Junior Year

Friends and what-not...

2008-06-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to write this blog. I had one written, but apparently my computer did not like it and decided to erase it. I thought it was actually a good one.

I wrote it at the time of graduation, the time when many emotions overtake you. You can’t get over the fact that your friends are all going their separate ways. Some of you will reunite in the fall and others are taking their diploma and moving on with the days of their youth. It’s also a time for reflecting on the memories that you have made over the year. The original blog was full of all this good stuff. But now after having a month to get past the first shock of “Ah, summer is here! What am I going to do without everyone!!?”, I have a much better perspective on things.

I feel that at the close of each school year I always look back and say that it was somehow the best year of my life. Maybe I was never as genuine in the past as I feel I am when I use that statement to describe this year or maybe each year is truly getting better and better. Whatever the case may be I feel that it applies to this past year.

This year I met a group of people that have sincerely touched my life. Unknowingly they have each shown me what it looks like to serve others and to serve God, to love others and to be passionate about the things of their heart. They’ve shown me that the time spent in fellowship with one another is priceless. My best friend, Saryl, has taught me the meaning of being who you are and loving who you are. She’s shown me the beauty of life and the beauty in other people that I had so easily overlooked. This year each one of my friends taught me something new.

The most important thing that I took away from this year was this:

Love. Love those whom you live with. Love those people that smell a little strange when you pass them in the hall. Love. Love the beautiful creation that you may take for granted when you’ve forgotten that there is such thing as sunshine because it’s been raining for 12 days straight. Love your God.

Invest relationally. Take time to be in fellowship with those you care about. Too often we fall into a fast-paced life and we forget what is truly important. Be sure to put those you love first.

This year has been such a blessing. I know that life now calls us in different directions and we may not be reunited for quite some time, but man do we have some amazing memories! When we are reunited, it will be so sweet.

Spring Break

2008-04-03T16:09:00.000-07:00

It's not Spring Break without In-n-Out

In the average college student’s vocabulary the word Spring Break holds a variety of meanings. Spring Break for my friends and I was not filled with beaches and volleyballs or anything that has to do with being active. For my friends and I, our break was spent on a couch; we were the epitome of lazy. I know that sounds awful, but it’s actually all that I had aspired for.

The details of the trip are fairly short, so it won’t take long to explain to you the extent of our week. Two of my friends, Saryl and Karlee, along with myself, drove from Portland to Karlee’s house in Redding, CA. The first day we awoke to lovely Easter presents from her mom and then went to church with her family. We had an amazing Easter lunch; her mom makes the best Tator-tot casserole!

Lunch on the way to Redding

The next day was spent completely on the couch. Within this 24-hour time period we watched a plethora of movies. I have to give us some credit for the rest of the days. We did get off the couch a little.

One day Saryl and I went hiking at Castle Crags outside of Redding and the next day we went to San Fransisco. The other days are hard to recall, I assume we were lying on the couch. –I know that it sounds absolutely pathetic, but this is really all that I had longed for over Spring Break. I wanted to be lazy and enjoy being lazy.

Overall, Spring Break was wonderful. I was in the company of two of my best friends for an entire week. Sometimes we all just need to unwind and give our bodies a rest.

Saryl and I after walking up Hyde Street in San Fran

All That Jazz

2008-03-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

Winter Formal took place about a month ago, but I’m just now getting to it. Lucky for you my memory is superb.

I wasn’t originally planning to go to formal. All of my roommates were going, so I thought it would be nice to enjoy a quiet house and have a date night with myself. I actually had it all planned out; Mexican food, Across the Universe, Dead Poet’s Society and either Shall We Dance or You’ve Got Mail (I couldn’t decide between the last two). --Now that I’m writing about it, I know what a big loser I looked like. Anyway, my friend Daniel asked me to go, so I scratched loner, loser date night and prepared for formal, “All That Jazz.”

If you’re familiar with Portland, the words Crystal Ballroom and McMenamins carry significant meaning. If not, the Crystal Ballroom is a beautiful, vintage ballroom that transforms at night to host multiple concerts. McMenamins: all you need to know is that they have some of the best food in Portland. With that said, winter formal was hosted above the Crystal Ballroom, McMenamins catered, and a live Jazz band provided the music.

We couldn’t find a parking space anywhere downtown, so we wandered for a good bit of time until God himself provided a parking space a mile away. By this time we were about 40 minutes late. Luckily the 4 of us who came together are the coolest people at Cascade, so the party didn’t start until we arrived. This is a little bit of a stretch, but at least the food was still relatively warm!

The night carried on with great music and “dancing.” I only say, “dancing” because if you’re anything like me dancing is absent from your list of talents. Someday however, I will learn how to properly “Cut a rug.”

By the end of then night we were pooped, but it was well worth it. Looking back, I’m ashamed to say that I almost skipped this opportunity for a night of laziness. Thankfully Daniel saved me from the epitome of patheticness. I love Shall We Dance, but Richard Gere would not have been this much fun!

Two Years and Counting...

2008-02-29T10:02:00.000-08:00

Two years ago I came to visit my brother and attend Summit at Cascade. It was on this weekend adventure that I met a goofy girl named Danelle. I had no idea at the time that she would turn out to be such a dear friend.

I remember our first meeting as if it were yesterday:
–I walked into Sanders Hall to register and as I began to fill out the paper, the girl sitting at the table said strangely, “Haven’t you already registered?” I gave her the same strange look and said, “No.” She then proceeded to tell me about a girl who had just registered and could have been my twin. After this I was attacked by Roni, who said that my new best friend was at Summit. To make a long story short my “new best friend” and twin, Danelle, and I hit it off great. Actually, it was more strange than great. Providence perhaps? Danelle and I found out that we had been placed to room together for that weekend. As we began to talk throughout the weekend we found out how parallel our lives seemed to be. I have to admit it was a little creepy.

From that moment and still to this day, Danelle and I know that it was all apart of God’s plan. It’s fun to look back now and see where our friendship has come from and and what we've come through. We’ve been through the freshman dorms together, broken a dorm window or two together, shared laughs too numerous to count, and many other wonderful memories that I thank God for.

I think we’ve only been in a fight once. –One year ago on our first anniversary. We were so mad at each other that we managed to ignore each other for 3 days. If you ask us today what the fight was about we just laugh. We can’t remember.

Danelle spent this last semester in Vienna with the study abroad program while I was here on campus. Luckily we were able to save a spot in our apartment/dorm for her, for when she got back. It’s not the same as it was last year, but that’s okay, it’s not supposed to be. It's still great!

We’ve both come a long way in the past year, both individually and together. We have an amazing friendship. It’s hard for me to look back at the “coincidence” of our first meeting and not give thanks to God. He knew what He was doing.

-This year, in celebration of our 2-year friendship, first meeting and our ridiculous fight, Danelle and I celebrated with a lovely breakfast and dinner.

She is a truly amazing friend and sister. My life has been so very blessed because of her.

The Gorge

2008-02-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

I love to be outside. Perhaps one of the reasons I love Oregon so much is because of the alluring outdoors. During the rainy season, which is the majority of the year, the sun peaks it’s head out and we are blessed with a few rain-free hours. During this time Portland is flooded by people who wish to enjoy what limited time we are granted to enjoy the sunshine.
Spontaneity is called for in moments like these in which you must drop all that you’re doing so you can enjoy this sparse gift. You could go virtually anywhere in Portland and not be disappointed. However, to stand in complete veneration of creation, the Columbia River Gorge is where it’s at.

On a day such as this, some friends of mine called and asked if I wanted to go hiking at the Gorge with them. The next thing I knew the adventure had begun and we were on our way. As we were driving to the Gorge the sun began to retreat into the clouds. Upon the arrival to our destination what was left of the sun was microscopic. We decided that we would continue on our adventure into the sun with what time was remaining. Amazingly enough, as we began hiking the sun reappeared.

We hiked to a waterfall. I’m not sure which waterfall, so we will just call it “Gorge Falls.” It was a rather cold hike filled with occasional mists of rain; nevertheless it was a good hike.

Moral of the story? Enjoy the sunshine. Enjoy the outdoors. The end.

More New York Pics....

2008-01-31T12:24:00.000-08:00

New York!

