(The end of the semester took over and delayed my blog posts, I started this and am now finally posting it a week before Christmas, lol)
My family avoids leaving the house at all costs on Black Friday. Tad, however, LOVES Black Friday. He asked me this year if I would like to join him and experience it first hand. I said "sure, why not."
I would have enjoyed the experience more had I not been sick, but all in all, it wasn't bad.
Tad spent Thanksgiing with my family and brought with him all of the Black Friday ads. After everyone had headed home, we spread them out and decided which deals we absolutely could not pass up. We narrowed it down to about 10 stores, which I thought was a little ambitious, but Tad thought we could manage it. We decided to head out around 2:30 am, so at 10:45 pm I crawled into bed to get as much sleep as I possibly could before our expedition.
It was strange, driving around at 3:00 am. We went from my parents's house to Tad's place to pick up some blankets and much needed caffeine. Our first stop was JC Penney's. We looked at the wedding bands they had on sale and inquired about how long ring sizing took. I tried on some shoes, and then, empty handed, we moved on.
Next was Target where we raided the electronics section for super cheap movies and video games. After Target came Macy's (to look at more wedding bands) and Bed Bath and Beyond (to pick up new sheets for Tad). We tried to go to Border's, but they weren't open yet, so we stopped by Aaron Bros for art supplies for my older brother and Sears to take advantage of the sale on fleece blankets. The final stop before we crashed was Walmart. There was nothing of interest to me on sale, so I opted to stay and nap in teh car. I was glad, I got a full hour in while Tad navigated the zoo inside.
We arrived back at my parents' around 8:30 am, in time to grab a quick nap and soome breakfast before meeting with the wedding coordinator at the Marriott. On our way home from that we stopped by Border's and got the new Taylor Swift album.
I was pretty sick, and very exhausted, so I didn't enjoy the experience as much as I could have. But I think I'll do it again next year. It was fun driving around together, and we did get some really good deals. Plus, we didn't get trampled by any mobs :)
Sunday, November 28, 2010
WE'RE ENGAGED!!!!
"Marry me Juliet. YOu never have to be alone. I love you, and that's all I really know. I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress. It's a love story, baby just say yes."
Oh boy did I say yes! Here's the story :)
Tad proposed on 11/23/2010, after almost 4 and ½ years together. We’re very excited to be planning our wedding for July 23, 2011. <3
*Her Side*
For me and Tad, the answer to the question “Have you talked about getting married?” has been “yes” for a while now. Early on though, we decided we didn’t want to get engaged until we had lived in the same city for at least a few months. So when Tad moved to San Diego last December, after almost 3 and ½ years of dating, I was pretty sure I’d be getting engaged sometime this year. I just didn’t know when.
I knew he was planning it by summer, as I overheard snippets of conversations between him and my mom and my friend Raelene. I looked for hints of a proposal any time we went out starting at my birthday (in June). Yet he still managed to completely take me by surprise.
The week of Thanksgiving I was working at my internship Monday-Wednesday. I saw Tad Monday evening and was not expecting to see him again until Thanksgiving. I had class Tuesday night after work and was coming back home right after my internship on Wednesday. That being said, here’s the story. =)
I woke up bright and early (6:25) on Tuesday morning and was immediately confused. I use a travel alarm clock and am extremely regimented in where I put it. When it goes off in the morning , I jump out of bed and turn it off as fast as I can so it doesn’t disturb anyone else. My alarm clock was in a different place than I usually put it. I discovered that it was in some sort of open plastic tub, which had other stuff in it, namely feathers. My only thought while digging to get to my alarm clock was “Why the heck did Anja (my roommate) put my alarm clock in a box of feathers after I went to bed?!?”. I got the clock switched off (really hoping I hadn’t woken Anja) and set out to figure out what this mystery box of feathers was.
Again not wanting to wake my (supposedly) sleeping roommate, I took the box into the bathroom and flipped on the light. I then saw that taped to each of the feathers were pictures. Some were of me as a kid (holding my little brother as a baby, blowing bubbles, dressed as an angel for Halloween when I was six), some from high school and college (me and Raelene before prom, one of my senior pictures, my favorite picture from Romania), and some of me and Tad (our first picture together, on vacation with my family in Hawaii, celebrating his new job in San Diego). There happened to be 23 altogether: an interesting coincidence since I’m 23, he proposed on the 23rd of November, and we will be married on the 23rd of July. Looking at through the pictures, it clicked (as I became more awake) what I was looking at. In Tsubasa Chronicles, the anime series that got me interested in anime (and still by far my favorite), a princess suddenly loses all of her memories, and her childhood friend takes great risks to travel across different dimensions to find them. These memories are found in the form of feathers. Tad had found all of my feathers. I knew that the pictures were what he had asked my mom and Raelene for.
I had a minute of thinking about how sweet this was, and then remembered that I wasn’t planning to see Tad at all that day, or the next. For the second time that morning I was very confused. I wondered if maybe I wasn’t supposed to have found the box yet. Though not wanting to wake him up before 7:00 a.m., I decided I should call him. I intended to say something to the extent of “I’m confused, and I think you know why.”
Yeah, the thought didn’t even cross my mind that he could possibly be in my apartment. I threw on a sweatshirt over my pj’s, grabbed my phone, and went into the living room (once more thinking of my “sleeping” roommate).
