the unofficial official report

i'm proud to say that i have unofficially captured a 4.0 for this past semester. its unofficial only in that it has yet to be posted in my grade totals, but i know my grade for poli sci now and that was the only class unaccounted for, therefore i know that i shall be proudly holding a 4.0 whenever it becomes official. yay for me. stuff like this makes me happy.

today was brendon and josh's graduation party. crazy that they're graduated from college already. it was a nice day and we had fun. 90 degrees and sunny... perfect weather for a party if one had an air conditioned house to go into, maybe a tad bit warm when ac is not at your disposal, but whatever, we managed just fine. allison claimed that she can't handle heat... it takes everything out of her. ironic coming from a texan. we played lots of volleyball this afternoon. i love volleyball, but just a wee bit of talent would be nice. i hurt my elbow in the process of doing something. probably the time i ended up falling backwards and stupidly trying to catch myself with my right arm. next time, i'll just fall. later on the boys (namely my brothers and brendon's friends... with me tagging along as the only girl left) took fireworks and exploded fish. that wasn't my idea, but it was amusing. totally obliterated one. we also had a bon fire tonight, during which i got marshmallow on my pants.

after a warm day like to today, i just want to go swimming at my grandparents lake, but i fear the water won't be warm enough. oh well, i might try tomorrow anyway. allison leaves bright and early in the morning. i feel like i never get to actually catch up or spend real time with her when she's here. i'd so love to go down there on my week off work over the 4th of july. that'd be great. perhaps... perhaps. to bed with me. happy memorial day.

so summer. it's here, i guess. i'm struggling to recognize it. after finals, which were umm... lovely as usual, i packed everything i own into my car and headed north to michigan to visit family for a few days. it was a blast. lara and i hiked along the black river, found beautiful waterfalls, climbed walls of rock and felt very dare-develish, layed in the sunshine on the shore of lake superior talking for a long time and then went back that night to climb the giant clay/sand cliffs and have a bon fire on the beach with some other friends. it was truly a wonderful day. i don't remember what else we did, but it was very nice to see everyone. sunday morning i headed back to point for brendon's graduation. that was mostly painless but unpleasant nonetheless. my head got sunburned where i part my hair (i burned it more on monday.. it hurts now). we didn't get home till 9:30 that night, i made an appearance at a graduation party but i was exhausted beyond reason and lasted 45 minutes. monday morning bright and early i started work. that day was miserable: 8 hours of cpr training. tuesday and today contained more misery in the form of first aid training. and what'd'ya know... more first aid tomorrow! the 6am business starts next week. oh how i'm going to love leaving my house at 5:30am.

the weather has been lovely. it has been my reminder that it is indeed summer. my face and arms are a deep lovely golden color right now because we sat outside for some of training and i was outside doing some landscaping yesterday. monday afternoon i hopped on my horse and let him wander around his pasture. i was of course saddle and bridleless and wearing flip flops, so i pretty much just let him wander. he's a good sport, age has made him quite mild mannered, so he lets me do whatever. he's my project this summer. he's never been officially trained and i don't expect that he ever really will be since i never use a bridle anymore and don't honestly know how i'd do it, but if he just gets a little more clued into my directions we'll be good. i pointed at his shoulder yesterday and told him to backup and he did... i was impressed.

my room is a disaster zone. i have no time or motivation to unpack and clean things up. sadly allison is probably in a car somewhere in southern illinois headed my direction which means that since she's sleeping in my room i have tonight and tonight only to clean since i work till 4:30 tomorrow, but i have a meeting to go to tonight. gahh... oh well. it won't happen entirely. maybe i'll just keep my clothes in a bag until i wear them all and they get washed. that'd work. and this is all i have time for now. ta ta till who knows when.

i love pictures

look look... more pictures from lauren's visit. i'm infatuated with pictures. most of these are from our watching of the intramural ultimate frisbee tournament. mandie's family couldn't come so we filled in. Lauren was Mike, i was Brian and lisa was mom. aren't we cute. it was a rather chilly night to be laying on the grass watching, but we toughed it out for the sake of the team and what'd'ya know... they won!

it was a suspense filled game... not sure what lauren's deal is. (i can't believe how long my nails are. that's the true sign that i do no physical work while at school)

one final picture of lauren and me in 413 hansen. many memories were created in this room. kinda sad to be leaving it. who knew i could get attached to a cinder block room? probably not the room though, probably the company and activities that took place within. in any case, its been a good 2 years. gosh... 2 years... that's insane. i'm old!

lauren's back!

lauren's back from london and came to visit! it was wonderful to see her. i didn't realize how much i had missed her till she was here. wednesday afternoon was springfest, so when i got back from work there was music, inflatable games and food spread out in the fields. i just happen to see lauren from across the field and ran up behind her, grabbing her and spilling her snocone all over both of our arms. t'was worth it.

emily was back from autstrailia too... this was our partial hansen hall reunion.

