twitter page. Check it out:
Yeah, I know it's a little Ryan heavy, but what can I say, I love the guy! I'm currently counting down the hours until 10 when US is supposed to have some live coverage tonight. So excited! Good luck to all of the skaters! I think this may be my longest blog entry ever. I think I'm done now, lol. Au Revoir!

It's Christmastime!

2009-12-11T17:42:00.000-08:00

I truly love this time of year. The decorations, the music, the movies, how everyone just seems so much more happy and smilier than normal. I don't even mind the commercials since they're Christmasy.

So, I've been trying for Michael Buble tickets all week long for his Seattle concert in April. Warm 106.9 was giving away tickets in the front 5 rows and today was front row tickets. Did I win? Of course not :-( If I had, I would probably be jumping off the walls and hyperventilating right about now. I love him! Oh well, it obviously wasn't meant to be.

I don't care that it got 4.6 stars out of 10 on IMDB or that there are loads of bad reviews written about it, but I thoroughly enjoyed New Moon. It wasn't phenomenal and the acting definitely wasn't Oscar-worthy. It was what it was, the sequel to what started out as an Indy like film and bloomed into a mega franchise. As far as the books go, New Moon is my least favorite in the series. So, though I was still really excited to see it, I went into the movie with somewhat low expectations. It did help that I was going to see it with several good friends. In fact, everyone that went on our little Twilight stalking trip back in April to Vancouver while they were filming New Moon was there. It was a mini reunion :-) Plus, prior to the movie I had gotten to chill with Vicki at Starbucks and then we had a dinner of happy hour menu items at this awesome restaurant and lounge in the Belltown area of Seattle, called Amber. Great place, totally recommend it!

Anyway, back to New Moon. I really thought that Chris Weitz did a great job with it! When I read the book, I spent most of the time frustrated about Edward leaving and how stupid Bella was being. While this also occurred in the movie, there were so many humorous moments to keep me from dwelling on those facts. I think I spent most of the time laughing and drooling over Taylor Lautner sans shirt. I still can't believe he's only 17. All in all, it was a great movie and I'm looking forward to seeing it again. Afterward we went to this chocolate bar restaurant place. I totally forget the name of the place, but their chocolate mousse was to die for and this restaurant did remind me of Papa Haydn's in Portland. Our hostess was the sweetest girl. It turned out that she was a Twilight fan too and was excited when we told her that we just got out of the movie. S and Mel were gonna buy some of the individual chocolates they had behind the counter, but instead the hostess gave a plate of them to our table for free! According to V, this is not a common occurrance. I really think that there is some unspoken bond amongst us Twihards. I first noticed it in Vancouver. Eclipse comes out in June! From the sounds of it, they're also bringing it to the Imax theaters, yay! Edward, Jacob and Emmett on a huge Imax screen? I could deal.

The ISU Grand Prix events are officially over, leaving Evan Lysacek and Kim Yu-Na as the champions. Evan is just amazing. I think that he's gonna give Plushenko a run for his money at the Olympics. And while I'm really not a big fan of Johnny Weir, he can skate very well. As can Jeremy Abbott.

Despite my allegations that he can't pull it off in my previous entry, I really really really want to see Ryan Bradley compete in Vancouver. He really proved himself in his long program at Skate America. Except for the Adagio movement in his clarinet concerto, I don't think I have ever enjoyed music by Mozart more than when Ryan did his Amadeus routine. What a character! If he can just work in some more confidence and consistency, I think that he could be a strong competitor. He is such a class act, not to mention an all-around nice guy. I've actually had the chance to chat with him a bit via Facebook. It's so sweet that he's taken time to respond to his fans on there. I haven't quite worked up the courage to ask for his hand in marriage yet, but there's still time. Can you imagine how adorable our kids would be? I love the look of dark hair with blue or green eyes, so in my high school biology class I remember doing a lab where we got to figure out the probability of the eye colors of our future kids. Ryan has dark brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. I have brown eyes with a recessive blue via my dad. I remember doing the calculations and if I marry someone with blue or green eyes, there will be a 50/50 chance that our kids will have blue or green eyes!

Kim Yu-Na is, little by little, getting knocked off of her throne. In the Grand Prix event she did prior to the final it was proven that she is in fact human, not just some skating machine that pumps out near flawless performances. Her human side came out again in the SP of the final and for the first time in who knows how long, she was second place going into the LP behind Japan's Miki Ando. While she totally worked it in the LP and ended up winning, it does seem that we might have a more interesting competition on the ladies' side in the Olympics than originally speculated. We shall see. Yay for Ashley Wagner showing her stuff in her LP after a disappointing SP. That girl's got the goods, I really like her!

Unfortunately, our American ladies have a lot of work to do if there's gonna be any chance of medaling in Vancouver. I still have no idea who our two ladies are gonna be. If Sasha Cohen does compete at Nationals and skates at the top of her game, she will be a shoo in and may actually have a shot at the podium in the Olympics. Her biggest set back will be not having done any competitive skating in the last few years. But if anyone can pull it off, it's Sasha! The second slot is really just up for grabs by Alissa, Rachael, Mirai or Ashley. It all comes down to Nationals in January. I can't believe that it's gonna be in Spokane again. That's only 5 hours away from here! But it won't work out financially. I'd have to take the Greyhound to get there, the tickets are nearly $100 per skating event and then there would be the hotel stay. Grr... Someday I WILL get to see some figure skating live in person. I am determined to make it happen.

I just watched the sneak peak trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I am so excited! Do we really have to wait a whole year until part 1 comes out? That's gonna feel like an excrutiating eternity. Well, I think I'm gonna go work on some of the presents I'm knitting and watch a Christmas movie. Did I mention that I LOVE this time of year?

3 months til the Winter Olympics: Part deux/2

2009-11-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

I already updated my status on facebook regarding the fact that Sasha Cohen will not be competing this weekend in Lake Placid due to tendinitis. :-( I was so excited at the thought of her comeback in competitive figure skating. Plus she would've posed as a glimmering beam of hope for our Olympic ladies' team. Though she is still planning on competing in January at Nationals. I am just having the hardest time finding any other American female who could medal in February. And it's not that they aren't good, because they are! But the consistency in performances just is not there. What happened to our Kristy Yamaguchis and Tara Lipinskis? It's not even only our country with the problem, it's a universal issue. When the silver and bronze medalists both make like 4 or 5 major mistakes in their programs, but still wind up on the podium, this is not a good sign. Is it just me or has ladies' figure skating gone downhill through the years? Even during the last Olympics, I wasn't impressed with the standings. Arakawa was amazing and truly deserved gold. But neither Cohen or Slutskaya did very well. Sasha fell twice near the beginning of her program and still managed to snag the silver. Granted, she did come back with a vengeance, but don't even get me started on the fact that with this new judging system you can throw in a bunch of extra jumps after the halfway point for bonus points. Extra credit in skating? Blargh... :-P Whatever happened to being judged on your overall performance?

Nevertheless, we will be sending two skaters to Vancouver in February. Even though I don't think that she did well at the last Olympics, Sasha is still one of my favorite skaters and I would love to see her given another chance. Which will depend upon the speed of her recovery, so I'm not gonna get my hops up too much in an effort to keep them from being dashed. Alissa Czisny is a favorite for the team. I honestly don't think she can pull it off. She's had some shining moments in the past and really skates beautifully, but has choked more often than she's succeeded. The 2008 Nationals brought 3 wonderful young skaters: Mirai Nagasu, Rachael Flatt and Ashley Wagner. Since then, their biggest issue has been consistency. For Mirai, her struggle has been her sense of rebellion and the fact that she has grown several inches in the last year. I can't imagine being her, having performed so spectacularly almost two years ago and then having to adjust to a longer body. She will be at Skate Canada and I'm looking forward to seeing if she brings it there. The other potential for the team is Caroline Zhang, though again, same issue as the rest. Alexe Gilles is an up-and-comer who I don't think is in the running for these Olympics, but is someone to look out for in the years to come. I really enjoyed her skating the other night! If Sasha does not end up being one of the two, I would love to see any combination of Mirai, Rachael and Ashley. If I HAD to pick two, it would be Sasha Cohen and Mirai Nagasu.

Now if we're talking who's gonna win the gold, hands down, Kim Yu-Na from South Korea. She is beyond amazing. First female to get more than 200 on the new system and I don't think she's scored any less since then. Kim is in a league of her own right now. When she won gold, she was 36 points ahead of silver medalist, Miki Ando. Normally there is roughly only a 15 point span between the 1st and 5th place, but not when Kim competes. She slams the door shut. So basically, there will be no real competition for the gold. The silver and bronze medal winners will probably have more of a fight. I'm expecting an Asian persuasion invasion and for the standings to potentially just echo Nagano: Kim Yu-Na, Miki Ando and Mao Asada. But that may change. In actuality, Miki and Mao's performances this past weekend were not all that great even though they made it onto the podium. There were several major flubs made by both. This being said, that may leave room for someone else to creep into the running. Elena Leonova from Russia has been doing pretty well and I'm already a fan of Canada's Joannie Rochette. Unfortunately, I do not foresee any of our U.S. ladies medaling. :-( Except for maybe Sasha... *keeping fingers crossed and praying*

3 months until the Winter Olympics, yeah baby!

2009-11-10T15:29:00.000-08:00

Alrighty now, it's that time. I am officially in full-blown figure skating obsession mode! Aside from looking for a job, what else is there to do? I've spent these last few days getting caught up on this year's Grand Prix events that have been re-airing on the Universal Sports network as a part of their "Countdown to Vancouver".