I closed my bedroom door behind me, looking at my phone to find Tad’s entry in my recent calls list. I hit send on my phone and looked up and was momentarily startled by a figure sitting on my couch. I hung up the call when I realized it was Tad. First question “Who let you in?”, COMPLETELY confused once more. And Anja replied from the corner “That would be me.” So much for being concerned about waking her! I found out later that Anja had been enlisted to plant the picture box, let Tad in, and take pictures.
I went and sat on the couch next to him. “You have no idea what’s going on right now do you?” he asked, grinning mischeviously. “I have some idea,” I replied. Um, no, by this time I (finally for that morning) knew EXACTLY what was going on!
He handed me his stuffed Mokona (a Tsubasa character) who had a feather taped to him. I noticed another glob of tape and peeled it off to find a ring. Tad took it from me, got down on one knee, and said some very sweet things (only a few of which do I remember because I was thinking “holy cow he’s proposing” over and over again) which concluded with “Lindsey Rose Hastings, will you be my wife?”, to which I very enthusiastically replied “YES!”
I didn’t cry. I just smiled and laughed, a lot. One of the funniest things to me, besides being caught completely off guard, was that for the last couple months I have carefully planned every outfit in case of proposal, and when it actually happened, I was in my pajamas!
Tad saved me an hour on the bus by driving me to my internship, where I dragged him inside to show him and the ring off.
It was a perfect way for him to propose, and I’m so blessed to have him as a fiancé and soon-to-be husband.
*His Side*
I guess my side of the story is a lot longer than hers. For me, I'd been planning to find a way to propose to her since April. It started by finding her ring shortly after Valentine's day this year, and watching the "extra inventory" get helped out the door with a discount. Not to try and be cheap, but I was on an extremely short budget, and was hoping to get something really nice while being frugal. It worked.
As for the how, I was first going to try and get her on April 1st, being the generally silly person that I am to lure her into a sense that I was being silly the entire day about how I didn't want her as my girlfriend anymore, and then propose towards the end of the day. But I had yet to ask her dad at that point, and was working very long shifts at work; finding the time to meet with them was near impossible.
Now, on to plan two. Along with three, four, five, and several others, I felt like any good ideas I had were never going to pan out in my favor. I went through phases of modifying songs (most notably "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, knowing how much she loves it, and knowing that it would make such a big deal to her if it was made into something she would always remember. Conveniently, Lindsey Rose fits in the same relative space as Juliet).
With the talking we'd been doing about planning our wedding, (after four years, it's a natural progression), we had decided on some dates and she had wanted to get it official for planning's sake soon (being Thanksgiving). Being that I was at this point "running out of time", and having finally gotten a solid time to ask her dad, I went on to plan some way to get a complete surprise.
About half-way through June, I figured out my method of proposing. While I didn't completely decide every detail at that point, I thought that I should start the preparations. I started hunting down some pictures from her mother as well as best friend in order to get a broad spectrum of memories that she would have from throughout her entire life, not just ones since I was involved. After I had my pictures, I got them printed off, and then had some feathers ready to tape them onto. Then I grabbed my Mokona doll, taped the ring onto it, and that part was set.
The hardest part was trying to figure out how I was going to ambush her in the interest of actually surprising her. I knew she knew, and I knew she was constantly expecting me to propose any time we were together. That meant only one thing to me, early morning, preferably before she'd even left for the day. It would be even better with her telling me, at one point, that she didn't want it to be "too late". I knew that this would probably catch her completely off guard, which the way any good proposal should be. I was originally going to surprise her at work with the ring, but had to alter my course when I found out that I would need to be at work in the morning instead of at night, as I had thought.
The most nervous part for me, out of all of the various things, was definitely asking her dad (although they were both there, so it was more parents than just her dad). While I had no concern if she would say yes, I know her parents had gotten to see a really bad side of me and my life way back in the beginning of our relationship, as I was struggling with a lot of life issues at that time.
As for the actual asking her, the worst part was waiting from alarm clock going off to her coming out. While it may have only been 15-20 minutes, it definitely felt like an hour or more. I was worried my surprise was ruined when her roommate's dog barked, knowing that I was there. After she finally came out, it was a huge relief, because I wouldn't have to care about the logistics anymore, and it would finally be over. I hadn't really written out a speech in my mind, or honestly really planned the speech part out at all. The only part that mattered was the actual question to me. The irony of it all was that I thought that I was going to be the one who cried, just because I know that I had certainly not deserved her for the time I had her, even if I knew she'd say yes. The only part that I can really say was scripted was the fact that I knew I was going to ask her with her full name, and that I would ask her to be my wife, over "marry me".
It might be nit-picky, but I thought it means more to be asked to be something of that level of importance to a person, instead of just an action. You get married on a day, you get a wife for the rest of your life. And I will indeed have a wife, Lindsey Rose Tilden, and she will be mine until the day God takes us home.
Taken by my mom on Thanksgiving
Oh boy did I say yes! Here's the story :)
Tad proposed on 11/23/2010, after almost 4 and ½ years together. We’re very excited to be planning our wedding for July 23, 2011. <3
*Her Side*
For me and Tad, the answer to the question “Have you talked about getting married?” has been “yes” for a while now. Early on though, we decided we didn’t want to get engaged until we had lived in the same city for at least a few months. So when Tad moved to San Diego last December, after almost 3 and ½ years of dating, I was pretty sure I’d be getting engaged sometime this year. I just didn’t know when.