Central Park Emily and her hot dog
Good Morning America!
The famed "Naked" Cowboy
Emily's 21st birthday "party" on the airplane!

New York City

2008-01-31T11:01:00.000-08:00

Rosie Thomas once said, "New York is lovely in the winter time."

I couldn't agree with her more. About a week ago my friend Brittany and I decided that we were going to take a weekend trip up to Mt. Hood to ski. One thing led to another and the next thing I knew we'd canceled our ski trip and had bought 3 CHEAP tickets to New York City.

The anticipation killed us last week as Emily, Brittany and I waited for our incredible weekend adventure. However, before our trip could begin we had to first drive to Seattle to catch the flight. So, at 3 a.m. our trip began.

From the very first moment of trip everything was quite bizarre, which made for one interesting adventure. When we first got to the airport and to the security gate, Brittany discovered that she had left her wallet in her car that Sarah, a friend was now driving back to Kent, WA for us. We called our Sarah and she turned around and drove back to the airport to give us the wallet.

After making it through security with Brittany's wallet and ID, we were off to find our departure gate. This is when we met a new friend. An Asian woman stopped us to ask where to go. Well, I think that's what she said. She didn't speak one word of English. As we looked at her ticket we discovered that we shared the same destination, so we motioned her to follow us. While walking to the gate she insisted on caring Brittany's bag that was almost twice the size of this petite woman. We tried to figure out her name, but were unsuccessful. She followed every inch of our shadow. She was quite the woman. She waited for us to sit down on the plane, helped us put our bags in the overhead compartment, took our bags down from the compartment after we'd landed, waited for us to get off the plane, and once again insisted on caring Brittany's bag. After walking through JFK airport, we made it to the baggage claim and parted ways with our friend. Then it was time to greet New York City.

We met Brittany's Uncle Sal, who we'd be staying with, and whom Emily and I believe to be in the mafia. The first night we were there he took us all over the city and then treated us to dinner at his favorite Italian restaurant. Over dinner, we sat next to a woman who'd grown up in New York City and she presumed to tell us about her entire life. It was quite interesting, but by the end of our conversation I was convinced that she might be insane. However, it did make for a fun dinner conversation.

After dinner we continued to venture around the city until we were too tired to stand. We then made it back to Uncle Sal's house and crashed there. The next morning Uncle Sal dropped us off in the city (he lived in Queens) and we began the day's adventure. I would tell you detail by detail of the day, but that would take far too long and it's one of those things, "You just had to be there", to fully understand what went on. We covered miles of the city and enjoyed every minute of it. For dinner that night Uncle Sal met and treated us to dinner again at his friend's Greek restaurant. The food here was amazing and I think I still dream about it at night. By the end of the day we were pooped; we'd been going non stop for the past 15 hours.

The next morning we decided to take the subway into the city early enough to make it to the filming of "Good Morning America." We were running pretty late and were a little concerned that we wouldn't make it on time. We were right, we didn't make it on time. However, when we got there the woman said that she wanted us to come from the back of the crowd to the front because we were young. She also chose our friend Emily to cut onions on the cooking segment. It was quite an experience. After the show we proceeded to run around the city until we had to catch our flight home.

If I had the time I would share with you every minute of our trip, but words are simply not enough to describe the extent of our stay in New York City. I have so many beautiful memories that will stay with me forever. This was one of the most amazing adventures that I have been on and I hope that you too will have your New York City adventure someday.

**More pics to follow!**

Thoedore.

2008-01-23T09:57:00.000-08:00

We have this amazing couch in our dorm that I love to take naps on. It’s one of the ugliest couches that I’ve seen, but at the same time it has this marshmallow quality about it that makes nap time a dream come true. For some reason I’ve been immensely tired this weekend and have found myself in the comfort of my marshmallow couch all weekend. I’ve watched movies, taken naps, studied, and many more lazy things that I’m ashamed to admit.

This evening I was the only one in the house so took advantage of this quiet opportunity and finished up some reading for a few classes. I had just finished To Kill A Mockingbird when I heard what sounded like coffee brewing. I thought it was odd that no one was in the house, but the coffee was on. I stopped what I was doing and focused on the “coffee” for a little bit. As I was getting up to see what was going on in the kitchen I saw my two roommates at the window. They were about to come in and I motioned to them to be very quiet. When they came inside I filled them in on our quietness, “I think we have a mouse.” Brittany, one of my roommates, said that she had been hearing funny sounds lately as well and assumed the same. Danelle, who was also coming in the door with Brittany, ran to the back in fear of the little critter.

Britt and I, being the brave souls that we are, explored the situation. We pinpointed the sound to the corner. We opened up the bottom cool-corner-spinning cabinet and gave it a whirl. No luck; no mouse, no poop. Using my previous mouse experience I assume that he is living in the wall. I assured my roommates that he would most likely be dead within the week and will be able to confirm this with an abominable smell that will last a week or so. They weren’t too thrilled to hear this. We decided that it would be best to ask for a second opinion from maintenance. We also decided that if there is a little mouse living amongst us it would be best and polite if we named him. We found Theodore to be fitting.

Updates to follow.

**THEODORE. –Who could have a clear conscience after murdering this little fella?

Christmas Throw Up

2008-01-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

I've never been fond of coloring contests. I don't like the idea that in order to win it's suggested that you stay inside the lines. I've never followed this rule, which accounts for why I detest these contests in the first place. Never winning is also a reason I detest these coloring contests so. Apparently the judges have never heard of a little thing we call "abstract art".

Within this idea you can create and run with whatever vision is in your head. This is exactly what my friend Karlee and I did when we heard about the school's Christmas door-decorating contest.

It was announced in chapel that this contest was going to take place and that the winner would receive a special prize. Immediately after this announcement Karlee and I knew that we must collaborate our ideas so that we could win. I'm not gonna lie, we scoped out the competition and thought that we stood a pretty good chance of winning.

After hearing each other's genious ideas we decided that there was no way to decide on just one. Instead, we decided to throw all of the ideas together to create some type of Christmas chaos on our porch (by this point we'd moved the competition from the door to the porch).

We went to Wal-Mart and bought $12.00 worth of your traditional Christmas decorations; tinsel, candy canes, wrapping paper, etc. We combined this with our already collected gigantic stocking, 12 strands of lights, garlands and some other tacky things and were then inspired to theme our porch, "Christmas Throw-Up." Wonderful huh? Our friend Emily, a fellow teammate, also collaborated her creativity with ours and made dozens of snowflakes, a chimney (made from our door), a 3-foot gingerbread house and a nativity scene. She clearly did more work than Karlee and I combined.

On the eve of the judging we began duck taping all of the lights from the ceiling to the concrete along the porch and then around the railing. We tinseled up the place and then added all of the other stuff to the porch. After we finished with the decorations we were very pleased with the results. It looked utterly ridiculous; Christmas chaos. On one side of the porch there was a nativity scene taped to the window and on the other side you had a ginigerbread house. Tinsel fell from the ceiling and the lights blinded your eyes. We also played Christmas music; "A Hanson Christmas", in the background. We moved my TV to the the porch so that the judges could also enjoy a classic Santa cartoon as they strolled through "Christmas Throw-Up."

Karlee and I were never serious about the competition from the beginning, we actually got more laughs out of it than anyone. As it turned out, we ended up winning. Our special prize was a hilarious baseball trophy that had been transformed into an elf. If you want to see this piece of art, it is being displayed on our porch along with the decorations we forgot to take down before we left for winter break.

It's Art.

2007-11-09T09:44:00.000-08:00

I was at my brother Wes’ house watching a movie when I noticed a new lamp that had mysteriously appeared the day before. There’s nothing wrong with getting a new lamp, however, this one was very different from your ordinary lamp. This base of the lamp was bulky and consisted of puke colors. I guess the base would have been okay, but the base with the lampshade is what made it so ridiculous. The lampshade was about double the height of the base and double the width. I though it looked like a freakishly oversized lawn gnome. Anyways, Wes said that one of his friends had given it to them before he left because he didn’t want to throw it away…unfortunately. Apparently one of his roommates, Sung Kyu, really liked the lamp. Well maybe not liked it, however it was a gift from his friend and he didn’t want to get rid of it. Wes and his other roommate disagreed. This is where my friend Amelia and I come into the story.

