Update

The doctors have told my cousin, Kim, that the mass on her liver is very small and that there is only a 5% chance it is cancer.

Thank you Lord!

I'll keep you updated as I find out more information and will be putting up some new pictures from the holidays soon, I hope...

Please Pray...

for my cousin Kim. She recently found out she has a mass on her liver. She and her husband Teddy also just brought home two twin two year olds from Russia that they recently adopted. They do not know what the mass is, thats the next step. Please be praying that it is simply an abscess or benign tumor.

Thank you!

Ya, today just really sucked in general. It started with a journalism test that I was late for and didn't even know I had to take so I was completely unprepared. Then there was the trip to the dentist where I found out I have to get 7 cavities filled AND have my wisdom teeth pulled. Then there was the slowness and drama of work and then the coming home to find out my cousin has a mass on her tumor.

Good thing there's always tomorrow and I can make today end by doing something I love: sleeping.

Good-bye Wednesday November 28, 2007.

You really suck.

Thanksgiving

It was a good one. There were thirteen of us for dinner yesterday: my parents and sister, grandmama, aunt and uncle with three cousins, and my Aunt Lynn and two cousins. It was quite a feast with turkey and ham, stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes, gravy, butter beans and corn, rolls (about 90 of them...) and pie! There was a pumpkin pie, chocolate chess pie, cherry pie and a Kahlua pie. Seriously good times people, seriously good times.

It was great seeing my Aunt Lynn and two cousins, Andrew and Carly. I haven't seen Aunt Lynn since I was christened at 6 months old and I've never met Andrew and Carly, who are twins and my age. They live relatively close too so I can go and visit them and they me.

Of course there has been a lot of shopping, first at Kohl's and then today Melissa bought a new cell phone so I now have her old one which is an Envy or something like that. Whatever, it has a full keyboard which is pretty spiffy. We also saw Bee Movie today and it was cute. It was a lot like Toy Story in the sense that it was enjoyable for both kids and adults and that it was completely void of reality. Good times.

Tomorrow is the big Berry (mothers side) Bash at a country club in Richmond to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'll be seeing A LOT of people there I haven't seen in a long time or have never met. More good times.

Then Sunday and Monday will be spent in Washington D.C. seeing the sights and Tuesday the family goes home.

What a week this has been! Be ready for more pictures and details of all the funness to come!

Pictures!
Daddy and Aunt Lynn

Andrew and Curry playing golf in the front yard

Front left to right: Grandmama, Uncle Alex, Aunt Marjorie, me, Daddy, Andrew, Mommy, Aunt Lynn, Carly. The other three cousins and my sister are missing but such is life.

They're here...

My family is here! They arrived Monday about two hours later than expected because of fog in Chicago but they got here. We had a nice relaxing evening on Monday. Then Tuesday I gave Mommy and Daddy the grand tour of the university which is gorgeous right now because of all the changing leaves. When I got back to Grandmama's Melissa and I went shopping and then Mommy, Melissa and I headed to Paige's for some Grey's Anatomy. Today we did some serious sleeping in and then went to Ukrop's for lunch and Kohl's to do some shopping. In about an hour we'll be going over to the Blue Heron for dinner and then tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

I love holidays...

The Countdown Continues...

My family will be arriving at the airport in seven hours! Yes! I am so excited to see them and so thankful that we're close enough to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving together. I love the holidays, especially the no homework part!

I have so many things to be thankful for but I'll have to name them after I study for my Greek quiz...

OMG!

My family's flying in tomorrow!!!! I can't believe its already the week of Thanksgiving and that my family is flying in tomorrow. Time has been speeding past. Before I know it the semester will be over and I'll be back in California for Christmas. Yes!

Of course, because my family is coming I have a huge workload. I think my teachers are plotting against me... I am currently 2,000 words into a 3,000 word essay on West Side Story which is going well but, I have a test in Journalism tomorrow morning on a book I haven't finished and a Greek quiz which is never easy no matter how hard I study. *sigh* Such is the life of a college student. But, have no fear! I have tea and Krabby Patties so I'll be good.

Hurrah for caffeine and sugar!

Saturdays

Now this is what Saturdays are all about, sitting down with a good breakfast, coffee and the funnies. Seriously, it doesn't get much better than this.

B+

Yay! I got a B+ on one of my English papers today. That made me happy.

I'm Going to Freeze

It is 35 degrees at 6:00pm and its suppose to get colder. I'm going to freeze and become a giant Stephie-pop... Sorry professor, I couldn't finish my paper because my FINGERS FROOZE OFF!!!!

Okay, so maybe I'm exagerating, especially since its nice and toasty inside. But still, you get my point. Its cold!

Homeward Bound

It's official, I am the proud owner of a plane ticket. I bought a ticket online last week for my trip home for Christmas. I'm coming home December 17th and returning to Virginia on January 7th. Yay for Christmas!

And yay for Thanksgiving! Mommy, Daddy and Melissa will be here on Monday!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Giving Blood

Yep, I did it. And it was not a very pleasant experience.

I did have lunch but apparently didn't eat enough (which is unusual for me!) and my blood sugar dropped. I got extremely nautious and sweaty and my hand went completely numb and I was just plain uncomfortable. They pulled it our right as they had just enough blood because I was having such a hard time.

I was really shaky and dizzy for a while but I felt better once the blood stopped leaving. Every time I stood up all day I got a little dizzy and I felt lethargic. I ate a big bowl of beef stew, meatloaf and a baked potato when I got home and I was still kind of hungry. Sheesh, who knew taking a big bag of blood out of your body would have negative side effects?

