Happy Halloween!

Today was Halloween, obviously, since it's October 31st. I went to The Lost Estate www.thelostestate.com, put on by the Flood church with Katie and Cassie. I dressed up as "Not a Happy Camper". I think the funnest part was making my costume. Ingredients: dirt, old camp shirt, leaves, marshmallows, lizards, twigs (for hair and clothes), hairspray, and red stuff for cuts and bug bites.

Surprise!

Yesterday morning my friend Corrie drove down to San Diego to surprise me and our friend Katie! So luckily neither of us really had any plans, well I think Katie did, but she wanted to hang out with us, her cooler friends ;) Anyway it was a nice surprise, we hung out and did fun girl stuff, shopping, eating cheesecake, watching movies. Good times. Thanks for visiting Corrie! Oh yeah, happy halloween everyone!

Goodbye Oreo

Emily's hamster was sick over the last few days, and no one at my house could figure out why. So my mom and sister took her to the vet and found out she had diarrhea! Yikes. I guess she has actually had it for a really long time though, meaning petsmart sold Emily a sick hamster. Anyway Oreo had a 50/50 chance of surviving, and after spending a couple of nights of intensive care at the Vets office she passed away. Emily is apparently really sad, poor thing. Tonight at my house my family is having a little burial in the backyard for little Oreo. Which seems like something you would do with younger kids, but that's ok, it's a good way for Emily to say good bye.

Rain and Shine

Took this at the Vista Point on the way back to San Diego yesterday morning. The rain was off and on on the way back, sometimes pouring, sometimes sprinkling, and then sometimes clear blue skies.

Joel

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the tragic death of a friend Joel Hyde. I know for many it was a tough day, not really knowing how to feel or act. As I thought about Joel yesterday I was reminded of how important our relationships with people are because we never know when they will end. It was good for me to be able to go home for a day and be with my family and some of my closest friends. I thanked God for putting these people in my life as I prayed and thought about those closest to Joel who were aching at the loss of such an awesome person.
I was thinking about the time that I really had the chance to see who Joel was. The Long Beach Nazarene youth group went on a snowboarding trip up in Big Bear. Most everyone knew what they were doing, but once Emma and I made it to the top of the bunny slopes we couldn't even stand up, let alone move anywhere. Joel paciently expained everything to us, even though I'm sure he wanted to be on the advanced slopes himselves, and went slowly down that first run until we had the hang of it. Later on he, I believe accidently, went off of a jump on one of the advanced slopes and landed basically on his head. Looking up at those around him (not myself, I was still at the bunny slopes) as blood was coming out of his nose he asked "Where am I?". Talk about a scare. But a few minutes later he seemed ok, although he probably had a concussion. An hour later he went back out snowboarding, to the protest of most of us who didn't think it was a good idea. But he wanted to make the most out of the trip, always living life out to the fullest. I know all of us who knew him have our own good memories of Joel that we will hang onto forever.
Thank you God, for putting Joel into my life, never let me forget that the relationships we have with our friends and family are the more important than anything else.

Worst Dinner So Far in College

Packaged cinnamon roll, Orange Juice, Starbucks Frappaccino, and Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, washed down with a laffy taffy.

Scared Poopless

Last night I went with Sophia, her boyfriend Justin, Emma, this girl Nicole from SDSU and a bunch of her friends to Knott's Scary Farm. I haven't been there since I was a Sophomore in high school, it was such a blast. Sophia and I decided we wanted to go last weekend and it just kind of happened this weekend and I'm so glad we went!
For those of you who have never been to Knott's Scary Farm you are definitely missing out. The entire park is transformed into a foggy dark place with tons of creepily dressed monsters throughout the park, actors who are paid to scare you in any way they can. There's also a lot of mazes set up where again, monsters jump out at you and the scene's are creepy looking. Emma, Sophia, Justin, and I decided to split from the larger group which made it more fun and scary at the same time. Emma and I are big chickens, and so we were prey to all of the monsters. We kept jumping and screaming and attempting to run away (but Emma was WAY more scared than me, hehe).

