My roommate Elise got a typewriter for Christmas. She was playing on it over break and wrote us (me and my other roommates) this quirky and inspiring letter (she's a pretty quirky one herself). I enjoyed it and wanted to share.

D.r.E.a.M.
what do you wish for? what do you desire? do you want to have the speed of carl lewis . . . a runner, i think? or do you prefer to see the earth from the window of a rocket ship? do you desire the rush of lost autonomy like a sky diver? do you now if your wishes would come true on a tropical beach, a native named Umbucko feeding you coconut shavings and rubbing fresh aloe plant on your face? what if you built an entire house out of whipped cream . . .canned pineapple . . . aluminum foil? wouldn!t that be grand!er or do you wish f or a family with the gusto of anestasia?
are you an artist? are you an inventor?
dream . . .
dream . . .
dare to dream . . .
what if you were written about in the guiness book of records? the only (only . .ONLY) one . . .
how u.n.i/q.u.e.
do you want to fly? are you a soaring crane, or an eagle wishing for rogaine? are you a giant blue whale (largest mammel . . .i checked). or maybe a manatee (manitee). look out for propellers . .
maybe you have been bitten by a giant travel bug. dance across every nation. one people. one language. up and down. up and down on a camel, how on earth did they build those pyramids? it's all in good fun! do you twirl in a red top hat at a hooka lounge? is your home a park, a bridge, a palace? do you ride in a horse-drawn sled to the market, a scarf covering your head. is your city made of blocks of ice? blubber (love that word) keeps you warm--don't you see.
or do you spend all day watching television?
unique???
or . . . do you already know who you are, know you are the only you, know you are special (the secret is . . . you ARE)
inexpensive searching.
found.
whatever you do, do it with all your heart.
and dare.
DARE.
dare.
to dReAm . . .


Elise:


Go Me!

So the GRE is over and I did better than I had thought I would. Go me!!

Classes started today. I have been to two and have one more in thirty minutes. So far so good.

I've also worked towards one of my new years resolutions today. When I was at Garden of the Gods in Colorado, I saw a bunch of people rock climbing and thought it looked really fun and wished I could too. So I thought . . . why don't I? I have free access to a great rock wall at Baylor that I had only climbed once. That is a travesty; I resolved to utilize it more. So today after working I went all by myself (before I could change my mind) to the student life center and climbed the rock wall one and a half times. The first time up was easy, so I then tried a harder route that I gave up on in the middle. I can already tell my forearms are going to be sore. Hopefully I'll go again Wednesday to give it another go. Go me!!

So that's a little update. I have to get ready for my next class--it's an art history class about modern self portraits. Should be cool.

And Caroline--when I upload it I just click the largest option and they turn out that big.

a test

that I should be studying for. I take the GRE on Saturday. I'm pretty tired of studying for it though.

Here are a couple pictures from my trip, not taken by me. I still haven't uploaded mine because I've been too lazy. My cord is all the way upstairs and I'm all the way downstairs . . .


We took a tour of the Celestial Seasonings factory/headquarters in Boulder and got some free tea in the process. I'm drinking mine right now--green tea with honey lemon ginseng. Yum! (L to R: Whitney, Hannah, Vanessa, Melissa, Me, Christy)

We played and had a picnic at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs

This is our band pic (at the picnic).

Went tubing down some hills in the mountains.



That's enough pictures for now. Maybe eventually I'll put up some of my own, but you get the idea.

I'm going to study now. Wish me luck!

a birthday

Well I'm back from Denver. It was a fun trip and a wonderful reunion with my Florence peeps. There was snow and art and good friends and laughter and air mattresses and Family Guy and drag queens and fireworks and mountains and fondue. Good times abounded. My Florence crew and I have decided that next we would do Texas. Most of them haven't been to the lone star state, so Melissa and I are going to give them a tour of it this summer. The tentative plan is to have them fly into Dallas, see some sights here, then road trip town 35 through Waco, Austin, and end up in Houston (where Melissa is from). I'm stoked. Have any suggestions for must sees?

In other big news, today is my mom's birthday


I decorated our tree for her. I consider it quite an honor, since she is the one always decorating it for other people.

Happy Birthday Momma! I love you!