So, I decided to devote this blog entry to my picks for the U.S. Olympic team and to share my thoughts on the figure skating universe, in general. First up, the men. I don't know how in the world they are going to narrow it down to just three! In my mind, the top contenders are Evan Lysacek, Johnny Weir, Brandon Mroz, Adam Rippon, Ryan Bradley and Jeremy Abbott. Provided he places at Nationals in January, Evan is a shoo-in and he's who I would want on the team anyway. Johnny, I'm not so sure about. Despite the fact that I just plain don't like him, he is a really good skater. But he's recovering from various illnesses which has hindered his performance. Though he did manage a silver this past weekend at the Grand Prix in Japan. I still think that he's the Novak Djokovic of the skating world. Djokovic the Djoke, as I like to refer to him, is a great tennis player, but he always has some excuse to whine about when he plays poorly. A couple of U.S. Opens ago, Roddick took a dig at this fact when asked how he felt about an upcoming match against him. He, totally jokingly, listed silly things such like saars, anthrax and bird flu as being some of Novak's "ailments". Unfortunately, Novak didn't take it that way and was upset about the comment. And sadly enough, he went on to beat Roddick. :-(

But tennis is not my focus here. It's funny how I can, so easily, switch from dwelling on one obsession to the other. Okay, the 18 year old Brandon Mroz. Love him! He got silver earlier this year at Nationals and when he's on, he's on! Like with most skaters, consistency is his biggest issue. Though I was just watching his long program performance today from the re-airing of the Grand Prix in Moscow and despite falling on a triple axel, he was amazing! That shows a lot if you can finish strongly after a disaster like that. Adam Rippon is another one that has awesome potential. He is a very strong skater and, I think, could be a real attribute to our team. Thinking about Ryan Bradley makes me sad. He really could be amazing, he has all the right stuff. Too bad he reminds me of myself and my past Solo/Ensemble experiences. We just choke when it comes down to the competition aspect. Who knows, he may prove himself this weekend in Lake Placid. *keeping my fingers crossed*

Jeremy Abbott started strong in Nagano, but wasn't able to keep it going for his free skate. I can't truly formulate my opinion of his current status since it was only his first event of the season. He did win Nationals this year though, so he is really good. I think, for me, it just seems that he shows more personality off ice than on. So, onto the Olympic team. The common consensus is that it will be Lysacek, Weir and Abbott. Depending on how the season goes, I would personally prefer to have a team of Lysacek, Mroz and Rippon. I believe that I stated that I would love to marry Ryan Bradley in a previous blog entry, so it really hurts to not include him in my picks :-( As far as medaling goes, I have a feeling that Yevgeney Plushenko of Russia is gonna take gold, France's Brian Joubert may have a shot at silver if he plays his cards right and possibly Lysacek for bronze. Though one of those Czech guys, Brezina or Vernor, might edge in to claim a silver or bronze. I love what the commenter said about Brezina's Nagano free skate, "A Czech in Japan skating to Gershwin's An American in Paris, whaddaya think of that?".

I didn't realize that I would ramble on this much, so I'm gonna break things up a bit. I'll start a new entry for my opinion on the ladies' end of the figure skating spectrum.

Books trump Movies

2009-09-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so as previously indicated on my Facebook status updates, I am officially a Harry Potter fan. I had seen the first five movies prior to reading the books and then I thought it'd be cool to watch the movies and see how they hold up after reading the books. Bad idea. At least in the case of The Goblet of Fire. What a disappointment! What happened to the house elves (Hermione's campaigning for their liberation, the Winky story line and the fact that is was Dobby NOT Neville who gave Harry the gillyweed). Why did they choose to not even include or mention Ludo Bagman or Bertha Jenkins? I liked the whole thing between the twins and Bagman. Where was Percy? What about Rita Skeeter? She was shown like twice in the movie and there was nothing about her being a beetle so that she could get the inside info Hogwarts. And the love triangle article did not come out until AFTER the Yule Ball. In fact, when the article is written in the movie is before we even know that Hermione is going to the ball w/ Krum. There are only a couple of subtle hints that they even know eachother. And Neville was just made out to be a crybaby, because it's never explained why he's so affected by the use of the Cruciatus curse.

I spent majority of the time yelling at the screen. Even the sight of Edward Cullen a.k.a. Robert Pattinson a.k.a. Cedric Diggory wasn't enough to minimize my frustration. On another note, I finally allowed myself to watch Prisoner of Azkaban, because I really enjoyed reading the book. And I liked it! I still like the first movie the best, but this one is a close second. They had a little bit of the whole leaving stuff out, but not near as extreme as Goblet. Though it did bother me that they never explained who the creators of the mischief map were and why Harry's patronus was a stag. Oh, and another rant regarding Goblet. Why in the world did the movie wrap up so nicely? That was so not the case in the book! They totally should've included Dumbledore's suggestions to Fudge as to what his actions should be now that Voldemort was back. It would've been a great lead in.

Okay, I'm done. I am now hoping that my stupid sinuses will leave me alone so that I can go to Chehalis tonight. So far, things are not looking so good... :-(

And jealousy ensues...

2009-05-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's really not that bad. But my friends are up in Vancouver right now because they had gotten tickets for the Sam Bradley show last night. I had been invited, but declined because I teach Sunday School and didn't want to be gone another week. So, I really shouldn't feel too bad about not being there. Sundays are awesome! :-) Anyway, I got a text message yesterday afternoon about them meeting Michael Welch who plays Mike Newton in the Twilight movie. They actually saw him twice. The second time, I guess he was talking to some paralyzed guy on the street who sang for money. Michael sounds like an awesome guy! Then, I got another text message at 2 am this morning that they saw Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson as they were leaving the show. I had been sure that at least Rob would be there, since he and Sam Bradley have been good friends since they were like 12. Grr... I am still sad I missed out on all of it, though :-( This just means that I have to take a trip up there sometime with in the next two weeks before the filming of New Moon moves to Italy!

Starstruck in Vancouver - Twilight Weekend (April 17th-19th, 2009) - Part 2

2009-04-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

Steph, Drew, Vicki and Lisa had the Spaghetti and Kobe meatballs, which happens to be Rob Pattinson's favorite thing to order at Glowbal. I had a bite and must agree that it was very good. Though so was what I ordered (the Glowbal Benedict). That night we went to the 100 Monkeys Concert at the Rio Theater. There were a few groups before them (Tripsonic, The Mediators and the Sandman) who were pretty good, but I was too excited to see Jackson Rathbone and his band play again. I read somewhere that Jackson is preparing for his role as Sokka in a movie based on a cartoon series called The Last Airbender. This may explain why he was able to do this with his hair: He doesn't quite look like Jasper in these pics, lol. But he was still hot! Now, my FAVORITE character in the Twilight series is Alice Cullen (Edward's sister who has the power to see the future). By this point, being that we were gonna have to head home right after the concert, I was pretty sure that my chances of meeting the actress, Ashley Greene, who plays Alice were slim to none. But then Steph saw her and Rachelle Lafevre (Victoria) heading to the backstage area!
And then, as if to top off my "Twilight" weekend, Ashley had to make her way through the crowd to head to the ladie's room. As obsessed as I am, I did not follow her into the bathroom. I did get a pic of her as she was coming up the aisle, but my absolute favorite moment was getting to meet and take a picture w/ her when she was heading back to the backstage area! Ashley was so awesome! Right after the concert, Jackson came out to sign autographs and chat w/ the fans. Just like Selena, Rachelle and Ashley, he was also incredible! And here's the C.D. that he and his band had signed on Saturday night. Their music is really cool and there are a bunch of videos up on Youtube. Now, I can't wait until August when the filming for the third book, Eclipse, is supposed to start. I think that some more trips up to Vancouver may be in order... :-)

Starstruck in Vancouver - Twilight Weekend (April 17th-19th, 2009)

2009-04-27T20:24:00.001-07:00

The friends I had mentioned in my previous post (Steph and Vicki), a few of their friends (Drew, Felicia and Lisa) and I decided to make a trip up to Vancouver because they were in the process of filming the next installment in the movie version of the Twilight series. Of course, the main purpose of our trip was to see some of the filming locations and try to meet some of the cast. Stephanie actually spearheaded the trip by doing all of the research, planning and driving. She also arranged for a free place for us to stay via this couchsurfing website. Steph, you're the bomb!

Now, when I say that she had done some researching, I mean it. Steph compiled an entire list of places the cast had been seen at and the hotel majority of them were staying at. So, our first night, our couchsurfing host (Dave) helped us find a couple of places on her list. We had dinner at the India Bistro, which is downtown Vancouver on Davie St. Awesome place!
Then we went to this place called Chill Winston where Kristen Stewart (she plays Bella in the movie) had been the previous week for her birthday.

The next morning we went to the Ridge theater that they were using for some of the scenes in New Moon.
Then we went to the hotel where Steph and discovered that several of the cast were staying. Later that day, I found out from some fellow fans that we had gotten there about 15 minutes after Kellan Lutz (Emmett) and Ashley Greene (Alice) left for breakfast and we left the hotel a little bit before Taylor Lautner (Jacob) came by. Anyway, after stopping by the hotel for a bit, we roamed Robson St (a shopping district in downtown Vancouver where several of the cast have been spotted), checking out the stores and keeping our eyes open.

I stupidly wore the wrong shoes for the weekend and ended up w/ monsterous blisters on both feet. So, that afternoon, I split of from the others to keep my feet from screaming at me. Well, then I realized that I didn't want to miss out on anything, so I left a note stating that I was heading back to the hotel where some of the Twilight cast were at, but ended up meeting up w/ Steph and the others there anyways. We were chatting w/ a couple of other stalkers...whoops, "pursuers", when one of them all of a sudden says "Oh, there's Kellan." I was so excited, it was our first siting of the weekend! Unfortunately, he was hurrying to get into a vehicle that was waiting to take him to the airport, so no pics of him (he's already in the jeep and the driver was loading his luggage), but he at least waved. What a cutie! :-)
A litte while after that, Rachelle Lafevre who plays the fiery redhead, Victoria. Despite the fact that she plays one of the evil vampires, she was just as sweet as could be. She was on her way to go do some filming, but was nice enough to stop for a couple of pictures. Love her!

We already had tickets for Jackson (Jasper) Rathbone's group's (100 Monkeys) concert for Sunday night, but we found out that they were doing a mini-concert/autograph signing that evening at Neptoon Records on Main St. They're actually an awesome group and Jackson is so talented!

On Sunday morning, Steph, Drew and I decided to hang out at the hotel again in case any of the cast emerged for breakfast. We didn't see anyone from Twilight... But at one point, Steph quietly brought to our attention that Selena Gomez (Disney channel's Wizards of Waverly Place, Another Cinderella Story) and her mom were walking by. Selena was in Vancouver filming a movie adaptation of a Beverly Cleary book, Ramona and Beezus. I happen to love the show Wizards of Waverly Place and think that Selena Gomez is a good actress and a doll. So, I couldn't help blurting out hi to her and asking for a picture as she passed by. Just like Rachelle, she was a total sweetie and happy to stop for a pic.

That afternoon we went to lunch at Glowbal Grill and Satay Bar on Mainland St where Rob Pattinson (Edward) and others are know to frequent several times a week. This place was great and I totally recommend it!

The long awaited Twilight entry....

2009-04-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's really only been a week. So, I finally have something exciting to blog about. At least it's exciting to me, others may not find it to be, but that's their problem.

Several months ago, I was visiting my friends, Steph and Vicki, up in Seattle. Steph happens to be a very avid Twilight fan and insisted that I should start reading the series. I had heard a little bit about Twilight and thought "Why not?". Unfortunately, at the time, I think I was just kind of passively reading it. Well, I went to visit them again a few weeks before the Twilight movie came out in theaters and this time had become more aware of the hype around the series. So, that night at their place, I started reading it again with a more vested interest. Let's just say, I could not put the book down. I stayed up most of the night and then woke up early the next morning to finish it. And then, I couldn't wait to start on the next one, New Moon. And then the next one (Eclipse) and finally the fourth one (Breaking Dawn).

