* tiny but powerful *

ACK! I almost forgot!!!
Happy 20th Birthday, David Hsu!!!
(You and your measly three months of age you've got on me...)

I just called his cell phone to wish him a happy birthday, and he's actually still in town! So I'm about to go have coffee with him (and hopefully Wendy if we can get ahold of her)!!! I haven't seen him in months! YAY!
*Note: I don't actually drink coffee. I like hot chocolate. :D

I just had a wonderful morning with Shaila. :) We met for breakfast at Doug's (very popular place for breakfast dates during school breaks -- in fact, we ran into Trisha and Pam there doing the same thing!). Then we had some extra time before she had to be home to get ready for a wedding, so we went over to the Village and walked around and browsed through stores while reminiscing about high school days and sharing about current things. It was so weird to just hang out at the Village again -- I really haven't done that much since I graduated. Shaila and I were noting that the Village has a very distinct smell. It might just be the cute, quaint little types of stores that show up every 50 feet, but there's definitely a distinctive smell. It reminded me of how Matt and I used to go there a lot after school, just walking and talking. Anyway, Shaila and I spent by far the most time in Jordan's Books, a very cute little books-and-cards-store. We ended up in the back and found all the old series we used to read (or didn't read) when we were little:: Boxcar Children, Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley Twins, Goosebumps, Animorphs, The American Girls, Anne of Green Gables -- we had so much fun looking through them! We also found really funny books like, "A Young Girl's Etiquette Guide" (How To Be a Good Host: ...make sure your friend has a pillow and a nice stuffed animal to sleep with!), and "The Paranoid's Pocketbook for Life: Things You Never Thought To Worry About" (When you go to a really nice restaurant and your dish is very beautifully arranged...that means someone's hands have been all over your food!). Whoo boy. That was fun. :)

It took my brother and I about three hours this morning/afternoon to get a good enough take of the 2 movements he was trying to record for the Stanford Fine Arts Submission. Once we finally finished, I drove back to campus in hopes of being able to drop it off at the Undergraduate Admissions Office, even though they're closed for the long weekend. Luckily, I found a neat little pile of similarly labeled envelopes sitting outside the front door of Old Union, presumably where the postman dropped them off. So I appropriately buried Tim's tape in the pile. Mission:: accomplished!

Yet another mission accomplished:: shopping for my Testimony outfit. Chi-En had asked me to shop for pinstripe pants for her as well, since she's too busy this weekend. I was able to find several pairs of good pants at my first stop (yea Mervyn's!), so I decided to nab all of them at the post-Thanksgiving sale prices and return the ones we won't need later (since the San Antonio Shopping Center is so close by). I also went back to the fabric store to buy more of the blue scarf fabric, because we underestimated the first time, so when my mom and aunt were helping me cut the fabric last night we realized that there isn't enough to make the styles we'd wanted. But now I have enough fabric -- and even matching-color thread! With my aunt's help (she's being sooo nice), all the scarves should be completed by the time I leave home.

Movie time with the family! :)

I just had the long-awaited pleasure of sitting down at the piano and playing music aimlessly without some self-imposed time limit. On MY piano, nonetheless. I've missed the feeling of keys beneath my fingers whose response I've learned to predict. Thanks to Graham, who lent me a book of Beethoven sonatas, I'm able to relive some of the music I put hard work into for Certificate of Merit four years ago (wow, it's really been that long?).

Tonight I will be helping my brother record a tape of himself playing the flute (with me on piano; convenient to have a built-in accompanist, eh?), for submission to the Stanford Undergraduate Admission as part of his application. Why, oh why, does he wait till the last minute? :P Oh well. It doesn't seem so long ago that I was recording my own two tapes.

"I thank my God every time I remember you." - Philippians 1:3

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I am HOME! YAYAYAYAY. :D I waited long enough last night for the traffic to be beautiful on the drive home. I've barely been able to go home at all this quarter, so it's REALLY nice to be here (I think the only time I came back was for post-audition retreat with new Tmony). And I slept sooo much last night. Teehee!

I showed my mom my Viennese dresses last night, and she loves them! In fact, both my parents like the white one better than the blue one -- how ironic that I was so worried. ;)

We're just going to have a small Thanksgiving dinner this year, with just our family (and my aunt from Hong Kong who's living with us right now). For as long as I can remember, Thanksgiving has always been a huge extended family gathering with all my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents in the area, but I can understand why my mom would rather have something small this year. I think I'm still going to go over to one of my aunts' house today so I can visit my little cousins Amanda and Ashley.

One piece of sad news:: I'd forgotten that my parents do this trade show for their handbag business every year (well, for the past three years) over Thanksgiving weekend. That means that they have to go there to set up the booth for most of the day tomorrow, and then they'll be busy with the convention all day on Saturday and Sunday. This makes me sad. :( I was planning to go back to campus after church Sunday morning anyway, but it still means I'll have less time with them than I'd originally thought. Sigh. Oh well -- I'll just make good use of that time to study and get together with high school friends, and reserve evenings to be at home.