I knew he was planning it by summer, as I overheard snippets of conversations between him and my mom and my friend Raelene. I looked for hints of a proposal any time we went out starting at my birthday (in June). Yet he still managed to completely take me by surprise.
The week of Thanksgiving I was working at my internship Monday-Wednesday. I saw Tad Monday evening and was not expecting to see him again until Thanksgiving. I had class Tuesday night after work and was coming back home right after my internship on Wednesday. That being said, here’s the story. =)
I woke up bright and early (6:25) on Tuesday morning and was immediately confused. I use a travel alarm clock and am extremely regimented in where I put it. When it goes off in the morning , I jump out of bed and turn it off as fast as I can so it doesn’t disturb anyone else. My alarm clock was in a different place than I usually put it. I discovered that it was in some sort of open plastic tub, which had other stuff in it, namely feathers. My only thought while digging to get to my alarm clock was “Why the heck did Anja (my roommate) put my alarm clock in a box of feathers after I went to bed?!?”. I got the clock switched off (really hoping I hadn’t woken Anja) and set out to figure out what this mystery box of feathers was.
Again not wanting to wake my (supposedly) sleeping roommate, I took the box into the bathroom and flipped on the light. I then saw that taped to each of the feathers were pictures. Some were of me as a kid (holding my little brother as a baby, blowing bubbles, dressed as an angel for Halloween when I was six), some from high school and college (me and Raelene before prom, one of my senior pictures, my favorite picture from Romania), and some of me and Tad (our first picture together, on vacation with my family in Hawaii, celebrating his new job in San Diego). There happened to be 23 altogether: an interesting coincidence since I’m 23, he proposed on the 23rd of November, and we will be married on the 23rd of July. Looking at through the pictures, it clicked (as I became more awake) what I was looking at. In Tsubasa Chronicles, the anime series that got me interested in anime (and still by far my favorite), a princess suddenly loses all of her memories, and her childhood friend takes great risks to travel across different dimensions to find them. These memories are found in the form of feathers. Tad had found all of my feathers. I knew that the pictures were what he had asked my mom and Raelene for.
I had a minute of thinking about how sweet this was, and then remembered that I wasn’t planning to see Tad at all that day, or the next. For the second time that morning I was very confused. I wondered if maybe I wasn’t supposed to have found the box yet. Though not wanting to wake him up before 7:00 a.m., I decided I should call him. I intended to say something to the extent of “I’m confused, and I think you know why.”
Yeah, the thought didn’t even cross my mind that he could possibly be in my apartment. I threw on a sweatshirt over my pj’s, grabbed my phone, and went into the living room (once more thinking of my “sleeping” roommate).
I closed my bedroom door behind me, looking at my phone to find Tad’s entry in my recent calls list. I hit send on my phone and looked up and was momentarily startled by a figure sitting on my couch. I hung up the call when I realized it was Tad. First question “Who let you in?”, COMPLETELY confused once more. And Anja replied from the corner “That would be me.” So much for being concerned about waking her! I found out later that Anja had been enlisted to plant the picture box, let Tad in, and take pictures.
I went and sat on the couch next to him. “You have no idea what’s going on right now do you?” he asked, grinning mischeviously. “I have some idea,” I replied. Um, no, by this time I (finally for that morning) knew EXACTLY what was going on!
He handed me his stuffed Mokona (a Tsubasa character) who had a feather taped to him. I noticed another glob of tape and peeled it off to find a ring. Tad took it from me, got down on one knee, and said some very sweet things (only a few of which do I remember because I was thinking “holy cow he’s proposing” over and over again) which concluded with “Lindsey Rose Hastings, will you be my wife?”, to which I very enthusiastically replied “YES!”
I didn’t cry. I just smiled and laughed, a lot. One of the funniest things to me, besides being caught completely off guard, was that for the last couple months I have carefully planned every outfit in case of proposal, and when it actually happened, I was in my pajamas!
Tad saved me an hour on the bus by driving me to my internship, where I dragged him inside to show him and the ring off.
It was a perfect way for him to propose, and I’m so blessed to have him as a fiancé and soon-to-be husband.
*His Side*
I guess my side of the story is a lot longer than hers. For me, I'd been planning to find a way to propose to her since April. It started by finding her ring shortly after Valentine's day this year, and watching the "extra inventory" get helped out the door with a discount. Not to try and be cheap, but I was on an extremely short budget, and was hoping to get something really nice while being frugal. It worked.
As for the how, I was first going to try and get her on April 1st, being the generally silly person that I am to lure her into a sense that I was being silly the entire day about how I didn't want her as my girlfriend anymore, and then propose towards the end of the day. But I had yet to ask her dad at that point, and was working very long shifts at work; finding the time to meet with them was near impossible.
Now, on to plan two. Along with three, four, five, and several others, I felt like any good ideas I had were never going to pan out in my favor. I went through phases of modifying songs (most notably "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, knowing how much she loves it, and knowing that it would make such a big deal to her if it was made into something she would always remember. Conveniently, Lindsey Rose fits in the same relative space as Juliet).
With the talking we'd been doing about planning our wedding, (after four years, it's a natural progression), we had decided on some dates and she had wanted to get it official for planning's sake soon (being Thanksgiving). Being that I was at this point "running out of time", and having finally gotten a solid time to ask her dad, I went on to plan some way to get a complete surprise.
