* tiny but powerful *

[This is the post that is supposed to contain the continuation of the previous post. However, since I'm only halfway done with it, I'm not going to post any of it for the time being. So you're seeing this. Oh well for you. ;) This will be replaced by the rest of my story once I'm finished writing it.]

Nothing can induce nostalgia like driving down the streets of Castro Valley, by myself, with the radio on. But I'll come back to this later. Let me start at the beginning of my day yesterday.

I was able to see a lot of people during my visit to CVHS and plans with friends. I, unfortunately, overslept by an hour, so I didn't get to the high school in time for orchestra 1st period. I arrived shortly after the bell rang at 8:20am. Since it was a Thursday, there was tutorial, which is a half-hour period (on Wednesdays and Thursdays) between 1st and 2nd period during which students have time to seek help on homework from teachers or classmates, or they can just get a morning snack from the cafeteria, or hang out in the courtyard. And thus began my stroll down Memory Lane. ;)

- Mr. Luedders: Castro Valley orchestra director. He was my orchestra director from the 6th through 12th grades. I was able to say hi briefly at the beginning of tutorial, but he needed to discuss orchestra coordination with Everett for his concerto (Grieg Piano, 3rd mvmt!), so I left them alone, promising to return the following day to hear the orchestra and visit with Mr. Luedders after 2nd period on Friday.

- Mr. Goldstein: AP US History teacher. Mr. Goldstein is most definitely one of my three favorite teachers from high school. That man is truly amazing. I went into his class disliking history and only taking AP because I "should" for college apps, and I came out of it loving the subject. He has true character that inspires his students, and he has a presence in the classroom that is unmatched by only two other teachers I had at CVHS: Ms. Kyker, my beloved Honors Biology teacher who is now living in Paris, and Mr. Fottrell, who I will get to later in this post. Anyway, I spent most of tutorial chatting with Mr. Goldstein, catching him up a bit on my college activities. He had a sparkle in his eyes, and as always, as he asked me about orchestra. Mr. Goldstein is one of the few teachers I see consistently at CVHS orchestra events. It's very encouraging. :) Room 106 is just as I remembered it, with the exception of a working room phone and new internet-connected computer. I'm glad that the school is making consistent improvements.

- Mr. Mitchell: AP Statistics teacher. Well, he's not the AP Stat teacher anymore; he and Mrs. Cavalieri switched subjects, so now he teaches AP Calc instead. I went to see him during the last 10 minutes or so of tutorial. Mr. Mitchell is just as I remembered him, too. Same sense of humor.

- Debora Lee: friend from good ol' Canyon Middle School. Hi Debs! ;) Yeah, that's right, we met way back in 6th grade, both of us on Team C. Go Cougars, whee! ;) I remember when all of our classes were in the A-wing, because they wanted to separate the 6th graders from the older kids. Psshh. Heh. Anyway, Debora and I have definitely known each other for quite awhile. We were one of each other best friends in 7th grade, when we had the *exact same schedule* every period of the day, and we even shared a locker! And Debora was the person to teach me my first song on the violin, the night of her Christmas party in 6th grade, that inspired me to actually start taking violin lessons. And look where that brought me? :) Okay, so back to the present: I left CVHS around 9:00am to meet Debora at her house, and we went out to breakfast at Doug's. Very nice and cozy restaurant; I'd only been there once before. There was a table full of funny old men, talking loudly--you could tell they were old friends--as we walked past to be seated. It was good to see Debora, certainly! We hadn't had time to get together over winter break, so the last time we'd seen each other was at Anna's party over Thanksgiving weekend. We had a good conversation, catching up about mutual friends, talking about new friends, and sharing about our experiences the second year away from home. Oh, and at the end of our meal, the manager, who'd been our waiter, gave us each a card for 1 complimentary order the next time we go to Doug's! That was a pleasant surprise. :)

- Ms. Lepell: British Literature teacher. I'm not sure if she still teaches Brit Lit. And actually, she was never my teacher. She was Matt's teacher during his senior year. I got to know her pretty well, though, since Matt liked her a lot, and she was also the Interact Club advisor. Anyway, after breakfast with Debora, I returned to CVHS just as it was time for break (a 10-minute interlude between 3rd and 4th period). My first stop was to visit Ms. Lepell, who cutely squealed my name when she saw me at her door. I really love Ms. Lepell. She's an English teacher who absolutely loves what she does. I wish I'd had her as a teacher, but since I didn't, I'm really glad I got to know her anyway.

- Ms. Parris: AP Senior English teacher. Speaking of great English teachers...Ms. Parris is certainly one of them. Even though I switched out of her class 2nd semester of senior year (after I'd gotten into Stanford early decision) (which she teases me about every time I see her!), I must say that I really loved her class. I didn't like the material, no (what, me like literature? :P), but I loved her class. Part of it, I'm sure, was the fact that our class consisted of the honors students who have gone through the advanced English track together since the 7th grade, but the other part of it was definitely Ms. Parris's class setting. She is so *jovial*! I actually stayed in her classroom for all of 4th period; they were having a discussion about Heart of Darkness (which I still haven't read). It was refreshing to be in an English class with more down-to-earth discussion for once (which IHUM can get very far away from).

- Ms. Turner: Honors Chemistry teacher. As I was walking up the stairs in the new science building to see Mr. Fottrell, I hadn't quite made up my mind about whether to visit Ms. Turner or not, but she caught me in the hallway ("Oh, my! Who is *this*?!") since her room is right across the hall from Mr. Fottrell. It was her prep period, too, so she didn't have any students, and she wanted to show me around the new classroom lab facilities and catch up with me for awhile. I told her about classes and such, while somehow avoided the subject of grades. :P We also had a very amusing exchange regarding Matt, which I will not post here, but you may ask me about if you're curious. ;) Ms. Turner is still very much how I remember her, too. Her attitude toward students and about herself (oooh, she used to TA at Cornell, everyone say "ooooh") still kind of bothers me, but I've learned to deal with it. My brother is in her Honors Chem class right now, but I guess he doesn't really mind her that much because he's decided to be a part of CVHS's first AP Chemistry class next year. Indeed, the high school's first offering of an AP science!

- Dr. Southam: former Honors Chemistry teacher. Dr. Southam taught Honors Chem before Ms. Turner came to CVHS my junior year. He was Matt's teacher, too, which is again how I know him. I ran into him in the 750 hall, too. We didn't chat for that long, and then he convinced me to quit waiting outside Mr. Fottrell's door and just go sit in the back for the rest of his 5th period Honors class--since half the seniors in that class know me anyway. So, I did...but since Mr. Fottrell had some stuff to take care of during lunch (which is right after 5th), I promised to come back during 7th (his prep period).

- Wendy Lu. Yay! I had lunch with Wendy!! :o) Well, I had "lunch" with Wendy. She was eating, but I wasn't, because I wasn't hungry yet. (I'd had breakfast with Debora, after all, and I usually never eat breakfast!) We settled down on a nice bench in the middle of the greenery between 100 and 200 hall. Any of you who took HBio my year will remember that section of campus very clearly. I pointed out to Wendy as we walked by the 4 sq. meters that was my group's "plot" for our plot project, which we had to observe and keep a logbook about for an entire semester. Anyway, we just sat and talked for all of lunch, which was nice. I wish we'd gotten to spend more time together, but Wendy is a very busy girl. Especially this week, because it's the end of the quarter for CVHS, which means...the dreaded Reading Journals for APSE are due! :P And Wendy's leaving on Saturday to go down to Socal to visit colleges. I'm so proud of her--she got into LA, SD, and Berkeley!! CONGRATULATIONS, Wendy dear!! :D

- Chris Park. Chris and I have the same birthday! So I'm exactly one year older than him. (hee hee) :) So after I walked Wendy to her 6th period, I wandered over to the senior parking lot, where I found Chris, Everett, Carol, Amy, and Greg just hanging around. Y'know, it's occurring to me right now how many of this year's seniors I know; I really wasn't close to any of *last* year's seniors. Weird. OK, anyway, I ended up chatting with Chris and Everett for awhile, about their thoughts on prospective colleges. Those boys are so funny to be around. :) Then, Chris and I decided to get some food at Wendy's, since neither of us had eaten yet. More good conversation. :)

- Mr. Fottrell: Honors Physics teacher. True to my word, I returned to see Mr. Fottrell during 7th period. Let me tell you a bit about Mr. Fottrell. I would venture to say that he is one of the school's top two or three teachers. He came to CVHS during my senior year, and taught Honors Physics for us the first year it was offered. And he just has this *touch* to his teaching that is hardly describeable. First of all, he just gets so *excited* about what he's teaching that you can't help but be excited too!! Teachers who are like that are so rare! And then, he's just amazing with the way he explains things. As Mr. Weston told me later, Physics at CVHS is starting not to seem so daunting; students who would never have thought of taking physics have now survived physics. That department is definitely growing stronger. :) Oh, and Mr. Fottrell went to Stanford! So we talked about college classes, and he told me where he used to live on campus, and we found out that both the physics professors I've had this year, he had for physics at some point too! Hahaha! Mr. Fottrell had Prof. Osheroff for a low-temperature physics lab...BEFORE Osheroff had earned his Nobel prize!! WEIRD!! And Mr. Fottrell had Prof. Cabrera for a few weeks of Advanced Freshman Physics (I assume he means the Physics 60's series) before he realized the class was too advanced for him. It was really awesome talking with him again. :)

- Mr. Weston: Physics/Math teacher. I went next-door to see Mr. Weston, after I left Mr. Fottrell's room. I never had Mr. Weston either; yup, you guessed it--he was Matt's physics teacher. I really love Mr. Weston. He has such character for being so old! ;) Haha, I actually really have no idea how old Mr. Weston is, but he's definitely been around for a long time. He was the *only* Physics teacher for a few years before Mr. Fottrell came to CVHS, because the other physics teacher got fired for reasons the school likes to keep quiet about. It's funny for me to say this, but there's so much of a little boy in Mr. Weston! He's just absolutely fascinated with gadgets and things. And, after all these years, he still has not lost his zeal for learning. You know what he told me yesterday? He told me that after he retires, which he's comtemplating doing soon, he wants to go back and take more classes! Imagine that! "You know, Tina... Teaching gets in the way of learning." He was telling me about how he reads Natural History cover to cover, even though only very rarely does physics stuff show up in there. He was so excited to tell me about this article he'd read about a new theory about bacterial evolution. And he always urges me to come back and tell him if I've learned anything particularly cool in my science courses. Quite an amazing man, Mr. Weston is.