I know that the idea of a series about a romance between a vampire and a human sounds kind of silly, but the way Stephenie Meyer writes it is so addictive. And I always tell people that if there were a such thing as Christian vampires, these would be them. The Cullens are "vegetarian" vampires, they don't eat people and fight against the evil vamps. The only problem is that if you're single and reading the series, it can be rather depressing. Because you wind up moping around your house wondering when your Edward is gonna show up. Yes, speaking from personal experience... Okay, I'm gonna end this particular blog post to avoid writing a massive one. My next entry will be about my crazy Twilight weekend in Vancouver :-)

2008-11-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

One step closer to the rapture? I think so :) Hey, I'm trying to look on the bright side of all this election drama.

So, like a good portion of America, I voted last night w/ my dad and sister. Due to work and Kcie's trumpet lesson, we weren't able to make it there until 7. When we got to the polls place it seemed like majority of north Tacoma had the same idea, because we saw the line coming out of the church and attempting to wrap around the block. Luckily, this was the line for those whose last names began w/ A-L. The M-Z line had already made its way to inside of the warm, toasty building :) For once in my life, I am thankful for my last name.

First off, I do not consider myself a fan or a "supporter" of McCain. I actually find him pretty annoying and not, by any stretch of the imagination, who should of been chosen as the Republican candidate. For one thing, the dude can barely answer a direct question in a direct manner. When asked what they plan to do to be sure that the gov't is doing what they need to be doing when they need to be doing it, one does not need to go off on their speil of what they plan to do for the environment. Especially when one is the face of a party that is not particularly big on that issue. Though, I will give him props for having a decent thought process regarding education during the last debate.

I'm not opposed to change in the broad scheme of the term, it's pretty much inevitable. But I am against change that totes along its support for abortion/murder. Which is why I opted to vote for the person who displayed at least an inkling of a sense of biblical values and morals. Plus, I'd prefer an inexperienced vice president over an inexperienced president. I believe Obama wasn't even in the senate for a year before he began his campaign of terror. Whoops, I'm starting to bring a bit of a personal vendetta into this.

By the way, did anyone notice Obama singling out and thanking the direct groups of Americans who voted for him? Like the blacks, the whites, the gays, etc. Wasn't one of his campaigning digs the fact that we're all under the same umbrella? I found that to be a tad ironic. And no matter how hard he tries, he will not be winning everyone over.

Oh well, what's done is done. It's all in God's hands now and I am so thankful that He knows what the future holds!

I've got a 3 letter word for you - JOBS

2008-11-01T00:07:00.000-07:00

Hahahaha, that was soooooooooo funny! Ah, Biden. Okay, so I'm trying to keep this from being a political blog, so I won't dwell on it. But I will admit that I'm not too excited for Tuesday to come, because I'm not overly crazy about either candidate :-( Oh well, what can you do?

So, it's been a while since I've updated my blog and I decided it was time for a comeback. When I last left off, I was still jobless. That is no longer the case. I have been working as a temp at World Vision since mid-Aprilish. Yes, the same place that Mr. Chris Luka used to work at. Our employment there did overlap for a bit, but then he went and left me for Microsoft. My position was technically supposed to be over this past week and was actually shaky a couple of weeks ago when we were getting super low amounts of donation mail in (stupid economic crisis). But God is good and earlier this week, things went through so that my temp position will be extended until Jan. 31st, right before I return to school in February :-D

Speaking of school, that's another area that God recently had his hand in. Things did not work out for me to go to UW like I had been planning. Of course, that was my planning and not neccessarily (well, obviously) not the Lord's. So, I prayed about it, because I knew that being a teacher is what I have always wanted and still want to be. And, as of Thursday, things are starting to really shape up and come together for me to return to PLU (where I had originally gone) to complete my degree. Another answer to prayer :-D Bry and Mindy - remind me to take my foot out of my mouth if I ever tease you for how long it took to get your degrees ;-)

Right now I am chilling out at my Aunt Cheri's place in Edmonds, which is not far from Seattle. I am so glad that, despite the fact that it rained for majority of the day, the weather was good when it came time to take my cousins trick-or-treating. We actually had a lot of fun. Two of my cousins are twins and they're 12 years old. One dressed as Superman and the other as a gorilla. Kylee just turned 10 earlier this month and she was Darth (or Dork as we teased her) Vader. My other cousin Chris, 15 years old, stayed home and handed out candy. Later today, I am planning to take Kylee to go see High School Musical 3. Don't tell anyone, but I'm looking forward to seeing it to, shhhhh. I love the first two movies, but of course, I'm a sucker for musicals in general.

This has been a very boring blog entry, I'm sorry. Hopefully, there will be some excitement in my life in the near future for me to write about. Hey, I am really looking forward to coming down to Medford next weekend for the special meetings! But right now, I think I'm gonna go see if there's any good scary movies on and maybe head toward bed in a while. So, good night!

I really should be planning my Sunday School lesson right now...

2008-03-22T01:14:00.000-07:00

So, I think that it would probably be best to start this post off w/ a moment of silence in honor of the Javaslinger blog. You can find the obituary in Zach's blog(http://zachariasinc.blogspot.com/).

Silence.

Shhhhh

Quiet

And.................. we're done.

On to American Idol. We are officially down to 10 contestants. Like Mandy, I am glad that Amanda Overmyer finally got the boot. I'm really not a big fan of her voice. But why in the world is Kristy Lee Cook still on there? Is she this season's Sanjaya? Okay, so her voice isn't the worse, but her past two performances have been ridiculously bad. Last week was she attempting to sing 8 Days A Week on steroids? In general, this past Tuesday night's episode wasn't so hot. I was so excited that they were doing Beatles again, unfortunately only a few actually did a good job. How can that be when they had like the most awesome song selection ever? Syesha, David A. and Karly did great. I especially loved Syesha's version of Yesterday. Chikezie started off pretty good, but when it turned blue grassy, I started to get a little chiqueasy. And I actually like blue grass music, not like that though. I found it kind of ironic that both Brooke and Jason decided not to use their instruments this week and both of them kind of tanked. I started out not really caring much for David C., but he's proving to be better than I thought he was. Unlike my faves, Michael and Ramiele, who have not been stepping up to the plate like I know they could be. And no one sang With a Little Help from My Friends, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Lady Madonna, Do You Want to Know a Secret, Hey Jude, I'll Follow the Sun or Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da. Which only happen to be like some of my favorite Beatles' songs. Sad. :(

Okay, if you aren't watching Smallville, you really need to be. CW, Thursday nights, 8 PM. This season is getting really good. I just hope they're not building it up to have one big blow-out series finale. I don't want the show to end! Come on Millar and Gough, we can squeeze out a Season 8! Along those lines, maybe I should scout Bebo for a fellow Smallville addict. It worked for Simon and Katrina. If I remember correctly, they first started talking on Bebo about the show, 24. Hmmmm....... Am I sounding desparate? I'm really not. I've recently began coming to terms w/ the fact that it's okay to be single. I'm my only financial responsibility and aside from discussing it w/ God first, I don't have to talk things over w/ someone else if I decide I want to do something. Like traveling, for instance. When I'm a teacher(it will happen!), if I decide to go gallivanting across the country(or world) during the summers, I can. Providing I have the financial stuff (i.e. student loans, rent and other grown upy things) squared away.

So, though I may not be desparate for a guy in my life at the moment, I am most definitely more than desparate for a job. I am about to resort to............. dare I say it ...................telemarketing, dum, dum, DUM! I have been giving this some serious thought. I know, I know, I've heard the horror stories of getting hung up on, cussed out, etc. But I really just need a job to get me through the summer until I start up school(pending on acceptance which should come June/Julyish). And the pay wouldn't be too shabby. Plus, they are probably used to people coming in and out of the job. So, my thought process is to stick w/ it until Camp Meeting, take off time to get all of Camp, go to Century Camp Meeting and Youth Camp, then pick it up again until school starts up. It's not set in stone that I'm planning on doing it, but I will be doing some major praying about it.

Speaking of prayer, my Aunt Cheri was taken to the ER the other night. They did some tests and the first time, the results indicated some heart problems. But the second time, there were NO signs of anything being wrong w/ her heart. Praise the Lord for that! :D Also, her significant other just had a major surgery done last week and went in today for some more tests. In other word's, my aunt and her fam could use some prayer.

Happy Good Friday! Well, belated Good Friday, since it's well after midnight. This is kind of a weird year in T-town. We're having our carpet done at church, so there was no service tonight(last night if ya wanna get technical). And we're not doing anything major for Easter, aside from shutting down on Sunday night to go down to Chehalis to see their program. It's been literally weeks since we've had a Wednesday night service. I am certainly looking forward to when things get back to normal. But Bro. Joe Burton and crew are doing an awesome job on the carpetting stuff. Props to them!

ESPN is broadcasting the World Figure Skating Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden(gorgeous city!). I watched the couples skate last night and tonight was the Ladie's short programs. Once again, I am annoyed at the outcome due to this stupid judging system. I could go on and on about it, but I won't because it's late and this blog is already way too long. Instead I will bid adieu and go to work on my Sunday School lesson like I had originally planned to do when I came online. Nice job on the obit, Zach! Good night and an early HAPPY EASTER to all!!!!!

'Twas a bittersweet evening...

2008-02-24T21:22:00.000-08:00

Okay, so all in all, it was a pretty great day. Bro. Tim invited Bro. Larry Montgomery up to Tacoma to be the guest preacher for the day, so him and Sis. Kaye were here. I love them! :D We had a WA combined meeting tonight, which is always fun. Sounds like it should have been an amazing day, right? As wonderful as it was, I found myself coming to the realization that things just weren't the same.

See, normally some of the first people I would come in contact w/ when I would walk through the door at a combined meeting were Bro. Howard and Sis. Gayle. They weren't here tonight(pastoring in Richmond) :( Typically, I would talk to them for a bit and then Sis. Gayle would let me know if Melina had made it or if she had ditched us for some marching band thing. Melina wasn't here tonight(going to school in Spokane) :( Then somewhere along the way, I would run into Sherilyn and we would do some brief catching up and then finish up after the service. Sher wasn't here tonight(in the Air Force in Texas) :( While I would be putting my clarinet together before church, I would see someone from P.A., signifying that the P.A. van had arrived. So, I would go and hunt down Jamie. Jamie wasn't here tonight(moved to St. Louis) :(

Don't get me wrong, it was still a wonderful service. There was great music, great testimonies, a great sermon by Bro. Larry and a great prayer meeting. And it was great seeing people and catching up w/ them. But it was just a tad depressing realizing that the times, they are a changin'.

For once, on American Idol this past week, I actually agreed w/ all of the eliminations on Thursday night. The following got the boot: the annoying Ellen DeGeneres look-a-like; the Leif Garrett wannabe who sang an excrutiatingly boring and slow version of Breaking Up Is Hard To Do; the girl who sang the twangy Where the Boys Are, but lacked twang in her voice; and JoAnne, the plus sized model(who I actually liked, but unfortunately her performance on Wednesday wasn't all the great). Way to go, America. Maybe we'll actually have a talent competition this year.