We asked Wes if we could take the lamp and attempt to paint it so that it would be somewhat attractive. He said that would be fine but we had to make it super tacky and bring the lamp back before Sung Kyu woke up. That night Amelia and I did paint the lamp and added a few extra things to spice it up. The end result was actually so tacky that it was way cool, or at least we thought so. Sometimes the tackier something is the more I like it. This lamp truly holds true to “All things tacky.” We both really like the lamp now. I actually hope I can inherit it; I would put it in my house any day.

We took it back to their house the next day, and Sung Kyu actually liked it! I guess Amelia and I have a new lamp decorating business. Maybe we could have our own show on TLC?

BEFORE:

AFTER:

You can’t tell me this isn't amazing. It reminds me of Aladdin.

Coffee Breath and Cascade Talent

2007-10-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

Coffee Breath, what does that have to do with talent? Well, everything.

Coffee Breath in no way relates to a bitter, “I just drank coffee and I need some gum” smell of the mouth. Coffee Breath does mean 50% off coffee drinks in The Cabin, which is our on-campus, quick-stop coffee shop. More importantly however, Coffee Breath refers to a type of an open-mic night. Any type of talent that you want to share with the student body you can. This year we had people read some of their own poetry, act in skits, break-dance, and of course there were multiple musical performances.

I’m not gifted in any of these areas, especially break-dancing, so I just watch and drink my ½ priced coffee. Don’t think that if you are talented in some other way not listed that you are limited to just these. For instance, if you like to interpretive dance, go for it! Better yet, I’ll do it with you.

Seriously though, there are so many talented people everywhere you go. Some you may have already acknowledged their talent while others may have an amazing gift of which you were unaware. My favorites are those who have a gift that I hadn’t known of and may have never known about if they hadn’t shared with us during this night of ½ priced coffee.

The main reason why I enjoy these most is because these people are willing to be vulnerable in front of 100 people that may or may not like what they have to share. With that comment I would also like to add that some of them couldn't care less if they are accepted. They just want to share in their gift and if you like it, you like it, and if you don’t, you don’t. For those reasons they are what I look forward to most.

As for those whose talents I am already aware of; I love them as well. I especially love to hear things they have written on their own. I love music, but I am not the least bit musically talented. I will never understand music to the level and extent that those who do play an instrument understand it. I wish I could, but I’ve learned to accept that I can’t. I guess that’s why I love hearing original songs. It’s a mystery to me how they can create such a beautiful melody in their mind and then are capable of recreating that on a keyboard, guitar, or some other type of instrument. …I just don’t understand. However they do it, whatever this mysterious talent is that they have been blessed with, it’s beautiful.

Broomball

2007-10-29T17:09:00.000-07:00

I’m awful at ice-skating. Well, I actually only tried once when I was in the 6th grade, but I was worse than horrible and I haven’t tried since. However, broomball is a different story. If you don’t know what broomball is, it’s similar to ice-skating, except there are no ice skates, you don’t have to wear hideous outfits, you wear a helmet, brooms and Nerf balls are involved, and you will fall on the ice multiple times. Now that I think about it, broomball is more similar to hockey than it is ice-skating. Okay, so imagine hockey without all of the pads, regular shoes in place of ice skates, 50 people at once on the ice, hopefully no fighting, and an excuse to look ridiculous in cool protective gear. When you get this pictured in your head you have yourself broomball.

Every fall semester the Cascade student body rents out the ice-skating rink at Lloyd Center, the 3-story mall, for one precious hour of intense broomball. Oh, I forgot to mention that during this one hour the mall has already been shut down and the rink is open only for Cascade students! I must say that this is the highlight of the year. Like I mentioned earlier, broomball is kind of like hockey, only not. For broomball you have the usual, 2 goals and 2 teams. As far as how many people on each team and on the ice goes, we don’t play by the rules. What I mean is, if you have a helmet and a broom come on out, otherwise it’s the sidelines for you buddy. I’m pretty sure you understand the concept of scoring and if you don’t it’s all the same for soccer, football, basketball, hockey, and anything that involves a goal.
I don’t really know what else to say or explain about our night of broomball. It is an insane amount of fun though. It’s competitive, but not. For those like me who have no coordination what so ever, broomball requires that you let your pride fall and accept that everyone is going to laugh at you. Yes, everyone falls, but those who lack coordination fall every time they try to take a step. One minute you may be perfectly balanced and the next your feet come out from under you and you are making out with the ice. I’ve found that the best thing to do is to just run on the ice and if you fall you fall.

I could tell you multiple stories of how hard people have busted and how funny they looked while falling, but I’m not going to. Here are some pictures that show just what broomball is all about.

MMM...Fall.

2007-10-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

It's always good to have friends that love the outdoor life as much as you. My friend Tauna and I enjoyed the lovely Fall and ducks the other day. We both had a paper to write up, so we decided to go to Laurelhurst Park to work on it. Before we could actually start working, we walked around for a little while admiring all of the beautiful trees and the leaves that were beginning to change. They all looked so beautiful, each a masterpiece that words will never be able to describe.

On our walk around the park we came across a man who was feeding the ducks. I had my camera, and while I was taking pictures of them, the duck man threw some crackers at my feet so that the ducks would come to me. He then gave a few crackers to Tauna and I so that we could feed them. I can't tell you how cool it was. I think I am in love with ducks. There had to be like a hundred gazillion of them, well maybe just 30. I really wanted to pick one up, but I learned in Girl Scouts that you shouldn't do that.

After the duck's bellies were full, we kept on walking. We found this tree whose branches hung so gracefully above the water. The leaves on this tree were beyond amazing and it hasn't even met the peak of it's fall colors.

After tree watching for almost an hour, we decided that it would be a good idea to start working on our papers. I, however, have a focusing problem and if you put me in a beautiful park there is no way that I am going to be able to fully focus on writing a paper. I kept getting side tracked; instead of typing I'd catch myself staring at everything in the park. There was a Korean family with a new baby taking pictures in front of the pond, a family of 3 who were duck watching across from us, and occasionally a volleyball team from the high school nearby would pass us on their jog. Somehow though, I did manage to finish and Tauna and I packed up our bags and went on our last walk through the park.

In conclusion: park = amazing. Go there.

Life Is Better On Fall Break

2007-10-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

Fall break was this past weekend and it couldn’t have come at any better time.
It’s too far to go to Texas and back for 4 days, so I didn’t. However, my friend Saryl and I did take a short day trip.

Astoria

Part of my “Things To Do List” includes exploring places that I have never been, so we did just that. Neither of us had been to Astoria, OR before, so we decided to go. If you are from Oregon you may think that Astoria is not that neat of a place to go, but I am from Texas and haven’t seen much. As Oregon weather would have it, it was overcast and it rained/misted off an on. I think we walked completely down the waterfront; the place with all the cute buildings. On the way back we decided to walk through town. We adventured all over. We met an interesting woman in an antique store who shared with us her story of how she first began collecting. We asked her where the best, cheapest place to eat was and then we went. I don’t really remember the name of the place, Anthony’s and Something. Apparently they had been in business since the 50’s, I think. They were supposed to have the most amazing clam chowder. I’m not big on the stuff, so I didn’t know what was considered good, but Saryl, she knows her stuff. She said it was great! I think the reason why I don’t remember much about the place is because it kind of freaked me out. Well, no, I don’t think freak is the word I am looking for. It smelled like an elderly woman’s home that stayed in her house all day and talked to her cats, smoked occasionally, had brown and mustard colored couches, and wore the same hand-knitted sweater everyday that she made during the Great Depression. It was the local’s favorite though, so we went. After this experience we decided that our bodies would not be complete without some coffee. We went back to a coffee shop that we had passed while walking. We talked for a bit to the guy who was working; he had been backpacking in Europe for the past month. Saryl and I stayed in the coffee shop and enjoyed each other’s conversation for over an hour and then decided it was getting late so we’d better head back.

To some it may seem like a rather boring trip, but it was absolutely amazing. You don’t always have to have these extravagant adventures to have a good time. It’s all about the little stuff and enjoying where you are and whom you are with. Conversation is also key. I loved getting away, even if it was just for a day.

Saryl and I in front of the bell...I call her Judy.

Fun Fact: The Goonies was filmed in Astoria!

It's A Jungle Out There.