- CVHS Varsity Badminton. To my delight, people informed me that there was a home badminton match that day--so, of course, I went to see it! Same coach, Paul Kwok. I was never really that close to him, though, even though I was varsity team co-captain my senior year. Yesterday's match was against Moreau Catholic High School--one of our two long-time rivals in badminton (the other school is Mt. Eden). It's kind of sad that I barely know anyone on the team anymore...but I guess that's what happens when people keep growing older and leave the school. ;) Basically, I only knew the senior players, who were sophomores during my last year. Jenny and Christi are still #1 Women's Doubles, and they've definitely improved a lot. JoEllen (Theo's sister) and Will are still #1 Mixed Doubles. Both those pairs won their matches - yay! I really didn't know many other people, though. But it was still good to watch the games again. It certainly brought back a lot of memories. I miss badminton so much!!! :( That's the one activity that I haven't gotten to do at all in college. It's hard to find badminton courts, and you can't just like grab a birdie and go outside and play (wind is bad :P). Sigh. I want to play again!!

[to be continued...]

Whew. What a full, fun day! Unfortunately, I am being shooed off the computer. So, no story for you. ;) Tomorrow, hopefully!

Current Music:: FFH - "Open Up the Sky"
Every time I sit down to write something here, I realize that I don't really have much to write. I haven't been doing much since I've been home. Mostly just bumming around the house:: sleeping, or reading Harry Potter, or baking, or listening to music, or watching TV (*gasp!*), or chatting online with the few people who are on. I really haven't gone anywhere. It's all very nice, though. I don't really *want* to do anything. My brain and my body are just sort of vegging, and I don't have a desire to stop them from doing so.

Tomorrow, though, I will actually be leaving the house. :) I plan to get up early, get to CVHS in time to see the orchestra during 1st period, then meet Debora for breakfast around 9-ish, and then return to the high school to drop in on some other teachers. Then I'm going to have lunch with Wendy. :) After that, I think I'll go take a nice quiet walk at Lake Chabot ... it might be a little weird for me to go back there, what with all the memories it holds for me, but there are some great places to sit and watch the lake for awhile. It'll be great, especially if the weather's as nice as it was today. :) Then, after dinner, Trisha and I are going to get together for coffee and rent a movie to watch and otherwise just hang out and catch up on each other's lives.

Ah, yes. Note to self:: Go to Stoneridge Mall, to make an exchange. ;)

Off to eat some yummy pumpkin pie that we baked two nights ago!

"I don't think anyone can see me
I don't feel anyone is there
To catch me if I fall
And I can't help but hide myself
...
It's the right time to feel Your love again
'Cause they can't see me
And they don't want to let me in
But You are smiling 'cause You know where I began
And I know it's time to feel Your love again."
- Jake, "The Right Time"

Why are there SO MANY of these floating around?!



I know they're stupid but it's fun anyway. ;)
This one's amusing because I don't really like watermelon.

Current Music:: Jake - "The Right Time"
I love this album!! :D

Why do I always blog so late at night? I guess it's the best time to reflect about my day. Or when I get the most bored. Ah well. ;)

I'm looking at the left dark blue column over there, and there's a TON of space at the bottom under my poll (which y'all should still "vote" on! I know more than 15 people read this thing! hehe). So...I'm thinking of putting random stuff there, about me or otherwise. I'm trying to come up with a list. Wanna help?
So far, I think I'm gonna add::
- my nicknames (oy, that's gonna be interesting...)
- my favorite color (haha)
- my pet peeves
- music I like
- the non-school me

I am so not creative.

Happy Birthday, Anna!!

Current Music:: Caedmon's Call - "Who You Are"
Dim sum is good. Yummm. :)

I'm playing around with various details in my blog template now (a lot of them inspired by debs again, as always!). If you notice something, please comment on whether you like it or not, so I know what to keep! Things will probably be appearing and disappearing and reappearing over the course of the next week.

Oh, gotta go. My cousin who's a senior in high school needs college advice. She and my uncle will be here soon. Fun, like I really feel like an expert on college right now. :P

Current Music:: Greg Long - "Sufficiency of Grace"
Being home means that I can't be on the computer perpetually. ;) So, sorry I've kind of stopped blogging cold-turkey after several days of manic blogging! I, unfortunately, completely slept through church this morning. :( :( :( I was still tired when I got up around lunchtime. That really sucks, because I'll only be home for two Sundays, and I've already committed to going to my brother's church for Easter service (he's invited the whole family). So I won't get to see the East Bay gang this time around. :( Oh, but a thought just occurred to me! I think I'll check and see if they're having a Good Friday service - I hope so! OK, so anyway, I woke up late and kinda bummed around the house doing nothing for the afternoon. That was sooo nice. My brother's back from Outdoor School, so he told me about his week and I reminisced about my memories of the past years. It was fun. :) Then, since my brother needed the computer to write an essay (haha, no more of those for me!), I started reading Harry Potter 3 again! I'd only gotten about 100 pages in over the course of winter quarter. I finished the rest of it tonight! The third book is SO good!! I can see why so many people think it's the best one! :) Before starting the Harry Potter series, I hadn't read for leisure in *forever*. It's kind of nice to do so again. I think it's better for me this year because I don't have zillions of IHUM books to suffer through. (I still maintain that IHUM is evil. :P You will never, ever change my mind on this one.) Then I had a very yummy mommy-food dinner!! *sigh* It's good to get away from dining hall food. I can get sick of that really easily, but I never get sick of my mom's food. :) And I baked cupcakes with my mom tonight! Yellow cake cupcakes. Yummm. :D

I re-read my blog entry about yesterday's studio day, and I made it sound worse than it actually was. That was the it's-2:30am-and-I'm-exhausted-and-feeling-whiny me talking. It was definitely a long day, but it wasn't all bad. God pulled another minor miracle with us, considering how much we were successful in getting done. And I was in good company, so it's all good. :)

So, I don't really have any concrete plans for the week. My mom and I plan to bake more! :) Hopefully I'll be able to catch up with some high school friends. I have some stuff I need to get done, like figure out what I want to do over the summer, search for jobs, figure out which Stanford profs I want to talk to about a possible BioE major, look for last-minute scholarships, and send out my resume to places. If I can persuade Theo to lend me his SSO tour music, I should start learning that music, and I should probably start thinking about plans for the fundraising benefit dinner next quarter. I may also do some facelift work on my Stanford webpage. I am going to do my best to avoid Tmony work. I'd definitely like to visit CVHS sometime this week. Oh, and my brother and I are gonna "kick it." ;)

It's funny how the AIM world collapses during term breaks. This is a good sign, I think. ;) Surprisingly, I don't really miss Testimony people. Certainly take no offense from this, if you're one of my dearest Tmony friends. I think I'm just a bit Tmony-ed out, as I'm sure we all are.

Castro Valley people, please let me know if you're around! I know that Cal, SD, LA, Irvine, and Davis are also out this week, so beware that I may track you down. ;) I already have several people on my hit list. ;)

Hrmm. I just left the computer for about 10 minutes, and came back and read what I've written so far in this entry. It's hitting me that I need to "get my act together," as Jonathan put it in his blog (though he was talking about something else). I'm losing focus on God. Or rather, I lost it in the flurry of the end of the quarter, and I haven't done enough to try and get it back. Boo to me. *sigh.* Now my mind is running away with lots of thoughts, but you know what? Instead of writing about them here, I'm going to go talk to God now. Times like this are when I am so amazed that God never rejects us when we realize what idiots we've been and run back to Him. He's always there to lead the way again. But I'm being trite. And I said I wasn't going to write any more. So, until next time, my friends. Goodnight.

Current Music:: [nothing]
Well, I'm *finally* home. It's been a LONG day. So I'm not really going to write much right now. Here's a brief recap, perhaps to be expanded on later::
- woke up later than planned
- rushed to finish packing
- spent over 12 hours in the recording studio, with Megan and/or Sam and/or Kristen
- went loony :P
- drove back to Stanford because: 1) last night, my internet connection randomly decided to become completely dysfunctional, thus disabling me from uploading the files I need over spring break from my school computer onto my Stanford webspace; 2) I forgot to store my bike in my room; 3) I forgot to check my PO box; and 4) I left all my photos at school (and sometime this week I'm hoping to find someone who will let me borrow their scanner so I can put nifty pictures on my webpage).
- FINALLY drove home
- arrived here at 2:00am
- am about to collapse

So, goodnight all.

There are a lot of really drunk people right outside my door and all around Twain. This is rather disconcerting. Ugh.

