Today turned out to be a really pretty day, weather wise. That's always a nice surprise--when a day starts out raining(ish) and turns into pretty.

I got a chicken caeser wrap from work today that was unwanted because someone changed their order to a low carb chicken caeser wrap and so the girl who was making it said
"Laura, do you like chicken caeser?" And I said,
"What?" because this girl (who is a manager) doesn't usually talk to me if she doesn't have to and the question was unexpected.
"Do you like chicken caeser?"
I said, "Uh, yeah." Still not understanding.
"Then this is yours." She said.
So she put it in a to go box and placed it in the back room. I grabbed it on my way out, hours later, and ate it back at my apartamento whilst watching an episode of Friends. With the wrap, she added the customery field green salad with raspberry vingarette dressing and, to my surprise, a peanut butter cookie. And a napkin. I was touched. A peanut butter cookie and a napkin. Hm.

I just finished a little paper for English. That is satisfying. As was my chicken caeser wrap with a side field green salad with raspberry vingarette dressing and a peanut butter cookie and a napkin.

I should start being more randomly and quietly nice to people. It makes days.

So I am getting super excited about Florence next semester. I have a friend that's over there right now (also named Laura) and I just read through a bunch of her notes on Facebook (it's like a blog, if you're not familiar) and now I can't wait. One thing I was kind of surprised of is that she said in a post from March that she hadn't spent one weekend in Florence, but had traveled around Europe every weekend--Spain, London, Prague, around Italy, Brussels etc. That's amazing.

I've finalized my class schedule for next semester. Wanna hear? Ok. On Mondays I have Literature in European Cultures from 3-5:30 (that's cool, I didn't realize my first class of the week is so late in the day. That could be nice if I'm traveling all weekend.) My next class is on Tuesday, 9-11:30--Renaissance Art in Florence (which includes frequent field trips around Florence.) Then on Wednesday from 6-8:30 I have Italian (but that's up for change depending on the results of my placement test). Thursday I have two classes: Introduction to Classic Photography 9-2:30 and Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and Bernini 3-5:30. That will be a long day. And then there's no class on Fridays. Pretty sweet. The classes I'm most excited about are my art history ones. And I think next semester will tell me a lot about how serious I am about Art History, as far as the rest of my life goes. I'll be surrounded by it, and either I will get really tired of it, or enraptured. And either I'll fall in love with Italy and want to do something there later in life (like graduate school or something) or I'll decide it's a cool place to visit, but not to live.

It's going to be such an adventure! I can't even imagine.

And then before that is Kenya. Eeee! I'm so lucky that I have all these opportunities to travel and learn.

April 1st always makes me feel really lame, because I am never able to think of a cool April Fool's joke. Throughout the greater part of the year, I think of myself as a moderately funny gal. But then April 1st comes and I feel all this pressure to do something funny/amusing, and I can't think of anything. I think I'm just more subtley funny. We'll say that.


It's been a buon weekend, by the way (every Friday my Italian professor says "Buon weekend!" which means "Good weekend," because, even though there is a word for weekend in italiano, they usually just say "weekend"--according to her. Oh, and another fun fact [hey Claire]: in italiano, you don't capitalize languages. Like francese and inglese and italiano. See, wasn't that fun?). Friday night we had a Disco at UBC to raise money for our trip to Kenya. It was a lot of fun (see adjacent photo of Sandy and I. I know it looks like I'm reaching for something, but really, I'm stiking a disco pose. And I know, my feet look awkwardly placed. It felt right at the time). Oh yeah, and before that was the crazy stormy weather. That was pretty exciting. The street in front of our apartment building flooded. The water was almost up to my knees in some places. A bunch of people were outside in swim suits, frolicking about. It was amusing--a break from ordinary life. Other than that my weekend has consisted of working and chilling.

Oh! And this morning we had church outside. If you're familiar with Waco, it was near the suspension bridge at an area called Indian Springs, I think. That was really awesome, if a little warm. People were baptised and we partook in communion. And it was beautiful.

And next weekend consists of 4 days and I get to go home. I'm excited about it; I haven't spend much time at home since January. It will be refreshing.

So that's my life right now, pretty much.

I bought a novel the first Saturday of spring break to read in my spare moments and am now completely and unequivocally in love with it. It has enraptured me. It's call Winter's Tale by Mark Heplin. It's pretty long, 748 pages. At first, I bought and was intrigued by it despite it's length, but now the fact that it's so long makes me enjoy it even more because it means I get to keep reading it for a long time.