Justin, Sophia, scary clown, emma, me
Anyway it was a blast, by 2AM when the the park closed we were sufficiently scared and had barely avoided heart attacks and peeing our pants. So we decided to go to Denny's where it was really crowded. Emma and I finally made it to Corrie's (who was ridiculously nice to let us stay at her apartment because we didn't want to go home) around 330. And of course had to jump on her bed and wake her up... so finally made it to bed around 4, 430ish. Then had a good time today at Huntington Beach Main Street after waking up at 1:00 in the afternoon, therefore even though it's 12:15, I'm not really tired, hmm, hopefully that won't last long.

My feet and emma's foot at the huntington beach pier

What is it?

Any guesses?

Getting fattened up

I have been working on eating better, started exercising again at the ARC (Aztec Rec Center). I've been making good choices in food most of the time. However my mom likes to send me these little care packages with stuff for me to eat or shampoo, those kinds of things, in them. The last one she sent me had a small package of nutter butters, oreos, nutter butters, chocolate covered espresso beans, and granola bars. The one before that had 2 full size bags of taffy cookies. HOW does she expect me to eat all of these sweats and WHY is she sending me so much junk food! I guess most of the good stuff is perishable, but I really don't need the cookies or sweets. Even if I wasn't trying to eat good this is a lot of food for one person anyway! After the first one I told her she didn't need to send the cookie type stuff, hmm, I don't think she heard me.

Miracle

So I just got off the phone with my bestest friend in the whole world! (Emma for those of you who don't know, and yes I realize it is 1:40 in the morning, but that's what bestest friends are for right? good timing for a break from studying) Anyway, she started a blog!! http://emmasdilemmas.blogspot.com/ For those of you who don't know Emma this really is a miracle since she has not until recently even read my blog cause she's never on the internet! Anyway just thought i'd share. Time to get back to studying! Love you Ems! I'm excited! Can't wait to see you this weekend! These last few weeks have been the longest we've been apart since we were 5 I'm pretty sure. :(

All you can do is laugh.

I woke up late again. This time I don't even remember hitting the snooze button, I just woke up at 8:30 for a 9:00 class. I threw on clothes really fast, looked outside and saw that it WASN'T raining. Therefore didn't wear a hooded sweatshirt or bring an umbrella with me. After my 9:00 class had an hour to kill so went to eat breakfast and do some reading, still not raining. 10:45ish leave for my next class and it is POURING. I mean seriously pouring, I felt like I was walking under a waterfall. 5 feet later I was drenched completely through. Not a dry spot anywhere. Ever walk around in soaked through jeans like after going on big foot rapids at Knott's Berry Farm? It's definitely not the best feeling.
So what did I do? I just started laughing. Even though I was all by myself I couldn't help it. I contemplated just skipping my class and going back to the dorms, but I was already drenched anyways. So for the little over 10 minute walk to class where the rain never let up I just laughed, and when I looked at people while trecking through the flooded walkway, most of whom had either an umbrella or a hood, they started laughing too, I'm not sure if it was with me or at me though. And by the time I got to class, half of the other people looked just like me, and half didn't even bother coming to class because they didn't want to get soaked.
Even though I didn't wake up early enough to have a shower I got one anyways!
I really do love the rain though. I think I'm going to go look out my window and just watch it, it's so much fun!

Aztec Warrior!

what's funny is this guy is about 50 years old, but still extremely buff and good looking. If he was younger I'm sure the college girls would be all over him.

Drained

Ever have one of those days where you just feel drained of all energy? I feel like that right now, and I can't seem to get over it. It doesn't help that today was definitely one of my busier days. I had 4 classes from 9-3, 3 of them being in a row, and a test. And then work from 4-7:30. Normally I'm a cashier, but today the people working downstairs with the supplies needed help, so I ended folding t-shirts for about an hour and a half and then counting sweatshirts for another hour and a half. I had to reach up for the sweatshirts so my arms are sore too. I think I might be so tired because a sickness is coming on, but I really hope not. Sophia keeps getting sick on and off, and the air in our building is recycled, nice way to spread germs, and my sister Emily was sick this weekend and I spent a lot of time around her. Anyway we'll see, I can't afford to be too tired tonight, I have much much to do. I think I'll drink a Starbucks bottled frappuccino. I've started to really like those things, which is not necessarily a good thing.
(sidenote: someone's blasting music outside and it's switchfoot. It's just kind of funny because normally the music blasted is rap, actually Sheena the girl next door to my wall likes to play country really loud. So nevermind I guess it's not weird, just random.)