2007-09-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

So last week was my friend Alisha’s birthday.

There’s not a whole lot to tell about this event, but I wanted to show you the cake that Karlee and I made for her. It’s probably one of the coolest cakes you may ever see in your life and we might be famous one day because I just know that there’s a bakery out there somewhere that wants us to work for them.

In celebration of Alisha’s big 20, we had a little get together. I think there were 20 or so people who came, which is kind of neat because it correlates to her age. Alisha is on the woman’s soccer team; so you would assume that the majority of the girls who came would be soccer girls. That assumption would be correct. The only people that came who were not on the soccer team were my friend Saryl and I, and we came together. The majority of the soccer girls are new, so it was somewhat awkward, but as the night went on we met the girls and they were a lot of fun. I learned one very important thing that night; don’t play volleyball with soccer players. Just because soccer players are good at kicking a ball around on the field doesn’t necessarily mean that they are good at hitting a ball with their hands. It was still fun though.

After all but 3 of us had left, we decided to jump in the hot tub. Jacki’s aunt has a house in Boring, OR, where we had our little birthday bash. She has one of the most amazing houses I’ve seen. The entire back wall of the house is full of windows that overlook the acre upon acre of backyard, which overlooks the PERFECT view of Mt. Hood. I can’t even begin to tell you how peaceful it was. On the back porch is the hot tub we jumped in. If it had been in the daylight, we would have sat in view of Mt. Hood. However, it was night so there wasn’t a Mt. Hood, but there sure was a blanket of stars overhead.

This is Saryl. She may not play soccer, but her tongue sure can touch her nose.

Alisha, the birthday girl, and Jacki, who's aunt's house we had the shindig.

AND the cake. The incredible warrior is named, Bruno.

Look who's back...

2007-09-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

Well, whata ya know... Lucky Cascade, April’s back.
Once again it’s time for another wonderful year here in Portland and I am honored to share a glimpse of my sophomore year with you.

Summer was much better than expected, but boy am I glad it’s over! I’ve been waiting 4 long, grueling months to come back to this place.
Life is good. I’m rooming with 2 of my best friends, and as soon as Danelle comes back from her study abroad she will join us in our suite. God has truly blessed my roommates and me this year. I’m not near as busy as I was last year, I have a class schedule everyone is envious of, our neighbors are amazing, we have a kitchen, and we have a porch! It’s only the 3rd week of school and I already love every minute of it.

With a long summer in Texas, I had some serious thinking time. It was there that I had this epiphany.

-If God’s blessing me with a chance to finally escape from Texas and come to this beautiful city of Portland, I better take advantage of everything it has to offer.
I realized that I was so busy last year with school and cross-country that I barely had time to do anything. Now, I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy last year, because I did. I just want to enjoy this year a little more. There are so many things I want to do this year, so many adventures calling my name. I don’t want to make the same mistakes as last year and miss all the exciting things Oregon and the people around me have to offer. My personal goal this year is to take the time to embrace each moment that I have here and to embrace those whom I spend it with. Life is too short to be stressed about the silly things that you more than likely won’t remember 10, or even 2 years from now.

With this said, I invite you to share in this time with me and embrace the beauty of life (While you also consider going to Cascade next year, so that you too can have many adventures).

So Long Portland....(and Freshman Year)

2007-05-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

As of a couple weeks ago the semester was over. Everyone packed their bags and went their separate ways. Some went home for the summer and some stayed to take summer school. Some moved in with friends and some stayed in Portland. If you are like my friend Jacki, two weeks ago marked an end to a journey she began 4 years ago and the beginning of something new.

I truly believe that God brings us to the places we need to go and at the very time we need them most. This was the case for me. At the beginning of the semester I had no idea what to expect. The only thing I was sure of was that my brother would be there and I was going to have a cool roommate. However, as time went by I realized there was much more. Cascade was the very thing I needed this year. Thanks to this year I have some of the most amazing friends and some wonderful memories.

I encourage you guys as y’all (Sorry I’m back in Texas and I can say that now!) look for the school that’s right for you to be open minded. Dream big and follow that. If you want to go to school somewhere that’s 20 miles away or 2000 miles away, don’t let anything get in your way.

College is a wonderful experience, full of many twists, turns, and multiple surprises. It’s the time of your life, so embrace the now and be excited for what’s to come.

Good luck in your future and if you do decide to come to Cascade next year, see ya then!

Dancing Alone.

2007-04-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

Danelle left on Sunday because she got REALLY sick. At the time I didn’t think much of it, but I just got a phone call from her and it’s not likely that she will be back this semester. I’m super bummed. I’m pretty sure she was my other half and I now wander in search of what I have lost. She is going to Vienna on the study abroad program in the fall, so I won’t get to see her at all. We had planned to take down our room together and watch “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” and order pizza, but now I will take it down alone.
She’s so sick, I feel so bad for her. When she talks, it sounds as if she is on her deathbed. Oh, how I wish she would get better! It is rather lonely in my room. Even though there are always 3 other people in here it is still sad, especially since there is only a week left of school and we all want to hang out before we leave. Poor Danelle, if I were a fairy I would heal her and then she would come back and dance to Snow Patrol. Speaking of Snow Patrol, that is why I wrote this. Danelle and I always dance around to Snow Patrol. The other night it came on and I started to dance, then I realized Danelle wasn’t here and I stopped.

Being sick is dumb! We should go on strike or something.

NO more dancing.

Love; what does it look like?

2007-04-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

-April 16, 2007

My mom called at 2 o’clock today.
She never calls early in the day unless it’s Tuesday or Wednesday.
Today was Monday.
She called in the middle of a class.
I called her back at 4.
All she wanted was to hear my voice.

Today the deadliest shooting in history took place at Virginia Tech. 33 people have lost their lives.

“I just had to hear your voice,” she said as her voice quivered through the phone, “I needed to hear you were okay.”

By these few words my mom spoke, my entire outlook of the situation changed.

Today someone at Virginia Tech’s mom tried to call her daughter to repeat these same words. She didn’t return the phone call.

To you and I, these 33 people are just 33 people.
To someone else, it was their daughter, son, brother, mother, granddaughter, cousin, uncle, fiancé, wife, roommate, student, professor or even a friend.

Today thousands of lives were immediately affected by this one event. Tonight, they will go to sleep and pray that it will all have been a bad dream, which will only make it worse when they wake.

To the gunman, I can only imagine the unrest in his soul. I can’t fathom the pain he must have felt to drive him this far.

Do you think if we all learned how to love, would anything change?

The Last Time I Went To California I was 5 years old.

2007-04-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

Spring Break was last week and guess where I went????

Yep, California! I have 2 friends that live in Los Angeles, so we decided to go visit. I must say that this trip was the most interesting of all! It started with a 31.5 hour train ride and a 1.5 hour charter bus ride. Erika and Danelle were on the train as well, so it wasn’t that boring. Erika and I both get extremely car sick, and the train wasn’t any better. To prevent this we took Dramamine. Et pretty much knocked me out most of the way there, and it was great!
There are way too many details about the trip, so I will only mention the best.

So here we go:
Best detail #1:
Disney Land - Danelle and I have never been, and it’s completely unacceptable for 19 year olds to have never gone to this magical place, so we totally went. I think my favorite rides were: Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones, and Space Mountain (In no particular order of course!). Oh, Buzz Lightyear was also rad. I dominated the game with 56,000 pts!

Best detail #2:
Switchfoot/Copeland live in Ventura, CA:
One word, AMAZING. They were both shooting a live video, so I will most likely become a famous movie star or something. In other words, save each of these entries, they will probably be worth a million dollars one day!
The way home was even better than the train ride up there, this time it took 36 hours. Thankfully the Dramamine this time around knocked me out for 30 hours (not consecutively). All in all, Spring Break was marvelous, superb, wonderful, fabulous, fantastic, magnificent, and incredible!

**THE TRAIN RIDE: 20 something hours in I think.

**Keep these entries, I will be a star.

**Pre-Disneyfied.

First Thursday

2007-04-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight a few of us went to First Thursday in the Pearl District. If you are unfamiliar with this, it’s when all of the art galleries are open to the public for free. If you’re into art of any type, you would definitely love this. Not only is artwork displayed inside, but outside as well.