If there was one thing I could remove from the college experience, it would be the alcohol. Hands down. :P

Current Music:: The Corrs - "Erin Shore"
Dang. Being done with finals is very conducive to me blogging a lot. :P

So, I had a very nice dinner with Eddy and his friends Julian and Jess. Unfortunately, though, due a change in plans, Chris Wallis left campus tonight at 7:30pm, instead of tomorrow morning like he'd originally thought. So I STILL didn't get to see him!! :( I'm bummed. :(

I wish Jammix were tonight instead of last Friday, because now I actually have time to dance! But of course, I realize that's stupid because no one's around now. :P Yup, all the Tmony boy dancers have gone home. (I think.) Well, in any case, now that I feel like dancing, I can't! Boo. :(

OH MY GOSH, just now there was an INCREDIBLE RAINBOW outside!!!!!! It was super super bright and it was the ENTIRE semi-circle...AND...there was the double rainbow reflection on the outside!!!! Soooo beautiful! Oh my goodness!!

God is so amazing. Thank You for everything You do, Father...big and small.

Current Music:: lots of Tmony raw recording material that I'll be helping mix all day at the studio tomorrow
I LOVE it that my CV boys still call me "tinar"!!!! *happy sigh* Good memories... :) I dunno if you guys read this, but in case you do, HI THEO, DAVID, and WOO! :D I miss you boys! (Yes, even you, Theo! We never see each other on campus anymore! But I guess that'll change when I come back to SSO next quarter.)

Ooh ooh ooh, guess what?? Just as we were getting to the airport, Bryan gave me...my (belated) birthday present! It's a Jake album!! It includes "Waiting" and "Believer," two of my favorite songs from listening to KLOVE (Christian radio station) over the summer. I'm so excited to hear the other tracks! Thank you, Bry!! :D It's almost more fun to get belated birthday presents, because you either didn't know it was coming or you've completely forgotten about it (which is what happened with me)! So, in conjunction with the awesome CD that Jason made for me for my birthday, I've gotten a lot of cool music. :)

Hmmm...yay, Eddy (Erin's boyfriend) just invited me to dinner with his group of friends so I don't have to eat alone in the empty dining hall tonight. Whee! I wonder what else I'll be doing tonight... Heehee, maybe I'll go track down the elusive Chris Wallis who I never see anymore! :(

Tee hee - I LOVE MY WALL!! :D

Current Music:: BBMak - "More Than Words"
Well, I'm sitting here in my room, waiting for silly Bry to finish packing so I can take him to the airport. ;) J/K, he's rightfully not ready yet, he took his last final this morning so hasn't gotten to pack until after lunch. Teehee, I'm like the official Bryan Airport Service or something. ;) Seriously, though, I don't mind at all, because taking Bryan to or picking him up from the airport is a refreshing time of conversation for us because it means we DON'T HAVE SCHOOL!! ;)

Hrmm. So after I get back from the airport, I have a good-sized to-do list to take care of, all classes- or money- related. Then, after that, I'll just be reorganizing (yay! reorganizing is so much fun! seriously!) my room and packing for home. It's gonna be so quiet here tonight!! Everyone will have gone home. :(

OOP! Bryan's done! Off we go!

Current Music:: more John Mayer being emitted from Janet's computer
Chi-En and I just finished watching Sixth Sense! She came over here with her laptop and we watched it on DVD. That movie is sooo well done! I remember when it first came out, I heard a bunch of bad things about that movie, but I think it's such clever writing and brilliant filming. Very, very cool. And Chi-En agrees with me, so there. :P ... ;) And the cool thing about DVD's is that you get to see the behind-the-scenes commentary! We watched the scenes they ended up deleting from the final film, and got to hear the composer talk about the soundtrack. More coolness!

Before the movie escapade, Chi-En came over to help me figure out how to rearrange my wall decorations. See, at the wayyy beginning of the year (like within the first few days after moving in), I'd begun putting up some of the same stuff I had on my wall last year. I covered about half of the wall, but then I acquired about 4 new posters from the poster sale they always have in front of the Bookstore during the first two weeks of fall quarter. So my wall decorating was temporarily halted ... and um yeah, that turned into a 6-MONTH halt. :P I was just never able to find a sufficiently leisurely large chunk of time to sit down, take down all the stuff I'd already put up, plan out how to arrange the new stuff on the wall, and actually put it up! I know, I know, I'm a dork. But I did it tonight!!!! And I LOVE how my wall looks now! :D YAY!!

Tina's favorite gibberish words:: (in no particular order)
- yeesh
- blarg
- aiya!
- blah
- yargh
- whee
- oop
- yeek
- wah
- yick
- ack
- bah
- eh
- yech
- yechy
- doh
- meh
- urg

(You can see to what extent my brain is functioning at the moment...)

Current Music:: The Corrs - "Runaway"
I swear, I am so in love with this song! I've had it stuck in my head for days! I suppose it doesn't help that I keep listening to it. ;)

I got a FULL NIGHT'S SLEEP last night!!! How exciting is that??!

I just wanted to say thank you to my wonderful roommate (Hi Janet!) for putting up with all my late-night hours so far this year and for being totally wonderful and supportive with all my school troubles and general stressed-out-ness. She is soo cute - she always leaves "Congrats on being done!" notes for me on our whiteboard outside our door for when I get back from an exam, and just last night she left a really cute index-card note for me on my desk (which I'm going to put in my sophomore year scrapbook...if I ever get around to making one!). I'm not nearly as thoughtful for her...boo to me. :( But anyway I just wanted to tell all of you how wonderful she is! :)

I am so so so so so glad to be done with this horrid quarter. I'll be around on campus until Saturday morning, because I have to spend all of Saturday in the recording studio taking care of stuff with Megan, the other privileged member of Core who lives in Northern California. :P But it's nice to have a couple days to unwind here without rushing to leave for someplace. My brother's away at Outdoor School this week, being a counselor for the CV 6th graders (that's so weird, because I still remember when I was a counselor for kids just under my brother's age! I miss it so much), and so my parents were thinking of using the opportunity to take a short trip somewhere. I don't think they actually did, or at least they haven't left yet, but in any case, the plan was for me to wait until the weekend to go home. So today and tomorrow I'll just be taking care of errands and stuff that I've been putting off for weeks (like washing dishes, clearing clutter off my desk, and doing laundry...you'd think maybe I'd be able to hold off on laundry until I go home, but, uh, nope :P ). Who else is going to be around? Anyone want to go do something fun and completely unrelated to school? :)

Ooh, look what I found on Debora's blog! Another silly personality test! Whee...

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

Darn, I was hoping I would be Piglet!! ;)
Teehee, if you take this quiz, when you get to the results page, look at the top! It has the same Piglet image I have next to my blog title! :)

Current Music:: Darrell Evans - "Your Love is Extravagant"
I got above the mean on the physics final!! :D I didn't do as well as I could have, but it's definitely satisfactory.

IT IS SO GOOD TO BE DONE.

God is faithful.

Chem sucked, as expected. But I was at least able to write down stuff for the majority of the test, which is an improvement over the second midterm. :P I still may have just failed the test and thus also the class. But I'm done, and I'll deal with the aftermath later.

My brain is so dead...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH~

Current Music:: the silence of two roommates studying for a 7:00pm final
Effectively one hour of study time left.
I am SO dead. I am going to fail this class. This is going to really suck. Everything rests on this exam. It's technically worth 50% of my grade, but since I did so badly on the midterms, my professor said that whatever I get on the final will *be* my grade. In other words, even just barely passing the exam will be good enough because it'll have been such an improvement from my second midterm. So that's good and bad both at the same time, because on one hand there actually is now the mathematical possibility that I pass the class, but on the other hand, it just sucks more because this one last chance isn't going to do me any good because I just *suck* at organic chemistry. It is the bane of my existence. Why can't I get this material?? Every time I study, I find myself looking back more and more at Chem35 and even Chem33 material. It's like I'm UNLEARNING, the more I study. I feel so stupid. What's wrong with me? Have I lost the ability to do well at anything anymore? I'm working 10x harder than I ever did in high school, just to get 10x crappier grades.

I want out.

I had a REALLY WEIRD DREAM last night.
Scary and weird and disturbing. *shudder*
It involved a large biting dinosaur and getting trapped in a cave and high partition-type wall things and Richard Powers and my parents and grocery shopping.
What the heck?!?!!

Current Music:: Enya - Theme from "Braveheart"
Whoohoo, my counter has hit the 2000 landmark! Yippee. :P

I'm currently taking a break from studying. Jimmy and Elijah have left, and Bryan's Gender & Power in Ancient Rome study group is studying (out loud) in the North lounge, so I'm back in my room for the time being. It's a lot warmer in here, anyhow.

I'm not even halfway through all the material yet, and I've only gotten to all the stuff that I could semi-handle early in the quarter. I really really don't understand sugar chemistry. Carbohydrates = EVIL. Difunctional compounds and amino acid chemistry isn't much better, either. *dejected sigh*

I've decided that I like exams later in the day. I feel calmer going into them if I've been studying a lot right beforehand.

Yay, Bryan is going to cook soup for me! :)

Physics was probably okay. It was one of those scribbling-stuff-down-until-the-last-second exams. I definitely ran out of time. But it sounds like most people had trouble finishing, too. There's a good portion of it I'm fairly confident about. Based on how I felt about the previous midterms and where the mean ended up being, I'll probably be fine. Especially since I have a good solid 20% from problem sets, and I went into it having done decently on the midterms.

Now, it's time for the real pain. I'm off to study chem in Twain North lounge with Jimmy and his friend Elijah.

Here we go. Final number two.

Current Music:: Shostakovich - "Jazz Suite: Waltz No. 2"
Yeah, I'm on a waltz music craze right now. I think I'm trying to retreat into a happier state of mind. It's not working that well.

Two more days, just two more days...