Downtown

On Saturday before going to a football game I took my family to downtown San Diego and the Horton Plaza mall.
This is a random picture of some apartments on top of other shops, I really love how they look for some reason.

Family weekend

So this weekend is "Family Weekend" here at SDSU. That means Friday night my parents and little sister drove down here and I have been going to random activities and spending time with them. I think the SDSU people know what they are doing when they plan this thing 6 weeks into the school year. Most of us students have had the chance to get over feeling embarassed when our parents give us hugs, because we really do appreciate them. Of course the 10 bazillion kisses and the 5 minute long hug from my mom yesterday were just a tad bit much, but that's ok. I hadn't been looking forward to this weekend, I wasn't not looking forward to it, I just hadn't thought much about it last week. But now I'm glad that I've had the chance to hang out with my family. Last night Emily stayed over hear in the dorms since Sophia's gone, I just had her use my sleeping bag and pillow. That was nice, some sisterly bonding. She got to experience a little bit of the college dorm life, I should say the college dorm and weekend night life. I was so tired I never woke up around 3 when all of the drunk people came home, but I think Emily didn't sleep too well last night since she opted to stay with my mom and dad in the hotel instead :(
So I am feeling lame right now, normally I love being by myself, I enjoy the time. But right now I don't want to be, so I called Corrie ,who's here in San Diego technically to visit Katie, to see if I could come hang out with them. So I'm going to spend the night at Katie's and then eat breakfast with my family in the morning before they leave.

The joys of being a college student and living in the dorms

Last night around 2:00AM I finally finished my philosophy paper, I probably could have finished a little earlier, but I really wanted it to be good. I still had to study for a Spanish vocab quiz and do a little bit of homework, so I stayed up studying until about 2:30, really not that bad. Right after I go and get ready for bed there is this loud horn type noise going off and on throughout our hall. Having witnessed this before I immediately groaned, as Sophia, who was also up late writing a paper, asked what the sound was. The alarm. 2 seconds later the screeching noise in our room starts to go off as we hear the male recording "Evacuate the building immediately, do not use the elevator..." So as we walk out and down the 7 flights of stairs everyone groggy and in PJ's, hearing one person say "Man my room mates passed out in his bed! Should I have dragged him out?", we smell the smoke. Not fire smoke, nope. Some stupid people decided to smoke pot on the stairs, setting the alarm off at 2:30 in the morning. After having a pow wow of the 7th floor corner out on the grass outside we were finally allowed to go back in at a little after 3:00AM. However if you didn't have your ID with you for them to check it, then you couldn't get back in the dorms until a little later. Now, if we were supposed to be evacuating the building or die of a fire, who is going to think to bring their ID? Luckily I did for some reason, but not everyone did.
By the time I made it back I was wide awake again, so I decided to finish studying for Spanish rather than wake up early to do so.
By 4:00 AM I finally made it to bed, that made for an interesting night. Sophia stayed up until 5, yikes. Although it was good that we were both awake.

Can I Pick Your Brain?

Instant Messenger can definitely be a bad distraction when you are trying to study. But tonight I discovered it can also be a very useful tool. I'm writing a complex argument for my philosophy class. It can be on any topic, controversial or not, it just has to have 5 different types of simple arguments: modus ponens, modus tollens, chain argument, disjunctive argument, and a valid categorical syllogism (bonus points if anyone actually knows what these are, I just learned myself and I'm supposed to be writing something on them!)
Well before I could do that I needed to come up with reasons to prove my conclusion: All people should be given the chance to pursue a higher education. So I went on Instant Messenger for about 10 minutes and talked to 5 different people: my next door neighbor, a friend in long beach, a friend at UC Santa Barbara, a friend at UC Santa Cruz, and a friend at UCLA. Needless to say I had about 7 ideas for arguments in about 10 minutes, nice.
Now it's time to write the paper in the correct forms! Not fun, but it's nice to have arguments to work with. Thanks guys!