About half-way through June, I figured out my method of proposing. While I didn't completely decide every detail at that point, I thought that I should start the preparations. I started hunting down some pictures from her mother as well as best friend in order to get a broad spectrum of memories that she would have from throughout her entire life, not just ones since I was involved. After I had my pictures, I got them printed off, and then had some feathers ready to tape them onto. Then I grabbed my Mokona doll, taped the ring onto it, and that part was set.
The hardest part was trying to figure out how I was going to ambush her in the interest of actually surprising her. I knew she knew, and I knew she was constantly expecting me to propose any time we were together. That meant only one thing to me, early morning, preferably before she'd even left for the day. It would be even better with her telling me, at one point, that she didn't want it to be "too late". I knew that this would probably catch her completely off guard, which the way any good proposal should be. I was originally going to surprise her at work with the ring, but had to alter my course when I found out that I would need to be at work in the morning instead of at night, as I had thought.
The most nervous part for me, out of all of the various things, was definitely asking her dad (although they were both there, so it was more parents than just her dad). While I had no concern if she would say yes, I know her parents had gotten to see a really bad side of me and my life way back in the beginning of our relationship, as I was struggling with a lot of life issues at that time.
As for the actual asking her, the worst part was waiting from alarm clock going off to her coming out. While it may have only been 15-20 minutes, it definitely felt like an hour or more. I was worried my surprise was ruined when her roommate's dog barked, knowing that I was there. After she finally came out, it was a huge relief, because I wouldn't have to care about the logistics anymore, and it would finally be over. I hadn't really written out a speech in my mind, or honestly really planned the speech part out at all. The only part that mattered was the actual question to me. The irony of it all was that I thought that I was going to be the one who cried, just because I know that I had certainly not deserved her for the time I had her, even if I knew she'd say yes. The only part that I can really say was scripted was the fact that I knew I was going to ask her with her full name, and that I would ask her to be my wife, over "marry me".
It might be nit-picky, but I thought it means more to be asked to be something of that level of importance to a person, instead of just an action. You get married on a day, you get a wife for the rest of your life. And I will indeed have a wife, Lindsey Rose Tilden, and she will be mine until the day God takes us home.
Taken by my mom on ThanksgivingSaturday, November 13, 2010
Biola Trip Fall 2010
Biola Visit Fall 2010
I was last at Biola in June when I celebrated mine and Becky's birthdays and went to the BYT Cats performance. It was high time to see my friends again!
Thanksto my schedule this semester, I was able to leave right away Friday morning. Tad dropped me off on his way to work at the Old Town trolley station. I caught the blue line to Santa Fe Depot where I purchased my ticket, and hopped on the train. The ride was uneventful. I sat across from an older couple who were on their way home from a cruise. I arrived in Santa Ana (the only station between SD and LA at which I had not been) and met Becky. We grabbed Krista at her place and got lunch at KFC. Quote of the day: Me "Becky, I thought you wore size 8 shoes." Kirsta "I wish I had 8 feet."
After lunch we went to a special shoe store for people with small feet to see if Krista could find some new dress sheos. Unfortunatley she didn't find any that worked. From there Krista went back to prepare for her birthday party, and Becky and I headed up to the Biola area. We had been planning on helping Krista get ready, but Becky's car needed to get taken in to the shop. She dropped me off at Biola and went to the auto repair place.
I arrived about 45 minutes before the Winds rehearsal ended, so first I got tickets for the Winds concert. I got cash from the ATM in teh SUB and decided to see if any of my Comm Dis profs were around. In McNally I ran into our secretary Marty, who was watching an ultimate frisbee game in which Dr. Corey was playing, and she informed me that Matt would have been around had he not had a family emergency that day.
I wrote a quick note tot he profs (which I left in the assignment drop box) and headed back across campus to the music building. I got back in time to hear a bit of the rehearsal and then surprise everybody. I hung out and chatted with people for a while and then Amanda suggested we get boba. She and I got to do some catching up about life and boyfriends, and Becky joined us once her car repairs were done.
Around 4:00 we bid farewell to Amanda, went back to Becky's place so she could change, picked up Jennifer from Hart, and picked up Justine from her house in Cypress. The 4 of us, though running late, managed to make it to Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney just in time to be seated. We were shortly by Raeleen, Emily, and Melissa. It was a fun dinner. Neither Krista nor I had ever been to Rainforest Cafe. Jennifer and I shared cocnut shrimp for dinner, and we all shared a bit of Krista's icecream sundae.
Becky, Melissa, and Raeleen had to leave to do other things from there, but the rest of us went back to Krista's house for games and goodies. Tia and Diana met us there. We played a game called "The Gam eof Things" which was really fun. There's a category like "Thing syou shouldn't do at the circus." Everyone write ssomething, and then you try to guess who said what. While playing we enjoyed mini caramel apples, frozen yogurt and nilla wafers sandwiches, jelly beans, and choclate. Yum!
We finished the game, and then it was time for cake! Funny story about the cake, the bakery had mispelled Krista's name, and gotten her age wrong. By the time we got back to her house it had been fixed though. It was delicious, Tollhouse chocolate chip with lots of purple frosting. Tia, Emily, and Diana said their goodbyes after cake, at which point the remaining 4 of us watched The Proposal. Overall a good movie, though some annoying assumptions about relationships.
Becky arrived close to the end of the movie to take Justine, Jen and me home. Becky and I got back to her place around 2:20 and crashed.