So, I actually have a job interview tomorrow at 11. It's a temporary(2 months) data entry job at a staffing agency here in Tacoma. It's only a 7 to 10 minute ride on one bus to get there, which I am definitely liking. I know that data entry isn't the most exciting sounding of jobs, but it's a job and I can be pretty meticulous when I want to be, so I might enjoy it. Another plus is that it's at a staffing/temp agency, so when the job ends, I may have an easier time finding another temporary job. Some prayer for tomorrow would be much appreciated. I'm going to go have some dinner and force myself to go to bed so that I can get a decent amount of sleep and be bright eyed and bushy tailed for tomorrow. Bonne Nuit(Good night in French) :D

Quick addition:
This past camp meeting(maybe it was the previous camp meeting) kind of changed my thinking on the song, Til the Storm Passes By. I was in one of the shower stalls in the bathroom beneath the tabernacle and I looked up and saw this big, black bug. I started to freak out a bit, because I have got this horrible fear of a bug landing in my hair, mistaking it's nappiness for a nest and laying its eggs. So, I started praying that it wouldn't fall on me. As I was praying, the following song popped into my head.

To the tune of the chorus of Til the Storm Passes By:
Til the bug passes over and it bothers me no more;
I'll be safe here forever in my shower stall;
Keep me safe, let it pass;
And please make it really fast;
I'll be fine when that bug passes by.

This is proof that God must have a sense of humor, because it was so instantaneous! Now, the only problem is that I have a difficulty remembering the actual lyrics. I thought of this, because guess what song Sis. Kaye sang for last special tonight. And what Brianne Morgan sang last Sunday morning. And what my sister played recently on her french horn. Okay, now I really do need to get ready for bed!

Happy SIngle's Awareness Day!

2008-02-14T13:30:00.000-08:00

It's Valentine's Day....whoop-i-dee-doo! It just feels like any other day to me. The only good thing about today is that a new episode of Smallville comes on tonight. Though, I do have to say that I am officially sick of all the Clark and Lana drama. She lies and deceives him, he takes her back. She admits that she was more in love w/ Phantom Clark than with him and he is still giving her another chance. Grrrr! I have wanted him and Chloe to get together since episode #1 and it still hasn't happened. I think that Millar and Gough should put Lana back w/ Lex, because they deserve eachother.

In other news, the writer's strike is officially over. Not that it matters a whole lot to me, because the only show I watch that it affected is Smallville. Last night, they revealed the top 24 in American Idol. Much to my disgust, my favorite was not selected. I fell in love w/ Drew Poppelreiter when he first auditioned in Dallas. He's a 24 year old farmer from Saltillo, Mississippi who has a voice like George Strait or Josh Turner. As he left last night, after being told that he had not been put through, he commented(in his southern drawl) that at least he would make it home in time for turkey season. What a cutie! Though I am of the opinion that Drew should've had a chance to be the next American Idol, I did choose a couple of faves in the top 24. I really like Micheal Johns. He's 29 and from Perth, Australia(where Heath Ledger was from). He also has an awesome voice(reminds me a bit of Chris Daughtry) and a gorgeous accent. My fave female is Ramiele Malubay, age 20 and from Florida. This girl has got a powerhouse for a voice.

So, being that it is Valentine's Day(or Single's Awareness Day), I have revised the qualifications for my perfect man. They are, as follows: looks like Tom Welling; sings like Josh Groban or Josh Turner; cooks like Kurtis Stone from Take Home Chef; plays tennis like Roger Federer or Andy Roddick; skates like Ryan Bradley; is a handy man like Andrew Dan-Jumbo from Take Home Handy Man and While You Were Out; and has an English, an Australian or a Southern accent. That's not too much to ask of God, is it? Lol, or I'll just take whoever is in His will for me. I'm easily appeased :)

I want a job! A job! I want a job!

2008-02-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, so the title of this post is courtesy of a Lizzie McGuire episode where she was actually saying the word bra in place of job. But, really, I do want a job. I am getting sick of sitting at home . You know you've hit rock bottom when you're staying up every night until 2 am just to watch re-runs of The Hills and Laguna Beach. Sad, but true. I have applied for jobs, a whole bunch of them in fact. I've been searching for some kind of receptionist or secretary position in light of my foot injury while working at Macy's. Well, actually, my sister sat on my foot and sprained it. So, the whole having to stand all day wasn't working very well. Plus, I think that a re-occurance of my cerebral palsey may have added to the pain. Which brings me to needing a job where I don't have to stand all day. Unfortunately, many of these jobs require like at least a year of previous legal, receptionist or administrative experience. Well, how do they expect you to get the experience if they won't hire you unless you already have some? So, I may have to result to hitting the pavement to just find anywhere that will hire me, because I am getting to that point of desparation.

So, my sister, Hayley, recently got a dwarf hamster. She named her Stella. Though I like to call her Tchaikovsky #2, in rememberance of my former miniature hamster and my dad refers to her as One Bite, because that's all it would take to eat her. She is absolutely adorable and so tiny, hence the dwarf part ;) I had posted at one point about Hayley getting Beta fish. Well, Francis(the stupid one) finally went to his watery grave, a.k.a. the toilet. Freddy(or Sushi) is still swimming away and my sisters have added to the Beta family. Hayley got another one and named him Mulder(yes, X Files). Kcie, for once, got one of her own. She named him Buddy after Buddy the Elf(what's your favorite color? ;). Though, once again, my dad renamed him. This time, choosing the name Frohickey after one of Lone Gunmen on X Files. Of course, Kcie hates that show (weirdo) and refuses to refer to him as that name.

It's February, the month of obnoxiously, over-rated, rub it in our faces lovey-doveyness. As usual, I am Loveless in Tacoma. Oh well, I have chosen to not completely ignore Valentines Day this year, but instead to celebrate it by comforting myself w/ a bunch of my favorite movies. To most, they would probably be considered chick-flicks. My list thus far:
The Devil Wears Prada(already watched)
Just My Luck(I totally reccomend this movie to anyone, already watched)
Never Been Kissed
The Wedding Planner
The Perfect Man
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
The Wedding Singer
Ever After
Miss Congeniality
Sleepless in Seattle
While You Were Sleeping
The Lake House
Phantom of the Opera
High School Musical
High School Musical 2
Ella Enchanted
Sleeping Beauty
A Walk to Remember

If anyone has any more suggestions, definitely let me know. I'm open to more ideas.

My take on the Australian Open and U.S. Figure Skating Championship

2008-01-30T16:58:00.000-08:00

So, since I've been bumming around the house, a.k.a. job hunting, I have become majorly obsessed w/ watching tennis and figure skating. I absolutely love watching Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova and Justin Henin play. So, I watched their matches during this year's Australian Open on ESPN 2. Roddick's match in the third round was phenomenal, even though he lost :( The match lasted nearly 4 and a half hours and he hit 42 aces! Sharapova was at the top of her game and had no mercy for any of her opponents, leading her to win the title. Though, I found another favorite female player in Ana Ivanovic who put up a valiant fight in the final against Sharapova. I was so disappointed when Federer lost to Djokovic in the semi-finals, but am now realizing that I really like Djokovic too and am officially adding him to my list of faves. Congrats to Sharapova and Djokovic!

I have always been a big fan of figure skating and was glad to be able to catch the tail end of the U.S. Figure Skating Championship this past weekend. There were some new, amazingly talented skaters in the women's category and they are all so young! I'm talking like 14, 15 and 16 year olds. The winner of the gold was this little firecracker named Mirai Nagasu who is all of 14. She skated an amazing short, then fell on a double in her long, but came back w/ a vengence and nailed everything else. Rachel Flatt and Ashley Wagner(silver and bronze) gave nearly flawless long programs. Out of the top four females, only Ashley Wagner is old enough to go to the world competition. You have to be at least 16 and Rachel Flatt was 20 days away from her 16th birthday :( The national figure skating board just added Kimmie Meisner to the U.S. team for world's and I really don't think that she deserves it. She fell three times in her long and finished 7th overall. But I guess they may be taking her past experience into consideration. Hopefully she pulls herself together and skates better.

The Men's Single division was where all the drama was this year. Ryan Bradley (who I happen to be in love w/ and want to marry) skated a practically flawless short, but the judges gave him a surprisingly, low score. I bet that this was what threw him a bit in his long and he ended up as 5th. He's still a great skater and such an awesome guy. He kind of reminds me of Kurt Browning(another one of my faves) when he skates :D. Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek have this stupid ongoing public rivalry. Weir stated that he just doesn't like Lysacek as a person and that if they both skated clean programs that he should win over Lysacek. What a pompous jerk. I gotta give props to Evan for being the bigger person and not stooping down to insulting him back. Before the long, Weir was in first and Lysacek was in second. Then, both skated awesomely in their longs. When the scoring came in, they were dead even. But since Lysacek had won the preskate, he won.

I will be honest, I thought that Weir had done slightly better in his long and probably should've won(despite my personal feelings about him) the gold. But this stupid new(I guess it's not so new anymore) judging system focuses on the elements separately instead of on the performance as a whole. I have always thought that if you did the required elements and skated a clean program, then you should be rewarded accordingly and the old system leaned this way. Now, you can get extra credit from the judges for throwing some jumps in after the halfway point or throwing your hands up in the air during a jump. So, someone who does everything they're supposed to and does a good job, could now lose to someone who doesn't skate as clean and has a fanicier program. In the 2002 Winter Olympics, there was a controversial situation in the couple's skating competition. There was a German couple that came in w/ a super difficult, show-offy program that they made quite a few mistakes on. Then a Canadian couple skated, had all the required elements and gave an almost perfect performance. Scores came in and the German couple received the gold over the Canadians. People, myself included, were livid and due to the overwhelming response of anger, they awarded a second gold medal to the Canadian couple. Supposedly, this new judging system is supposed to do away w/ problems like that, but I think that it has been just as, if not moreso, problematic. So, once again, I'm annoyed w/ the results of a figure skating competition. Surprise, surprise!

UPDATES

2008-01-30T16:07:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's only been nearly a year since my last post. Yikes!

So, since I last left off in the middle of my D.C. trip, I'll give a brief(well, as brief as possible) finish. We did go on the White House tour on that Tuesday, which consisted of the Blue Room, East Room, Green Room, Library, Red Room, State Dining Room and Vermeil Room. As we were leaving, we noticed that they were blocking off some streets so that cars couldn't go through. Next thing we know, here come 5 police cars, 4 secret service cars and 5 police motorcycles. I am almost positive that Bush or Cheney(or maybe both) had to be in one of those secret service cars! Following that adventure, we went up to Baltimore to visit some family friends. Instead of taking the freeway we took Connecticut Ave. and stopped at this great restuarant in Kensington, MD called Savanah's. I totally recommend this place if you're ever in the area. Great service, great food and cute guys!

