today was both chicken wednesday and wednesday at wendy's. social gatherings at fast food restaurants are basically awesome. at chicken, jennifer had sort of a quarter-life crisis where she realized that 2008 was the last year that we would be teenagers for the whole year (we'll turn 20 in the middle of 2009), we then started talking about what turning 20 means...we agreed that after you turn 20, theres no turning back, thats it. so jennifer decided that she was going to make the most of this year and try to achieve every stereotypical teenage experience, which got me thinking...what are those experiences? my extensive research (talking to my mom, brother, and whoever was on aim at the moment) has given me this list....

1. stay out late/break curfew
   
2. experiment with illegal substances
3. jam out in the car with friends, you know, that one song that you turn up real loud and sing
4. skip school/class(bueller...bueller...)
5. lie to parents about where you are staying overnight
6. fool around in a public place i.e. parking lot
7. go to cheap concerts/shows
8. go to school sporting events, obviously not for the actual game..just for fun
   
9. watch movies and eat junk food
10. gossip that leads to DRAMA
11. road trip!
12. going over your cell/text minutes
13. getting lost while driving somewhere
14. do a chinese fire-drill
15. steal something
16. be at Wal-mart at an ungodly hour, ya know, when all the freaks come out
    
17. have a "facebook" photo shoot, including a mirror pic, talking pictures for no good reason
    
18. go skinny dipping
19. have awkward talks surrounding sex
20. loudly and obnoxiously take over public places, i.e. restaurants.
    

i bolded the ones i still have to do. any more to add?

Cause these are the night that you know when you're there
You couldn't have planned it much better I swear and you hope
That your sense aren't failing you now
And you think to yourself now I could be wrong
But I might have just stolen this scene form a song and you know
That your senses aren't failing you now
-making april "these are the nights"

tonight coudl not have been better. I know its weird and probably jaded, but tonight was senior year. it was like we'd never left, we just came back and were somehow transported back in time. seriously. the music, hte mood, the people...everything. i can't describe it other than saying that it was senior year. i am so thankful for these people, every damn one of em. and i can't even start to put into words how happy i am that for this one night we got to revisit last year. things have changed, we all have new lives and new things we're doing and thats great, but, i dunno, it was just really really awesome.

so before i start getting too ridiculously corny, i'll go to bed. it was really nice to see everyone. really really nice.

from Hugh Laurie's book "the Gun Seller"

 

"Because what does it mean, to say that things aren't going well? Compared to what? You can say: compared to how things were going a couple of hours ago, or a couple of years ago. But thats not the point. If two cars are speeding towards a brick wall with no brakes, and one car hits the wall moments before the other, you can't spend those moments saying that the second car is much better off than the first.

Death and disaster are at our shoulders every second of our lives, trying to get at us. Missing, a lot of the time. A lot of miles on the motorway without a front wheel blow-out. A lot of viruses tha tslither through our bodies without snagging. A lot of pianos that fall a minute after we've passed. Or a month, it makes no difference.

So unless we're going to get down on our knees and give thanks every time disaster misses, it makes no sense to moan when it strikes. Us, or anyone else. Because we're not comparing it with anything else."

 

its such a good book. you should read it.

gooth party gooth party (gooth..in..your...pants?) was tonight. i went, mostly because i wanted to see the customized "apples to apples" cards, one with everyone's name on it and inside jokes and well, i was invited. i felt weird going...it was a high school party and well, i'm not in high school anymore but people kept asking me if i was coming, and jay made a card for everyone going and i had a card so i assumed i was supposed to go, and no one said, "you're not in high school anymore what are you doing here?" and it was a great time to see all my gooth friends who i miss oh so very much, and well, i was invited. but still..i'm back from college and i'm trying to figure out my place here in clemmons-how i fit in with all the groups i graduated from..where do you draw the line between creepy college student who can't move on and the person whose friends are still in high school and they want to spend time with them when they're home. because i'm the latter, but i'm scared to death that i seem like the former. i was part of a lot of amazing groups last year and those groups still exist, and even though i graduated i guess you're always a member of gooth, and the people on pyc and in the drama stuff etc are all my friends and its ok to support your friends and want to see them when you're home right?

ok, well whatever...i'm home and i'm creepy but i love being back here and seeing everyone again and knowing that this is, always has been, and always will be home.

tonight i had one of the most amazing service-related experiences i've had since being at elon (and as a part of the service learning community and a service fraternity i've had a lot of experiences). the slc adopted a family for christmas, pretty standard right? well i was with carmen (one of our leaders) when she went to pick out the family, and so i helped her look through the pages of profiles of all these needy families, a different experience for me because usually when we do the angel tree thing at church you just get a name and clothing size, so i'm not going to lie, reading the personal information about these families and why they needed the help and how much money they were making compared to how much their monthly expenditures were was a bit overwhelming . carmen and i left the agency, after choosing a single hispanic mother with two young children, in tears because the need was so great and we knew there was no way we could help everyone, but we talked about it and decided that that was part of the learning portion of the service learning community, understanding that while the need may be great, you do what you can and that just has to be enough.

we were all assigned different gifts to get, focusing more on clothes for the children, adamaris and johnny and while we were shopping riley found the fabric section of wal-mart and decided it would be fun if we made those tie blankets..the ones where you cut the strips and tie em. it was a surprise, 'cause blankets weren't on "the list" and it was not big deal, except it drove carmen crazy that she didnt know what we were doing but it also gave us a personal connection to the family because we were making something for them.

so then tonight....a few of us got to go take all the presents to the family. i was really excited...the mom only speaks spainish and i've recently started learning spainish in preparation for honduras over spring break, and i thougt it would be a really fun experience. we pulled into the trailer park and immediately locked our doors, it was sketch as hell. we found lot number 25 and after carmen talked to the mom we all grabbed our presents and entered the tiny trailer. inside there was a woman no taller than 5 feet, looking no older than us, an older man (her father), a five year old boy and the year old adamaris sitting in a baby carrier in a chair. the trailer was small, and we set the presents next to the t.v. that johnny had been watching. he kept saying "i can't see" but it was in spainish so we didnt really understand it. his grandpa was telling him that if he didnt say hi that we would take the presents back and he immedietly popped his head out from under the pillow and yelled "hola!" we then said feliz navidad to the mom and left. we were there no more than five minutes and spoke very few words with anyone because of the language barrier. but ever since i can't stop thinking about them. being able to actually put the presents in the family's home, and see the children and the mom...i can imagine johnny playing with his new spiderman toys, and adamaris in her pink shirt and purple pants. i can see them cuddling up in their blankets with their mom in her new bathrobe and slippers. this christmas, after we finish opening up our presents at like 7 (yea we do it early), i'll be imagining johnny's excitement over his spiderman themed christmas, and his mom's smiles.

it wasn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things..but looking back on this experience, i know that it is something i will remember forever. we made a difference in the life of this family. we helped them have a christmas that they previously wouldn't have been able to have....i know that this is what service is all about and i should have gotten it by now...but man...this feeling can't be matched, theres really nothing like it.