We were up bright and early Saturday (around 9:00) to go to the Vandoren Clarinet Festival at UCLA. Becky was performing in the afternoon with the LA Clarinet Choir. Another of the choir members had offered to drive both of us. At the festival we went to a couple seminars (one on the history of Buffet and Vandoren and one on being a studio clarinet player), did some shopping (I brought cigarette paper, which is for unsticking pads, and a piece by Ralph Vaughn Williams, a favorite composer of mine), and sat in on some performances. I really enjoyed getting to be nerdy and spend the day doing clarinety things with Becky.
Becky and I got back to her place with an hour before we needed to be at Biola for the Winds concert. We lounged around, eating rice krispee treats and discussing the menu for her graduate recital reception.
The Winds concert was great, as usual. The theme for the semester was "Traditional meets Contemporary". Each piece was matched with another, one old and one new, but with similar themes of motifs. Really cool idea. As per usual, we promptly drove over to the Fellers' for the after party. The food was the traditional Thanksgiving wraps and apple and pumpkin pie.
After two very full days and not enough sleep Friday night, Becky and I crashed at her place. The time change helped us get a little extra sleep, in addition to going to the 11:00 service at church. The funny thing, was we ended up 45 minutes late. Becky lost track of time while getting ready, so we headed out a little late anyway. Then I discovered I had forgotten my glasses (I had thought they were in my purse). We turned around for my glasses and went to get gas, since Becky's tank was on empty and we were late anyway. At the gas station Becky discovered she didn't have her wallet. Back to her place we went again. As we were returning for the wallet I realized I didn't have my phone. Upon acquiring both of these items, we went back to the gas station, and then to church.
Even funnier, after the service Krista found us, and told us she had only been there for 30 minutes. When she arrived at church, she thought she was on time, but was somehow an hour late. Still puzzling, we went to a pizza place called Gondola's for lunch and shared a BBQ chicken pizza and a canolie. The girls dorpped me off at the train station with just enough time to catch my train home.
I was last at Biola in June when I celebrated mine and Becky's birthdays and went to the BYT Cats performance. It was high time to see my friends again!
Thanksto my schedule this semester, I was able to leave right away Friday morning. Tad dropped me off on his way to work at the Old Town trolley station. I caught the blue line to Santa Fe Depot where I purchased my ticket, and hopped on the train. The ride was uneventful. I sat across from an older couple who were on their way home from a cruise. I arrived in Santa Ana (the only station between SD and LA at which I had not been) and met Becky. We grabbed Krista at her place and got lunch at KFC. Quote of the day: Me "Becky, I thought you wore size 8 shoes." Kirsta "I wish I had 8 feet."
After lunch we went to a special shoe store for people with small feet to see if Krista could find some new dress sheos. Unfortunatley she didn't find any that worked. From there Krista went back to prepare for her birthday party, and Becky and I headed up to the Biola area. We had been planning on helping Krista get ready, but Becky's car needed to get taken in to the shop. She dropped me off at Biola and went to the auto repair place.
I arrived about 45 minutes before the Winds rehearsal ended, so first I got tickets for the Winds concert. I got cash from the ATM in teh SUB and decided to see if any of my Comm Dis profs were around. In McNally I ran into our secretary Marty, who was watching an ultimate frisbee game in which Dr. Corey was playing, and she informed me that Matt would have been around had he not had a family emergency that day.
I wrote a quick note tot he profs (which I left in the assignment drop box) and headed back across campus to the music building. I got back in time to hear a bit of the rehearsal and then surprise everybody. I hung out and chatted with people for a while and then Amanda suggested we get boba. She and I got to do some catching up about life and boyfriends, and Becky joined us once her car repairs were done.
Around 4:00 we bid farewell to Amanda, went back to Becky's place so she could change, picked up Jennifer from Hart, and picked up Justine from her house in Cypress. The 4 of us, though running late, managed to make it to Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney just in time to be seated. We were shortly by Raeleen, Emily, and Melissa. It was a fun dinner. Neither Krista nor I had ever been to Rainforest Cafe. Jennifer and I shared cocnut shrimp for dinner, and we all shared a bit of Krista's icecream sundae.
Becky, Melissa, and Raeleen had to leave to do other things from there, but the rest of us went back to Krista's house for games and goodies. Tia and Diana met us there. We played a game called "The Gam eof Things" which was really fun. There's a category like "Thing syou shouldn't do at the circus." Everyone write ssomething, and then you try to guess who said what. While playing we enjoyed mini caramel apples, frozen yogurt and nilla wafers sandwiches, jelly beans, and choclate. Yum!
We finished the game, and then it was time for cake! Funny story about the cake, the bakery had mispelled Krista's name, and gotten her age wrong. By the time we got back to her house it had been fixed though. It was delicious, Tollhouse chocolate chip with lots of purple frosting. Tia, Emily, and Diana said their goodbyes after cake, at which point the remaining 4 of us watched The Proposal. Overall a good movie, though some annoying assumptions about relationships.
Becky arrived close to the end of the movie to take Justine, Jen and me home. Becky and I got back to her place around 2:20 and crashed.
