Validation.

There are a two things in this world for which most everyone searches and which most everyone intensely desires, that is: things which connect us to others and things which set us apart from others.
The things which connect us are those things which seem so inexplicably important - like senior prom, or walking at graduation - things which many regret if they haven't done them (I am here speaking in reference to American culture, I realize that is by no means all of you and don't feel I'm leaving you out or over generalizing if this doesn't include you) not because they are in and of themselves so very enjoyable or exciting, but because... You just have to. And WHY do you "just have to"? Why are they so important? - because they are things which "everyone else" has done, they are those very few things which you share in common with the majority of the rest of your culture. There is comfort in a shared experience.
And as important as those experiences are we are also simultaneously searching for those things which set us apart, places we've been where few others have been, things we've seen that few others have seen, information we know that few others know... As an example: I've always felt a strange sense of pride at my incredibly bad eyesight. Really it's a bad thing, it's made certain aspects of my life a good deal more difficult, but I have always felt a strangely happy swelling in my chest when someone tries on my glasses and goes "wow! You're eyes ARE bad!" why? I know hardly anyone else with as bad of eyes as I have. Call me crazy but I don't think this is actually that strange of a feeling. There is thrill in a unique experience.
It's difficult to say which holds the greater weight, the thrill or the comfort, maybe it's different for each person, but on some level I think we really all desire them both.
Interestingly it would seem to me that each of these seemingly opposite experiences is sought for the same essential reason - validation. The validation of being unique and the validation of being normal. I'm not sure there's anything wrong with this desire for validation. In fact I'm pretty sure it stems back to our desire for God. I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to be normal and also wanting to be unique - I just thought it was interesting is all.

No such thing...

... as too much love.
I was sad that the wedding pictures got bumped into archives... so I had to add some more (plus I hope this will fulfill the desires of all of the rest of you who have asked me to e-mail you more pictures).

Tracy didn't hide them well enough.

Like seriously guys... I always knew I had an easily addictive personality, but... yeah, good thing I'm at Community College and not REAL school...

In other news - have you ever posted a comment one someone's blog and then gone "MAN that was hilarious!"? I have.

Addiction.

Can I just say - I completely empathize with all you Capernwray friends who got stuck on Alias for a few weeks and would just stay in your rooms watching them. I've caught them here and there over the years and then managed to watch consistently for the final 6 shows but... my friend loaned me season one this week. I watched five episodes today. FIVE! I had to give them to Tracy for the remainder of the evening just so that I can do an hours worth of homework. Oh goodness...

The Horse and His Boy

I just read The Horse and His Boy (book 5 in the Chronicles of Narnia) cover to cover in one sitting (well, almost, I read less than a chapter of it a couple days ago and I did get up once to make myself some hot cocoa). How delightful. So many quotable pieces, I'll just choose two.

Shasta meets Aslan:
"Who are you?" asked Shasta.
"Myself," said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again "Myself," loud and clear and gay; and then the third time "Myself," whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all round you as if the leaves rustled with it.
Shasta was no longer afraid that the voice belonged to something that would eat him, nor that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too.
(in the context of the story and becuase of it's beautiful descriptive force this passage nearly brought me to tears).

And this one made me laugh:
Aravis also had many quarrels (and I'm afraid even fights) with [Shasta], but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up they were so used to quarrelling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.
Oh good old Clive! Always a bachelor at heart!

Thunderstorm!!

We never have those! Yay! If I was at my parent's house we'd all sit in the dinning room and watch it out of our huge windows. But here I will be content to just listen... and to have been kind of scared while driving.

If I was being graded on procrastination, today I would recieve an A+!

Do you know that your savior lives?