Last night, a friend of mine from high school IMed me from out of the blue and asked me to answer a quick question for her. She said, "Answer the question, 'Who am I?'"

Marcia Wong, CVHS Class of 1999. I hadn't talked to her in years, I think. She was my carpool to school for three years before I was able to drive myself (after which I was her sister's ride to school after Marcia graduated). She was in orchestra with me for many, many years. I remember the drama that happened junior year of high school, when she went to junior prom with Matt. We'd already been together for 5 months, but due to my parent situation we'd assumed I wouldn't be allowed to go, so he never "asked" me and I never asked my parents. Then Marcia asked him, and he decided to go... and wow, that was not a fun thing to go through. I didn't get angry with him (we never fought with each other, for two and a half years), but I remember clearly how difficult that night was. More memories of Marcia include how she introduced me to CCM... I definitely associate Avalon's early album, A Maze of Grace, with sitting in the backseat of her family's car.

I was slightly pressed for time when she asked me her question, and I knew better than to ask what kind of answer she was looking for. So, I told her: "I am Tina Wong -- a musician, a dancer, and a follower of Jesus Christ." Then I got involved in a phone conversation with my dad, and by the time I got back to the computer she had signed off.

I wonder how she received that statement about myself. She definitely doesn't know the Tina who is a dancer, and she doesn't know the Tina who is in a real relationship with God, either. I was "Christian" in high school, and that was all. She did know me as a musician, but even that has changed -- I'm not in orchestra anymore, and instead I direct an a cappella group.

I wonder who Marcia is now. I'll ask her the next time I get a chance.

Lunch was good. My dad's appointment got delayed, so I went over to the Stanford Hospital to meet them (my dad, my mom, and my aunt) for a quick bite at the cafeteria. Then I went to Chinese class to take my quiz, but I skipped math so I could walk around campus with them for a bit. It was good to see them. I know I'll be going home really soon (tomorrow night) but I wanted to take advantage of getting time with them anyway.

I've been hearing a lot recently from my friends who are abroad in Europe, and I miss them dearly. :( I've been so busy that I haven't gotten my act together to write to them, and I feel really bad about it. Megs has been sending me postcards from Paris, Emily has been writing emails from Spain, and Erin has been updating her blog from Italy. Kristin hasn't written much from Germany, but I did respond to her last email, at least. I'm going to sit down and do some serious writing over Thanksgiving! I'm also looking forward to seeing Wendy and Shaila and other high school friends this weekend. Here at Stanford I get so swept up in the busy-college-life culture that it's hard to pluck myself out of it and keep up old ties on a consistent basis.

I hadn't realized how much of my life here is tied to the rest of Core. I mean, not with Core stuff, but with the three of them as my friends. Kari left this afternoon, Bryan is leaving tomorrow morning, and Eric is leaving in the early afternoon...and the prospect of being on campus after they're gone (even though it's only until tomorrow night after the Bay Area traffic has died down) is surprisingly disconcerting. It's not even that I necessarily spend every minute of my life with them, because I don't; it's more the idea that they just won't be here. And, it's not that they're my only close friends here, because that's not true either; I still have Chi-En, and Justin, and my roommates, and my class friends. But when those people aren't on campus, it just feels like...well, that they're not on campus. When Bryan, Eric, and Kari are gone, it feels like part of the campus is gone too. Hrm.

Please pray for my dad. No details, but prayers for his health would be appreciated. In any case, I get to have lunch with my dad tomorrow after his doctor's appointment here. :)

::Friday, 11/22:: - It was Evan's birthday, so Neal, Katie, Rebecca, Alison, and I ambushed him in his room in Roble and dragged him over to the Swing Kids dance at Elliott. Ambushing is fun. We almost threw him in the shower, but then decided that would've delayed the dancing. The Swing Kids dance was pretty fun, too. Well, except for some things, but I've griped enough about that. Justin is getting to be a very good dancer! Kari and Justin and Kristin and I went out to Denny's afterward for dessert. Vanilla + strawberries = Yum. :)