We were up bright and early Saturday (around 9:00) to go to the Vandoren Clarinet Festival at UCLA. Becky was performing in the afternoon with the LA Clarinet Choir. Another of the choir members had offered to drive both of us. At the festival we went to a couple seminars (one on the history of Buffet and Vandoren and one on being a studio clarinet player), did some shopping (I brought cigarette paper, which is for unsticking pads, and a piece by Ralph Vaughn Williams, a favorite composer of mine), and sat in on some performances. I really enjoyed getting to be nerdy and spend the day doing clarinety things with Becky.
Becky and I got back to her place with an hour before we needed to be at Biola for the Winds concert. We lounged around, eating rice krispee treats and discussing the menu for her graduate recital reception.
The Winds concert was great, as usual. The theme for the semester was "Traditional meets Contemporary". Each piece was matched with another, one old and one new, but with similar themes of motifs. Really cool idea. As per usual, we promptly drove over to the Fellers' for the after party. The food was the traditional Thanksgiving wraps and apple and pumpkin pie.
After two very full days and not enough sleep Friday night, Becky and I crashed at her place. The time change helped us get a little extra sleep, in addition to going to the 11:00 service at church. The funny thing, was we ended up 45 minutes late. Becky lost track of time while getting ready, so we headed out a little late anyway. Then I discovered I had forgotten my glasses (I had thought they were in my purse). We turned around for my glasses and went to get gas, since Becky's tank was on empty and we were late anyway. At the gas station Becky discovered she didn't have her wallet. Back to her place we went again. As we were returning for the wallet I realized I didn't have my phone. Upon acquiring both of these items, we went back to the gas station, and then to church.
Even funnier, after the service Krista found us, and told us she had only been there for 30 minutes. When she arrived at church, she thought she was on time, but was somehow an hour late. Still puzzling, we went to a pizza place called Gondola's for lunch and shared a BBQ chicken pizza and a canolie. The girls dorpped me off at the train station with just enough time to catch my train home.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
An Update on My Internship
I am down to just 5 weeks left at Sharp, which seems crazy. I love it so much there, it makes me sad that I have to leave soon. I've recently been hinting that I would be interested in a job, so I'm keeping my figners crossed that there will be an opening for me.
Some highlights of the last few weeks:
We have now discharged several clients who started the program after I did, one of whom was pretty much my client. This is a happy fact, though the sad part is that in his final week, my client seemed to be slipping back into his habits as an aalcoholic. Last week was the losest I've yet been to working full time. My supervisor was out for the whole week, which left me and the per diem SLP. Boy that was a trip! I went in all 5 days, half days for Tues/Fri, and was busy busy busy. The plus side is, I'm really feeling confident in my abilities to treat on my own now. I know the staff really appreciated me filling in too. At the end of the week , I received WOW's (Sharp's employee rewards program) from 4 of the other therapists, all with very sweet and encouraging notes.
Also, most recent favorite client quote, comes from one of my clients (who is not very sociable) to the per diem SLP. His name happens to rhyme with another client's, and she frequently confuses them. During goal setting she called him by the other name and then said "I always get you two confused, I need a way of keeping you straight." To this my client replies "Well, I'm your favorite aren't I? It shoudl be easy!" *everyone in the room bursts out laughing
Oh yes, never a dull moment at CREP. :)
Some highlights of the last few weeks:
We have now discharged several clients who started the program after I did, one of whom was pretty much my client. This is a happy fact, though the sad part is that in his final week, my client seemed to be slipping back into his habits as an aalcoholic. Last week was the losest I've yet been to working full time. My supervisor was out for the whole week, which left me and the per diem SLP. Boy that was a trip! I went in all 5 days, half days for Tues/Fri, and was busy busy busy. The plus side is, I'm really feeling confident in my abilities to treat on my own now. I know the staff really appreciated me filling in too. At the end of the week , I received WOW's (Sharp's employee rewards program) from 4 of the other therapists, all with very sweet and encouraging notes.
Also, most recent favorite client quote, comes from one of my clients (who is not very sociable) to the per diem SLP. His name happens to rhyme with another client's, and she frequently confuses them. During goal setting she called him by the other name and then said "I always get you two confused, I need a way of keeping you straight." To this my client replies "Well, I'm your favorite aren't I? It shoudl be easy!" *everyone in the room bursts out laughing
Oh yes, never a dull moment at CREP. :)
Halloween 2010
Though I didn't have any major plans, this year's Halloween was quite fun. The Sunday beforeHalloween, Tad and I volunteered at Mission Church at the Harvest carnival. He dressed up in his white mage costume from last year, I dressed as a pirate, and Valencia went as a ninja (to her delight, no extra items where required for her costume, lol) At the carnival we manned the train bounce house for kids under 4. EASIEST JOB EVER!!! We had under ten kids the entire hour we worked, and all we reallyhad to do was tell the parents to take the kids' shoes off. In exchange for our work, we were given free dinner. We also got to hang out with Tad's aunt, uncle and cousins for a bit, as well as one of the new guys in the college group.
Halloween weekend itself was crazy. Friday and Saturday I spent basically all day at the CCB convention at the Marriott in La Jolla. I got a lot of good information there, especially on public transit in SD that I either didn't know, or kinda of knew but wasn't sure. Tad was wonderful and drove me home Friday and dropped me off Saturday. Saturday evening we hung out at his place with Anja and James. We made Philadelphia rolls and Miso soup and played Mario Party. Sunday we had the opportunity witht eh college group to serve communion in church, which was a really neat experience. After church we had lunch at Chile's with the other college people and then headed up to PQ to spend time with the fam.