Portland thrives in the art department, so on First Thursday everyone and their pets (literally) flood the sidewalks wandering in and out of the galleries. As I walked down the streets today I noticed various types of art.

1: The actual art in the galleries. I really encourage you, if you have the chance, to go to some of these galleries. There is everything from elementary school kids art to magazine cut outs to interpretive videos.

2: Outdoor art. Outside of the galleries are artists who may not have a studio, but still wish to display their work. I think one guy was even selling his techno mixed cd. There’s also a man and a woman who are flamethrowers or something. I’m not too sure what it’s called, but it was neat.

3: The people. You don’t necessarily need to walk into an art gallery to see art. If you just walk down the street and look, in a non-creepy manner, at all of the people walking down the street there’s no way you can miss the art. Each person down there is very unique. Walking one direction is a 20-year-old guy. He’s tattooed from head to toe, has dreaded hair tied back in a ponytail, a “used to be white, but now almost brown” shirt on, and wears a backpack that probably carries most of his life inside. If you take the time, you realize that just like an actual sculptor, painting, or whatever it may be, this guy too has a story behind him. Perhaps I’m pulling this out of nowhere, or maybe you just think I’m crazy, but art is everywhere. You yourself are art...

First Thursday is truly amazing. When you are in Portland, stop by the Pearl District on the first Thursday to be amazed.

ALL SCHOOL RETREAT

2007-03-13T15:40:00.000-07:00

All school retreat was last weekend at Camp Yamhill. I had never been there before so I had no idea of what I should expect. It was great though, so great in fact that I will share some details with you!

Before I go into any detail about the weekend, I must first share with you our drive out there. ……. A few of us couldn’t leave when the majority left, so around 10:30 we were finally off. Brandy (if you’ve seen Witness, she’s the red head) and Danelle were in the front seat and Erica and I in back. It was all great, until we got to the dirt road, the only way to get to the camp. It was pitch black and the greatest amount of fog that I’ve ever seen settled around the camp. We couldn’t see ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING. I think Brandy was driving 2 mph. Anyway, it was SUPER scary and we all ALMOST wet our pants. Oh, and then about 7 rams, out of nowhere ran in front of us.

Past that, the weekend was a lot of fun. It was nice to hang out with different people that you may not interact with on a day-to-day basis. There were a few devotional type sessions, led by Mr. Scottie Christianson (SPELL HIS NAME RIGHT RONKNEE), but other than that it was pretty chill, very relaxing. The coolest game in the world was there, Carpet Ball, it consumed much of our time there. One night we had a gigantic marshmallow fight, Roni and I dominated that.

Anyway it was really fun, a great escape from the ordinary. Look at the pictures, I think all these goofy kids had fun!

This camp was cool. They had really big mugs.

And really big spoons.(Heather)

Alisha and Jacki, they are intense wrestlers.

The one on the right is Megan, she just joined the Peace Corp. She will be in Africa for the next 2 years.

RELAX

2007-03-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

I know that we all want to save the world, or at least I do, and we often run ourselves into the ground trying to do so. The important thing to remember is that although you want to be involved all these extracurricular activities, you are only one person and can only do so much. So while you try to do all of this remember to take time for yourself. I can’t stress how important this is. Whether taking time for yourself means taking a walk or playing guitar or even just sitting in your dorm, be sure to take a little time for yourself.
My friend Susan and I realized that we needed this escape, so we went on a little adventure.
I won’t tell you the exact location of our refreshing spot, but it’s a beautiful spot that over looks the great city of Portland. (If you are from Portland, you probably know where it is…sshhh.)
Just look at how beautiful it is. Oh, and we ate Subway up there.

“KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD”…..

2007-03-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

…that’s not too hard
Tonight has been a rather interesting night. It all started when Erica, Brittany, and I went to Quizno’s to get Erica some dinner. It was all fine and dandy, until we got back to the dorms. Erica proceeded to eat her sandwich and asked if I wanted a bite. I said yes and then it all went downhill. I was expecting to bite into this amazing sandwich, but was surprised when there was nothing amazing to it. Apparently Erica had gotten some crazy sandwich; it was super spicy and DISGUSTING! So as you can tell, biting into a sandwich expecting to taste a piece of heaven, but then eating a piece of poo, can ruin a night.

If that isn’t enough, it gets better. I then went over to the Lambda’s “Refreshment Night” (complete with: facials, foot massages, regular messages, hot chocolate, tea, hand massages, manicures, and coloring… it was wonderful!). After I was finished, I went back to my room and I saw my friend Brittany as she was leaving to go to the emergency room. I went with her because she was going alone and it’s not all that safe to go alone. So that brings to where I am now, in the emergency waiting room. Within these 3 hours that we have been waiting 2 interesting things have gone on. I say interesting, but one was actually more sad than interesting and the other was kind of scary.
Interesting/sad/depressing thing #1:
While we have been sitting here one lady was in the restroom for like 45 minutes and then came out and started to yell at her father about something crazy. They then walked to the front of the ER and about 2 minutes later 4 EMT’s, a few nurses, and the night police all came sprinting down the hallway out the doors. This same lady that was in the restroom had tried to OD while she was in the restroom and when she went outside she tried to kill her father. It was all a huge commotion and as you can judge for yourself, although interesting, it shouldn’t be. I actually feel guilty for finding any interest in this whatsoever. It’s really a heart-breaking story. I can only wonder about the story she has and the various pain she must have inside.
Story #2:
This one scared Brittany and I both. I can’t give specific details because there are too many, so it might seem a bit scattered. The gist of the story is that this man was wheeled into the ER and the EMT who was attending him left the room. As soon as he left this man started to talk to us along with a few other girls who I assume were around our same age. I don’t exactly remember what all he was talking about, but he wanted us to wheel him out of the hospital. Then he switched subjects to a wreck that he had been in last February. He then started talking about how he had $400,000 and this hospital had stolen it from him. He told us that we needed to get out while we had the chance. He switched stories back to all the money he had, but then how he owed the hospital $460,000 that they had illegally charged him and then he told us how he owed the IRS thousands of dollars. This all went on for quite some time and then the EMT came back. The man started yelling at the EMT and then shouting profanities. It was all insane and I’m pretty sure all of us were in shock. While the EMT was wheeling the man out, the dude stopped him and turned around and started yelling to us again.

I know this all may seem a little stupid.. so if you feel that way…I guess you just had to be there.

Winter Formal

2007-02-28T13:20:00.000-08:00

Winter Formal was last weekend.
Here’s what happened.

Saturday morning/afternoon I helped with the “Ladies Day of Spiritual Refreshment” along with some other lads from Cascade. Despite what you may think, it quite fun!
(**Helpful hint #10,000 if you come to Cascade:If there is ever a chance to work in the cafeteria for a seminar or luncheon, do it. One, it’s an easy way to earn some cash. Two, you get to wear black and white and a super, cool apron thing. Three, you get to eat whatever food is left over.)

After this refreshing luncheon was over, I went back to my room and did nothing until it was time to get ready. I think every girl on the first floor got ready in our room, so it looked like David’s Bridal threw up all over the place! After we had finished we met our dates. Being the gentlemen they are, they each had a rose for us.

Now moving on to the dinner.
We had a lovely dinner: chicken stuff, sweet potato look a likes, and some other stuff. After dinner there was a comedian, Cleto or it might be Cletho? He was from San Antonio so that made me happy. Although dinner was great, what’s a winter formal without some good ol’ bowling? Everyone went bowling afterwards in suits and dresses. I’m going to brag on myself because I am pretty much amazing and haven’t bowled since prom last year. My first 3 bowls were strikes and I think I had either strikes or spares after that, aka I dominated the boys. In between my killer bowls, we danced stupidly around the bowling alley to whatever song came up and then we went to IHOP.

To end this…
Winter Formal was fun.
Bowling was ridiculously fun.
And I am amazing.

Danelle and her date, Kyle (or Hutch)

My date, Justin and I (and my flower, Rose)

The girls.

And Sarah, being Sarah. (don’t ask about the dress)

Summit

2007-02-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

Exactly one year ago…
I came to Portland.
I met Danelle.
And I went to Summit.