That's the thing, though. It's not just two more days. I'm already dreading spring quarter. It's going to be rather unfun. I have to take Physics 55 (Electricity AND Magnetism), Biology 43 (plant stuff and other junk that's not really interesting...but at least there's more physiology), Chem 36 (ochem lab...*gag*), and Engineering 20 (Intro to ChemE). Yes, four classes. That's more than any of my classloads thus far this year. Sound like a bad idea? Yeah, it does to me too. But ALL FOUR of these classes are *only* offered spring quarter. I have to take them. I don't have a choice but to finish the Bio and Physics series, and I already put off Chem36 from last year (I can't proceed with other labs until I take this one), and if I still want the option of designing a BioE major, I definitely need E20 as an engineering fundamental. So I've already thought it all out, and there's no way out. And then, on top of having more classes, I'm returning to SSO next quarter too. Sound like another bad idea? Yup, but I committed to going on tour way back at the beginning of the year, and next quarter is when we learn tour music. And of course, there's the Tmony CD to finish and the Spring Show to put on. I think I'm going to die...

That's if Chem131 doesn't kill me first.

Current Music:: The Corrs - "Runaway"
Every time I think I am finally out of the long-term burnout that started after my junior year in high school, I get a rude slap in the face that I am not.

I really just want to get away from school. School is depressing. I can't handle it. I'm such a disappointment. I was supposed to "go off to college and live up to my potential." What potential? It appears maybe I didn't have any to begin with. I don't want to hear it from any of you from home, either. None of you believe me when I say I'm not doing well. Guess again.

Sorry if that sounds hostile toward anyone. It's not, except toward myself.

Thank you for your time and your comfort, Eric.

I'm losing it.

Current Music:: The Corrs - "Erin Shore" and "Runaway"
This waltz music ---> *happy sigh*
I can talk pretty normally now! But I still can't sing high. :P

I am starting to get really fed up with the extreme fickleness of the blogger site as of late. I'm considering ftp-ing my blog onto my Stanford webspage. Does anyone (Jonathan?) want to help me figure out how to do that? Looks like that might be a spring break project. Here's also fair warning to all of you in case this URL doesn't work anymore in a week or so--if that happens, go to my quote page, where I'll be sure to have correct links. But then again, I might not end up making the change. I'll keep you updated.

My Viennese corsage is drying really nicely! One of the white roses' petals are like completely smooth. Flowers are so pretty. :) It just occurred to me that I'm not really quite sure where I'm going to keep this one once I bring it home...all the other corsages I've ever gotten are currently in my Matt Box (which I still haven't touched since two Novembers ago).

I just returned from the Chem131 final review session. I am so screwed for this class. So screwed.

Gotta take care of physics first, though. Why am I better at math & physics than I am at bio & chem??! YARGH. >:[ Sigh...Finals suck. A lot.

No, it didn't go so well. It wasn't extremely horrible, though. (i.e. It doesn't compare to chem, which is the bane of my existence. Nothing ever compares to chem.) I think it was better (I think) than the second bio midterm. I definitely am just not familiar enough with this material to think as analytically as they want us to. In any case, I have *no* idea what my grade is going to end up being, or whether I'll pass this class. Both scenarios are possible. BioCore isn't curved by distribution, but they do make some allowance for taking into the account the highest grade scored, or something.

So, that's just my first final. I've got physics tomorrow, and then chem on Wednesday. Scared? Yes, I'm terrified.

I think it's time to nap. And then, time to talk to God. Thanks to Katherine for the reminder::

"Stanford finals are nothing about education. If you were to stop your schooling today, you'd still be more educated than 99% of the population.
Stanford finals are a character test for the rest of life: for marriage, for owning a house, for raising a kid...When pressure hits, are you going to retreat into a viscious working flurry...or are you going to STOP and, fighting the fight of disbelief today, grab someone to pray about your anxieties?"
--Alex Van Riesen (12/5/01), during an address at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship

I must say that I think the physics department does the best job of prepping you for exams.
Maybe I'm just saying that because Mechanics has been fairly painless for me this quarter. :P
Off to Erin's again. It's gonna be a long night...a long week...

T minus 19 hours and counting.
I'm off to Erin's to study bio. Later, physics review session 7-9pm. Then more bio cramming.

Worship was good today. I've been so dead lately. I need renewal. I need...I dunno...I need something. I need God.

Call my cell if you want to reach me; I won't be around much.

Good luck to everyone else studying and writing papers.

Current Music:: something else by John Mayer playing on Janet's computer
I just remembered that I had a really strange dream last night. I actually don't remember much about it at all, but what I do remember is that I was someplace with some friends -- not close friends, but just some acquaintances -- and for some reason, Kristin [kg] was there. I hadn't seen her in forever, which I guess is true in reality, but in my dream, she wouldn't talk to me. In fact, when she saw me, she seemed annoyed/uncomfortable to see me, and she wouldn't come near me or talk to me. It was really weird. And I remember in the dream this was a serious source of distress for me.

It's so weird! Why is this such a recurring theme in my bad dreams??

This is a survey that we are conducting. Please be honest.

Testimony Christian A Cappella's new CD, to be released in June, will be entitled "Echoes."
- Does that title turn you off to the CD?
- Would your answer change if you did not know me personally?

(Please use the comment box. You can stay anonymous if you like.)

Current Music:: Sophie B. Hawkins - "As I Lay Me Down"
Whee. That was an adventure. I just cooked some chicken casserole for myself and for poor Bryan, who's up for the God-knows-how-many'th night in a row, working on his Classics paper. Bryan's can opener is evil, by the way. But, HAHA, I overcame its evilness! Muahahahaha. So, I just successfully cooked my first real food (as in, not Ramen) away from home!! Woohoo!

For some reason, I am very awake right now. Weird...

Before I channel that energy into bio reading, I'll elaborate a bit on my day. So, yeah, at the recording studio, we only really got to work on Shelter. We recorded the sops, recorded some REALLY cool percussion, and did some preliminary mixing. I tried to study while the sops were recording, but I basically ended up taking a more-or-less continuous nap. Sleep is good too, though, I guess. So I didn't get as much done as I'd expected, but it was a productive day.

After Megan, Steve, and I got back to campus, I had my Jammix escapade and accomplished my mission, as told in the preceding two posts. ;) Jeff was wonderful and agreed to accompany me over to Roble Dance studio. It was nearly midnight by then, but I'd forgotten that Decadence was scheduled to perform right at 12:00. Jeff and I decided to stick around for that, which turned out to be really good and highly amusing (the music was from Moulin Rouge..."Lady Marmalade" or something?). Then, Richard Powers started put on a waltz, and how can I resist a waltz? ;) So Jeff and I danced some fun cross-step and rotary together. I also danced a two-step and a lindyhop with Brian, Kari's friend from Opening whom I met at Bon-Bon. Ooh, and we also did the cross-step mixer! I love the mixer! So my "mission" took almost half an hour longer than I anticipated, but that's okay.

I'm listening to the current music through earphones, since Janet's gone to bed. This song now has two associations for me! First of all, this song will always remind me of Anupa, when we were best friends in 9th grade ("twin sisters," we called ourselves) and we used to sit for hours on the phone after school, talking and doing homework and listening to the same radio stations together. "As I Lay Me Down" was *definitely* our favorite song that entire year. It was on the radio A LOT, and whenever we were walking down the halls to our lockers or something, we'd spontaneously break out into singing this song. Ahh, good memories. :) OK, and secondly, this has now definitely become a social dance song in my mind. Richard Powers plays this song a lot when we're doing two-step. It's a very good tempo for that. :)

You know what I just realized is very good? I sing, and I dance. You may be like, "so what?" But, I am very pleased with myself for getting into singing and dancing! Those are two things that, in high school, I'd always wanted to get into, but I always felt like it was too late to get started...and not just that, but also because I felt very confined to everyone's conception of "Tina Wong". Like, as if the definition of "Tina Wong" fit into this little box, and every time I did anything that was remotely out of character, everyone would be like, "oh my gosh, did you really do that?" Singing and dancing definitely wasn't a part of that box. So when I graduated, I told myself that I should take advantage of the clean slate that college would give me (that was, honestly, one of the things I looked forward to the most about college...especially college where there was practically no one from CV; no one would know me, no one would have any long-existing expecations of who "Tina" is/should be, and I could finally be a small fish in a big pond). In fact, I'd intended to audition for Testimony my freshman year...but I chickened out. :P I'm really glad God led me back to that opportunity again. Testimony has been an essential part of my life this year...and not to mention that it fulfilled one of my "childhood dreams." See...when I was in 6th grade, I was in both the choir and the orchestra (though back then, I was the pianist, because I hadn't yet started the violin!). But, come 7th grade, I had to make a decision between the two music groups, because our middle school schedules didn't allow room for us to continue with both. Obviously, my choice was to stay in orchestra. I often wonder who Tina Wong would be today if I had made a different decision. Those 7 years in the Castro Valley orchestra program shaped so much of who I am. But, sorry, I digress.... Anyway, I definitely still had a lot of interest in singing, but 1) I didn't have time to pursue it, and 2) by the time we got to high school, all of my friends were already developing into such great singers that I felt like I couldn't get started then anyway. Same thing went for dancing, but sort of in a different way. I definitely felt intimidated by people who looked like they had such natural talent for movement. Senior year, though, I finally decided to go for being a "song girl" during Homecoming week (though it took SO MUCH persuading by Matt and Amy Yeung, if either of them remember!!) because I figured, Hey, it's my last chance. I also really wanted to learn how to swing dance back then, but only the Mormons at my school knew how to swing dance, and Matt wasn't into the dancing thing. So, there went that, too. But now...