Anyways, we had a good time visiting our friends, whom I had not seen since they only had one kid who was a toddler at the time. Now he's 10 and they have two more boys! They live about 45 minutes from Gettysburg, so of course we had to go there. I had really wanted to spend a day in Philadelphia and my dad finally gave in. So, we went there on Thursday. The visitor center was cool, because they have people acting like they were from the 1700's. I have to admit, I was somewhat disappointed w/ the Liberty Bell. It was so much smaller than they make it out to be in the history books. We did see Benjamin Franklin's grave in the First Church cemetary and Liberty Hall. One thing I wanted to see was the LOVE sign. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? It's an L and a crooked O stacked on a V and an E w/ a fountain shooting up behind it. I've seen in on T.V. and wanted to see it in real life. So, we hiked the mile and a half to Love Square and.........once again, I was disappointed! It was tiny and the fountain wasn't going. We did see the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the distance, where Rocky famously ran up the steps. We were running out of time, so we concluded the short trip there w/ a stop at Jim's Steaks to have some REAL Philly Cheese-steak sandwiches. I wanted to go there because I had seen it on Rachel Ray's $40 a Day and for once that day, I was not disappointed :D

D.C. Special Meetings(or Revival Meetings as they call them out there) were going on and Bro. Eli Segres(pastor in Aiken, S.C.) was the guest preacher. Bro. Eli is like another dad to me and I am so happy I got to see him and his family. On our next to last day, dad and I went to the National Archives to see the Declaration, Constitution, Bill of Rights, Magna Carta, etc.

Okay, funny story: As I was standing in line to see these awesome papers, behind me were two 5th(maybe 6th?) graders who were there on a field trip. One of them says to the other, "This is so boring, I don't even know who the guys were who signed these stupid things." The other kid says, "Of course you do. It was guys like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John F. Kennedy!" I had to bite my tongue and I had tears streaming down my face from holding my laughter in so hard. What is our education coming to?

Following that, we had lunch at Union Station and that concluded our sightseeing. The only things that we didn't have time for that I wish we had, were the Smithsonian and seeing the sites at night. Oh well, maybe next time. The service that night was good and after it was over, I went to Charity Asuquo's place for a young people get together. Which was great, but I didn't get back to Dial and Carrie's until 3 am on Saturday and I had to get up at 5 since our flight was leaving at 8. But that's the life of traveling. All in all, it was a fantastical trip and I can't wait to go back again!

My life in a nutshell since my last post:
This past summer was the first time in a long time that I didn't get all of camp meeting due to work :P I did get weekends, a spur of the moment trip on the 4th of July w/ the Olsons, and the second week, so I really can't complain. I quit my daycare job at the end of August, because I was planning to go back to school at PLU. But.......I missed my stupid re-entry form and the class I really needed to take this past fall semester will not be offered again for two years. So, now I'm in the process of applying to University of Washington. I went to the Brooklyn Youth Conference and decided that I really think that I could live in New York! I got a seasonal job at Macy's in October. I found that I'm good at retail, but I really don't like it. Macy's wanted me to stay on as a full-time employee, but I don't like the idea of working on commission or having to push people to sign up for the store's credit card. We were supposed to get at least one attempt a week, but I really felt like I was contributing to national debt just by asking. Plus, half the people would say no right off the bat. I was in charge of the Sunday School Christmas program, which was a hair-pulling, stressful experience. But, God was looking out for it. It came together and the performance went great! I finished working at Macy's earlier this month and since have been on a major job hunt! Please pray that I find one soon! Love to all and it's nice to be back in the blogging world again :D

I'm in Washington DC!

2007-03-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

I decided to do something big for my dad's b-day this year, so I bought us tickets to Washington D.C. We left Friday night, which turned out to be perfect timing since thousands of flights had been canceled the night before due to weather on the east coast. We got here on Saturday morning and were too tired to do any sightseeing since we hadn't slept much on our red-eye flight. We're staying w/ Dial and Carrie Keju so we just came straight here. Carrie and I went to a youth event at one of the saints' houses. It was kind of a Trinidadian themed night so there was a lot of steel drum music and they had these pita like things stuffed w/ shrimp, goat, chicken, snow peas and some really strong curry. I took one and picked at it, but was too chicken to actually eat it. They did have fried plantane(butchered spelling) which I think is a type of banana and it was really good. We played taboo, girls vs. guys, and us girls won, naturally :) It was a fun night. Those DC young people are a hoot.

I was really excited to go to church here yesterday, even though I was super exhausted. They have a whole bunch of kids and young people here in DC. Their young peoples' choir sang in the service yesterday morning and they were amazing! Bro. D (Demetrius McKelveen) preached in the morning and Blessing Asuquo gave the message in the afternoon service. It was so cool coming all the way across the country and feeling the same Spirit here that I feel at home!

Last night I was messing around w/ my camera, so here's my "excited to be here, but very tired" picture:Dad and I went touring today. We started out at the Arlington National Cemetary:

JFK's gravestone and perpetual flame:

The tomb of the unknown soldiers:

Next stop was the Lincoln Memorial:

There was a gorgeous view of the Washington monument and Capitol Building across the reflecting pool:
We stopped at the Vietnam Memorial Wall:

From there, we went to the WWII Memorial:

A police-woman on horseback:
The White House from a distance:
Up close and personal w/ the Washington Monument:

The Capitol Building:

The Jefferson Memorial:

So, that was our day. Fun, but exhausting. I'll have more pics from today on Bebo pretty soon here. Tomorrow is our White House tour. Maybe we'll get to see George. Probably not, though :(

3L #15: If you are sitting down on the sidewalk during a Barnum and Bailey's Circus Parade going thru the streets of Washington D.C., be sure to pull your pants up for risk of bearing your behind to a bus full of international tourists. Trust me, it was not a pretty sight!

I am long overdue...

2007-03-19T18:14:00.000-07:00

for a new post! I'm in Washington D.C. right now and have some time to kill, so I thought that I might actually post. Let's start w/ an overview of my life for the past several months.

October: On the 13th, I went up to visit my Aunt Cheri. It was Friday the 13th and we went to go see The Grudge 2. If you haven't seen it, I wouldn't recommend it. It was quite the let-down, not near as good as the first. On Halloween, I took my little sister and her friend trick-or-treating. That about sums up my October.

November: I finally got around to coordinating a Washington girls sleepover. We had it at our parsonage here in Tacoma and it was a blast. We stayed up all night gossiping, er I mean, fellowshipping ;) It was fun. Thanksgiving was good. My family and I just stayed home this year and consumed way to much food. Last year they abandoned me to go down to Medford while I had to stay home to write a paper. But the DeBusks loved me enough to invite me over, so I had a good Thanksgiving last year w/ them. Tacoma got hit by a snow and ice storm right after turkey day.

December: We had a wind storm one night that left more than a million people in Western WA electricity-less including my fam and my job. I was all excited for the day off, but then I realized that everything fun at our house required electricity. Martha Williams and I directed the Sunday School Christmas Program and it went really well, almost too well, on the night of the performance. My family stayed home for the holidays and had a very nice, relaxing Christmas. I got Seasons 2, 3 and 4 of Smallville and a really cool digital camera, along w/ some other stuff. So, Christmas pretty much rocked.

January: We brought in the New Year w/ a watch-night service at the parsonage. I turned 23 on the 2nd. Wow, I'm getting old. We had another big snow and ice storm. The daycare I work at was closed for nearly a week and Tacoma Public Schools were shut down for a week. We got about 7 inches of snow. Which was cool, but I got tired of it after a few days. It took about two weeks for all of the ice to melt. On my way to work one day, I was crossing the street and I saw this car come speeding and sliding around on the ice coming toward me. I freaked out, ran back the other direction, slipped on the ice and flew into a light pole banging my head in the process. OUCH, I can't tell ya how much that hurt.

February: Valentine's Day came and went, leaving me beauless as usual. I guess I'm just destined to be an old maid sitting in my rocking chair, knitting and surrounded by my 50 cats...

Okay, now you all should be caught up on my life. Boring, I know.

3L #13 - A haunted corn maze in the middle of nowhere at 10 pm on a foggy Friday the 13th evening is a little creepy. You just might get chased by a clown w/ a chainsaw.

3L #14 - Ice is slippery.

2006-10-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

Remind me not to complain about working for minimum wage. One of my co-workers brought to my attention the upcoming annual 5% increase law that will be in effect as of January and when I was checking it out online tonight, I came across the Kansas' minimum wage. $2.65! Can you believe it? I am now much more grateful to be working for $7.63 an hour, which will be raised to $8 in January :D

So, this past weekend was pretty great. Melodie and I had been hoping to get down to Medford, but unfortunately I was not able to get off of work in time on Friday :( I really wanted to see my new cousin, Ethan! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait. Anyways, that's not the great part. Since we didn't go to Medford, I was able to go up to P.A. for the youth weekend they were having. A few vans from Portland came, along w/ 7 of us from Tacoma and quite a few Neah Bay kids. There was a youth rally on Saturday night, followed by food of course. Then we went to the local high school's gym. I played Horse w/ Greg Bishop and then tennis w/ Trina Paulson, Kristina Shroeder, Jacob Burton, Greg and Brennen Barrett. Trina and I stayed w/ the Burtons and the cards for the Earnestly Contend board game that our church made had just arrived that day at the Burtons' place, so of course we had to try it out. Plus we had Trina, one of the creators w/ us. Jamie even had here sign the game. I was on a team w/ Dale, Donna and Mariah Copko and we played against Ron Bishop, Jamie, Trina and Kristina. They won, but I still think that it was only because they got lucky w/ their spins. If you haven't played it yet, you should, because it is a whole lot of fun. Think Cranium, but better. And check out the details on the game board, they're great! After the morning service on Sunday I had a great prayer meeting and a really good talk w/ Cassy Czupryk. I can't wait until she gets her baptism, because I know that the Lord has so much in store for her! I was happy to see Sis. Lisa DeBusk at church in Tacoma last night because I hadn't seen her in three weeks due to the fact that she was out of town then I was gone this weekend.

The new seasons of Smallville and Supernatural premiered on Thursday night! Yay! But since they switched the netwerks around, they are now shown on a channel that I can not get on the TV in my room since I don't have cable in there, so I have to watch it in our living room w/ my loud family members. But I'm recording them, so that I can watch the episodes again if need be. Smallville was pretty good. I still want Clark and Chloe to get together though. I have been rooting for them as a couple since the show started, because Chloe really is the best character on the show. But they probably won't put them together so that they can preserve the friendship in order for Chloe to be Clark's confidante or krypto-hag as she labeled herself last season. Supernatural was good too, but sad. I won't say what happened in case some Supernatural fan who hasn't seen the episode yet reads this. So, a thought I had was that if you are ending a season w/ a to be continued episode, you should probably film the following episode right away. It's really distracting to see new hair-styles in an episode that's supposed to pick up right where it left off a few months ago. Anyone else feel the same way?