The Summit retreat was last weekend and from the looks of it, everyone had a blast. It was rather interesting because we had 2 girls stay in our room. If you’ve been in a dorm room you’d understand what I mean by interesting and if not, just know that it is a rather tight squeeze. We didn’t mind though, it was kind of fun and it definitely helped that Elizabeth and Kristin were awesome!

I think the majority of Summit was the same as it was last year, although I don’t really remember, but what I do remember is the rock gym and that’s where my story comes in.

One day when I was working in the admissions office, Tanitra said something about belaying and I said, “Oh, I did that once” and the next thing I know I was at the rock gym RELEARNING how to belay. After a few brave souls climbed up my wall, I saw James (admissions counselor James) and said, “Hey James, you should go up my wall!” He was a little hesitant at first because he didn’t think that I could hold him, but after a little persuasion he decided to climb it.
James and I were both doing great, he was climbing and I was belaying. Things were great, until he fell and tried to kill me. Although he may argue that he was the victim, it was I who was in the deepest danger. James slipped about halfway up the wall and I tried to stop him, as any great belayer such as I would do, but it was no use and I flew up off the ground as he fell down. As we flew the treacherous 6 ft above ground (I think that is what James and I decided the height was), our lives flashed before our eyes. It wouldn’t have been as bad if I had simply flown up and he down, but this experience was a little different. At the time of James’ fall, I was angled out from him, so when I flew up I angled in toward him. To put it simply, we collided a few times in the air and might I add, we hit really hard! After we got down from the near death experience, James went up again and then fell again. The difference this time was that I had positioned myself differently so that IF he fell again, which he did, I would fly straight up. So as he fell and I flew we went straight up without colliding, it was kind of like a ride at Six Flags. I don’t know which one, but I’m sure that it has to be like one of the rides there.
Even though we almost died (kinda/not really), it was pretty fun and I provided a picture for your viewing pleasure.

P.S. People who came to Summit…Come to Cascade.
P.P.S I saw pictures of Summit, good times.

That’s All.

This is James as he was about to die, luckily I saved him.

Only With Erika...

2007-02-26T11:03:00.000-08:00

Portland is full of crazy kids who belong to crazy parents, which is why I love Portland! Every time I go out with my friend Erika, we always meet someone ridiculous on the bus that makes all of our adventures amazing!

It all started last semester during Fall Break…

All of our friends thought that it would be cool if they went home for Fall Break, which left only Erikaand me at Cascade.
There was only one thing to do so we took advantage of our time and went on an adventure!! We adventured all day long, but as we waited for our bus that night our adventure hit its climax.

As we were waiting at the bus stop, Erika started talking about astrology signs. About 5 minutes AFTER we had finished talking about astrology this guy, around 20 years old or so that had apparently been listening to us, jumped into our conversation and started talking about water signs. It was totally random because I think we had moved on to a conversation about muffins or something and then this guy jumps in saying, “They used to have 13, but now there are 12 water signs!” After we figured out the subject of this new conversation we were apparently in, we all got on the bus and he sat right across from us. Although the details of this story make it absolutely ridiculous (wow, I sure use that word a lot), I will cut to the point. Anyway, this guy was crazy, he went on about water signs, then Satan, then china and then back to Satan and back to water signs. He switched subjects about every 4 seconds while he rocked back and forth rubbing his arms and hands. While in the midst of this he starts shouting at us, “Do I exist to you? Do I mean anything to you? Do I exist to you?” So, to calm him down I replied, “Yes of course you do.” We thought that would calm him down, but we were far from that. He started talking about how Satan and the moon came together on Christmas to make pizza or something and then started shouting the same thing over and over again. About 20 minutes later we reached his bus stop and as he proceeded to get off he offered me gum. I politely said “No thank you,” but he insisted that he was not a stranger, rather a good friend, and I should not refuse his generous offer of 2 pieces of gum. So I took them, and that was that.

Then, Erika and I went out again a few nights ago and met another interesting character on the bus. He was cool in the sense that he showed me these super hideous pants that he bought for his girlfriend and told me about how he was going to surprise her with them. During our conversation with this man, Erika’s sister called. This same man then began to shout at Erika saying (to her sister), “I hate you, I hate you!” A few minutes later, our new friend began to yell at everyone on the bus, asking if they had any weed. It really was a great day!... and then we saw him in Macy’s today.

Erika and I Before we met the pants man.

Erika and I (at Saturday Market), maybe this is why the astrology man kept talking to us?

Sunday, the day Danelle came back with a little piece of heaven...

2007-01-30T13:57:00.000-08:00

The bad news: Danelle left last Thursday on school trip to Oklahoma and was gone all weekend, it was rather sad.

The good news: She got back last night.

The even better news: I had told her before she left that because she was going to be in the land of Chick-fil-a, she absolutely had to eat there.

For those of you who have no idea what Chick-fil-a is, I will give you a brief definition:
It's the most amazing place to eat in the ENTIRE universe!

It’s kind of like a fast food chicken place, but not really because it’s 500x better and comparing Chick-fil-a to a fast food chain would be a sin. The point is it’s AMAZING!

Anyway, being the wonderful roommate that she is and knowing how in love with Chick-fil-a I am, she brought me back a sandwich. According to everyone on her trip, employees at Chick-fil-a, the flight attendants, and most likely you as well, eating a sandwich 8 hours later is gross and unsafe. However, Danelle (thankfully) ignored what they said and brought the little piece of heaven back to me.

When she walked in the door the first thing she did was hand me the sandwich and tell me the stories of everyone on the plane asking why she still had the sandwich and then all the nonsense about how it isn’t good to eat things that have been out of the fridge that long. I laughed and then proceeded to eat the sandwich.

It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING and I’m not sick yet, but even if I do get sick from it, it’s Chick-fil-a and totally worth it.

Doesn’t that look amazing!!!?

When "sharing" goes bad.

2007-01-25T12:44:00.000-08:00

What happens when you live in a dorm with 50 other girls and someone needs to borrow a jacket?

-You do the polite thing and let them borrow yours.

What about when someone asks you for food?

-Again, you do the polite thing and give them some.

It’s just like the bible says, if someone is thirsty, give them something to drink. If someone needs a tunic, give them yours.

(This is a tunic, in case you were wondering.)

As one might assume, sharing is the right thing to do, right?

Well,

That’s just beautiful, but I have now come to believe that sometimes sharing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. If you don’t understand, I will explain…

The other day, I was minding my own business and someone, whom I assume was trying to do the cool “sharing” thing, very generously gave me The Flu. ......Jerks.

(Maybe I should have been wearing something like this, instead of regular clothes.)

So, the point to all of this is…

Be careful when you live in the dorms! Even though you love each other so deeply and want to share everything, it’s not so great to share the FLU.

The End.

Christmas and Parents and of course, Puppies.

2007-01-19T10:58:00.000-08:00

Finals are over and sadly, so is Christmas break. I don’t think anyone will disagree with me when I say that the break went by way too fast. I thought the meaning of a break was a time for some good R&R, but I’m pretty sure I did more work than relaxation. All in all it was good to be home and I did have a lot of fun seeing my family, old friends, and MY NEW PUPPIES! They are pretty much the cutest things in the universe.
After careful consideration, I named each one accordingly:

This one is Jazzy. She started off with the name Jasmine, but my mom decided to shorten it.

This little guy is Tux, well, that was his first name. My mom and I thought that because he looks like he’s wearing a tuxedo, it would make sense to name him Tux. So, for the first 3 weeks everyone in my family except for my Dad called him Tux. However, one night at dinner my Dad made an announcement that he had changed his name to Sparky. Why? I have no clue, I just know that this puppy is going to grow up rather confused and will probably never know his name… it’s a sad tale.

This one is my favorite. I named her Meatloaf, which suits her very well. She is basically the laziest food sucker I have ever seen. All she does is sleep and eat, so of course she weighs like 175 lbs or something like that.

Although it was good to be home, I won’t lie to you and tell you it was the best "almost entire month" of my life. It’s difficult to switch settings from living on your own (well, the dorms) to living with your parents again. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family to death, but any honest person would tell you the same. I didn’t have a curfew or anything, but my parents played the whole parent card as if it were their job or something (!imagine that!) and always asked where I was going and when I would be home. (**Mom or Dad, if you’re reading this, I’m only kidding, I love it when you play 20 questions with me before I go anywhere**) I know it’s their job and that’s cool, it just takes some adjusting. I really did have fun being with my family though.