All this to say that I just read a cool/interesting part on p. 401 that I want to share:
If nothing is random, and everything is predetermined, how can there be free will? The answer to that is simple. Nothing is predetermined; it is determined, or was determined, or will be determined. No matter, it all happened at once, in less than an instant, and time was invented because we cannot comprehend in one glance the enormous and detailed canvas that we have been givien--so we track it, in linear fashion, piece by piece . . .The universe is still and complete. Everything that ever was, is; everything that ever will be, is--and so on, in all possible combinations. Though in percieving it we imagine that it is in motion, and unfinished, it is quite finished and quite astonishingly beautiful. In the end, or, rather, as things really are, any event, no matter how small, is intimately and sensibly tied to all others. All rivers run full to the sea; those who are apart are brought together; the lost ones are redeemed; the dead come back to life; the perfectly blue days that have begun and ended in golden dimness continue, immobile and accessible; and, when all is perceived in such a way as to obviate time, justice becomes apparent not as something that will be, but as something that is.

I think that is beautiful. The whole book is beautiful. The story is so intricate. And, as this above passage suggests, everything and everyone effects it all. You should give it a read.

I got a new watch yesterday, at Target. It's a pretty unexciting watch, but nevertheless, it's my new favorite thing. It has a big, easy to read face that can light up at the push of a button and it shows the day and date. Today is SUN 25. It took me forever to figure out how to set it, but that made the setting of it all the more fulfilling. Oh, and its water resistant up to 30 meters. No deep sea diving for me, I guess.

It's been a pretty good weekend overall. Kinda busy, but good. Yesterday I had a meeting about the trip I'm going to take in May to Kenya and it's gotten me pretty excited. They talked to us about the culture of Kenya and what to expect and how to pack and stuff. It still doesn't feel like I'm actually going, more like it's just some game I'm playing, pretending what it would be like to go. But no, I'm actually going. And also yesterday I put shingles on the roof of a shed with Habitat. It was pretty fun; I got to be on the roof.

I'm having a really hard time finding the motivation to study today.

This morning I've been up early studying for an Art History test(if you're just tuning in, yesterday was Religion). That's what I've been doing for the past hour and a half or so and right now I'm just overcome by how much I love this stuff. I love studying this, it's so interesting to me.

Well, that's all I have time to say. I have academic advising at nine. I just wanted to express that to someone and all my roommates are either asleep or showering.

P.S.
I got a 103 on the religion test! (of course, there a six point curve, but that still means I got a 97.)

I'm usually still sleeping right now, but since I have a Religion test at 9:30, I'm up . . .writing in my blog. Whatev. I think I'll be ok. There are just so many gosh durn popes! All with the same name. There's like five Leos, at least two Urbans, a couple of Gregorys . . .it's just a lot (I like ellipsis.)

And yes, I will eventually put my Breck pictures on facebook, I just haven't felt like it recently. For now I'll put some up here. Not all at once, but I'll put one or two up here and there. In no particular order.

Here's one . It's of Sandy and I at the bottom of a run, waiting for some people to catch up with us so we can catch a lift back up the mountain . . .



Ok, I'm going to go shower now.

So I'm really mad because I just wrote this whole big post with pictures from my ski trip and everything, but there was an error when I tried to publish it. So I lost it.

SO MAD.

I don't feel like doing it again. This is all you get: My spring break skiing in Breckenridge with UBC peeps was a lot of fun. TCBY is yummy. And if you wanna see pictures from this past week, just ask me.

ERG.

I'm at Buon Giorno Coffee right now in Grapevine, TX. It's funny because I just turned in an arguement paper this morning about why Starbucks shouldn't charge for their wireless internet, and here I am, utilizing Buon Giorno's free WiFi. If only Starbucks' was free, maybe I'd be there, giving them my business. But no, they charge flippin' six bucks an hour. Hmph. Buon Giorno is way cooler anyway.

But back to me being in Grapevine--it's my old stompin' grounds. I'm just here for the night to gather my cold weather gear for use this upcoming week when I will be skiing. I'm going back to Waco tomorrow and then leave on Sunday for Colorado. I'm just bouncing all over the place. It's kind of fun.

The weird thing is that my parents are in Hawaii and my brother has his own place, so I'm all by my lonesome. And I'm not even staying at my house, because it's being renovated, but at my parents' apartment. (Hey! Buon Giorno is playing the Crowder Band! That makes my heart happy.) But it's kind of nice being all by my lonesome. I can do whatever I want. Like bum off Buon Giorno's free WiFi while drinking a Mocho Bianca (which is better hot than cold, by the way, I got it cold today for the first time and am a little disapointed.). Tomorrow, in Waco, I'll be all by my lonesome too. All my roommates left today for their various Spring Break adventures, so tomorrow night I'm hanging out with me. I'm actually looking forward to it. It will probably be a little creepy though--being in that big loft by myself. We'll see how it goes.