::Saturday, 11/23:: - Woke up bright and early, out of my love for the Opening choreographers. :P Normal Opening rehearsal was cancelled because of Big Game, but they were holding a "review/extra practice" for the people who needed it, and I was asked to help out. Kari came too, halfway through. I spent most of the 2 hours teaching one guy the polka choreography. I had to teach Qi some of the choreography too. :P Kari finished choreographing the lindy section for HYAMLC while we were there - yay Kari! And it was fun to do the Testify choreography together in front of a mirror. :)
       I just realized that Saturday was a very Kari day. Saturdays usually are, but this one was moreso in particular. Anyway, we had lunch at Wilbur, where we ran into a whole bunch of other Tmony people (reminded me of Stern last year). Then we went petticoat/dress-shopping for Viennese! We weren't successful in the petticoat search (for me; Kari already has one), but--much to my surprise--the dress search was actually fruitful. I usually hate dress shopping (especially formal dress shopping) because I NEVER find anything in my size. It is sooo frustrating. Anyway, we went to the Jessica McClintock outlet in South San Francisco. (Kari and I cannot drive into SF together without missing our exit the first time.) To spare you the details about dress shopping, let's just say that I found two dresses that ACTUALLY fit me! One white one for Opening (which Kari absolutely loves, but it's not quite my normal style so I'm really worried that my mom won't like it...I hadn't realized how much I care about her opinion until I was seriously anxious about it for the rest of the night!) and a really pretty blue one that *I* love, which I'm going to change into after the Opening Ceremonies. I only found the blue one because I gave up dejectedly on finding the needed white one, after everything I saw was too big for me. Kari found the white dress for me at the very end, just as we were about to leave. It's really not my style of dress, but I decided that finding a dress that actually fits me (and that was so inexpensive) is so rare that I better not pass it up. This means that, since each guy in Opening contributes $30 towards the girls' dresses (since their tuxes are sponsored by a tux company), my Opening dress only cost me $15. The blue one, which I'm much more excited about, was only $49. Kari found an awesome dress too (also for after the Opening dances) -- it looks SO amazing on her. Outlet shopping is definitely the way to go!
       Returning triumphant from shopping, Kari and I met the boys at Wilbur for another fun and productive Core meeting over dinner, which was followed by learning and practicing the lindy choreography for Christmas show. I'm so excited about show; it's going to be so much fun! And after that, we all headed down to Mountain View for Gavan's housewarming party at his new condo. We entertained the guests (well, the other half of the guests, i.e. those who knew Gavan from wushu, as opposed to we who know him from Testimony) with a set of three songs, sung with a mix of Tmony 2000-01 and 2001-02 members (Gavan's two years). Fun times. :)

::Sunday, 11/24:: - (I'm running out of storytelling energy, so this is going to accelerate.) A particularly fun day with the K-1 kids (so cute!). Attended second service with a couple friends visiting The River for the first time. Went straight to Testimony rehearsal, 1:15-4:15. Returned to my room immediately for a nice long nap. Worked the rest of the night on the ChemE problem set, punctuated in the middle for a brief Tmony skit rehearsal (the skits are sooo funny!).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TIM!!! :o)
I'll see you SOON!! I can't wait to be home! :)

I found an old stack of silly stationery (think: Keroppi and teddy bears and large cartoon piggies and monkeys) from, like, middle school that I loved to collect but for some reason never used. I figure, what the heck, why not start now? ;) Hahaha I am so amused writing on this stationery. It's SO SILLY!!!

TPiglette (3:20:47 PM): hehehehe
TPiglette (3:20:50 PM): I'm using...
TPiglette (3:20:57 PM): Keroppi stationery!!!! :-D
Bryguy683 (3:21:02 PM): Noooo!
Bryguy683 (3:21:11 PM): I can't use a Post-It with THAT!
Bryguy683 (3:21:13 PM): :-P
Bryguy683 (3:21:17 PM): I'll look like an idiot!
Bryguy683 (3:21:19 PM): LOL
TPiglette (3:21:26 PM): no you won't!!!!!
Bryguy683 (3:21:28 PM): Just you watch, I'll beat your stationery...
TPiglette (3:21:29 PM): aww come on
Bryguy683 (3:21:37 PM): It's on, Tina.
Bryguy683 (3:21:39 PM): ;-)
TPiglette (3:21:42 PM): HAHAHA

JuKa828 (3:37:10 PM): HAHAHAHAHA
JuKa828 (3:37:13 PM): oh, geez
JuKa828 (3:37:16 PM): stationery wars
TPiglette (3:40:12 PM): HAHAHAHA
TPiglette (3:40:14 PM): I am so amused
TPiglette (3:40:18 PM): I gave Eric stationery
TPiglette (3:40:22 PM): his is "Sweet Monkey"
TPiglette (3:40:34 PM): "My name is Ki Ki! I am a monkey. I like forest and banana."
JuKa828 (3:40:59 PM): HAHAHAHAHA
JuKa828 (3:41:02 PM): hahahahaah

Tmony girls' shopping trip:: Successful! (well, as in, we decided on a cool look, though some people still need to shop for a specific item.)
Bible study dessert outing @ Max's:: Fun, but it made me sad and contemplative.
Alto sectional:: Not wholly successful, but we worked through stuff that really needed to be worked on.
Girldate w/ Chi-En @ Trancos:: Long, giggly, encouraging, and challenging. Meep. ;)

This morning's classes:: Sleepy...
Prayer buddy lunch w/ Nalani:: Fun! Yay!
Math lecture today:: Um...no.

Last night's Opening rehearsal was significantly less frustrating than usual. I shall leave unsaid the theories about why. It also seems that I have completely lost my ability to concentrate on my math homework. This is not good, seeing as it is due in 4 hours.