To conclude this long entry:
No matter how annoying it can be at times to be home, be thankful for the time you have with your family and just think; at least you are away from all this…

"Just some of the reasons your college student is looking forward to Christmas Break"

Clean underwear, comfortable bed, access to a car, bedroom larger than a 12x14 cell…OK, even if it is for only four days.

To eat your meals the only trek you’ll have to make is from the couch to the kitchen, rather than the dorm to the dining hall…in below freezing weather.

Instead of listening to "When I first started teaching here…" you can be entertained by "When your mother was your age…" and "During the Depression…" .

You can eat your corn steamed with butter rather than popped in your microwave.

You’ll know the hair in the shower drain is your own.

You won’t be eating your Christmas meal off a tray!

(That was from a newspaper clipping my Mom gave to me)

Finals Shminals.

2006-12-15T14:35:00.000-08:00

24-hr Starbucks=No sleep & Studying

Sometimes you will find that your dorm is rather distracting when you are trying to study. What I mean by that is, when you are reading or doing your math homework, it’s easy to be thrown off. Well, maybe I am just easily distracted because for some reason even the slightest thing, like staring at our Christmas lights on the wall, causes me to lose focus. Don’t worry though, that’s why capital America created a 24-hour Starbucks.
There’s this really neat Starbucks all the way down Burnside that has cool tables, chairs, and coffee. I personally don’t like coffee, but everyone else does. So, for those who need to do lots of studying, thank goodness for Starbucks.
The goal for Danelle and I was to get lots of studying done tonight without getting distracted. However, I am writing this blog and not doing my homework. I have my headphones in my ears right now and from the looks of it, Danelle looks like she is intensely working. Well, she does except for that every time I look at her she starts to make funny faces and then we start to beat an imaginary drum set and recite the words to "The Approaching Curve" by Rise Against. So, yeah, I don’t think either of us are accomplishing much.

Moral of the story, you can’t stop distractions.

I heart….Oatmeal.

2006-12-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

I love to chase cars.
I love to dance whimsically around the room to Snow Patrol.
I love concerts.

…That is why I went to see Snow Patrol a few weekends ago. I generally don’t listen to too many bands like them, but there is just something about them that hooked me. My roommate is also in love with them, so we took each other as a birthday present to ourselves. It was amazing and now I want to marry them all.

I love oatmeal.
I love Snow Patrol.
I love oatmeal while listening to Snow Patrol.

…And I love this blog because it makes absolutely no sense at all.

Portland, O’ Portland How I Missed Thee.

2006-12-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, Thanksgiving Break is over. As sad as it may be, we only have 2 or so weeks left, which should fly by rather quickly.

Getting to the point.
When you live in the dorms, you need to be prepared for whatever may happen. Some nights, you must be prepared to not get any sleep. Other nights you must be prepared to sneak out to go to Washington and possibly get slurpies (not that we did, it just seems like a pretty neat idea). Then there are those nights that you must prepare yourself to get barged in on by 5 other girls. It’s quite funny actually, just when you think you are going to have some peace and quiet…”BAM” the door opens and in walks someone with something in their hand that they want to do. Sometimes its homework, maybe a box of KIX and they just want to play CLUE, or maybe Laura with her computer. It’s always a different story. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind that much, it’s actually quite fun. It’s actually so much fun that I’ve begun to create a game out of it. It’s pretty easy; it goes a little like this:

Every night try to see how far along you can get while getting ready for bed before someone comes in. If you make it all the way into your bed and only half way asleep before someone comes in, it doesn’t count, you have to be asleep. –I’ve made it there 2 times.

I really don’t mind though. It’s fun and it keeps life interesting. Actually, the dorms wouldn’t quite be the dorms if people didn’t always come in uninvited. Now that I think about it, some of the best memories are made when you don’t expect them to. For instance, the other night we had a “Sparkling Cider” party in a room down the hall. Unfortunately, when we took the picture Erika’s face got smudged, and if The Ring is right, because movies always are, something not so great is going to happen to her. For Danelle, she just disappeared so I took the liberty to redraw her.

The Real Break

2006-12-07T16:52:00.000-08:00

So Thanksgiving break was definitely a good thing. Although I missed my classes, eating from the cafeteria, and all the wonderful homework we so graciously are assigned each week, it was nice to be back. I learned some pretty neat things while being home and they go a little something like this:
1. When you move, your room will not be the way you left it. In other words, your parents will get a hold of it and in some way they will rearrange it, or in my case use my closet for stupid stuff.
2. Take your laundry home! I guarantee that your mom will wash it for you!
3. Don’t worry about what you will eat. Your parents will go out and stock up on all of the good stuff you have been deprived from for the past few months.
4. Life does go on without you. Well, I was shocked.
5. Do your homework.
6. When you turn a year older, you magically become much, much wiser overnight. It’s true; my birthday was over the break and overnight my "Wise Scale" jumped from like 2 to 200. It’s pretty much amazing I must say!
7. It’s easy to NOT notice that your dog is pregnant. Apparently mine is.
8. AND…I can make one amazing gingerbread house!!!

Tyler (a friend from Texas) and I made gingerbread houses.... mine is the cooler one. :)

TURKEY!!

2006-12-07T16:42:00.000-08:00

Give thanks for Thanksgiving ... break. When our forefathers were planning out this glorious day, I’m pretty sure they took into consideration the many college students who would later be struggling to finish the semester. It truly is amazing how much school can drain you not only mentally, but physically as well. Thanksgiving break is here and I have not seen anyone who is not completely and utterly thrilled beyond belief. We’ve been in school now for about 3 months and after our amazingly long break we will come back for about 2.5 weeks depending on when finals are over. After that, the first semester is over! YAY! That means that I made it through my 1st semester in college!

Cascade has many neat things about it, but I must say that nothing quite compares to how long our breaks are. Example, I am flying to Texas for Thanksgiving. My Dad teaches college there and they only get off the Wednesday before and are expected back the following Monday. Cascade however, is finished the Friday before and if you are not so good at math I will help convert that to days for you:
9 Days
10 Nights (Well sorta)

That’s all.
Cascade = Ridiculously long breaks.

Sorry about the picture.

Broke.

2006-11-10T14:30:00.001-08:00

Today I realized what it means to be a college kid (apparently that is not a proper word, but oh well). If you thought that being a college kid meant you would grow intellectually, study until your eyes fall out, never sleep, eat dirt, and have a whole lot of fun while doing it, well you are wrong. Why are you wrong? Glad you asked! The real meaning of being a college kid is being flat broke. Growing up I always thought this was a funny term, but as of today I discovered that the term isn’t really that funny at all. When I checked on my account today, the balance read zero. I thought for a long time about what I could do to get some extra cash and then it finally hit me, "April, you are of age, buy a lottery ticket!" I know that you are probably thinking that I am insane, but wait until I am finished to pass your judgments. So I walked into the store and bought 2 lottery tickets. I was sure that today was going to be a lucky day because I had picked up a penny (heads up) earlier that morning. I scratched the funky silver stuff off with my lucky penny and then was amazed. The first one said that I won $5.00. Now, I know that isn’t much, but to a starving college kid, $5.00 can go along way! Get this; on the second one I didn’t win $5.00, but $50.00. Ya, I know, I’m pretty much amazing! The rest is history after that.

Okay, so I made up that entire story. I just thought that it went well with the picture. Well, most of the story is false, but the part about being flat broke is true. I honestly have a bank account of zero.

***Quick Facts:
CASCADE DOES NOT PROMOTE GAMBLING.

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Laundry, Decorating, and Food...

2006-11-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

I haven’t seen my mom since I moved up here and she came up last week and stayed. It was way fun and I’m pretty sure that if she or my Dad didn’t have hardcore jobs in Texas they would move up here!

Another cool thing about being a college kid is, when your mom comes to visit, she will take care of you. I’m not saying that you should use your mom to make her do all of your chores, but take what she offers. In my case, my mom offered to do all of my laundry, buy some groceries, and help Danelle and I decorate our room some more. I think she even helped the other girls on our floor decorate their rooms as well!

We can’t forget the most important thing though, which would be another area of the food department...she took me to eat at actual restaurants as opposed to the cafeteria! It was amazing! I have to say that my mom is pretty cool and I think I will keep her.