blonde moments

First off, Sophia and I are starting to get to know each other better. Hitting it off more. Talking alot about random things. It's a lot of fun.
Which also means that we are getting more comfortable around each other too I guess, not thinking so much when we talk as one does around someone they don't know as well.
Tonight each of us had our own fun blonde moments. Sophia was first. Midterms are this week and next week. And I said something about the semester being almost half over already. She was like half over? But we're just having midterms! Yes. Mid-terms, aka middle of the term, aka the semester is half over.
Then it was my turn. Apparently this week is National Coming Out Week, Monday was National Coming Out Day. So I asked Sophia if this whole national coming out thing was for the whole country or just our state, or just sdsu... I had been thinking about this one for a while. She's like umm National? Oh yeah.
Anyway, you probably had to be there, and I'm not good at retelling stories, but it was fun.

I am so retarded!

Went to the bathroom right across the hall a little before 7:00, and apparently I locked my door. Well I never lock my door when I go to the bathroom so I didn't have any keys with me and Sophia's at some sorority meeting or something so she wasn't here to let me back in! Yuck. Some poeple offered to let me stay with them in their rooms, but i have too much homework to do. So I went downstairs and waited about 20 minutes for someone with keys to let me back into my room and fill out a report. By the time I finally got back it was about 30 minutes later and I have so much to do!! It was a big random waste of time. Worst part of it all though was that it costs $25 for them to let you back in, stink. Oh yeah, and I was wearing my frumpiest comfortable clothes with no make up and it was a nice cute guy who let me back in, sad.

So now I'm freaking out and I need to make a list of everything I have to do this week, so I think I'll just write it here, so if you ever see me online too much tell me I should be doing homework!
-Philosophy paper due Friday
-Philosophy chapter 9 read by hmm earlier today
-Go to the library to research for Comm Informative Outline
-Write Comm informative outline due Thurs.
-Comm chapters 2-7, and 14-17 by the midterm next Thurs.
-Read 3 history chapters and study for a quiz on Thurs.
-Read 4 course reader history sections by Thurs.
-Study and memorize 117 places on a map for a possible quiz Thurs.
-Spanish writing assignment, 2 worksheets due Wed.
-Spanish workbook and Labmanual pages so I'm not so behind before my test next Fri.
-Sociology finish reading ch. 11 by earlier today

Yuck, sorry, that's probably boring for most of you, but it's nice and helpful, although yes more stressful too to make a list of everything I need to do. Ok, now time to get cracking.

Pictures

Since the internet here had been slow for a while I haven't had a chance to post pictures, and since I did fun stuff last week and weekend I have more fun pictures! So here's a random compilation of some of them :)
Got my hair cut and colored...
before
after
Hung out with Emma and corrie, look how cute we are! hehe

Poured water on Corrie's head, I think this is a perfect shot. (there's an even better one of a whip cream fight we were having, but emma has it, so hopefully she'll send it to me)

Got a red scarf from my ama (grandma) for my bday

Got green converse from the family for my present (and some random gift cards)

Me blowing out my birthday cake candles, all 19 in one try!

Me and my room mate Sophia

Across from my room Thursday night, look how special i am (hehe, there were signs everywhere, it was kind of fun)

Trisha and Cassie took me to BJ's and a movie

Trying to inflate the blow up chair, hair dryer and paper funnel, looking back i'm not sure this was safe cause the paper could have caught on fire, it did smell a little bit...

I taught Sophia and Cassie how to fight, this is how Emma and I fight all of the time :)


whew, ok that's enough fun pics for now! hopefully i can keep my blog more picture fun from now on!