It's fun to hanging out with myself every once in awhile. I wouldn't want to make a habit of it though, I think I'd get pretty lonely. It's like Jamie Cullum's song, All At Sea . . ."I’m all at sea, Where no-one can bother me, I sleep by myself, I drink on my own, I don’t speak to nobody, I gave away my phone . . . Like a warm drink it seeps into my soul, Please just leave me right here on my own, Later on you could spend some time with me, If you want to, all at sea. . . You don’t need it every day, But sometimes don’t you just crave, To disappear within your mind, You never know what you might find, So come and spend some time with me, And we will spend it all at sea . . ." It's a good song; you should give it a listen. I think you can if you go to his website.

We're learning about the Protestant Reformation right now in my religion class, and I never knew what an interesting person Martin Luther was. According to my book he was "a bright, earthy, energetic, sincerely religious, and bigoted person of enormous complexity." He was passionately anit-semetic and apparently "delight[ed] in making fun of his opponents," calling them things like "stupid ass," and even once referred to the pope as a "maggot bag." That's hilarious. I chuckled when I read that in my book, and I don't usually like to chuckle while I'm reading--I feel it makes me appear crazy. And in response to the threat of excommunication from the Catholic Church, Luther wrote a tract entitled Against the Execrable Bull of the Antichrist. So basically he was calling the pope the anti-christ. Pretty awesome. Except the whole anti-semetic thing. "Luther once wrote that synagogues should be burned, and that Christians were guilty for not killing Jews in response to their having killed Christ." That's pretty harsh, and yes, "bigoted." That goes to show that no matter how brilliant or wise we are, we're still human, we still get stuff wrong. But that doesn't mean we can't used in incredible, revolutionary ways. Like ol' Martin.

And I don't have English today, that's why I'm here in the SUB writing in my blog rather than . . .being in English.

edit:
I was just reading through some of my previous posts and noticed that last Tuesday I also mentioned a pope being referred to as the anti-Christ. I thought that was of note--so I'm noting it. Right now. Note done.

Oh, I would also like to note that niether times was I calling the pope the anti-Christ, both times I was quoting an outside source--my Religion textbook. I just thought it was funny, not to disrespect the pope, just because . . .well, I don't think I need to explain the funniness. And I don't really feel like explaining it, because then it becomes less funny. Ok. Second note done.

I started at Camille's yesterday. I'm a cashier. It's a pretty chill job; I haven't worked lunch yet but I hear that's when its the busiest. I have closed though, twice, and that's not exactly fun. But it's not bad and I'm looking forward to having a little extra change in my pocket.

What should I do with it? (this isn't a rhetorical question)

I really don't have anything else to say. I just felt like you, my adoring public, would like to know how my first days at work have been.

If you know me, and live in Waco, you should definitely come visit me at Camille's sometime. It will make my day. Today, a bunch of my friends showed up for dinner and it was very refreshing.

So I did something this week that I've never done before--I got a job. Well, unless you count Sky Ranch, which is different than your conventional part-time job, which is what I'm refering to. I am now an employee at Camille's Sidewalk Cafe. It was kind of a spontaneous decision. I suddenly have a lot a free time because Sing's over, and I want a job this summer, so I figured--why not start now? So I drove around Waco, looking for "Now Hiring" signs, and that brought me to Camille's. They have wraps and sandwiches and stuff, kinda girly, good eatin'. I applied Tuesday and they told to come in on Wednesday for an interview. So I get there on Wednesday for my interview and the guy says, "Actually, it's not really an interview. Is medium ok?" And he gives me a Camille's tshirt and visor. I start Saturday.

Hopefully I made a good decision with getting a job. When stuff happens this fast I get uneasy. I didn't have time to process what was going on or even decide if Camille's is really where I want to work, it just kind of happened. It'll be an adventure.

And I see Rent tonight. It's coming to Waco for just one night. I'm excited.

edit:
Oh, and it turns out that my Religion teachaer's mother-in-law was having health problems, so he went home to be with his wife. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, see previous post)

And also--Happy March!

So my Religion professor was lecturing today about the Great Schism, and midsentence, a guys walks into class and interupts him, says he needs to talk to him. At the time I thought this was kind of rude. Literally, he was in the middle of a sentence. So they talk out in the hall for a moment. My professor then walks back into the classroom and starts to quickly gather his things together, saying he has to go and that this guy "Scott" will pick up where he left off. No explanation, he just leaves. And so "Scott," who never tells us his name, finishes up Mr. Lane's talk on the Great Schism and dismisses us an hour early.