Midterms, Round Two:: 6/6!
Total Midterm Count for Fall Qtr. 2002:: 10.

The last one sucked. And I can't believe finals are in 2.5 weeks. This is a never-ending marathon. Math problem set due tomorrow, too.

To sleep or to grocery-shopping?

Music. Music will make everything better. Well, not without God. But nothing makes me feel closer to God than music, so we're all good.

I've been studying pchem all day, and the impending doom is settling in. :( At least Testimony rehearsal was good. I didn't get to review some of the songs I had hoped to tonight, but we got through nearly all of the Testify choreography - yay! And I am totally excited about this other choreography that Kari is working on. ;)

"Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6:33-34

I'm trying... *sigh*. Please pray for me, that in the midst of everything I am involved in, I would continue to know that my greatest and only purpose for living is honoring God.

I can do math. I can do Chinese. I can do music. I can do dance. I can even pretty much do engineering. But why the heck can't I do chemistry???

No, I didn't go see the meteors. I was exhausted and not in the best mood by 1:00am. I think part of me felt like going this year couldn't possibly have compared to last year, so perhaps those memories were better left intact. I was also really cold, even sitting inside in my apartment, so braving the cold outside wasn't very appealing. So, at 1:00am, I crawled into bed, half entertaining the idea of waking up around 2:30 just to step outside on Escondido and watch the meteor shower for awhile from here. Well, that didn't happen. I slept till about 15 minutes ago. This is good in the resting scale, but not on the studying scale. Pchem is going to kick my butt.

My nose also just started bleeding profusely. That was by far the worst bloody nose I've had in my entire life, and probably also the most random. At least it stopped pretty quickly, though.

Dang it. This should NOT be a problem. Some patterns are better broken.

Wow. I'd nearly forgotten: Meteor shower tonight!
I thought they said *last* year was our "last chance." :-P Oh well, I'm not objecting to another meteor shower. When I went last year up into the foothills with a car full of Tmony people (we laid down with our heads in the middle of a circle on a blanket and looked straight up and sang songs), that was probably one of the coolest experiences of my entire sophomore year. Looking back in my blog archives, I see that I never got around to writing about it. Maybe I'll combine it with a this year's story, if I find the time and energy to go out tonight. It was sooo amazing last year.

I got a 103/111 on my math midterm!!! :D The mean was a 98. :)

THE CHEM171 TA'S FRUSTRATE ME TO NO END. UGH.

Tmony rehearsal was good tonight. :)

Quote page is updated, finally! Go see.

Pictures from Ragtime Ball::

Testimony Past & Present -- Ragtime Ball, 11/16/02



[L to R::] Steve, Megan, Gavan, Annie, Eric, Tina, Chi-En, Kari, Justin, Michelle.


.


...Plus Some More Testimony -- Ragtime Ball, 11/16/02



[Top::] Jenn, Steve, Megan, Gavan, Katherine, Eric, Annie, Tina, Justin.
[Bottom::] Chi-En, Kari, Michelle.
[Not Pictured::] Bryan, Jason, Adam, Jenny G., Sandra.

Let's see how quickly I can type up a story about the past 48 hours. ;)

Friday's FNW was so much fun! Jeremy (my waltz partner for Opening Committee) came up to Berkeley with me, and there we found Wendy and Chris Wong (both from my high school). Unfortunately, due to bad traffic (101 and 880...fun) and parking woes, we didn't get there until after 7:30, so I didn't have time AT ALL to try and find Shaila. :( :( :( By the time we got there, Wendy and Chris had already started the beginner's lesson. I tried to go through the lesson as a lead, but I kept getting snagged as a follow. I was more successful during the intermediate lesson, though. It was sooo good to see Wendy again!! She picked up dance pretty well and pretty quickly, from what I could see! Graham also showed up for the dance (after the lessons), and he and Jeremy were very nice in dancing with Wendy a lot. YAY WENDY! :) Dances aren't very conducive to talking, though, so I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and Winter Break when I can hopefully hang out with her again. Anyway, I did come back to Stanford after FNW, since I had given Jeremy a ride up to Berkeley. The drive back was a breeze, luckily, since traffic is totally clear after midnight.