I am a singer, and I am a dancer.

Yay! :D

Mission: accomplished!! :) :) :)

I will be leaving shortly to stop by Jammix, even though it'll be ending at midnight, on a mission to get Richard Powers to let me take Social Dance III next quarter. Why, you ask? Because, Chem36 has an 8:00 lecture on Tuesday mornings...which overlaps with Social III by 5 minutes. You'd think that this might not be a big deal, but Richard Powers is always a big stickler about being on time, since you learn quite a bit of the new steps for the day during the first 15 minutes of class. And, the thing is, I really want to take Social III next quarter because 1) Kari informs me that they may not be offering it next year, and 2) even if they do offer it, it would be during spring quarter again, and I'm not sure I'll be around next spring (I'm considering applying to go abroad). So, off I go to talk to him in person! Hopefully he'll have mercy and let me enroll. :)

Current Music:: Nichole Nordeman - "Fool For You"
My voice is definitely on its way up. I think I might be able to hit all the notes necessary to audition for the Fool For You solo tomorrow! :) I can currently sing up to an A-flat. Just a major third left to go! I still won't have my normal voice tomorrow, but actually being able to get sound out when I try to sing the notes is good. ;)

So. I just attended my last class of the quarter. Finally, NO MORE NEW MATERIAL! >:[ Yes, I am a bit peeved (as always) that "Dead Week" is such a misnomer. Well, I guess it's not a misnomer if you interpret it to mean "Week That Makes You Dead." Yesterday and today, I was still getting NEW material for the classes in which I have final exams on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week. As well as the usual problem sets. As if I need more stuff to drown in 4 DAYS before the final.

I might be going to the studio later today. But, NOT to go through the stress I normally go through for a recording or mixing day. I am going on the condition that I be left alone to study in the upstairs room for entire time EXCEPT when they want to call me down to approve a final take. I hope that I don't regret this. I foresee that this decision could be either good or bad: I *could* just end up getting sucked into more Tmony work that I can't afford to do right now, but I also *could* end up being really productive in my studying because I'll be stuck in the upstairs room without anything else to do. In any case, please pray that today will go well.

Current Music:: Michael W. Smith - "This is Your Time"
I agree with Bryan; this song gets me emotional every time I hear it. Sigh.

I just got back from sitting through 3 straight hours of Bio tutorial and review. Yeesh. But review is always good. And I have a better idea of what I need to go over in more detail. The Bio TA's did a much, much better job of putting together a review session this time than they did for either of the midterms.

In other news, I can now sing up to an E-flat (right above middle C)! Whee! :P

More amusing stuff, this time c/o Bryan Lung:: Smurf Name Generator!
This is really, really funny. Tina Wong = Stoner Smurf. ;) And, "Tinabug Squish" came out as "Slowly Evaporating Smurf"!!!! Hahahahahaha. You know what else is probably funnier?? Josephine said that her name translates into..."Very Tall Smurf"!! :D If you know Josephine, you'll know why that's so hilarious. ;) What's YOUR Smurf name??

PS: Vote on my poll! I want to know the demographics of my blog-reading population. ;)

Janet's still playing the same CD on her computer, and I just realized that "Comfortable" is 12/8 meter...which works for a fast rotary waltz! OK, OK, I'll stop now. ;)

Current Music:: something really nice playing on Janet's computer (she says it's "Comfortable" by John Mayer)
I just returned from the last Social Dance II class of the quarter. It was quite an enjoyable day today, as usual. :) We reviewed a lot of different dances, which was nice. We didn't do a whole lot of waltzing, but that's okay, even though I always want to waltz. ;)

Guess who my first partner was today? Eric. :) I think that might have been the first and only time we were each other's first partner this quarter (even though we were consistently each other's first partner in Social I)! So, that was nice. Fittingly, the first dance was a waltz. :) And then, at the end after class was officially over, Richard Powers played the waltz that's often the closing waltz at social dances (I can't remember what it's called; Kari, can you tell me? It's the one you requested at Toyon before Viennese). So I got to dance another rotary waltz with Eric. :) That was nice, because it's been awhile since we've waltzed together. Which is funny, because I definitely associate the beginning of my social dancing with him...but I suppose I associate cross-step waltzing with him more than rotary waltzing. But anyway, I was going to say that I really enjoyed the last waltz. I'm sure that's partially because I love that music so much, but it was made more enjoyable because at the end I felt comfortable enough to close my eyes and really concentrate on the music and the spinning and the movement. Thanks for the dance, Eric. :)

I am, however, a little bummed that I didn't get to dance much with Syed...not only today, but just in general lately. We managed to come across each other in the partner shuffle for this really weird song in 7/8 meter, which we danced a lopsided cross-step waltz to (1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2...weird!). For those of you who have been reading my blog long enough, he's the guy who I referred to at the way beginning of the quarter as "the good guy" in Social Dance II. I bring this up now because I'm recalling how it was he with whom I was dancing when the rotary waltz finally clicked for me this quarter. I thought that I was going to write about this for my essay, but I ended up not doing that (instead, I quoted a string of blog entries that followed my development as a social dancer; they were from 10/28, 11/04, 01/17, 01/18, 01/27, 02/21, and 03/02, if you're curious enough to look back). Anyway, I remember very distinctly the morning early in the quarter when we were working on rotary waltz, and I wasn't quite getting it with the partners I was dancing with. Something kept being not quite right with our mutual frame or something. And then, dancing with Syed (though back then I didn't know him as a person at all), it just...clicked. I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden, I could do it. That was the first time I'd experienced a waltz that worked so well it felt like floating. :o)

Argh, I wish I could continue with my thoughts, but I have to run off to bio lecture now! But I'm looking forward to that too, because we have one last lecture by Professor Sapolsky today. So, off I go! I'll continue later. :)

[This should have been posted at 10:50am, but the blogger site was down.]

Hmmmm. The default template for the comment system has changed. If you noticed the change, I didn't change it! The main system changed the default. The funny thing is, the new template totally fits in with my blog style! Note the double forward slash, and the use of brackets around links. Hee hee. I'm amused.

OK, I just checked it again, and apparently they changed it back to the old one by popular demand. But they made the new template an option. So I'm gonna use it. ;) And now, I'd like you to comment and tell me which one you like better.

JuKa828 (9:38:39 PM): how is your work?
TPiglette (9:39:45 PM): yechy
JuKa828 (9:39:58 PM): haha yechy...thats a new word...i like it

New photos link. New poll. (See left.) Isn't it sad what my study breaks have turned into?

Does it ALWAYS take this long to recover from losing one's voice??

I need time away from this place.

Oh, yeah. I would just like to say that Professor Sapolsky is quite possibly the best professor I've encountered here at Stanford so far. He is sooo funny and such a good teacher!! I'm definitely going to try to take an upper-level Bio course with him sometime in the next two years.

Current Music:: Michelle Tumes - "Heaven's Heart"
Well, it's been an interesting day. Social dance was fun; we did some brief review of normal swing and hustle, and then spent the rest of class going over variations for club two-step. I like two-step; it's a really smooth dance. :) Ah yes, and this reminds me that I need to write my "essay" for Social Dance class by Thursday. By "essay," I really mean just a minimum half-page piece of writing about anything relating to dancing. I definitely have a lot more to say this time than I did when we had this same assignment for Social Dance I last quarter. I think I'll be writing about when rotary waltz finally truly clicked for me (yeah, it's a common topic, but whatever), and I'll probably include a portion of the blog entry I wrote after Viennese Ball. I might post it here after I'm done, since I imagine at least some of you may find it interesting. Oh yeah, and it looks like I'll be able to take Social III next quarter. :)

Tmony CD stuff going on. Not talking about it here. Too complicated.

We had a chem party in my room last night. Katherine and Justin came over to work on their Chem33 pset, and I was studying my Chem131 stuff. Kat ended up sleeping here. I kind of zonked out around 3am.

I can, like, half-talk now!! I definitely still sound nothing like myself (in fact, I sound rather ridiculous), and I definitely can't sing. (A theme from people's comments yesterday: "Even your sneezes sound muted!" or some variation thereof.) But I can half-talk! Isn't that exciting!

Blogger is acting weird...

Jason's autobiographical monologue was *soooo* good. It was an amazing performance. *Wow.* Incredibly well done. Congratulations, J-Bug!! I'm so proud of you!

Ironically, right now I am inclined to comment that I HATE BUGS! Real ones = EW! There's a fly-y thing wandering around our room. Yuck yuck yuck.

On a more serious note, though...attending Jason's introsem's performance night tonight kind of really shook me up. I wasn't able to see all of the performances, because I went outside to do bio reading between the ones I wanted to catch, but I watched four other ones other than Jason's. Everyone's was amazing. (But Jason's was still the best. ;) Seriously, though, I'm not being facetious.) Most, if not all of them, were about really personal stuff about their families. It brought back a lot of painful memories for me. And it really struck me, again, as it did last year and earlier this quarter, that you really have no idea what kind of hurts people suffer. You may think you know a person, but chances are, you don't know about the things they keep so deep inside them. Everyone can look so happy and normal, and you may never know what they've gone through that has shaped them into the person you know. So many people go through so much. Coming to college really opened my eyes to all the hurt and the pain and the unspeakable things and the unthinkable things and the surreal burdens that people carry. Real people. People like your roommate, or your next door neighbor, or the guy who sits next to you in section, or your standpartner in orchestra. And it all sucks. And it's scary, and painful, and makes me want to crawl into somewhere safe with someone I love and trust and cry and cry. And right now I really don't want to remember the part of my past that was dredged up last Easter. Wow - I can't believe it's been nearly a year. And you know what? Just the thought of that stuff from last year has reminded me how alone you can be. I don't think there's a single person in this world who knows all of me. No one. And even though intellectually I know that God knows all of me and is always with me and has always been with me, it doesn't *feel* like it because not my entire life has included God, on my end. So even though I know he was there, many of those memories don't include the God that I now am blessed to know.