My cousins Jennifer and Matthew and their little boys Jason and Cory came up from Santee and my grandparents came. We had pumpkin carving, the traditional chile and cornbread dinner, and pumpkin pie. Tad and I went the nerdy route and carved a Mokona pumpkin. No one in my family knew what it was, but we were proud of ourselves nonetheless. Jennifer and Matthew brought their jack-o-lantern with them. They had tried to grow their own pumpkin and it had turned out green. So, what else do you do with a green pumpkin? Make it into Kermit the Frog! Dave carved a classic scary jack-o-lantern, and my dad went for a remake of "The Scream". Tad and I took the role of the main candy-passer-outers, until Kim, Jordan, and Maddie arrived. Then Jordan took over.
It was a really fun evening, but the best part was getting to spend it with Tad. Even on holidays that aren't really important, like Halloween, its fun to get to spend them with him :)
Halloween weekend itself was crazy. Friday and Saturday I spent basically all day at the CCB convention at the Marriott in La Jolla. I got a lot of good information there, especially on public transit in SD that I either didn't know, or kinda of knew but wasn't sure. Tad was wonderful and drove me home Friday and dropped me off Saturday. Saturday evening we hung out at his place with Anja and James. We made Philadelphia rolls and Miso soup and played Mario Party. Sunday we had the opportunity witht eh college group to serve communion in church, which was a really neat experience. After church we had lunch at Chile's with the other college people and then headed up to PQ to spend time with the fam.
My cousins Jennifer and Matthew and their little boys Jason and Cory came up from Santee and my grandparents came. We had pumpkin carving, the traditional chile and cornbread dinner, and pumpkin pie. Tad and I went the nerdy route and carved a Mokona pumpkin. No one in my family knew what it was, but we were proud of ourselves nonetheless. Jennifer and Matthew brought their jack-o-lantern with them. They had tried to grow their own pumpkin and it had turned out green. So, what else do you do with a green pumpkin? Make it into Kermit the Frog! Dave carved a classic scary jack-o-lantern, and my dad went for a remake of "The Scream". Tad and I took the role of the main candy-passer-outers, until Kim, Jordan, and Maddie arrived. Then Jordan took over.
It was a really fun evening, but the best part was getting to spend it with Tad. Even on holidays that aren't really important, like Halloween, its fun to get to spend them with him :)
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Salem
The day before we lost Simpkin, my family got a new arrival: a little black kitten named Salem. My mom's cousin Stephanie's cat had had kittens, and they couldn't quite find a home for this little fellow. My mom offered to try to find a home for it through the pet stores around us. So, when we had a family dinner with Stephanie's family, they brought the kitten along with them. We all fell in love right away, but especially Dave. He decided that we had to keep tthis littel kitten, because "no one could give this kitten as much love as we will."
The naming process took a little while. In his first week with us he had such names as Eddie (for either the Munsters character or Edgar Allen Poe), Felix, Merlin, Zorro, and Figero. Dave was the one who came up with Salem. I suspect it was inspired by the city in Massachusetts, though several people have asked if it was for the cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Salem is quite the adventurer. He has no fear of any of the other animals, though at first he wasn't fond of Valencia. As for the other animals' opinoins, Buffy pretends to hate him, but is secretly happy for another feline playmate, Tilly loves it like a baby, though slightly wary of the claws, and Nigel isn't sure what to make of it at all. Nigel would like to boss him around like he tries with Buffy, but Salem is so strong willed to do what he likes that it doesn't seem to be working for Nigel. haha
In any case, he makes a perfect fit for our pack of animals. :)
The naming process took a little while. In his first week with us he had such names as Eddie (for either the Munsters character or Edgar Allen Poe), Felix, Merlin, Zorro, and Figero. Dave was the one who came up with Salem. I suspect it was inspired by the city in Massachusetts, though several people have asked if it was for the cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Salem is quite the adventurer. He has no fear of any of the other animals, though at first he wasn't fond of Valencia. As for the other animals' opinoins, Buffy pretends to hate him, but is secretly happy for another feline playmate, Tilly loves it like a baby, though slightly wary of the claws, and Nigel isn't sure what to make of it at all. Nigel would like to boss him around like he tries with Buffy, but Salem is so strong willed to do what he likes that it doesn't seem to be working for Nigel. haha
In any case, he makes a perfect fit for our pack of animals. :)
Walking with Jesus
I have been going through a lot of spiritual transitions over the past year. Last year was very difficult for me and only through the summer did I start to feel "normal" again. Recently, God has been working in me through the college Sunday school group at Mission, and I now feel that I am in a place where I can put this working into words.
We wen tthrough a unit talking about the passages surrounding Jesus walking on water in Mark. The passage immeidately before walking on water is that of the feeding the 5000. The disciples are grumpy during this miracle because they thought they were going to have a rest. Jesus performs the miracle and there are 12 baskets of food left over. They then get in the boat and are supposed to go to Bethsaida. It is while they are on the lake that they see Jesus walking on water. They don't recognize him and are afraid. Jesus had meant to pass by them, but since they are afraid, he gets in the boat and they don't end up at Bethsaida. The next passage is feeding the 4000. This time there are 7 baskets left over. Again afterwards they get in the boat, and the disciples have a conversation about not having any bread. They reach Bethsaida, and Jesus performs the miracle of healing the blind man where at first he says he sees people but they look like trees.