Saturday, I was up bright and early for a completely full and packed day. Kari and I went to Opening rehearsal at 9:00, since Qi asks us to arrive early to help people review and practice the choreography. We were totally matching -- khakis, navy blue top, the same dance shoes, AND a white sweater/cardigan -- because we weren't going to have time to change before leaving for Testimony's gig at a senior home later that afternoon. It was really funny. Rehearsal itself...uh, no comment. Core meeting over brunch was fun and productive, as usual. I'm feeling better about show prep. Testimony's performance with the Senior Outreach Concert Series went pretty well! SOCS is a conglomeration of Stanford musicians who put together a short program for residents at senior homes. Yesterday's was at Stevenson House in Palo Alto. I think it was a really good gig for us, and they really want us to come back during our winter tour! The other performers at SOCS were really amazing, too. Yay for good music and good variety. :)

After I got back from SOCS, I had like half an hour to get ready for the dance festivities of the night. Felix had asked me to accompany him to the pre-dance stuff for AASA's Screw Your Sib, since his little sib was going to the dance. I now have pretty flowers on the kitchen table! :) We had a very nice dinner with a huge group of people, at Piatti in the Stanford Shopping Center, and then went down to Cupertino Village for pearl milk tea with just the four of us (me, Felix, his little sib Mike, and his date Liz). While we were there, Felix surprised me by finding me a cup of green tea ice cream, because he remembered that it's my favorite flavor...cute, no? :) Anyway, during dinner, I had a good time chatting with all the freshmen at our table (Felix and I were the only non-freshmen. That was interesting), and I met someone who's living in Paloma with Jenny this year. One weird thing is that I'm still trying to process some of the significant discomfort I had at first about being with such a completely Asian group. It got a lot better over the course of dinner, so maybe it was just the side of me who is terribly shy around new people. But it was definitely something I wasn't used to. Meh...like I said, I'm still trying to process it.

We made it back to campus for Ragtime Ball around 10:00. I had had an interesting time trying to figure out what I could wear that would be appropriate to both SYS and Ragtime Ball, since I knew I wouldn't have time to change. I settled on a semi-formal black dress with a swishy skirt part (the one I lent to Erin at the last minute for Viennese last year...heh, she wore it before I did). The swishy skirt was fun to dance in. :) I had a blast at Ragtime! And I didn't get injured! Yay! There were really amazing performances by a lot of dance groups (which I know a lot of people in), including Swing Time, Double or Nothing, Danse Libre, and Cardinal Whirlwinds. That last group is a new square dancing group, and Jason is doing it!! Whee! It was so awesome to see so many of my friends perform with their dance groups. It was also really great to dance with all my dance friends whom I rarely see, since I never have time to go to Monday Night Dance or Dance Lab or anything (basically, anything other than Opening rehearsal, where I now only dance with Justin Svec and Jeremy). OH!! *DEMARA* was down here from Oregon for the weekend! It was so good to see her! We had a nice warm fuzzy Rinc moment when the two of us found Bryan and Eric at the dance. Teehee. Oh, and yes, Bryan FINALLY came to dance thing! He hasn't been dancing at all this year! Silly Bry! I shared my only rotary waltz of the night with him, towards the end of the night in the other room where they were playing DJ'ed music. I was very sad that the live band didn't play any fast waltzes. But I guess it's good that I got to do so much swing dancing, since that doesn't happen in Opening. I think my favorite swing dance of the night was with Neal. I don't know why, but everything just *worked*, nearly seamlessly, for that dance. I also finally got to dance with Scott! Heehee...yay for musician dancers with a super solid sense of rhythm! That's my standpartner! ;) Ah, yes...Embarrassing Moment of the Night:: coming in last with Graham as the anchor couple in the first heat of the One-Step Relay (Kari & Justin, and Quena & someone (?) were also on our team). I still hold that we lost because we were following the rules and ACTUALLY only stepping one step to each beat. :P Oh well. I had a nice cushion of Tmony people to hide behind afterwards. ;) There were SO MANY Testimony people at Ragtime last night! We took a huge picture (well, a series of huge pictures) at the end with the Tmony alumni + current members. I'll post the picture here once I get Megan to send it to me. Let's see, who was there... Kari, Megan, Jenny Gonzales, Sandra Liu, Chi-En, Michelle, Jenn, Annie, Katherine, me, Steve, Gavan, Adam, Eric, Bryan, Justin, and Jason. Testimony 2001-2002 was DEFINITELY the most well represented year -- we had 2 out of 4 sops, 3 out of 4 altos, 2 out of 3 tenors, and all 4 basses! And of the 4 people who were missing, 2 of them are definitely dancers but they just weren't at the dance. ALTOS were definitely the best represented section...there were SIX of us! GO ALTOS!!! Hehehehe. I was so hyper at the end of the dance. (You can probably tell that from the excessive usage of exclamation points in this paragraph!) For some reason I get a lot more hyper around old Tmony. I don't know why? But it was fun. "MEEP! meepeppempemppepeememep~" HAHA!

And that brings us to today. It was wonderful to see the K-1 kids again this morning, but evidently my back didn't like the sitting/crawling/playing. I'm better now, having lied down for awhile. It took its toll on my Sunday productivity, though. Speaking of which, I shall now go pick at my ChemE problem set. Felix and Phil are working on it upstairs, but I don't feel like working with people right now. I think I had too much people time yesterday. Right now I'm really appreciating having the apartment to myself, since Janet went home for the weekend and Abby is in Hawaii for the weekend (yeah, random).