A challenge?
Why do you believe in the physical ressurection of Jesus Christ? Why do you believe the gospel accounts to be accurate? What does the bible say about Christ's ressurection? - is it possible to interpret that the early church saw Christ's ressurection as only spiritual and not physical given that 1 Cor. 15 "seems to imply a spiritual ressurection" based on it's speaking of spiritual bodies directly after speaking of the importance of Christ's ressurection, and that the gospel accounts may have been written as they were as a means to combat gnostic teaching in the church and reiterate Christ's physicality although the church did not actually REALLY believe he rose physically from the dead? Is it possible that the historical accounting of the gospels was inaccurate but that they were still being honest because "honesty" and "lieing" in terms of historical accounting meant different things in those times than they do now?(for the record my answer to both of those is most decidedly NO and I can pretty concisely tell you why by now, but it took a little thinking and re-reading of scripture - how can YOU defend this?). What verses from the New Testament and the Old Testement can you give to support Christ's physical ressurection BESIDES the gospel accounts? Did Jesus predict his own death and ressurection (yes), where?

Why all these questions? Well, let's just say, I'm learning a lot a Community College - but sometimes I learn more from what the teacher fails to teach than from what he succeeds at teaching.

Classes.

I registered for my fall term at Wheaton. I will be taking:
-3rd World Issues (could I be more excited about a class's content?! no.)
-Anthropology and the Modern World (also very awesome sounding)
-Spanish 201 (porque necesito a estudiar espanol mucho mas)
-OT Literature and Interpretation (always stoked for bible classes)

Looking through the remaining classes that I need to take to graduate from college... I'm pretty sure there's not a bad one in the lot. Scared spitless about the difference between Wheaton's workload and my current? Yes. Afraid I'll get totally stressed and hate life? Yes. Excited about the things I will be potentially learning? DEFINETLY.
I am very blessed indeed.

One big fantastic blur.

That's right, parasols instead of boquets. Genius.

Rehersal Walk

My hot date to the rehersal dinner.

Beautiful and a little excited maybe.

I really love her.

Mr. and Mrs. Chase Chase.

I can't believe I got to see them both. I miss you two already. Wish we had a better picture J-nathan. So amazing to see you.

Goodbye!

Rebecca and Chaz are one!!!

THEY'RE MARRIED! The wedding was beautiful and wonderful and perfect. I also got to see Jesse and J. Amazing. I will post pictures and more detail soon. Just had to get this up here. Yay! Marraige!

Oreo

Yesterday I...
-Aced my history midterm on very little sleep.
-Raised my voice at a teacher for the first time in my life.
-Drove all the way to Philomath and back (2 hours each way).
-Got a new cell phone, which is a lot of fun.
-Fell down while long boarding and got some wicked scrapes.
-Did DQ with Hannah Bannana, I love still doing stuff we did together in middle school.

Today I...
-Forgot my coffee at home and nearly died in Spanish class because of it.
-Wasted 2 hours when I should have done homework but didn't feel like it.
-Will dance my heart out for 3 hours.
-Will love on some girls at youth group.
-Get to see Joshy!

Tomorrow I will...
-Hang out with Josh and Allison
-Get my hair cut (just trimmed a little... it's still growing long)
-Hopefully see Brent (eh Brent? I can't today. I'll call you tonight.)
-FLY TO VIRGINIA!!!!!

Tragic and Stupendeous.

Tragic:
So... yesterday I dropped my phone in the ocean. It didn't get washed away but it sure doesn't work anymore. So I'll get a new one before too long but I am phonless till then (I really don't know if I'll be able to survive or not...) and also I don't have any numbers anymore, so just so you know - if sometime in the future I give that as a reason for not calling you... it is real, I'm not making it up.

Stupendeous:
I just got back from a youth retreat with my high school group. It was kind of a weird trip - incredibly diverse group of kids making for rather awkward group dynamics... but God really did some cool stuff. I might write more about it later, I might not, I'm still processing stuff and I'm really tired - but long story short: I am an incredibly weak vessle, even though sometimes I trick myself into thinking I'm pretty strong, it's a lie and I'm not, but God is amazingly powerful, and he can, and did, use even a weak powerless unexperienced girl like me to reach out to some very needy and very hurting students. I'm so blown away by his grace and by how he works. I'm a little overwhelmed by it, but it's wonderful.
That's all for now.

Sigur Ros

There are no words. Best concert of my life. and I have been to well over 100. Amazing. There are no words.

Close to home?

Tomorrow.

Sigur Ros.