4 day birthday

Normally birthdays only last for 1 day. But I got to celebrate for 4 days in a row! And I'll have to admit, it was one of the best birthday weekends I've had in a long time. Later I'll put up some pictures for your viewing pleasure.
Friday night was girls night like I already mentioned earlier...
Saturday was family bday and dinner and cake and green converse presents...
Sunday was bday with my aunt coming over and then with the Satellite community after church!
Fun times, I decided to drive back this morning instead of last night, so I've been up since about 5:50, meaning hopefully I'll find time for a nap later on. I'm kind of scared, I was just thinking about the homework situation, and I have SO much to do. Reports, tests, papers, reading reading reading, midterms. Yuck, and I didn't get much done this weekend at all!
Whew, breathe, one step at a time.
Oh yeah and I weighed myself this weekend and it's definitely time to counter that freshman 15, so I'm working out at the gym today hopefully, and then working on eating much better! Setting goals to make this one happen!

Haha... woohoo! 19!!

First off, the entire system in all of the dorms at SDSU has been EXTREMELY slow the past couple of days, so I haven't been able to do much! It still is, but I'm extremely awake, and it just took me about 10 minutes just to get to this page!
Anyways....
It's my bday right now! hehe, I'm excited! although I have way too much energy for 12:30 at night, oh well. I went out to dinner to celebrate my bday with Cassie and my friend Tricia. Yum! We went to BJ's and had pizza and then a big pizzookie (sp?) with a candle for my bday which I blew out on accident just by breathing on it, made for some good laughs though!
Then we went to see The Forgotten. That has to be one of the scariest movies I've seen in a long time, and at the same time one of the cleanest, weird how that happens, but kind of nice, I don't even remember a kissing scene, maybe 1 between husband and wife.
Then we got back a little after midnight and cassie and tricia sang happy birthday to me REALLY loud in the middle of the parking lot. It was extremely hilarious and great. Who needs to drink? We can appear to be that way just off of fun and silliness anyway without all of the side effects! Yah! And now I'm going to go watch a movie with Kelly who can't fall asleep cause she's sick :( And since I'm so awake it's not a problem with me!
I'm so excited for this weekend! Looking forward to a girls night tomorrow so much with Corrie and Emma. It will be so much fun and so nice! Then with the family and then with more friends at church! Yah! Good times. Night all.
I'm not sure this is even going to post since it's so slow, but we'll see.

Liar Paradox

The first claim in this box is false.

If the preceding claim is true, then it must be false, right? But if it's false, then what it says is true. So, if it's true, it's false, and if it's false, it's true. Which is it?

Thought I'd let you ponder that one for a minute, it's part of my fun philosophy homework.
What do you think?