Okay. To Laplace tranforms. :P

(It's annoying when Blogger won't let me publish my updates. Like now, for instance. So I will use the opportunity to tell you what music I am listening to. Brian Lee sent me a whole slew of mp3's of waltz and swing music after Kimball's thing on Thursday. Now I have all the music I love dancing to! Current Music:: Mecano - "Hijo de la Luna")

First service with the kids wasn't so good for my back. :( So I'm back early, and I'm going to go journal for awhile in the other room where I can rest my back on something squishy. (Don't even think about it, Justin....) I have SO much to tell about my weekend! Later...

I'm about to embark on the fun stuff of the weekend. :) I'm going to stop by the Opening dance "workshop" in Kimball, and then alto sectional 4:30-5:30, and then I leave for Berkeley! Yay! I'm going to try to meet up with Shaila while I'm up there (she can't come to the dance, though, because her a cappella group is having their concert tonight! I wish I could go hear her sing!). And Wendy is finally coming to a dance thing! Yay!

For tomorrow:: Opening rehearsal 9:30-12, Core brunch meeting 12:30-1:30, Tmony gig at a senior home in Palo Alto 2:00-5:00, pre-dance festivities (dinner, etc.) for AASA's Screw Your Sib, and then Ragtime Ball. Call my cell! I may or may not be back tonight.

I am toying with the idea of staying in Berkeley tonight, either with Wendy or with Shaila, before driving back to Stanford for dance practice tomorrow morning. Hmmm.

Thoughts::
1) Chem sucks. We got our exams back. The mean was 66/119. I did not make the mean. I was, however, roughly half a standard deviation below the mean.
2) I am so not motivated to go to math today.
3) I am sleepy. This contributes to Thought #2.
4) I miss my family. :( I called my mommy today but she was too busy to talk. :(
5) Thanksgiving is really soon. Like, two weeks away. This does not mean good things for show prep. Nor for tour planning.
6) I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WENDY AND SHAILA TONIGHT!!! :D

Midterms, Round Two:: 5/6.

Chem continues to be the bane of my existence.

Justin says that that exam was so hard it hasn't even sunk in because he's in shock. I guess I'm so used to chem exams being exceedingly horrible that it doesn't shock me anymore. What's novel, though, is that I still can't perform well on tests even the second time through this stupid class. I feel like I understand the stuff we go through in class but I can't apply the concepts to new huge complicated molecules and I can't regurgitate the reactions the way they want us to. BLAH.

Midterms, Round Two:: 4/6.

Math was okay. I made some stupid mistakes and I forgot how to integrate te^-2t, but I finished the exam and it wasn't that bad.

Chem, however, sucks.

Study sessions practically spew quotes...
- "I wish I had a relationship with my model set." - Chris Bruner
- "Those are very two different things." - Felix, while explaining his previous night's dyslexia between the words 'amine' and 'anime'

The next 29 hours are most likely going to be rather unpleasant. But you know what? This song is still true.

Current Music:: Caedmon's Call - "We Delight"
We will bow our hearts because
We are free as we raise our hands
To give You glory
Father of life and love and infinite worth
We're delivered by blood
It flows from the tree, draws us near to You
Vessels of Your mercy
For the invention of man
Glorious Trinity

We delight in the law of Your Word
We delight in the Son who was perfect from birth
We delight in the day he's returning to earth
Hallelujah,
Hallelujah!

:)

It's a good waltz, too! :)

We got our 2nd ChemE midterm back this morning. I guess I did okay. One thing I am annoyed at myself about is that I ALWAYS miss all my points in one big chunk. I got 30/30 on Q2, and 30/30 on Q3, but only 7/30 on Q1 because I got stuck. The other weird thing is that I totally thought the 2nd day (Q3) of the midterm wasn't as bad, and I knew I messed up the first day (Q1 and Q2) ... but that was the complete opposite of how my study family felt about the exam. They thought the first day was good but somehow missed the Taylor expansion series on the second day. I find this odd, seeing as we all study together, so ostensibly we should know more or less the same stuff, right? :P Anyway, so I got 74.4/100 (scaled up from 90) for the whole test, which is almost exactly what I got on the first midterm, 75/100 (just above the mean). And yep, you guessed it, I missed all 25 of *those* points at the end of the 2nd problem on the first midterm, because I got stuck on the system of differential equations and forgot to use the integrating factor method, since I'd only *just* learned it in Math 53 a few days earlier. Poo. I honestly just didn't understand Q1 on this midterm, though, at least. I get more annoyed with myself if it's just a math thing. I wonder what the mean for this exam was.

Yesterday's and today's problem sets were painful, but at least they're out of my hands. Tomorrow's midterms are not going to be fun. :(

What was nice about last night, though, was that Testimony rehearsal totally cheered me up. It's funny how that happens. I'd been working on the pchem problem set almost straight from 4:00pm and I was really really frustrated by the time I headed over for rehearsal at 9:00. But I stepped into Braun 106, and as I saw my members enter the room, it was like my heart was smiling. I couldn't really explain it. Chi-En and Kari got me laughing, like they always do, and I think I really needed that just then. It was like I'd almost *planned* on being stressed out by rehearsal, but God had other ideas. ;)

In other news, Wendy says she's free to come to the Berkeley Friday Night Waltz on Friday!! I've been wanting to bring her to a dance thing FOREVER! And I haven't seen her in sooo long. I hope everything works out so I can make it to the dance!