wednesday night after watching my brother and friends win the intramural ultimate frisbee tournament, lauren and i went driving around stevens point. we finally ended up at taco bell at midnight... that was a first for me. then we came back to the room and stayed up talking and looking at pictures from europe till after 3am. it was an enjoyable time and it was fun to share a room with her again. thursday i was hurting for sleep, but you'll have that. the weather was truly horrid so we did pretty much nothing all day. i went to classes and walked in lots of rain. but last night we ordered chinese and watched braveheart. that was way fun. lauren finally departed from 413 Hansen Hall for the final time around 9pm. it was so good to see her again.
here's one more picture from our tree climbing evening.

stevens point turned pretty

the trees have been blooming this past week and on sunday ash, lisa and i went running around campus taking pictures. lisa needed them for a class and ash and i just like climbing trees barefoot. it was a beautiful day, 7o's sunny and pure bliss. i wore shorts all day (minus during the choir concert). ash and i spread a blanket on the grass and soaked up the sunshine while listening to music. it was so wonderful. the follow pictures are a sample of our fun. too bad it's currently less than 40 degrees, raining and miserable outside now. i got hailed on last night. *sigh* just look at the pictures and enjoy.

stress is starting to attack me and for no explainable reason unhappy feelings of guilt over things that don't make sense or even really relate to me are piling up. i feel like i'm a hinderence to people. like somehow i pull people down and prevent them from achieving greatness. for the moment i feel like the only way to rectify that would be to totally step back away from everyone. i can't rationalize any of this. how i could be hindering greatness i don't know, i can't fully explain it, but i don't like it. and part of me feels like everything i want, things i dream about and envision for myself, is exactly what i can't have. not because it wouldn't be good for me, but because it's too good for me, that i don't deserve it and am foolish to ever think i did. my mind is going in circles. today just isn't a happy day. there's a powerful and unexplainable feeling drifting around. i'm quite certain i know the source of this gloom though. the powers at work in this world at every moment are stronger than we can ever imagine.
and then there's finals... until anatomy this morning i wasn't feeling stressed almost at all. i was feeling ready to leave, but not overwhelmed and burnt out like i usually am during finals. and then during anatomy the grim reality that that final will be no walk in the park smacked me in the face. i can't just breeze through everything... life doesn't work like that. i've got a heavy cloud of gloom hanging over me... we'll call it reality. i can't make myself excited about anything right now. *sigh* at least this past weekend was enjoyable.

banquet time

sunday night was the RHA leadership banquet... so long and boring, but a nice excuse to get dressed up, tromp through the rain and get a free dinner. what follows is pictures from the evening.

this has got to be the world's greatest picture of ashley.
as you can tell, we got a little bored and had to find ways to amuse ourselves. thank goodness lisa brought her camera.

the story of saturday

this past saturaday i rode the Tour De Point for a second year. other than the weather being cold and windy, it was the typically enjoyable 26 mile bike ride. i like the feeling of accomplishment that i get after finishing that ride. i also like free t-shirts. i'm easily motivated by that. i should ride the Green Circle trail more often.

saturday afternoon my room turned into a beauty salon because ash was doing alyssa's hair for the military ball. i was too tired to do anything, so later i took a nice long nap, and woke up feeling like i wanted to die. i had a pretty good fever going on, congestion in my head giving me a head ache, overall body exhaustion from battling this cold and the bike ride and coughing which made my eyes water like mad. we had planned to go see the a cappella group Four Shadow at the UC though, so i took some cold medicine and dragged myself out into the rain. the concert was quite enjoyable, we sat in the front row and after the drugs kicked in, i felt ok. after the concert katie was getting the cd she had won and i was standing around with, lisa, ash, darci and cora. one of the singers was looking bored and kind of eyeing up our group and he eventually wandered over, where we proceeded to have some really lame coversation. at one point he looked at me for conversation and i thought, 'oh gosh... i've got nothing' but managed to ask something about how the group formed. pointless conversation continued for a little while and then he randomly said, "so it's really hard to see the audience from the stage, but (and he looks directly at me) i noticed that you have a really cute nose." shocked, i just kind of stammered, umm... well, uhh, thanks. he then went on to talk about/tell me how noses are so downplayed and how he actually likes them. in the awkwardness i apparently smiled as i tend to do and the singer, David, said "ohh... and you've got dimples too!" again, i was caught off guard and something dumb tumbled out my mouth. katie had by then returned, we stood there awkwardly for another moment, then said thanks and goodbye and left. two steps outside the doors of the uc all 5 girls pounce on me "good grief mel! he was totally hitting on you!" gee... really guys? and so the conversation continued. katie and cora parted from the group and the rest of us headed back to the hall. we walked into the HEC and passed 3 assumedly drunk guys. as we pass, one said, I love you girls! ash replied, i love you too. the guy stopped, turned around and said, "was that the girl in the red that said that?"... i was the girl in the red. again i was pounced on with "mel you're on fire, that's why you wore red tonite."

so yeah... interesting night, especially considering that just 3 hours prior i felt like crawling into my bed and either dying or just never getting out. i certainly hadn't expected anything amusing to happen. so that's my story. i got hit on by a musician and my nose got complimented... which still doesn't make me like it any better, but whatever. i'm exhausted. adios.