Discussion with the group is where things really fall into place for application. The disciples missed the whole point of the feeding of the 5000. Jesus can provide everything a person needs in abundance. This is even demonstrated by the fact that there was a basket left over for each disciple. He wants them to understand that he, as God, provides for them. But they don't get this, which is why they are terrified when they see him on the water and don't make it to Bethsaida. Jesus does the feeding of the 4000 to try to tell them again. This time the 7 baskets symbolize completion and wholeness. It seems that the disciples still don't quite get it, because they complain about not having bread. There is more conversation int eh boat that we don't know about, but Jesus must decide that they are ready for Bethsaida, because that's where they end up. With the blind man, Jesus makes it a point that it isn't enough for him to see, but not see clearly. Jesus wants him to see everything in perfect detail as it is.
So, summary of application, God can and wants to be our provider. He provides abundantly for us both with physical and spiritual needs. When he teaches us something, he doesn't give up if we don't get it the first time. He works to show it to us in different ways so we understand and learn more about him. And even when we think we see something (like the blind man seeing people as trees), he keeps working to make it perfectly clear for us. There is always something new for us to discover about God.
Now personal application to my journey. The trips int he boat that the disciples and Jesus mke made me think about the Footprints poem. Graduating from Biola, Jesus and I were walking along the shoreline together. Then grad school and roommate issues hit, and I feel flat on my face. I spent quite a while lying face down in the sand. At first I cried out and began to reach for God, but the pain overwhelmed me, and very quickly i dropped my hand and resigned myself to lie there. I felt alone and abandoned and felt as if I were drifting from God. As soon as I realized this consciously, I reached out to God and he picked me up. Throughout the summer he carried me, and I clung to him. I was terrified of falling on my face again. At the same time, I felt ashamed that I wasn't walking, simply being carried. But the suppor tof others, and God's reassurance made me understand that it is ok to let yourslef be carried for a time.
Now, entering year 2 of grad school, and with a better elader of college group, I feel ready to walk on my own feet again. I am stillleaning heavily on God, but this is a good thing. He is more than able to support me and provide for me. And I realize now, tha tthough I was walking on my own, yet next to Jesus, when I graduate drom Biola, I believed that I had learned everything about him.
I see now that I am only seeing trees when I want to see people.
I pray that he continues to show me more and more of his character as I walk with him.
We wen tthrough a unit talking about the passages surrounding Jesus walking on water in Mark. The passage immeidately before walking on water is that of the feeding the 5000. The disciples are grumpy during this miracle because they thought they were going to have a rest. Jesus performs the miracle and there are 12 baskets of food left over. They then get in the boat and are supposed to go to Bethsaida. It is while they are on the lake that they see Jesus walking on water. They don't recognize him and are afraid. Jesus had meant to pass by them, but since they are afraid, he gets in the boat and they don't end up at Bethsaida. The next passage is feeding the 4000. This time there are 7 baskets left over. Again afterwards they get in the boat, and the disciples have a conversation about not having any bread. They reach Bethsaida, and Jesus performs the miracle of healing the blind man where at first he says he sees people but they look like trees.
Discussion with the group is where things really fall into place for application. The disciples missed the whole point of the feeding of the 5000. Jesus can provide everything a person needs in abundance. This is even demonstrated by the fact that there was a basket left over for each disciple. He wants them to understand that he, as God, provides for them. But they don't get this, which is why they are terrified when they see him on the water and don't make it to Bethsaida. Jesus does the feeding of the 4000 to try to tell them again. This time the 7 baskets symbolize completion and wholeness. It seems that the disciples still don't quite get it, because they complain about not having bread. There is more conversation int eh boat that we don't know about, but Jesus must decide that they are ready for Bethsaida, because that's where they end up. With the blind man, Jesus makes it a point that it isn't enough for him to see, but not see clearly. Jesus wants him to see everything in perfect detail as it is.
So, summary of application, God can and wants to be our provider. He provides abundantly for us both with physical and spiritual needs. When he teaches us something, he doesn't give up if we don't get it the first time. He works to show it to us in different ways so we understand and learn more about him. And even when we think we see something (like the blind man seeing people as trees), he keeps working to make it perfectly clear for us. There is always something new for us to discover about God.
Now personal application to my journey. The trips int he boat that the disciples and Jesus mke made me think about the Footprints poem. Graduating from Biola, Jesus and I were walking along the shoreline together. Then grad school and roommate issues hit, and I feel flat on my face. I spent quite a while lying face down in the sand. At first I cried out and began to reach for God, but the pain overwhelmed me, and very quickly i dropped my hand and resigned myself to lie there. I felt alone and abandoned and felt as if I were drifting from God. As soon as I realized this consciously, I reached out to God and he picked me up. Throughout the summer he carried me, and I clung to him. I was terrified of falling on my face again. At the same time, I felt ashamed that I wasn't walking, simply being carried. But the suppor tof others, and God's reassurance made me understand that it is ok to let yourslef be carried for a time.
Now, entering year 2 of grad school, and with a better elader of college group, I feel ready to walk on my own feet again. I am stillleaning heavily on God, but this is a good thing. He is more than able to support me and provide for me. And I realize now, tha tthough I was walking on my own, yet next to Jesus, when I graduate drom Biola, I believed that I had learned everything about him.
I see now that I am only seeing trees when I want to see people.
I pray that he continues to show me more and more of his character as I walk with him.
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