Ya, don't know that I'll be doing that again any time soon. And the next time I do I'm eating a freakin' steak dinner first!

Tuned Out

For Journalism I am currently reading a book titled "Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News" by David T.Z. Mindich. I think the title is pretty self evident.

In our discussion on the book today my professor said that a large reason for why people under 40 are tuned out, is that the media itself is tuned out. They complain that they don't have an under 40 crowd when what they're giving us is this: RedEye from the Chicago Tribune. RedEye is the young adult version of the paper. It's lead story today: The Wonderful Life of Jennifer Hudson.

What the heck does Jennifer Hudson's wonderful life have to do with me? Why do I care if Avril and Perez were battling it out online? "'Mr. Toilet' builds a commode-shaped house"? Are you kidding me? Do these people seriously think that college students and even teenagers are at all interested in this nonsense? As my professor stated, more and more students are scoring higher and higher on ACT's and SAT's and they think this is what we want to read about? And the fact that each story is maybe four paragraphs of two or three sentences each. Do you think we're illiterate and have ADD?

I know I'm ranting a bit here, but seriously. Think about it. RedEye is what media companies think young people want to read about. Celebrities and houses shaped like toilets are the only things we're interested in because we're ignorant boobs who don't care about things that actually pertain to our lives.

I want to read about what's going on in the government. I mean, we will be voting for the next president of the United States. The person who will make huge decisions that affect my life like whether or not we should stay in a war. I have several friends who are or have been in Iraq as soldiers. This has been the deadliest year in Iraq and you want to tell me about Twista and his "fight against corporate America"?

How are young people, who are the future of this country by the way, suppose to make informed decisions about the future of our democratic country when we have no idea what's going on?

Yes, obviously we have to be active in keeping up with the news if we want to know what's going on. But where are the stories that pertain to us? The last story I remember reading or seeing was on Virginia Tech. Where are all the follow up stories about mental health in colleges or privacy and confidentiality issues inside colleges? (These are mostly coming from my professor by the way.) But he makes a good point.

Media companies as well as young people need to start "tuning in". I don't have a fool-proof solution but I am going to do what I can to stay informed and try to let the media companies know that I care about what's going on in the world; that I want to know so they better get in gear and start printing some real stories. If they think we're tuned out and want our business then they need to stop feeding us crap.

Am I the only one feeling this way (besides my professor)?

Flyleaf-All Around Me

I posted some of Flyleaf's videos before and here's another good one. I was convinced to buy their CD on iTunes especially since it was only $9.99 and comes with videos of most of the songs. Gotta support the artists! All Around Me seems to be very popular and may be what gets them out into the main stream. The song, according to their website, has already been added to MTV and large radio stations.

Here are the lyrics:

My hands are searching for you
My arms are outstretched towards you
I feel you on my fingertips
My tongue dances behind my lips for you

This fire rising through my being
Burning I'm not used to seeing you

I'm alive, I'm alive

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I'm breathing
Holding on to what I'm feeling
Savoring this heart that's healing

My hands float up above me
And you whisper you love me
And I begin to fade
Into our secret place

The music makes me sway
The angels singing say we are alone with you
I am alone and they are too with you

I'm alive, I'm alive

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I'm breathing
Holding on to what I'm feeling
Savoring this heart that's healing

And so I cry
The light is white
And I see you

I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I'm breathing
Holding on to what I'm feeling
Savoring this heart that's healing

Take my hand
I give it to you
Now you own me
All I am
You said you would never leave me
I believe you
I believe

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I'm breathing
Holding on to what I'm feeling
Savoring this heart that's healed

The Off-Off Broadway Musical, Humans!

Click on the image to see it so its readable.

Seriously, it doesn't get much funnier then this. I love Get Fuzzy...

Despair

Despair.com makes the Demotivation posters, calendars and now apparel. I love reading these because they are hilarious. Here is one of the new ones, "Possibilities"...

Possibilities
With focus, dedication and steroids, men can achieve impossible dreams,
like breaking a world record, or growing their own breasts.

Sleep...

I am really tired and not exactly having the best day... But that's ok. You win some, you lose some, right? I'm just glad I don't have to go to class tomorrow. Yes! There will be no alarm waking me up tomorrow morning. Haha!

And as I'm writing this I keep thinking about how much I have to be thankful and greatful (if thats a word) for. I have an awesome family, a nice house to live in with an awesome roommate (who can cook!), I'm going to a great school, I have a job and no real problems to content with. Life is good. So wake up self! Get to work and make the most out of today. Wednesday November 7, 2007 only happens once, so enjoy it!

Okay, I feel pretty motivated now. Time to study some Greek.

Go ahead Greek, make my day...

A Perfect January 3rd

...or November 4th. Whatever.

Yesterday was made of awesome. Nothing overly exciting happened but nothing went wrong at the same time. Church went well, I had a tasty lunch and time to kill on the internet, Grandmama and I went shopping where I bought some seriously awesome stuff on sale that I'm actually going to use and wear, we had a very nice dinner at Ruby Tuesdays, and I got my homework done.

Seriously, it was just made of awesome.

And of course when I said I was having a great day Grandmama replied with, "A perfect January 3rd." to which I replied, "Grandmama, it's November 4th...".

"That was the laugh of, 'Life oppresses me in the exact same way.'"

Another good quote from Matt while we were discussing the fact that we have no time to sit down and actually read a book so instead we keep a stock of audio books always on supply.

Man we're nerds...

*EDIT*

"Oh goody, more of my strange verbage displayed for the gawking crowd."

And this is what he said when I showed him this post...