So we still don't know what's going on. I hope everything is ok. Mr Lane has a two-year-old adopted son and a beautiful wife (I know this because he showed us pictures on the first day of class.) and I hope they're ok. He also wasn't here last Thursday. This guy filled in for him, Will Williams (I know, who gives their kid the same first and last name? His middle name better be good. Sorry if you're Will Williams and you're reading this.) who kept us a couple minutes late, but had on an awesome blue bow tie with white polka dots.

It was a curious turn of events. And now it's 10:24 and class is over for me for the day. Since I dropped my 3D Design class, I have only one class on Tuesday/Thursdays. I'm in the SUB (student union building) now, waiting to eat lunch with Molly.

Anytime someone says the word "Religion" (outside of my religion class) the line of a song plays in my head. It's from We're All In This Together by Ben Lee and goes "And then Relgion, it's a big decision." Really, every time. I always wanna sing it out loud, but I know no one would know what I'm talking about. I'm not saying that to be a music snob "Oh, I'm so cool because no one knows that song and I do," but it's just a fact. Do you know that song? I didn't think so.

Speaking of religion, I was reading my religion book yesterday for my aforementioned religion class and came across a few interesting sentences that jumped out at from from the otherwise boring text, like, "The frightened cardinals soon withdrew from Rome, declared Urban's election invalid, and denounced him as a demon and antichrist." And, "The townspeople outside the cathedral gleefully burned them in effigy." I thought those were some pretty exciting sentences. I underlined them, so the next student who has my textbook will take note of them. They probably will think I underlined them for their scholastic value, but really, it was entertainment value.

I like the use of the word "gleefully."

Sing Alliance made PigSkin! Yay! For those of you who don't know what that means, let me break it down for you: Sing consists of19 7-minute kind of mini-musicals. It's a pretty big deal at Baylor. I was in one of them with the organization Sing Alliance (it's the only non-Greek organization in it). It's two weekends long, six performances in all with different judges every night. The judges score the performances based on things like entertainment value, vocals, choreography, etc. The top eight go on to PigSkin next fall. And we're in the top eight. Yeehaa! And we got People's Choice for Best Backdrop and Best Theme Development. So that's pretty freakin awesome.

It's been a really good weekend. And now Sing is over and I'll have so much free time I won't know what to do with myself.

Someone put our performance up on YouTube. I'm debating whether to put it here or not so you can know what I'm talking about . . . but watching it on YouTube is nothing compared to real life . . . and I don't know If you'll know exactly what's going on. . .eh, what the heck, here it is. I'm a lost kid by the way. And the theme is Peter Pan.

I'm reading through the newest issue of Relevant and wanna share some of this stuff. So here are some random, thoughtful, insighful, interesting blurbs...

from "Jesus Wrecked My Life" by Shane Claiborne:
"I know there are people out there who say, 'My life was such a mess. I was drinking, partying, sleeping around . . .then I met Jesus, and my whole life came together.' God bless those people. But me I had it together. I used to be cool. And then I met Jesus, and He wrecked my life. The more I read the Gospel, the more it messed me up, turning everything I believed in, valued and hoped for upside down."

from "7 Big Questions," which was an interview with "seven core leaders of faith."
This first one is Lauren Winner's response to the question "What is a negative tendency of this generation as it relates to the faith?":
"Our failure to tithe. I hear it all the time: 'I just can't afford to give right now.' I hear that from my middle-class American peers. I wonder, if we 'can't afford' to give now, why not? And if we 'can't afford' to give now, when will we be able to afford to give? I know of nothing that will transform someone's spiritual life more abruptly than beginning to tithe. If we want to learn about dependence on God, tithe. If we want to have our treasure in heaven, tithe. If we want to have any hope of having solidarity with the poor, tithe." (This struck me hard because of the financial state of my church in Waco, UBC. Every Sunday they put in the bulliten how much money is needed to keep the place running and how much money was recieved in the offering the last Sunday. The numbers are embarassing. Like this past week "tithe: $4873.50, needed weekly: $6600." And that's actually more tithe than I've seen in the last couple weeks. Rarely every does it hit the amount that's needed weekly.)

This is Mark Driscoll's response to the question "What do you see as the greatest challenge for young Christians in the next 10 years?":
"There is a strong drift toward the hard theological left. Some emergent types [want] to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tatto down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can bet up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity." (I agree in the danger of being a "cultural Christian," because I feel the tendency to do it myself. But at the same time, I know a lot of people who find it easier to worship a "hippie" Jesus making "pithy Zen statments about life" than one with a "commitment to make people bleed")

Relevant is amazing. And they also had a feature article on Ben Folds this issue. That was pretty sweet.