It's October! Prime time for watching scary movies and consuming candy. And how great is it that the 13th falls on a Friday this month? Spooky...

Fish and Peretti

2006-09-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago my sister, Hayley, started begging our parents to get her a beta fish. So, being the spoiled brat that she is, of course they gave in and got her one. She selected a nice blue one and named him Fred a.k.a. Fred da Beta, Freddie the Freeloader or Sushi(courtesy of my dad). A couple of weeks ago, Hayley weedled my dad into getting her another one along w/ a tank for two fish that comes w/ a sheet of plastic that slides in to separate the tank into two sections. This time she chose a red fish and dad picked out the name Francis. But this fish was dumb. It took him about two days to figure out that the little pellets we were putting in the water were food. Plus he was vicious, because he would swim up to the divider where Freddie was and do his little defense mechanism thing where he would flare out the skin below his mouth. Anyways, a couple of days ago, I decided to try a different tactic of feeding them. I would get their food wet and then let it stick to the plastic about half an inch above the water forcing them to jump up for it. As I watched them attempt to get the food, it became apparant to me that even fish can accurately represent the male species. Freddie would first flare at Francis, then jump for the food and if he didn't get it, he would go back and flare at Francis again almost like he was challenging him. Francis would take up the challenge by flaring back, jump up to get his own food and then flare at Freddie again. Whichever one was able to get theirs first would seem to parade around like they were boasting to the other. Anyways, I just thought that it was interesting.

So, I had decided to read several Frank Peretti books this summer. Of course, getting a job cut into my reading time a bit, so I didn't finish them all like I had planned. I used to read his Cooper Kids adventure series, which were awesome, so I figured that his books meant for an older audience would be good too. During camp meeting, I bought The Visitation at a fairly decent price, so I read that one first. I can't say that I was overly thrilled w/ it. There was a lot about speaking tongues in it, so I thought that to be a little weird. Then I read The Oath, which I definitely didn't particularly care for since it started to become obvious what Peretti's views on divorce and remarriage were. But, finally, I read the two that he became famous for, This Present Darkness and Piercing The Darkness. And I thoroughly enjoyed them both, because they give you a whole new perspective on angels and demons. I kind of like the idea of angels getting together for meetings and being assigned to different people to guard and protect. Then I read his two newer ones, Monster and House. Monster was weird and out there w/ the whole idea of sasquatches kidnapping and befriending humans. House was really more of a publicity stunt, I think, to promote Peretti and Ted Dekker, who he co-wrote the book w/. It was kind of weird and I didn't like it very much. Now, I'm in the middle of Peretti's Prophet and so far, I actually like it. So, all in all, I'm somewhat disappointed w/ my Peretti reading experience, since I only really like 3 out of the 7 books I've read of his. Maybe he should just stick to writing books that deal w/ spiritual warfare.

3L #12 - Foaming hand soap can be deceiving. Because of it's light fluffiness, you don't realize how much you are getting on your hand and by the time you pull you hand away, it's overflowing w/ the stuff.

Church Picnic

2006-08-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

So, I'm taking a break from planning my Sunday School lesson and baking cookies for my class tomorrow to write to my blog. Of course, it has been like three weeks since my last post, plus I told Melina that I'd cover today's event. We had our annual church/Sunday School picnic today and Bro. Tim decided that it would be neat to invite our neighboring churches to it. So, some people from Seattle, Chehalis and Portland came too, we even had a couple of drop-ins from Dallas, which made for good times. After consuming entirely too much food, some of us girls headed down to the beach and ended up doing what we tend to do a lot when we get together...take pictures!

There were some super adorable kids there...

We put the mandatory AF triple F policy(Fun, Food and Fellowship) into good use, so it was a pretty great day!

3L #10 - Always carry hand sanitizer, especially if you end up in a bathroom w/ no locks on the stall doors, which would mean that it probably wouldn't have soap either and in our case today, it didn't. Of course, it could've been worse, because we heard that the mens' restroom had no doors on their stalls...

3L #11 - Park+Beach+Flipflops=Really dirty feet!

Random post...I'm really bored right now

2006-08-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

So, it's been seeming like the blogging world died somewhere right before camp meeting. But little by little things are coming alive and people are starting to post again. For a while there it was just me and Melina, then Mandy came in, then Zach posted(across the world, I might add) and finally today, Stacy added something to her blog. Now if only the others out there would look alive here, but I don't want to point any fingers(*ahem*BryChrisMattMindy*ahem*). It's just nice to know what's going on in everyones' lives.

So, the daycare job is interesting. Some days are great, other days I get hit, scratched, pinched and bitten. But all the hugs, kisses and cute things they say make up for it. I heard from my dad that one of the kids in my Sunday School class got saved this week at youth camp, which makes me happy. Of course, I wish I was there, but I'll hear all about it when everyone gets home tomorrow.

3L #8 - Don't wear cute clothes to work at a daycare because they are only bound to get puke, snot, slobber and other bodily fluids/substances on them.
3L #9 - Milk chocolate covered nutter-butters make the world a better place. They don't end war or bring peace, but they are definitely a step in the right direction.

PRAISE REPORT!!!!!

2006-07-25T23:03:00.000-07:00

Guess what, guess what, guess what! I had decided that after camp meeting I would look for a job, but then realized that it may be kind of hard to find one in the middle of the summer, but decided yesterday that I would go out to search for one anyways. So I did. I remember a couple of months ago when I was on my way to school one day I saw a now hiring sign at a daycare not horribly far from my school. When I was on the bus yesterday, I figured that the sign would be gone by then and thought I'd look closer to school so that I could keep the job during the school year. But when I went by the daycare, there was still a now hiring sign, so I rang the bell and got off at the next stop. I hurried back to the daycare, walked in and asked for an application. It took like an hour to fill it out because it was like 4 pages full of essay questions. Right after I turned it in to the person in charge, she asked if I would be available to come in for an observation and interview today. So I did. I actually ended up working(w/out pay) for 4 and a half hours before the actual interview which lasted 45 minutes. The two ladies who were conducting the interview had a little pow-wow then 5 minutes later asked if I wanted the job. THEN, they asked if I could start in 20 minutes, so I did work for about 2 and a half hours w/ pay. But anyways, God blessed in a major way! By the way, thanks to those who I had sent text messages to about praying for my observation and interview today, because obviously God heard ya! And I wouldn't mind continual prayer, because I will be working Mondays through Fridays, 8 am to 5 or 6 pm, w/ 1 to 2 and a half year olds!

Camp Meeting is over...sad!

2006-07-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

So, this was definitely the weirdest year ever at Camp Meeting. Not to say it wasn't good, but it was just different. Maybe it was all the anticipation, build-up for thousands of people being there, too much going on and all the changes on the camp-grounds. Anyways, the following will be my account of camp this year along w/ some supplemental pictures.

I had to arrive the Wednesday before camp started for Mid-summer Concert practices, which was kind of weird since hardly anyone was there. Wednesday night was downright scary, because it was like a ghost town. On Thursday I found out that 4 people were coming from the Philippines and that totally made me happy. I got to go to the airport to pick them up on Friday morning. Saturday was interesting. Sherilyn, Shauna M., Matt, Jen and I went to the park and had an interesting time w/ a hammock ;)

Then we went to the mall where DJ, Matt and Jake had entirely too much fun w/ headless mannequins.

Camp Meeting started the following day and it was definitely pretty crowded. I got a little frustrated the first week because of all the practices for the Midsummer concert, services and the middle Saturday drama plus I was working in the restaurant to save some money. I didn't have much time to enjoy the prayer meetings and hanging out w/ people too much. I did have a great prayer meeting on the Wednesday night of the first week. I did go to Shari's on, I think it was, Friday night w/ people from Sacramento, Medford and Seattle. In fact, I think a good portion of us bloggers were there(Stacy, Zach, Mandy, Melina and Bry). For some reason Stacy had a lot of trouble understanding me that night, she thought that I said I was Korean when I had actually said I was praying about something. Lol...good times. By the time Saturday rolled around, I was pretty exhausted. When I got done playing in the orchestra for the dramas, I ran across the street to run the Virtual Virtuoso Conducting tent for a while and then played my clarinet for the music demonstration thingy they were doing. Once I was done w/ all that, I went and took a nap because I was hot, sweaty, tired and a little grumpy by that point. But I do have to say that my cousin, Catey, looked super adorable portraying Sis. Tillie Nelson.

That night our Philippines team, minus Bro. Bill, Sis. Lori and Erin, took the Filipinos out to Old Chicago for dinner.

The pic's a little dark, but starting from the left that's Florin, Jill, my head poking out by Jill, Jen, Angela, Tricia, Justin, Sis. Aida, Bro. Ely, Bro. Eman, Artie and John. The youth rally was pretty awesome. It was nice getting to hear music from the east coast. I was really glad that my plan to get Marletha Cooper to sing Mercy Said No worked(that was the last song done). I had talked to Sis. Janice who talked to Erik who talked to Marletha about it :D This camp meeting I hardly got to see Miss Jody Burton at all, which was sad because this was the first time in like 3 or 4 years that we didn't share a cabin :( Though my roomies this year were pretty great too(Jamie Burton, Kristina Shroeder, Angela Hiatt and Veronica Hinkle)

On the second Monday, a bunch of us went to the zoo. I don't think that I had been to the Portland zoo in nearly 18 years. It was a lot of fun though. I found a new boyfriend there, check him out...

We saw some monkies...

Safe to say, it was a pretty fun day.

The second week, in general, was more laid back and there were less people. On Wednesday night, I was excited to hear Bro. Bob Bishop, formerly of Tacoma and now the pastor in Yakima, preach. He gave a great sermon on hearing God's voice that I really needed to hear...both the sermon and God's voice. On Thursday Uncle Kevin and Aunt Kami showed up w/ my new cousin, Kaleb, who is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not exagerating in the least, see for yourselves!