I apologize for the picture. I don’t have any good pictures from when my mom was here, so I thought that this would serve as a replacement!

Pumpkin time

2006-11-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

The Coolest Things Ever:
1. Pumpkins
2. Pumpkins
3. Pumpkins

Pumpkins are so cool. The other weekend a group of us decided to go to WinCo and buy some pumpkins. I know you’re thinking that it’s a little immature for college kids to carve pumpkins. Well, you are wrong because carving pumpkins is just about the coolest thing you could do while in college. Think about it, a pumpkin can transform into so many things. It could be a jack-o-lantern, a pumpkin pie, a golden carriage, or even just a pumpkin with cool things carved out of it.
We thought about what to do with our pumpkins and figured that while driving a golden carriage through Portland was probably one of the greatest things EVER, we didn’t want anyone to be jealous. Instead we decided to carve out whatever our hearts desired.

Matt (a fellow pumpkin carver) desired a Jedi.

Sarah (the kidnapped one from dinner)….well, we won’t talk about her pumpkin.

Nathaniel kept it traditional with the standard jack-o-lantern face.

And Laura just ate hers.

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Dinner at the Jones'...

2006-10-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

So if I haven’t told you already, I run cross-country. I’ve actually never ran for a team until I came to Cascade, which is kind of strange that they wanted me to run, but whatever. Although there are only 3 girls and 7 boys who make up our team it has been really fun! So in other words, if you actually are a cross-country runner or even if you aren’t, but think it would be pretty cool, come to Cascade! You’ll have an amazing time and get to hang out with some pretty cool people! Speaking of hanging out with some pretty cool people…

The other night our cross-country team was invited to dinner at Dr. Jones’ house, aka the Academic Dean. However, due to illnesses and classes, only a few of us could make it. While we were waiting in the van, our friend Sarah came over to talk to us. Sarah doesn’t run cross-country, but we wanted her to come with us, so we pretty much kidnapped her. It wasn't anything too severe, no bandanas or duck tape in the mouth, but still.

The cool thing about being a college kid is that everyone wants to feed you dinner because they know that you are too poor to feed yourself. Sometimes the food is good and sometimes you are better off eating grass. We were a few of the lucky ones because we ate the most amazing spaghetti. It was homemade and everything!

Following dinner we decided to have a marathon of arm wrestling. I of course won each match.
Well, maybe not. Our coach, Willie Steele, and another guy from our team wrestled for like an hour. Willie won!

All in all, if you don’t go to college to learn, at least go to get the free food!

Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo...

2006-10-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Fall Break and it seemed as if everyone and their mom was going home. It would have been too complicated and costly for me to go home, so I decided to stay here and get ahead on my homework. Well, that’s what I had in mind, but instead I decided to spend my time in a much more educational manner, and we all know that there is nothing more educational than a trip to the zoo! So bright and early Friday morning, five of us piled into a car and headed for the zoo. I think I was more stoked than anyone because the only other zoo I had been to was in Abilene, TX. It basically consisted of an elephant, 2 giraffes, a few ostriches, a tiger, and some snakes. It definitely wasn’t the coolest thing in the world.

We stayed at the zoo for five hours and it was the coolest thing of my life! I think the five of us "adult", "college", "intellectuals", were more excited than the little kids that were there on a field trip. I would have to say that my favorite animals were the polar bears and the bats. The polar bears just look cool and all they do is walk back and forth all day, and who wouldn’t want to be a bat and hang upside down?

Here are some pics of our adventures...

MONKEY PIC
This crazy monkey had a mind of his own and was trying to grab a huge twig and pull it through a chain-linked fence. Ya, it didn’t work, but he looked cool.

PENGUINS PIC
Sarah and I made friends with the penguins. They are neat.

SKELETON PENGUIN
That’s really sad when you think about it- "Hey, why don’t we scare all the little kids (who love penguins) with these dead penguins so that they will run off crying!" Smart thinking Oregon Zoo people!

Party in the lobby...

2006-10-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

According to my calendar, September 22nd was the official last day of summer. Yesterday however, I heard an interesting fact about this past September. I might not have the exact numbers, but they are close and that’s what matters, right?

"According to meteorologists, this past September Portland was reported to expect only 7 days of sun. This year however, not only 7 sunny days popped up, but 15!!!

*Ok ok, I didn't take that picture, I got it off the internet, but you get the idea!*

Even though I find that amazing, I am one of the strongest advocates of the fall. I love everything about it; the changing of the leaves, pumpkins, gloves and scarves, Christmas music, and not to forget my grandma’s homemade fudge!

Here is another interesting fact about September:
September 30th is so important that it has a song written especially for it. You might have heard it once or twice, it’s called, “Wake Me Up When September Ends” by Greenday. In honor of this momentous occasion, Danelle and I decided that a party was needed. So, at exactly 12:00 a.m. on October 1st, 4 of our fellow September fans cranked up the song and danced gracefully through the lobby.

Although our hearts were saddened that September was over, we did our best to celebrate that great month and now wait eagerly until next time.

First Post!

2006-09-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Gus the Dinosaur was a gift my roommate received before she left for college. Amazingly enough he has now become the protector of our dorm room, guarding everything from our laptops to our food. If Gus could talk, he would tell you of all the wonderful chaos that goes on in the dorm room of York 159. However, Gus is only a dinosaur and can do nothing of the sort. That is where I come in.

My name is April, and about a month and a half ago I moved from San Angelo, TX to Portland, OR, to attend Cascade College. I'm not exactly sure why I decided to move 2,000 miles away from home, but I did and I am loving it! There is always something to do and you never know what crazy thing is going to happen next, especially in the wonderful city of Portland! Although it is loads of fun, in the short amount of time that I've been an intellectual college student, I've found that college is very different than high school and sometimes you have to roll with the punches. Here's an example, apparently when you start your freshman year you’re supposed to know all the tricks of the trade of college. However, I was completely unaware of this requirement and was taken by surprise when I missed a class my first day! I had no idea that when put on a waiting list for a class you should attend on the first day, in case you get added to the class. So when it came time for the class, I didn't go. It was just my luck; someone HAD dropped the class, the day before, and I had been added, which in turn counted as an absence for me. Although I did not see the humor in it on my first day, it now seems quite funny and I can laugh about it!

Like I said before, there is always something going on, especially when you live with 16 other girls on your floor! Crazy stuff happens, including the gigantic first floor dance party we decided to have late one night. Then there are the random things. To prove my point, I will give you an example. Last night, my roommate Danelle tried to open one of our windows and it instead ended up shattering all over the place! A perfectly good window, gone!

So now, instead of the beautiful parking lot, we get to look at a lovely piece of cardboard. When I say lovely, by the way, I totally mean lovely. I painted a cute picture of a forest on it and you can't even tell there's a window missing! Yep that’s right, it looks like 100% window, but I am still glad that the new real window will be up soon.

Moving from such a small city in conservative Texas to the huge city of Portland definitely requires adjusting. I must admit though, there are a few things that I have yet to understand. First, everyone here says "pop", which is ridiculous because it's called "coke." In Texas it’s, "What do you want to drink?" – Coke. "What kind?" - Dr. Pepper. Secondly, it rains here. In Texas it hardly ever rains. Our equivalent of rain at home is turning on the sprinklers and running through them... lucky for me I love the rain! Third, people here say "You Guys". That's just insane. I don't understand. It always has been and always will be, "Ya'll." I'm pretty sure that during Creation, the word "Ya'll" was established and it was just up-hill from there. So, when people laugh at me for saying it too much, I laugh at them because they are the ones who have got it all wrong! Finally the most ridiculous thing about Portland would have to be… the squirrels. What is it with them? They are absolutely crazy. Seriously, I feel like the squirrels are taking over. At home if you were running or walking and you came within 2 yards of a squirrel, they’d take off in the opposite direction as quickly as possible. Here, instead of squirrels doing the natural thing and moving out of our way, we move for them. Who… no strike that, what are these tiny creatures that intimidate us so much so that we move out of their way? It's as if we're playing a game of Chicken with squirrels… and we lose… every time. It's completely ridiculous and we must show these silly creatures who’s in charge around here before they take over the world!

Hi, I'm April. Stay tuned for further updates.