The sandals of the gods

Chacos are the most comfortable sandals EVER. They've surpassed my well-broken-in Birks already! It rained when I wore them downtown this afternoon, so they passed the water-proof test. Roomie and I had to run and stop our bus, so they've passed the durability/don't-fly-off-my-feet-when-running-test, and I can't even tell that I am wearing them, so they've definatley passed the comfort test. All this from the girl who loathes shoes and socks...

We said farewell to Pike Place Market this afternoon. Sad :( But we'll be back in four months and will be here non-stop for at least two good years, so that makes me really happy. I am really excited about spending the summer out here next year! It's going to be so amazing!

Alright, back to the work. I have a final tomorrow and a women's studies journal to finish. I gotta stop procrastinating!

My Last Weekend in Seattle

Yep, it's my last weekend in Seattle until I drive out at the end of September. Four months - that's a long time!! What am I going to do without Pike Place Market? Tully's? The original Starbucks? Fremont and Dusty Strings? Ahhh! Actually, I think I will be okay, seeing as I am going to my other most favorite place in the world - Cran-Hill Ranch! Woo hoo! I will miss the coffee and the mountains, though. C'est la vie...

We're having our party and BBQ on Alki beach this afternoon. Apparently there are record-low tides today. Emi once saw a humpback whale out in the Puget Sound when she was at Alki. I know we have orcas, but I thought that was it. Oh, and fish and seagulls, of course. I'm excited to hang out, play catch, cards, frisbee, and read. I am being a nerd and bringing some homework along so I can be somewhat productive this afternoon. :)

I get to pick up my new Chacos at REI this afternoon. Finally, I can start breaking them in! Did you know that REI has an "in-store pick up" where you can order stuff online and just have it sent to the nearest REI where you pick it up? That way you don't have to pay any shipping! Yay! I sure hope they fit right...

Mmm....I got nearly ten hours of sleep last night and I am not dead from seeing Harry Potter anymore. Always a good thing. I am so ready to enjoy this weekend, get some work done, and pack! Yay for no more classes until Sept 27!!! I am looking forward to my classes for next fall, though. I'm taking Women in Christianity (for my minor), a math methods class, Diversity and the Classroom, some other ed class I can't remember at the moment, and Foundations of Ed Psych. Intersting stuff. It's looking like a good quarter. AND, I just found out yesterday that SPU has decided to give me a very generous grant for next year! Why, I don't know, but it's been applied to my student account already and isn't a fluke! Woo hoo! I'm going to go talk to financial aid on Tuesday to see if it's for academics or just because they think I'm swell. We'll see. :) Oh, and my flute scholarship is being renewed for next year, too. God is so so GOOD!

Ok, gotta go catch the bus and head up to Queen Anne with Roomie to get stuff for the BBQ.

Happy Saturday!

It's All Downhill from Here!

Well, I've handed in my 11-12 page mythology paper. It turned out pretty well, I think. I hope!

Harry Potter was awesome last night. We were the second group in line, behind a 12 yr old boy and his mom :) We did our homework and played cards (I'm trying to teach my friends out here how to play euchre, but they just don't get it!) on the sidewalk outside while we waited. We were really luck it was warm and didn't rain at all. That would have stunk. The movie was really good. The special effects stuff was amazing, yet I feel that young children shouldn't see it. It'd probably be good for 10-11 yrs and up. There were some parts that were just plain creepy - like the parts with the dementors and stuff - that I don't know if little kids could handle it. And I wasn't so keen on some of the changes the new director made, such as Hogwarts being in a new location, Hagrid's house being so far away, the quidditch match, the actors' costumes, etc. I also felt like more needed to be explained for the fans who didn't read the books. But there was a lot of awesome stuff, too, and I would pay money to go see it again in the theater (which I never do), so I'm really happy! Oh, and the soundtrack was incredible - lots of good flute stuff! :)

Ok, I am dead, so I gotta go chill. I have been running on four hours of sleep...bah...

5 Hours, 17 Minutes to Go!!

That's right, just a little over five hours to go until I see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! I really can't wait! Emi, Megan (Dutchie), Sara (Roomie), Megan (my stand partner) and I are all meeting in the Loop at 9:45pm and then are heading over to Ballard to wait in line for an hour and a half so we get awesome seats (not in the front row this year!). YAY! I'm bringing my women's studies homework to work on while waiting. There was a really awesome biography on J.K. Rowling on A&E last night. She already has the last chapter of Book 7 written! Yippppeeee!!!

Praise God this day is almost done. It's been busy. I got a cavity filled at the dentist. They had to give me FOUR doses of novacaine (sp?) to get my mouth numb. Boy was I loopy after that. Then I came home and worked on my paper for two hours. We had our final meeting for the Iona trip this afternoon. We had a spiritual director come in and talk with us, Margie Van Duzer. She and her husband go to my church, and she used to be on staff with InterVarsity at U Dub (U of Washington). It was really cool. Then I came back home and studied for my Child Language Development final, which was only worth 25 points and took me 35 minutes to complete. After that I went and took a math test and got some stuff from the library. Now I am back home and need to finish the final three pages of my paper. Then I can go to Harry Potter! Yay!

Five hours and ten minutes left...

It's been a GOOD day :)

Let me begin my saying that right now I am praising God for a number of people, one of them being LISA! Thank you so much Lisa, for helping me figure out how to include links on my blog! Yay! So check out the links - we worked hard on getting them up and running! And they're pretty cool, too.

I am also praising God for the absolutley gorgeous weather we have been having all week long. They call for rain and we get sunshine - what a nice reprieve!! Even Mt Rainier was out today - woo hoo!

I had a wonderful afternoon with Priscilla, my favorite prof/mentor. She cracks me up. She is one of my prayer partners for this summer, so we went over some of my goals for the summer and some of my prayer requests. I couldn't believe it - she actually critiqued my goals and prayer requests! It was hilarious! She was being really punchy (I think it's the lack of sleep/jet lag)and kept making remarks and stuff. She was so funny and both of us were laughing really hard the majority of the time. I ended up appreciating her comments and remarks, though, as she has challenged me even further and really made me be specific about some stuff. And that is something I really appreciated. She also gave me an article to read over the summer and to let her know what I think about it, the book My Mother, My Self, by Nany Friday, and some knitting patterns for socks and hats. In exchange I am giving her patterns for dish cloths and some Angora and llama wool from the petting zoo animals at the Ranch, on the condition that she teaches me how to spin it in the fall. I think it's a pretty fair trade :)Oh, and she's even letting me store some of my stuff in her office! What a godsend she is!

I opened my mailstop this morning and pulled out a letter addressed to "The Illustrious Super Val." I took one look at myself in my overalls, pig tails, and Birkenstocks, and wondered where the heck my best friend come up with the idea to describe me as "illustrious." She's great!

So all in all, it's been a really awesome day! Now I am going to go make some mac and cheese, work on my 12 page mythology paper, and then watch the biography on J.K. Rowling at 8pm while studying for my Child Language Development final. Good times.

A week from tonight I fly back to Michigan! It's so close, yet so far away at the same time!!

Peace, y'all!

Iona Community and Hostel

Iona Hostel

Iona Community

Click on the links above to learn more about the Iona Community and where I'll be staying at the end of the summer! I'll post more links for Iona once I figure out how to put a links section on my blog!