"This is bull." - Phil
"Oh-nee!" - Karl
Hahahahaha. Hahaha. HA. Oy.

I am not feeling good today. I don't know why. Blah.

It's November 12. But I was prepared for it this time. And it's not raining. :)

Math is taking a long time. :( Which means that I didn't get started on the 171 today, like I had hoped to. I'm not looking forward to having two midterms on the same day this Thursday. If it had to be two, though, I'm glad one of them is math. But the Kimball dorm show Wednesday night is bad timing. I just need to make good use of the rest of tonight, tomorrow morning, and tomorrow night before rehearsal.

Someone informed me on Friday that 75% of our ChemE100 grade is already determined (more or less). The midterms we've taken are 25% each, and homework is 25%. That means the final is only worth 25%. That is SO WEIRD for college!!!

Wow. I'm tired. :P I just took a long nap, after a long day. I helped out in the 2nd-5th grade class in Kids Community today, which was fairly uneventful (as far as interacting with the kids goes) because we watched a Veggie Tales video about Esther and then went into "big church" for the closing worship because the current message series is about Why Worship Matters So Much. It was cool to meet some of the older kids, but I really missed the K-1 kids because I haven't been in that class for 3 weeks now (two weeks ago I was gone on the Crusade retreat, and last Sunday I was sick and my back was acting up). I can't wait until next weekend when I can see all of my kids again. :D Anyway, then after KC I attended 2nd service for myself, and then rushed back to campus for Testimony rehearsal at 1:15. Everyone was pretty low-energy at rehearsal today (including me) so we took lots of breaks and had some good prayer time. When I got back, I was definitely in need of a nap. So I took one! Yay! ;)

So, I have plenty to be working on tonight, including a math problem set due Tues., a pchem problem set due Wed., and studying for my 2 midterms on Thursday. But first...I think I'm going to clean up the kitchen. It's kind of yucky. And I also need to do laundry at some point. And go grocery shopping. :P Oh, the things that get put off when you get bombarded by midterms! Phoo.

I'll tell all about Alto Hangout next time. :)

Kari sent me a song today. She said it reminded her of (what she knew of) me and Matt. She was right.

(Sorry. The other formerly-significant date is approaching, so I guess I'm still contemplative.)

Michelle Branch - "Goodbye to You"
Of all the things
I've believed in
I just want to
Get it over with
Tears form behind my eyes
But I do not cry
Counting the days
That pass me by

I've been searching
Deep down in my soul
Words that I'm hearing
Are starting to get old
It feels like
I'm starting all over again
The last three years
Were just pretend
And I said

"Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything
I thought I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that
I tried to hold on to"

I used to get lost in your eyes
And it seems that
I can't live a day without you
Closing my eyes and
You chase my thoughts away
To a place where
I am blinded by the light
But it's not right

And it hurts to want everything
And nothing at the same time
I want what's yours
And I want what's mine
I want you
But I'm not giving in this time

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything
I thought I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that
I tried to hold on to.
The one thing that
I tried to hold on to.

Blogger is FINALLY letting me update! The server has been down all day. :P

Anyway, I have like 5 minutes before our Core meeting, so this has to be quick. Last night was a lot of fun: I watched Harry Potter with Graham, and then went over to Kimball for the Opening party. This morning I had Opening rehearsal, brunch with Opening people, and then now I'm back here. We have a Core meeting from 3:30-4:30, and then the Super-Cool Testimony Alto Section will be leaving campus for an adventure. ;) We're going to Chi-En's brother's place to cook dinner, bake, hang out, and in general just have a fun girls' night and perpetuate alto hilarity. I'm not sure what time I'll be back, so that's why I'm blogging now.

Health update:: My back is, in general, doing a lot better. It still gets tired from stuff like more than 2 hours of class or dance practice, but daily functionality has been much more pleasant the past couple days. My mood seems to vary linearly with the state of my back, though, and I'm trying to figure out which is the cause and which is the effect. On an unrelated note, I got a random bloody nose during the middle of Opening rehearsal this morning. That was weird.

In other news, my Opening partners have been finalized. My polka partner is Justin Svec, and my waltz partner is Jeremy Sugerman. Yay! :)

Off to my meeting! Leave me a comment! ;)

Well. That wasn't so bad. I think.