Yep, that's a Monk, ain't he adorable? Unlike these familar faces in this pic:

I got sick on Thursday night w/ some kind of head cold or flu. It cleared up on Saturday morning, but it had been pretty miserable being cooped up in my cabin during services on Friday :( At the ordinance service, I washed feet w/ Angela Rudolph, then we skipped the baptismal to go to Pilgrim's and Christian Supply w/ Katie Okinasomethingorother from Dallas, who is an absolute sweetheart. I'm glad I got to know her this year. When I got back to the campgrounds, Bryan Hinkle asked me out and I just couldn't say no. We went to go see Superman Returns in the Imax theater at Omsi, then out to Chile's for dinner. For those of you who it may not be common knowledge to that the Monks, Meeds and Hinkles are all related, Bryan's my cousin, so it wasn't too much of a hot date, but it was a lot of fun. Sorry, Bry :( Now if Josh Groban had taken me out... After the singspiration, me and Melina went to Shari's again, this time w/ a whole new bunch of people. We had an interesting discussion on the word indubitably. Melina, I'm going to be using that word more often, just so I can get comfortable w/ it. Finally, it was the last Sunday, the saddest day of camp. Gary Riler gave a really good Sunday School lesson on the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Even though I have my baptism, I still learned a lot. The services that day went by way too fast. Right before the night service, I went to Red Robin w/ a bunch of Dallasites. My first and only time going to Red Robin all camp and I didn't even go to Applebee's once! I'm so proud. Bro. Christopher King from St. Thomas gave the final message and it was a great sermon. The Lord's spirit came down in a really strong way at the prayer meeting that night. It was hard to leave the tabernacle :( But we finally did and then went to have a kitchenette party. Here's some great pics from that:

So, all in all, it was a pretty good year. I think that I went away w/ what I needed from the Lord, as did many it seemed. I'm sad and glad at the same time to be home. Yesterday was a little depressing though. Bro. Bill had been taking the Filipinos on a tour of Washington and they stopped in Tacoma yesterday morning so that I could give them a tour of the church. Then I had to say my final good-byes to them, which was really tough. I was so thankful that they were able to come out, at least the four of them. Fifteen out there had attempted to get their visas to come for camp meeting, but our government and their government are full of a bunch of goobers, so unless obtained illegally, it is next to impossible to get a visa to come to America from the Philippines. But, as we all know, God is pretty amazing and he worked it out for a few of them. I was really happy, because I wasn't sure if I'd ever get to see any of them again on this side of Heaven. Well, I guess it's time to wrap this up. If anyone thinks of it, I could use some prayer. I'm on the hunt for a job, so Lord willing, I'll find one soon!

Congrats Bry and Mindy!!!

2006-06-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

So, as I'm sure everyone already knows since I think that I saw everyone from this little AF blogging community except for Linda and Chris there, I went to Medford this weekend. I suppose the weekend kind of officially started on Thursday night when Melina came over, because I forced her to come w/ us so that I wouldn't have to travel alone w/ my family. I do love them dearly, but too much of them can be a little too much to handle (mainly talking about the sisters here, Dad...I'm aware that you read this from time to time ;). Anyways, we watched the super adorable Disney movie, High School Musical, which I happen to love. If you haven't seen it yet, you really should. So what if it's hokey, silly and probably meant for ages 10 through 16.

Back to the trip...we left Friday morning around 7:30 and it took an eternity and a half to get to Medford...really, it did. I think that we finally arrived around 5. I'm shocked that Melina made it there alive and in one piece after being cooped up w/ my fam for that long. Despite the fact that no one seemed to have been aware that it was taking place, the Ordinance service in Medford on Friday night was really good. I enjoyed the messages given by Sis. Susan Sprague and Bro. Terry Ross. We stayed w/ Miss Mindy who is currently residing in an adorable town house that was packed to the max this weekend w/ me, Melina, Melodie and Mindy downstairs while Moo and Joel stayed upstairs.

The following morning was, of course, the focal point of the whole weekend..........drum roll, please...................Bryan and Mindy's graduation. Finally! I mean, I was all of 14 when you two started college and now I'm 22... Lol, it was a nice ceremony, but just kind of...how do I put this nicely...um...long. Following that, we went to Ashland's own Lithia park for Mindy's celebratory picnic. Merna put together a rather fantastic feast that left us more than filled. We attempted to burn some calories and walked to Webster's where I purchased some lovely yarn for a couple of projects that I'm determined to complete. Then a couple of hours later, we were off to the Hinkles' place for Bry's "Graduation Ho-down Throwdown '06" where we forced to eat yet more food. We completed the day at the Lukas' where we just had a grand old time. This morning I had to wake up at the unearthly time of 6:30, so that we could get to Roseburg for church there since it would put us a little closer to home. Then I begged and then begged my parents some more to stop in Chehalis for the evening service there, because there was no way that we'd make it to Tacoma in time. So we did, were only about 10 minutes late and got majority of the service. They were doing Camp Meeting songs for the congregational singing :) My family wanted to leave literally right after the meeting, which is always a little hard for me, because I tend to talk a lot. But I think that I set a record for myself tonight. I basically just gave hugs, said hi and bye to everyone, then ran to the van. Now, I'm home and I miss everyone already...but...CAMP MEETING IS IN TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some Life Learnings:
3L #5 - If you are going to be hiking through Lithia Park, be sure to wear comfortable shoes that you can walk in.
3L #6 - Unless it's in a toothbrush case, don't put your toothbrush in a bag along w/ all of your toiletries, because your perfume might leak and you'll end up brushing your teeth w/ apple scented poison.
3L #7 - If you bring your camera w/ you out of town and actually intend to use it, but it is dead, make sure you get some batteries.
On that same note, if anyone has pics from this weekend that they'd like to send me, I'd be much obliged :)

LaDonna's Final Thoughts:
Mindy is on the prowl...Anyone up for a twinkie?...Bry's princess...Nuff said ;)

X-Men: The Last Stand

2006-06-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I finally went and saw the third X-Men movie on Thursday and then again today(yay for having a friend who's one of the managers at a theater :). I think that I was kind of putting it off, even though I'm a big fan of the X-Men series, because I really like what Bryan Singer did w/ the first two and didn't think that the new guy, Brett Ratner could do as good of a job. Well, I was right, but Ratner did manage to exceed my expectations a little. What I loved about Singer's directing style was that he really worked to give the audience an insight into the characters' lives. Like when John/Pyro was at the Drakes' house in X2 and we saw him looking wistfully at the family pictures, so it almost makes you think that he may have had a rough life which might've led him to teaming up w/ Magneto. And then in the deleted scenes, there was a little clip w/ Jubilee that Singer really wanted to include, but couldn't for the purpose of time.

Anyways, I went into this new movie w/ fairly low expectations. I do agree w/ what people said about Ratner trying to fit too much in. The movie was only a little longer than an hour and a half, so there was room to elaborate on the material that was already in it. I wouldn't have minded a bit if it was like two to two and a half hours long. I mean, Return of the King was a good three hours. Quite a few new characters were introduced and I felt like we didn't really get to know too much about them or their powers, they were just kind of there. Several of the previously established characters were hardly used at all. Couldn't they have allowed Jubilee to graduate to being one of the X-Men like Colossus did? What about Artie, Siryn and the blinking boy who can control the TV, they were only shown in the classroom w/ Xavier near the beginning of the movie for barely a minute. I've always felt that Cyclops has been underused throughout the movies, so...whoops, I'm attempting to not include too many spoilers in this blog, so let's just say that once again, Cyclops was hardly in the movie. Some good points: great special effects; nice storyline about Jean/Phoenix; Ratner did a good job of leaving it open for a possible fourth(though I'm not really expecting there to be one); and Eric Dane, who played Multiple Man, was extremely pleasant to look at. Bottom line - a bit of a let down, but not a complete waste, for what's thought to be the final installment of the X-Men movie series. Of course, we can blame Singer for up and leaving to direct Superman Returns. I do have to give Ratner props for doing as well as he did, because it has got to be tough to do the final movie in a series after the original director did such an amazing job w/ the first two movies.

I have an Ear Training Final...

2006-05-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

in about half an hour. I'm praying that I do okay on it, because ear training is one of the banes of my existence.

So, I know that Melina has her "life lessons" and I also feel that I should pass on pearls of wisdom. I shall call them LaDonna's Life Learnings(I love alliteration) a.k.a 3L. So here we go:
3L #1a - Despite the fact that it may look like it should, a meatloaf marinara sandwich from your school's cafeteria will not taste like Subway's Meatbal Sub.
3L #1b: You should really consider slicing your meatballs in half before you put them on the sandwich, otherwise they just roll out onto the table, the floor, your lap... etc. (courtesy of Melina :)
3L #2 - Beware of eating ice-cream cones in the vicinity of squirrels, because they just might attack.
3L #3a - Unless unavoidable, leave dressing alike to those who are identical. Katrina Olson, Dana Macomber and I learned this the hard way when we purchased matching skirts in New York and decided to wear them at the same time. Which brings me to...
3L #3b - Bring a back-up outfit for in case you find yourself in the situation of 3L #3a.
3L #4 - Do not wear a slick, velvet dress to a performance where you have to switch from your Bb clarinet to your A clarinet in the middle of a piece, because the one you set on your lap may slide off of it, bang into your stand and roll under the riser during a violin solo.

Alright, that's all that I can think of at the moment. The other day I got a craving for chips w/ pico de gallo and when I went to Safeway, it cost $3 for a tiny container of it. So, since I was feeling rather creative, I decided to make it myself. I got about $2.50 worth of tomatoes for 99 cents a pound, two bushels of green onions for 50 cents a bushel, 3 limes for 59 cents a piece and cilantro for a buck. Then I chopped up the tomatoes and onions, squeezed some lime juice, poured a little lemon juice, a little apple cider vinegar and seasoned to taste w/ cilantro, salt and pepper. And I gotta tell ya that after being in the fridge for about a day, my fresh pico de gallo was delicious and I was able to make 5 times as much was in that container for less than the price of two of them. Now, I'm not the homemaker type...or Chris...but I was actually pretty proud of doing something myself for once. Yikes, its time to head to my final!

I AM SO MAD...

2006-05-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

AT AMERICAN IDOL!!!!!!! HOW IN THE WORLD DID CHRIS NOT MAKE IT TO THE NEXT ROUND?!?!?!?!?!? HE WAS THE BEST SINGER IN THE WHOLE COMPETITION!!!!!

Okay, I'll take the caps off now. I am just so infuriated and frustrated. I didn't get into AI until the second season when Reuben won. Again, the most talented one in that season, Kimberly Locke, didn't win. I didn't really watch the 3rd season, so I don't really know if Fantasia deserved to win or not. Though I've heard her sing a few times since then and I don't think that she's very good. Last season, Vonzell Solomon was the best, but *sigh* a black female had just won the previous season and a black male the one before that. So we couldn't have another one win or else there would be talk of racism in the show.

Coming into this season, I was already pretty sure that we would have a white male win, since we've already had two white females, a black male and a black female. And Chris Daughtry, a white male, is amazing. Yet, he didn't get enough votes to keep him on the show. Elliott and Taylor, also white males, aren't near as talented as he is and them along w/ Katherine are our final three. Thanks a lot, America. I have no qualms about Kat still being in the running(even though she won't win due to the fact that she is a white female), because she has a gorgeous voice. But since she and Chris were in the bottom two tonight, considering the great performances that Chris had last night and the mediocre ones that Kat had, any normal person would have assumed Chris in and Kat out. And as much as I like Katherine, I would've preferred it to have played out that way, because I truly think that Chris deserves to be the next American Idol. Just goes to show that talent doesn't mean a whole lot in this competition. All you need to make it on AI is to be quirky, funny looking or have a sob story that will win you a bunch of sympathy votes.