'Tis Valentine's Day. There has never been so many flowers and sweets and baked goods in our apartment at one time. I feel like this is the semester when we will all gain like, ten pounds. (which reminds me of a line in an Alanis Morrisette song "..that I would be good, even if I gained ten pounds..." it's a good song) But then there's Sing, to offset that. It opens tomorrow by the way. Eeee! We had our dress rehearsal tonight and preformed in front of actual people. It was fun, but pretty nerve-wracking. We're always being told to be sharper and happier and "Sing faces!" and how much we have to prove ourselves to everyone and make Pigskin (sorry for you non Baylor people who don't know what I'm talking about. There's like 20-something acts in Sing in the spring and then the best of them, about seven, go on to PigSkin in the fall. It's pretty intense. A big deal) Really, I'm less concerned with making Pigskin and more with just having fun and entertaining the audience. I wish everyone would just stop freaking out and ENJOY IT.

This week is going by s o s l o w by the way. I think it's all the Sing practices. Oh, and I have exciting news (for myself anyway)...I can sleep in tomorrow! My only class is cancelled and I am NOT setting my alarm. Ooooh yeeaah. I haven't been able to do that in so long.

Life is good though. I like life.

Claire got a fondue pot thing (I don't know what they're called) for her birthday which was last weekend (on MY half birthday, the 11th). And we heated up some chocolate and dipped various foods in it and it was GLORIOUS.

Oh man oh man. I'm so full of Rosa's tacos and rice and beans and tortillas with honey and diet coke. So...full. I think I just ate much too quickly. I find when I eat with only boys I eat faster, because they just stuff their faces, and I follow suit. Oh man oh man.

It was worth it though. So good.

So the weather has been absolutely marvelous outside these last few days. Today, I actually ate lunch outside and I actually got hot and the sun was actually in my eyes. It sounds annoying, but really it was great. And I've been riding my bike to class. That's nice. Except when you almost die. But don't worry, I'm ok and it was totally my fault.

Man, I wish I had something incredibly cool and insightfult to say, but I don't, and I usually don't. But then if I did I'd just feel like I was being pretentious. Like "oo, read my blog. I'm so insightful. Look at me."

Whatevs.

This year has been fun, you know? As in sophomore year. It's been fun getting to know these girls I'm living with. It's fun to really get to know a person--all their quirks and idiosyncrasies. What kind of food they like, their sleeping habits, how they act when they like a boy, how they deal with messes, their laugh--little things. The idea of living alone appeals to me, and later I think I'd enjoy it, but right now I can't imagine not being with people. So much happens when everyone is just sitting around studying or getting ready for bed or doing laundry. It's fun.

So my hair caught on fire yesterday. I was eating dinner in my loft with some of my roomies and we lit a candle because the light bulb directly over the table had gone out. Claire had made herself some yummy-looking chocolate-chip pancakes and I was offered a bite. As I was leaning over the table to procure said bite, I began to smell burnt hair. I then looked down and saw the my hair was directly on top of a open flame and that was the source of the awful stench. So I screamed and jumped back. I didn't actually see my hair catch flame, just smelled the smell and afterwards saw the curled, charred ends of a small section of my hair. I spent some time last night going through my hair and cutting the ends that had burned.

My throat is all scratchy, I've been sneezing a lot, and I woke up this morning with a runny nose. I don't want to be sick dag-nab-it.

edit:
And just so you know, the yummy-looking chocolate-chip pancake was delicious.

I got a pleasant surprise today--my 10 o'clock English class is canceled. Well, that's what the class assumes anyway. There was a sign on the door informing the general public that Makowsky's 9am class was canceled, but since Makowsky doesn't have a 9am class...we assumed the sign was refering to us so we stuck around until aproximately 10:04--just to be sure--and then left.

So now I'm at the Student Union Building, wasting time. I didn't anticipate this hour of free time and so didn't come prepared with my Religion book which I should to be reading. Ah well. I'll probably spend some time skipping about the internet (I couldn't think of a better work, so yes, I will be skipping), maybe read the Lariat, The Waco Tribune Herald, write in my blog (check), go to the bathroom. Fun stuff.

I'm was studying for my Italian test today and came across a sentence in my book that reads "Laura non e una cuoca esperta pero se la cava." In English, "Laura isn't an experienced cook but she gets by." And I was like "Wow! That's true! My Italian book knows me so well." The meals I prepare for myself consist of Ramen Noodles, quesadillas, and Lean Cuisines. I like them. I get by.