Never think that you have any reason or right to think that you've gone through more crap than the next person. You may be right, but more than likely you're not, and besides who is anyone to judge?

OK, so the following paragraph was my original "closing" to this blog that I actually wrote before I wrote the previous paragraph, but it seems so superficial and detached now. In any case, here it is:
"Okay, back to studying bio. Then, onto chem. Looks like I'll be missing the Midnight Breakfast for the second year in a row."

Guess what's in the care package my parents sent me?
...PLAY-DOH!!!!
A highlighter too...very useful...

Mmmm. Naps are good.

I still can't really talk today. But I *can* make noise when I try to talk, so that's better than no sound at all.

A funny, really SHORT personality test::

Do I disagree? That looks nothing like my "font." :P

You know what? I wonder what the physiology behind losing your voice is. Like, seriously! What about your throat changes so that when you try to talk, no sound comes out???

In case you couldn't tell, I'm a little preoccupied with this. Losing your voice makes life very inconvenient. I am really thankful that I am not deaf or mute.

Current Music:: Testimony A Cappella - "Fool For You" (background)
Just got back from a good dinner with good friends. :) The original idea was for Tmony Core to treat the SL's (well, the non-Core SL's) to dinner, for all their hard work this weekend at the recording studio (not to mention their individual personal sacrifices, since Bryan has a nightmare-ish week ahead of him this week, and Kari had to miss the last Opening Committee performance on Friday). But, then it turned out that Bryan's room guest wanted to treat him and their other mutual friend to dinner tonight too, to thank them for being good hosts during his stay on campus. So we decided to combine the two dinner groups so Bryan could honor both invitations. :) But then Steve decided at the last minute to back out, making all of us late in the process. :P So Eric finally gave in to our pleas for him to join us (both as a thank-you from core for his contributions, and as a thank-you from Erick, the guest, for being a host-by-association, being Bryan's roommate and all). We had a very nice meal at Babbo in the Stanford Shopping Center, at the end of which Erick was totally SUPER sneaky and paid for the entire bill by himself. Core's mission was foiled! But thank you very much, Erick (if you ever read this), for your great generosity and dinner company. :)

Unfortunately for the boys, our dinner conversation somehow morphed from Bryan's original question, "Describe your ideal vacation spot," into... well, first honeymoon locations, then to how the guys would want to propose to their future wives, then to how the girls would want to break the news to their future husbands when they get pregnant, and what colors people want at their weddings and like a whole bunch of other stuff, hahahaha it was really funny. Yeah, we are definitely weird! There were a couple of moments in there that were purely indescribable hilarity. They mainly revolved around Eric. ;) And, something else funny but a little less fun for me... since I still can't really talk, every time I tried to say something I kept having to repeat it because people inevitably couldn't hear me (ex: "I want one [picture] of the Tmony sophomores!" - "You want *water*?"). Poor Kari, who was sitting next me, got stuck with being my translator. Or, "megaphone" is more accurate. ;)

In regards to the current music ... Bryan's probably rolling his eyes and thinking about how he doesn't want to hear our own recordings and be sick of it before our CD comes out, but unfortunately, I don't have that luxury. Listening to the raw mix now to figure out what we want to do when we go back to mix the song saves time in the studio later. Right now I'm marveling at how I like certain stuff that Chi-En and Kat and I put into the arrangement. ;) Hahaha, okay, I'll stop being boastful now. ;)

My parents sent me one of those "Good Luck on Finals" care packages through the Stanford Alumni Association. That was a pleasant surprise after a tiring weekend. Thanks, Mom and Dad! I love you too. :) I'd call you to say thank you, but I can't exactly do that right now. :P

Happy Birthday, Shailaja Bulusu!! :)
Go '83 babies!! YEA! ;) I miss you, Shai!! Hope things are going well...let's do something fun over spring break! I still love you even though that you go to that *other* school. ;) And don't let those squirrels throw acorns at your head, okay? ;)

Wow. I can't talk. Like, at all. I just tried answering the phone when Megan called to see if I wanted to go to church, and I sound like a ghost. So yeah, I'm not going to church. :P

My voice is *definitely* gone. Very gone. No more singing for Tina. :P :P :P I'm also dead tired and my stomach hurts for some reason. But, all four songs are recorded. Major props to God for getting us through it all.

Yes, as crazy as it seems, I did just get back to campus. We left the recording studio after 10pm, and then went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant on Castro Street in Mountain View. Yes, I feel really crappy right now.

Time to crash.

Current Music:: (stuck in my head after reading Bryan's blog) - "Here I Am to Worship"
I'm in a hurry because I'm meeting soon with Wenfei for prayer buddies this week. A handful of thoughts//updates::
- Recording went more or less well yesterday. We achieved our goal of recording two backgrounds. Most of what we have sounds great. Key word: "Most." I'm *really* unhappy with significant portions of one of the songs, but hey, it's not my call. I guess I'll just have to settle for that song being my least favorite on the CD.
- More recording today. Two more to go. Again, prayers would be much appreciated. God definitely showed us His grace yesterday, but we're only halfway there. Today, patience and endurance may be even more of a challenge, after yesterday's hard work.
- (Sorry, this is on my mind after reading Bryan's entry.) I really don't like the CD title that's been chosen. And I'm definitely not someone who may have been persuaded by other people not to like it, because I made it very very clear from the beginning that it was in my category of "least favorites of the potential titles." Ughghgh. :P I may rant about this later. Sorry, it's my blog. :P
- My throat is still yucky. :( It's actually not really *hurting* anymore ... my speaking voice is just sorta scratchy and lower than normal, and my nose is still congested. Poopy! But, not hurting is good.
- Yesterday we surprised Gavan for his birthday!! Tee hee! Guess what we did? We took the MIDI from his website of a string quartet he composed when he was an undergradate at Columbia, converted it to Noteworthy, tweaked the cello and viola parts so it could be played with 4 violins instead, and surprised him with a performance between songs at the recording studio yesterday!! It was Steve's idea, because Gavan had never actually heard it played by real people before. It's a great piece! And it was so much fun! Oh yeah, and since I didn't post this yesterday:
Happy (belated) Birthday, Gavan!! :)

Current Music:: Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
This version of this piece has harpsichord in it! Whee! ;) I remember when we played this in orchestra when I was in 8th grade. We were a pretty darn good middle school orchestra! ;) Don't you think, CV ppl? Remember when we won first place in the festival competition, even though were the only middle school orchestra competing against all other high school orchestras? That's right. ;)

I've been thinking a lot about pre-Stanford life lately. I miss it. I miss the people, I miss being good at things, I miss feeling like life isn't out of control. Of course, I realize that this is that "I still want to run my own life and think I can handle it by myself" part of me speaking. I know that God is breaking that down and growing me so much here. I definitely attribute the true beginning of my relationship with God to my coming to Stanford, and I wouldn't give that up for anything. Still, though, when I think about middle school and high school ... things are *so* different. Like, really totally and completely. In some ways I'm still the same Tina, but in many ways I am sooo different. And I have this major mental dissonance when it comes to putting these two parts of my life together. Like when a handful of Tmony people came back to CV with me to see the Avalon concert, where we also saw a lot of my younger CVHS friends? That was truly weird. It was like my brain couldn't handle it. Going home for short visits during the school year is weird too.

Random change of gears. You know what? I have a really skewed experience of the Stanford campus this year. Except for Tuesday and Thursday mornings when I bike/walk to and from Social Dance class at the Roble gym, I ride the SAME ROUTE TO ALL OF MY CLASSES. :P This is because like my entire life is in the same section of campus. Seriously...ALL of my classes this year have been in one of two locations:: TCSEQ, or Braun Auditorium. And, all of my sections for these classes are in adjacent buildings:: Varian, Herrin, or OChem. So I, like, never see the Quad. I guess that's what I get for taking all techie classes. You get stuck in Techie Territory. :P

Okay, it is time to shower, eat, and get ready to leave for the recording studio. Blah. My throat is sore (though less so than last night when it started) and my nose is stuffy. This is BAD for singing. :P :P :P Please pray for my health, and pray for Testimony as we try to record the backgrounds to four songs in the next two days. Yeah, it's going to take a lot out of us, and we know that none of this is our work but it's God's. So please pray for our patience, endurance, right hearts, and focus on God. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Current Music:: Plumb - "Stranded"
I just got back from doing a lot of physics. I am half a problem away from being done with my problem set, thanks to the wonderful TA at Reference Frame in the Varian basement (since I somehow was unaware that there was no section today). I think I actually won't be staying up late to do physics tonight. Truly, truly strange.

However, I will be staying up to do something else, I'm sure. :P Before my pleasant experience with physics today, I attended a rather disheartening chem lecture. I'm so tired that I struggle to stay awake in the less than ideally lit room, and I REALLY don't understand this stuff. I thought that having taken Chem35 over the summer might have broken my horrible drowning syndrome when it comes to ochem, but apparently not. I mean, I definitely learned the material well during the summer course, but cramming it into 4 weeks (yes, a quarter's worth of material in 4 weeks!) isn't exactly the best for material retention. Not the mention the fact that I had a terrible Chem33 background going into it due to having mono last winter quarter. No, I'm not trying to blame it on mono. But ochem is still the bane of my existence. Any of you out there who haven't taken beginning ochem yet or are just getting started, PLEASE PLEASE invest your time into doing well in the first course. The rest is a nightmare if you don't.