Week 6

A month and a half. That's how long I've been here at SDSU now. It may not seem like that long, but it's long enough to figure out many things. Myself, as well as many others included, are starting to figure out who we are going to remain friends with for the rest of the year, who we don't necessarily like, and those that are in between, where as in the beginning of the year everyone was nice to each other, whether fake or sincere.
There are many friends back home who have lost touch, and I probably won't talk to ever again sadly.
At the same time there are those really good friends who you can always call and who also have become if at all possible, even better friends.
Families will continue to miss you and call often. But I'm really proud of my parents, I talk to them about once every 3 days or so, which is pretty good.
It's ok to call your parents if you don't know what Vitamin D milk means, or you have a stain on a shirt and aren't sure how to get it out, or even just miss them a little bit.
I've began to learn how to manipulate the meal plan to it's fullest potential, spending the exact 6.90 for lunch and 8.90 for dinner, hopefully getting enough for leftovers later or for the weekend when the meal plans don't work.
If possible it's much better to go to the grocery store for food because it's about half as expensive as the Aztec Markets.
School and work are finally getting manageable. It helps that I'm not working quite as much as before, but also I've further learned to manage my time.
I know now that I can't be on AIM all of the time because it is too distracting.
That Sophia is an extremely light sleeper while I am a heavy one. So since all of her classes start later than mine I've become used to her yelling "Laura!" to wake me up when I don't hear the alarm, or getting hit by a pillow to wake me up.
Phone bills are more expensive if you go over your alloted amount of text messages a month.
No matter how much time you think you have to study, you always have to factor in at least an hour of distractions or socializing that is inevitable, but not always necessarily bad.
The library is open until 1AM, and is always a nice place to sleep in between classes.
It's ok to miss just one class every here and there if there is just no possible way that you can get out of bed in the morning, or accidentally don't set the alarm.
Lots of marks on papers aren't a good thing.
Cell phones set on vibrate are still extremely loud.
You're not going to agree with all of your professors, and some are extremely against your beliefs so you have to learn to be strong and stand up and not fall under the pressure of others.
SDSU really is a party school, there's no way around it. But there are always a few people who aren't into the party deal who can be fun to hang out with.
Two bags of instant coffee work much better than one, and last longer, and taste ok with creamer.
There is always an open door policy when anyone is in their room.
If you leave milk in the refrigerator too long it begins to smell.
If you microwave something really yummy others will flock to your room from the aroma to see if they can have some as well.
Dirty laundry and dirty dishes don't clean themselves.
If you don't purchase a scantron before a test the bookstore is a good sprint away if you're lucky enough to be given the chance to take the test still.
Falling asleep in class is entirely possible.
The showers aren't safe without sandals.
If there is one cold day the air conditioner is turned off for a week.
Sickness spreads rapidly in dorms with recycled air.
Leaving your keys in your room will cost you $25 to get back in.
There's no way to sleep before 12 because of the noise. (Thanks Katie for hanging out with me yesterday and letting me come over to your apartment for a quite place to study! I had a really good time!)
And I could go on and on, but I think that's enough of a long list for now! I'm not complaining at all though. I love it here. I think I was ready for college a long time ago, it's so much better than highschool. And I think I was ready to be on my own as well, I mean I complained before about being at home, but I really was ready to do this, especially since I'm not really "on my own" completely yet. And even with so much to do, I really don't get too stressed out too often.

Good times

This weekend was definitely a little busier than I had planned, but that made it all the more fun! My friend Corrie drove down to San Diego on Friday night and we had a chance to hang out and drive around and drink Starbucks and laugh way too much like always. I got to play tour guide at night, which I think might have scared her a little walking near Frat row seeing many many drunk people. And walking by the ambulances and police cars just waiting for a disaster to happen. But i was so glad she came since everyone had either gone home or was at a party which I didn't want to go to. I found more friends today who don't party so on weekends i'll have people to hang out with, which is nice.
Then I had work for 6 hours Saturday and then last minute spur of the moment decision I drove to Corrie's apartment and we went out and hung out back there. It was fun again of course! Especially when Corrie started snoring really loudly 2 seconds after going to bed (maybe 2AM is a little late for old people like Corrie to stay awake ;) ). Then I drove down about 3 hours later than planned, but that was ok, I needed the sleep and sat in not moving traffic since there was an accident big enough to actually close down the 5 south freeway for half an hour.
Somewhere in there on Sunday I got a little bit of homework done, at least I don't have too much right now.
Friday is my birthday!! Yah! 19, wow that's old, hehe. So this week's going to go by extra slow since I'm looking forward to this weekend hanging with friends and family for the bday.

Felt like something new

Inspired by Melissa Mae who recently changed the look of her blog, I decided to do so as well! I get bored with things kind of quickly, hope you like it.

Studying

That seems to be most of what I've been doing lately. I know, duh, I'm in college, suck it up. The only problem is I can't find a good place to study really. The other night there were some people in my room so I couldn't concentrate, so I went to the couch in the hallway. Then all of a sudden there were 4 other girls there too and we were just talking and hanging out. So dorms aren't really study friendly, plus they stay fairly noisy until at least midnight. So yesterday I tried going to the library after work, the chairs are extremely comfortable and all, but I just didn't like sitting there. I mean it's an awesome library, but I really just prefer to be in my room. Then there's the other distraction of the computer and instant messaging, I'm going to try and cut back on that one. We'll see...
This is the library. It's pretty sweet because it's mostly underground, you walk into that dome thing and then down steps to get into the library. And the white building behind it is the rest of the library where there's an underground path to get there. Pretty nice.