So since I've...

2006-05-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

gotten on others' cases for their lack of blogging, I suppose that it's about time for me to post too. I mean, it's been nearly three weeks since my last one and I know that everyone is just absolutely dying to know what's going on in my life...or not.

SO, it's dead week and I have 10 finals next week. 3 on Monday, 3 on Tuesday, 2 on Wednesday and 2 on Thursday. I want to cry, I want to scream, I want to pull my hair out, I want to exert all sorts of emotions at the moment. Why, oh why, was I cursed w/ such a high susceptibility to stress? Why, oh why, did I choose music education as my major? Why, oh why, am I whining so much right now? Okay, I'm done complaining.

SO, it has been brought to my attention by a friend at school who occasionally reads my blog that I say the word SO a lot. SO, I'll attempt to stop. Okay, SO it's not working SO well. SO, what are you going to do about it? Haha, I thought it was funny.

American Idol was on tonight. I don't know why I watch it, because it is so fixed. It totally aggravates me when the judges tell someone who didn't do too well that they were fabulous and someone else who did pretty stinkin' good that they didn't do all that great. Tonight, Randy, Paula and Simon were raving and then raving some more about Elliott Yamin. I'll admit, he was okay, but nothing to do the hokey-pokey over. Then, Simon completely bashed both of Katherine McPhee's numbers. It was Elvis night, so Katherine sang an adorable arrangement of Jailhouse Rock and an okay version of I Can't Help Falling In Love With You. I do agree w/ Simon about the second one being a little over the top in the middle section, but it wasn't near as bad as he made it out to be. Yes, Katherine is one of my faves and I may be a little biased, but I'm holding out for Chris Daughtry to win, because he ROCKS!

MyHeritage.com Face Recognition is HILARIOUS!!!!!

2006-04-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

If you have the opportunity, you have definitely got to go to myheritage.com! It has got the funniest celebrity face recognition. You register for free, then you can upload a picture of yourself and they will tell you what celebrities from a database of 3,200 you resemble in that pic. Not only is it a hoot, it's a great source of procrastination. I got some of the craziest results!

I did two pictures where I have a close-lipped smile and my celeb matches were: Eminem, Kristin Davis, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Mira Sorvino(both times), Jodie Foster, Renee Zellweger, George Clooney, Kirsten Dunst and Chelsea Clinton.

A pic where I'm smiling w/ teeth: Tiger Woods, Joshua Jackson, Shirley MacLaine, Shiri Appleby, Naomi Campbell, Sally Field, Joaquin Phoenix, Rachel McAdams and Will Smith.

Sticking out tongue pic: Britney Spears, Elijah Wood, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, Jesse Jackson, Vin Diesel, Jimi Hendrix, Martin Luther King Jr., 50 Cent and Serena Williams.

Puffed-out cheeks pic: Bruce Lee, Mira Sorvino, Carmen Electra, Charles Manson, Barbara Streissand and Al Capone.

Laughing pic: Carson Daly and Alicia Keyes

Gangsta pic: Jesse Jackson, Elijah Wood and Lawrence Fishburne.

Kissy lips pic: Tom Cruise, Ava Gardner, Charles Bronson, Quintin Tarantino, Richard Gere, Albert Einstein, Sean Astin, Venus Williams, Kirsten Dunst and Anna Kournikova.

Going by the celebs who showed up more than once in my results, I am a mixture of Mira Sorvino, Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Jackson. What an odd combination!

I hope everyone had a good Easter! I was really happy w/ my Easter basket this year :) My parents have agreed to give me one every year until I'm married(though, I informed them that Jillian Luka still gets one). I got several leopard print items(two more picture frames, a pillow, a lamp shade), the RENT soundtrack, candy(like I really need to eat more candy) and I'm working on convincing my parentals that I need Season 2 of Smallville as a post-Easter gift. Tacoma, Chehalis and Seattle joined forces for our Easter choir program this year. We did the concert in Chehalis on Sunday night and I think that it went really well. The only problem was that a few of us(me, my sister Kcie, Melodie and Yvonne Bishop) had not received the memo that we were supposed to wear black and white for the concert, so we showed up in our lovely, colorful outfits. Reggie Macomber, who was in charge, allowed us to still sing, but I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb. Oh, well, all's well that ends well, I suppose.

I think that I'm coming to the end of this post. Is there anything else that I want to add? Oh, there was some bum walking around the area where I catch my bus to school this morning. He was digging through garbage cans. I was praying that he wouldn't bother me and aside from staring me down, he didn't. He did, however, come over to where I was to pick up a diet Pepsi bottle off of the ground that still had a little bit to drink in it. Then he proceeded to drink it right in front of me and after each sip he would say "mmmm", then bend over and growl. Gotta love the Tacoma homeless. Alright, that's all for now. "That's all there is, there isn't...anymore."(I used to love watching the cartoon, Madeline :)

Dreams are weird...

2006-04-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, I recently had one of the weirdest dreams of all time and last night I had a dream that was somewhat of a continuation of that dream. Normally, my dreams stem from something, either what I had watched that night or what I was thinking about right before I fell asleep, but this one made little sense. I was traveling somewhere w/ Bryan and Mindy(this part made sense, since I had ridden w/ them up to Portland) and we were being chased by some girl. She kind of looked like Samara from The Ring, but she had these extendo arms that could wrap around the car and whenever we had a window rolled down, she was able to get us. I was freaking out, while Mindy and Bryan were more concerned w/ getting to a rest stop because Bry had to go really bad. Well, we got to this little, in the middle-of-nowhere bathroom and for some reason, Nick Lachey(Jessica Simpson's former husband for those who aren't into pop culture) and his brother Drew were there. I talked to them like I had known them for years while Mindy and Bry used the loo. My dream ended there.

Then, last night, my dream picked up from where it had left off. We had just gotten back in the car. Nick Lachey told us that they would follow us for a little while since I was still scared of Samara getting us. Eventually they had to turn off the road to get to where they were going. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, we came along a car full of Baros brothers(Emmanuel, Simon, Florin and Alin). Bryan rolled down his window to wave and that was when Samara came. The last thing I remember in my dream was her pulling the car we were in into the woods and Mindy yelling, "Bryan Hinkle, you stupid idiot, roll up your window! You're gonna get us killed!" It wasn't really a scary dream, just really strange. Maybe tonight, I'll have another dream so that I can find out what happens to us next. Any dream interpreters out there?

You know what, or rather who else is weird? People who ride public transportation. The city bus is my mode of transportation and there are a lot of creepy people. There are also a lot of stupid people. Pierce Transit has changed the way the back doors of the bus now open. Instead of pushing on a bar to open it, there is this huge yellow sign that tells you to push there, accompanied by a picture of a hand. There are also bars on the doors that are now slanted instead of vertical like they used to be and they're in a different place than they used to be too, but I'm pretty sure that they're just to hold onto when the bus gets crowded. Anyways, this morning on my way to school, I counted 23 people who tried to push the bars to get of the bus. They realized that that didn't work and finally noticed the sign.

Back to the weird people, every once in a while I end up on the same bus as this lady who carries around a baby doll and treats it just like a real baby, bottles, diapers and everything. There's another lady who brings a stuffed cat and sits there petting it during the whole bus ride. One time, this super musty African guy came on the bus just to ask me to marry him(the same thing happened in NYC one time, again by an African dude). Last week, this old guy comes on the bus and he overheard these 2 other men who were talking in Spanish. The old guy proceeded to tell them a story about his Mexican friend and while he was talking, one of the guys tried, several times, to tell him that they were Puerto Rican, not Mexican. When the old guy finally got it, he asked them how long they had been in the States and if they had received their American citizenship yet! The Puerto Rican guys just looked at the old guy in disgust and moved to the back of the bus. If I'm not mistaking, I'm pretty sure that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. Does anyone else have any funny public transportation stories?

Luka made me do it!

2006-04-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, Chris. I give in. I am such a follower. I really don't know why I started this thing now. I have a bunch to do before my Brass Lab class tonight. But I'm procrastinating. Despite my father's objections, I think that I tend to do better when I save things until the last minute. Sounds like an excuse, huh? Anyways, I am more than halfway through my semester. Yay! I'll be done in a little more than a month. I think that I may actually make it out alive. I think I can, I think I can...

So, this past Sunday Melodie(Baars) and I were on to sing a duet and it turned out to be the most stressful special I have ever had to do. For one thing, we weren't able to practice w/ Yvonne Bishop, who was playing piano, until 10 minutes before the service, because Chris scheduled an orchestra practice for after Sunday School. I had forgotten my clarinet that morning and Melodie had to run me home to grab that along w/ my sister's trumpet. Then, by the time we were able to practice for our duet, we realized that the song we had chosen had a pretty much impossible range for the state of our voices at the time and that it was too difficult to put together in such a short amount of time, so we scratched that idea. By this time, everyone was going upstairs to the platform. We quickly chose something else, told Yvonne what we were doing, didn't have a chance to rehearse it and ran upstairs. Well, the last congregational song before prayer rolls around and it was one of the songs that me and Melodie were planning to do! We looked at eachother(I was on the platform and she was sitting in the second row of the congregation), with gaping mouthes and our eyes about ready to pop out of our heads. Melodie held up her hymn book, indicating that we better find another song, so she looked for one where she was and I looked for one where I was. I looked up right after I had found something fitting and saw that Melodie had found something too. When she signed the song number to me, I looked down and realized that it was the exact same one that I had chosen! Weird, huh? Or, more than likely, it was the Lord. So, to wrap up this extra long story, it worked out. But it really was the most stressful special that I've ever done!

Thanks to my Sunday School class, I realize that I'm getting old. A few weeks ago, I found out that most of them thought that I was in my 30's. Then on Sunday, we were talking about our spiritual eyesight and what types of things can get our eyes off of God and I mentioned things or people that we idolize. I told them that I used to be majorly obsessed w/ the group, Hanson(500 posters on my walls, 15 biographies, the whole deal) and not a single one of them knew who Hanson was! Of course, the kids in my class are between the ages of 10 and 12, but I'm not that old, am I?

A friend at school got me stuck on this Johari thing. It's kind of a psychological thing, where you choose 5 or 6 words that you think describe your personality, then other people come to your site and choose 5 or 6 words that they think describe your personality. Then, they show you this box that compares what you think about yourself and what others think about you. Here's the link for mine and you can make your own too:
http://kevan.org/johari?name=Chipmonk

I apologize in advance for the lack of interesting things that will be posted here on my blog, but my life really doesn't have an over abundance of intrigue. But I am going to attempt to post regularly, so check back anyways. Who knows, maybe eventually something fascinating will happen in my life. Maybe some RICH, tall, dark-haired, blue- or green-eyed, handsome, super musical man who resembles Tom Welling and shares my faith and values will come along and sweep me off my feet. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...........................