Well, I have a lot on my mind about my parents and Testimony and recording and like a bazillion other things, but I need to go eat dinner now before the SSO Tour meeting at 7:00. So that's all for now.

Current Music:: Sarah McLachlan - "I Will Remember You"
My physics pset is already halfway done, for once. :P And I still have section tomorrow, so I feel like I will be okay this week. *knock on wood*

I had a refreshing talk (albeit briefer than we'd have liked, due to, well, various things) with Debora online last night. The topics weren't really refreshing in and of themselves, but seriously...the conversation was good. We can really relate about similar life troubles we've been having lately. It was really nice to talk to someone who knows where I'm coming from...literally. I haven't been in touch much with high school friends this year, and it was just good to connect again with someone who's known the real me...the complete me, before and after. Of course I realize that my high school friends don't know the Now Me nearly as well as my Stanford friends do, but there are things that my college friends will never understand about me because they didn't know me through childhood. I've really missed you, Debs! I'm missing a lot of CV people, actually. I just read Anna's blog, and I realized that we haven't really talked in forever!! She's a busy busy girl from what I hear, all the way over in DC, and I hope to snag some time with her when she's back for spring break. Debs and I are also planning on getting together over break too. Anyone else out there have spring break during the last week of March? Please let me know! I think I will want as little to do with Stanford as possible during that time. :P Trish, Melissa, Anupa, Kristin, Meg, Shai...who else reads this thing? I miss you all.

Stuff is going on with my parents. Conflict of interests. Blah blah blah.

Back to the chem and bio marathon...

Something just occurred to me. Whenever I hear "CV", I automatically think green and gold (or, well, yellow). Is this bad? :P

The problems never stop coming, do they.
I talked to my chem TA and my advisor (yay John Bravman) today. The next two weeks are going to be terrible.
I need sleep.

Current Music:: Sara Groves - "Hello Lord"
"Hello Lord, it's me your child.
I have a few things on my mind.
Right now I'm faced with big decisions,
and I'm wondering if you have a minute.
Right now I don't hear so well and I was wondering if you could speak up.
I know that you tore the veil so I could sit with you in person and hear what you're saying,
but right now, I just can't hear you.
I don't doubt your sovereignty,
I doubt my own ability to hear what you're saying
and to do the right thing."
- Sara Groves

Yeah, it was bad.

I really need your prayers for God's guidance right now.

I am dying a horrible chemistry death.

God is good. And always faithful.
I don't have time to write now, because I need to go study big time for the chem midterm.
Thank you, Eric and Chi-En.
I've missed you, Kari.

Why does life have to be complicated?
I feel like I'm falling off the roller coaster.

First things first:: Tomorrow, get butt kicked by the Chem131 midterm. Fun, huh.

Current Music:: Nichole Nordeman - "Small Enough"
Upon rereading my big long entry about Viennese, I realized that in my fervor to thank Jason for his willingness to run an hour and a half's worth of errands for me at the drop of a hat, I didn't thank Kari for everything she did for me that day (and the preceding week) to get ready for Viennese. I couldn't have done a lot of that without her, so here's a big thank you to the kindest/most helpful/most talented Tmony girl dancer I know. :)

--------------------------------------------------

"O Great God,
Be small enough to hear me now.
There were times I was crying in the dark of Daniel's den
And I had asked you once or twice if you would part the sea again.
Tonight I do not need a fiery pillar in the sky.
Just wanna know You're gonna hold me if I start to cry.

O Great God,
Be small enough to hear me now.

O Great God,
Be close enough to feel You now.
O Great God,
Be close to me.
There have been moments when I could not face Goliath on my own
And how could I forget we marched around our share of Jericho?
But I will not be setting out the fleece for You tonight.
Just wanna know that everything will be alright.

O Great God,
Be close enough to feel You now.

All praise and all the honor be to the God of ancient mysteries,
Whose every sign and wonder turned the pages of our history,
But tonight my heart is heavy and I cannot keep from whispering this prayer:
Are You there?

And I know You could leave writing on the wall that's just for me
Or send wisdom while I'm sleeping like in Solomon's sweet dreams.
I don't need strength of Samson or a chariot in the end.
Just wanna know that You still know how many hairs are on my head...

O Great God,
Are You small enough?
Be small enough to hear me now."

Current Music:: Kristin Gundred & Joey Crane - "Another Day" (from Rent)
I haven't listened to this CD of Kristin and Joey (my friends from high school) in awhile. I'd almost forgotten how amazing it is. Wow. :)

I just got back from 3 hours of Testimony rehearsal, and I admit to feeling somewhat down from it. I try really hard not to show it during rehearsal because I don't want to affect other people (so if I'm not doing a good enough job, please let me know). I guess tonight it was really difficult not to get slightly frustrated with some people during rehearsal. I know everyone is stressed and tired and being pushed to their limits because of our super intensive recording goals for the coming Friday and Saturday, but I dunno...I guess I feel like we all just need to buckle down, realize/admit we all have things to work on individually and in sections, and accept constructive criticism during full group rehearsals. Don't think that I'm unappreciative of everyone's hard work and dedication - I *know* everyone is putting in 110% right now. But I guess I just felt like griping for the moment. My mood isn't the best right now.

What else did I do today? I went to church, where there was a special service and celebration of The River's 5th birthday, came back and had brunch with the Tmony church crew + Justin + Liton, hung out with Liton for awhile and showed him tour pictures, drove Liton to the airport, came back for the second half of the Chem131 review session, and ate dinner. Nothing particularly exciting. It was good to have an actual personal conversation with Liton about college experiences and stuff like that. I really hope he enjoyed his weekend up here, because I really appreciate him coming all the way up to go to Viennese with me. The afternoon was mostly very mellow. It was pretty weather.

A handful of addendums to my Viennese story::
- Opening Ceremony included an introduction of the honored guests, and it was really cool to see how the Opening Committee lined up to form an aisle (8 couples on each side) and do something cool as each honored guest/couple walked past them to the platform. The "something cool" was either a twirly-turn thing by the girls, or a bow of the head by both the girl and the guy. It looked really cool, like a cascade of movement as the people walked by.
- At the first suggestion of rotating dance partners, Steve and Liton decided to leave behind me and Chi-En to dance the schottische with each other. How punky! :P No, but seriously, it was hilarious to watch. Boys are so funny! And of course, Chi-En and I schottische-d together in response. ;) That was fun, haha!
- During the last waltz played by the live band in the Waltz Room, I got stepped on pretty badly by the shoe heel of someone else spinning by, and thus hobbled over to sit on the platform to rest for awhile. Coincidentally, right after that was when you-know-who from Social Dance II came over to ask me to dance. I obviously wasn't dancing for a reason, and, ah, well, I was sort of glad for the excuse. :P Interesting timing, huh. Well, you know, if I could've been dancing I probably wouldn't have just been *sitting* next to Liton. :P

I am sad to hear that some of my closest friends didn't have as good a time at Viennese as they'd hoped. On that same note, I was hoping very much that all the pre-Viennese Tmony drama was all gone, but I'm not quite sure about that. That's not to say that I'm sure at all it *hasn't* gone away, but it's a possibility. As far as stuff on my end...it was never dealt with, so I guess it went away in that respect. In terms of now, I hope nothing has turned into post-Viennese drama, but I'm not sure about that either. I just feel like I was/am in a no-win situation. I wanted to go to Viennese, but there were complications. Drama ensued. Finally I accepted the only solution that presented itself. It worked out for me. Things weren't quite as ideal as hoped for for other people. And I don't want to feel bad about having had a good time. Sigh.

Anyway, in other news, I did decently on the physics midterm. You know how I said they put this harmonic oscillator problem on it that we hadn't covered yet? Well, they graded each person's exam twice, once including that problem, and once without it. Then, to be fair, they're taking the higher of the two grades for any one given person. My grade was higher without averaging in that problem (surprise, surprise :P). So, I got a 79 on the exam, which is above the mean in both scenarios. Go me. :P

Oh, yes. Almost forgot. Here is a very preliminary collection of pictures from Viennese last night, courtesy of Megan's date's digital camera. There will be lots more to come, once I get my film developed and find someone to scan them for me! :)

Current Music:: (stuck in my head) - "Congress of Vienna"
What if I don't write about Viennese in this entry? Would you all be annoyed? ;)

OK, OK. :)

Yes, Viennese was sooo much fun!! :D Dinner was great, Opening Ceremony was amazing, dancing was wonderful! Let me start from the beginning though.

The five hours preceding leaving for Viennese were probably the five most stressful hours of my week. First of all, I got back to my room 10 minutes behind schedule after attending my two morning lectures, thereby giving me no time to grab lunch at all. Then, I found out Chi-En had successfully picked up my boutonniere from the flower place ... but they got the order wrong!!! They made it with a red rose instead of a white rose. And it was definitely an execution mistake, because the receipt taped to the box said "WHT ROSE." Grrr! I decided that this was not okay. So I drove it back to the flower shop on my way to the recording studio in Campbell. This put me 20 minutes behind schedule to begin with, but on top of that, traffic was not the prettiest it could have been. Right, so I arrived at Final Mix studio at 1:00pm, followed shortly by Megan's arrival. We mixed Testify. It took a lot of nitpicking. I also managed to finish my physics homework in the meantime. However, I was the last one left at the studio, because Gavan left at 1:30 to make it back to campus for his 2:15 class, and Megan left at 2:30 for her hair appointment. I was also supposed to leave at 2:30...but we were nowhere near done! And I couldn't leave it partly unfinished, because the way the technician was doing the mixing required for the entire mix to be done and saved in one sitting. So I left at the earliest time I could, which was not until 3:00!! :P This meant a number of things::

1) I was late for my hair appointment, which was supposed to be at 3:00.
2) I didn't have time to return to campus before my hair appt. as was originally planned in order to turn in my physics homework which was due at 4:00! To make things worse, I had Steph's homework with me and was supposed to turn it in for her!
3) I didn't have time to get gas, because of running late both on the way to and the way from the studio.
4) I still had to pick up the boutonniere from the flower shop!

I was a major stressball leaving the studio. Luckily, the hair salon was okay with me being late for my appointment, but *my* schedule was still all screwed up. Also luckily, I somehow managed to call Kari on her cell phone just as she was at the flower shop picking up her own flowers, so I was able to ask her to pick up mine as well. So, here I was driving on 280, racking my brain as to what I could possibly do to get everything done. I finally ended up calling Jason in a frenzy and explaining to him that I needed someone to meet me at the hair salon (which is like 5 minutes from campus), pick up my (and Steph's) physics homework, switch cars with me, get gas on the way back, and turn in the problem sets by 4:00. Again, luckily, I managed to catch Kari before she left with Opening Committee people for the hotel at 3:30, so Jason was able to borrow her car to do all of that for me. Ahhhhh, praise God that that all worked out! THANK YOU so much J-Bug!!!

Oh, and you thought that was the end of my pre-Viennese crises! Ohhh no. 'Course not. So I get to the hair place at about 3:30. The lady gets started on my hair and proceeds to begin a french-twist-with-curls-on-top type of thing. Just when I think things might actually work out and I'll actually be completely ready on time at 5:00 ... the hair stylist starts taking out what she'd already done!!! She was *changing her mind*!! I suppose this was good, because I think she realized that my hair was too thick and heavy to sustain a french twist all night, but I was like Ahhhhh I don't have TIME! Anyway, she came up with a different idea for my hair which I liked a lot :) (though I can't describe it, so maybe you'll just have to see pictures later) -- but I didn't leave the hair place until 4:35. Which meant I didn't get back to my room until 4:45. MAJOR ACK! I rushed rushed rushed and managed to be ready to leave by 5:05. Am I good or what? ;) (This is mainly because I don't do the makeup thing. I've never done makeup for any formal dance. I think it's annoying to have stuff on my face. Meh.) Oh yeah, and Erin and Eddy were absolute angels and bleached my pink ballet slipper for me. URG I still can't believe that happened!! :P

The group, of course, was super late gathering outside of Okada. What group isn't late for gatherings, especially let's-leave-for-a-dance gatherings? :P I must say everyone looked absolutely amazing all dressed up. :D So many Tmony people!! Twelve out of fifteen members of Testimony went to Viennese - isn't that a crazy percentage of social dancers? Anyway, we took a few big group pictures before we split up into four cars to drive to San Jose for dinner (which we were terribly late for). But, oh yes, something else happened before that. Teehee. All girls surprised their dates with a single pink rose!! :D ("Do you need to go to the bathroom?" - "No, not really." - " I think you should go to the bathroom." - "What? ...OH. Yes, I have to go to the bathroom!" Hahahaha.) I tied a nifty white ribbon around my rose for Liton and wrote one of my favorite scripture verses on it (Proverbs 3:5). :)

Dinner was really good, but really rushed. It took forever for all of us to drive to San Jose in rush hour traffic, find parking, and find the restaurant (the last one was difficult for some people :P). They put us in a private room since our reservations were for such a large group (17!). It was very nicely decorated, and the food was yummy. :) I had a great time with the dinner conversation. It was really awesome having non-Tmony people there (and I really hope they didn't feel out of place!). Thanks to Eric's initiative in getting the check taken care of a.s.a.p., we were out of the restaurant by 8:00pm ... just enough time to walk the one block to the Fairmont Hotel and arrive early enough to get wonderful spots in the Waltz Room to see Kari in the Opening Ceremony. And, wow... The Opening Ceremony was sooo incredible!! Those were 32 AMAZING dancers. Kari looked beautiful in her white-white dress, and even more beautiful as she performed in the Opening Polka and Opening Waltz. Yay Kari!! :) Wow. I mean...Wow. Can't really describe it any other way.

And then...the dancing. The dancing was wonderful. :o) Liton, though he claimed to be rusty, is still an amazing dancer. We danced so well together! Especially the waltzes!! :) :) :) Rotary is totally my favorite dance, and waltzing with Liton was like floating ... *happy sigh*. There are only a few other guys with whom I've danced where it clicks so much like that. (Like, sometimes with Bryan, like at the Bon-Bon Ball!) :) Liton is definitely a great waltz partner. The polkas were fun too! There were two different rooms with live bands playing different kinds of music. Liton and I spent most of the time in the Waltz Room, but a few times we wandered over to the Swing Room too. We watched the two dance competitions - Waltz and Swing - which were sooo incredible to watch. It's much fun to just sit and watch the really good dancers show their stuff!! And, oy, swing dancing in a big poofy dress ... definitely an experience. ;) I am so so so glad that I learned the Lindyhop in Social Dance II this quarter ... swinging wouldn't be quite the same without the option of going into 8-count! And, hehehe, Liton and I definitely danced some REALLY fast lindy...whew, so much fun! You know...ever since the last Jammix, I really feel like I can call myself a dancer. Something about the last Jammix - probably the fact that I actually danced a lot with other guys and not just with Tmony guy friends - just really helped me realize...I can follow. I am actually a good follower! I'm familiar with enough of each dance to just dance and spin and read whatever the cues from my partner's hands are suggesting that I do. I worry so much less now about what my feet or my hands or my arms are doing -- I just dance. And it's so amazing when you dance with a partner whom you trust. Trust is key. If I trust my partner, I don't worry about anything even a millisecond into the future ... because I know that he knows what he's doing and even if he doesn't, he knows how to make it fun ... and most of all, I know that he's looking out for me and taking care of my space and our collective dance. *happy sigh again* Thank you for a wonderful time, Liton. :o)

I also got to dance with most (but not all...phoo!) of the other Testimony boys at Viennese. :) Let's see... a cross-step with Steve, then a polka with Steve, a cross-step with Jason, a swing dance with Eric, a tired polka (at the end!) with Bryan, and a post-live-band rotary waltz with Bryan. Yay for Tmony boy dancers!! :) :)

Unfortunately, the return to campus from the dance presented its own fiasco. We needed to create another car of five people (as opposed to only one car of five on the way to San Jose) because Kari was traveling with us. Since Kari and Bryan weren't able to be together a whole lot due to Kari's participation in Opening and judging the competitions, Liton and I offered to split up into different cars. So, the plan was for me to go with the people driving my car, and for Liton to go in Gavan's car. Things were going smoothly, until ... the group in Gavan's car left without Liton!!! Ai-YA! As soon as the rest of us realized that we were short 4 other people, we rushed outside in hopes of catching them, but to no avail. I kept calling Gavan's cell phone like mad, but no one was picking up. Erin and Eddy ran ahead to see if they could catch up with them on the way to the parking lot (the two cars were parked in the same place), but in doing so, they left behind me, Liton, Bryan, and Kari ... and none of us knew where exactly the parking lot was. So we walked in the same direction for awhile, but couldn't find the parking lot. This was bad news - 4 people and no car. So I tried Gavan's cell phone again in desperation, and thank God this time they picked up. They'd only just left the parking lot but hadn't seen Erin and Eddy, so they drove to the intersection where the four of us were lost at. At that point, Liton joined their car, and they gave us directions back to the parking lot (which we'd overshot by three blocks or so). Kari, Bryan, and I trekked the cold walk back there, and from then on there were no problems. Thank goodness. :P

That would have been a not-so-fun end to the night, but after Bryan and I got back to Twain, I went upstairs to hang out with the boys for a bit before going to bed. Liton was very patient and helped me take out all the hairpins in my hair (all like 50 of them :P). That cheered me up, and I was glad, because it wouldn't have been nice to end the night of Viennese Ball feeling kind of peeved.

And that, everyone, is my story of March 1, 2002. I knew that if I didn't write it tonight, it would never get told. :)

Oh my gosh, major CRISIS!!!!
Last night, I washed my white ballet slippers with my cold load of laundry. To my horror, when I pulled them out of the dryer, they were splotched PINK!!!!! I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!! I definitely didn't have anything red in my load!! It must've been leftover from a previous person's load of laundry or something?! The left slipper is actually passable, but the right one is very very...pinky. ACK!!! Anyway, I am now in frantic search of bleach. Bleach, yes, bleach is good, I need bleach!! HELP! Aiya!

Anyway, I just got back to my room because I fell asleep at Chi-En's last night. Katherine was also there. We three were pressing dresses and Chi-En's needed hemming. And I was also trying to solve my Pink Crisis. AIYAAA.

Okay. Erin is a life-saver. She says she has a friend who has bleach and she'll take care of my ballet slippers today after Bio. LIFE-SAVER! Thank you so so so so so much Erin dear!!!! I *so* do not have any time to take care of this today, it's not even funny.

There's this one physics problem that is still escaping me, so I need Steph's help during lecture today. Gahhhhh here begins the running around like a headless chicken!!!

I am SO EXCITED though!!!! :D
I picked up Liton at the San Jose airport last night, no problems there, and when we got back we headed over to the last half of the last Austria Week event at Toyon. Weeee, it was so much fun! We dance well together!!! :o) I could go on and on about various happy thoughts about dancing, but I don't have time so they'll have to wait. I'm sure there'll be more of them after Viennese tonight!! :D

OK. Trying to calm down now. :P
Have a good Friday, everyone. Be back late tonight! :)