Tina is very busy. TSF is due tomorrow. Tina is done (thanks to wonderful parents), but other people are not. They are having a party right now in Stern North. Very exciting party. Tina will also stop talking in the third person now. So, Bible study tonight was good. Classes today were also good, except for psycho math professor doing crazy stuff with imaginary numbers. I got a 96 on the Chinese midterm. Yay for easy midterms. Boo to bad midterms, like yesterday's and tomorrow's. Perturbation theory and Taylor expansions. I like how I'm learning the necessary math for ChemE pretty much on the fly. Note to future ChemE's:: DEFINITELY take Math 53 before ChemE 100. They are not kidding about it being a prereq. Sometimes prereq's are stupid, but this one is serious. Anyway, at least math is still pretty easy right now. I haven't been paying too much attention to ochem lately, which will probably come back to bite me next week. Oh well, that's what I have this weekend to study for, right? Mmm, what else is going on... Opening:: no comment. :P Tmony:: the Okada dorm show went wonderfully!! Another dorm show scheduled for Kimball next Wednesday. Core:: We have fun. ;)

To everyone who has been trying to communicate with me via email:: Sorry for being slow to respond -- I'm not ignoring you! I hope to be more on top of things soon.

I'm trying really hard not to give in, but it's really really hard. I've made it all the way to November already without crying about school this quarter. But this morning just made me feel exactly like last year. I feel like I'll never be good at anything ever again. :( I think I'm the stupidest person in the entire ChemE junior class.

If only all my midterms could be as easy as that one. :P

Well, I just took midterm #1 of 6, for the second round of midterms this quarter. I'm counting the ChemE midterm as 2 because it's being split into 2 class periods (this Wed. and Fri.) which, to me, is like taking 2 exams.

It was really, really nice to have my parents here last night. Even my dad helped with cooking the fried rice, which Bryan and I enjoyed eating (yummm). (Side note:: Mirrielees 3A wing is kind of like a black hole. I know too many people who live in that hall.) AND, my parents graciously offered to complete my last 4 Opening TSF letters for me today (they took stationery with them last night), so they'll be coming again tonight after I'm done with Testimony rehearsal, to deliver the letters and massage/medicine-ize my back again. That means I only have two half-letters to finish (one for Tmony, one for Opening), and then I'll be totally done with TSF!! I'll actually personally only have written 12 of the 24, though. My parents will have done the other 12 for me, because they said they'd rather have me be resting my back instead of writing evil TSF letters. Thanks so much, Mom and Dad!! You're the best and I love you!

TSF progress:: 17/24.
And my mom is cooking for me!!

It's really nice to be taken care of. It's been a long time. :)

My parents are coming over tonight to help me write TSF letters and rub Chinese medicine on my back (they're very insistent about the latter). Aren't they the best?? :D I wonder what it is about a mother's touch that is so therapeutic.

Right about now is when I'm really glad that Mondays are my free nights. No rehearsals or meetings or *anything*. Yay! My MWF morning 3-classes-in-a-row still isn't very fun for my back, though. The first two are fine, but the third one is pushing it. I need to figure out what to do about that. =/

Ah, yes. Quotes from yesterday's chemE/pchem problem set session::
- "Pluggin' in, pluggin' in!" - Chris Bruner, singing, yes to that commercial tune.
- "Blood, everywhere!" - Felix (of course I'm not going to give you the context) ;)
- and Jim said something about not being pretty but no one would repeat the quote for me so I lost it :P

And I was only there for the afternoon part, because I had rehearsal after dinner -- I wonder what else I missed. ;) Things tend to be just unbelievably funny after you've been struggling on one problem for hours.

My roommates are watching Beauty and the Beast in the other room and making very cute running commentary as if they've never seen the movie before. They're cute. ;)

Oh and I think Testimony rehearsal was good for my back. :) God is good. Always.

It seems as if my back doesn't like Sunday, or something. :( I didn't make it to church this morning, because I was still coughing and I didn't want to get the kids sick, in addition to the fact that my back has not been in good shape since late last night. I don't know why it got worse again! I had a pretty easy-going day. Except for the last half hour of Opening rehearsal yesterday morning, I guess -- I think the 2.5 hour rehearsal (extended from the usual 2 hours to make up for lost time around Thanksgiving) was pushing it. I took a long afternoon nap to make up for it, though, I had hoped. Anyway, yesterday we also had our record time shortest Core meeting (I think), despite some miscommunication about meeting place and time. Yay Core. ;)

Testimony had our first gig of the year on Friday night, at the Interfaith Celebration. I think it went very well, excepting some tempo problems (but that's normal for performance jitters). :) "My Jesus" and "TLBY" sound so good in MemChu! Then Kari and I went to Friday Night Waltz at the Palo Alto YWCA. That was fun too. I finally danced with the legendary "other Jeff Lee" (i.e. not Crusade Jeff). And he knows me as the "other Tina" too, because he dances with Tina Chan in Danse Libre, so that was kind of funny. Then, after Kari dropped off me and Miriam (who was going to spend the night in Rebecca's room, which is directly across the hall from Eric's room) at Mirrielees, we decided to invade their (Rebecca/Eric/Neal's) roleplaying game going on in the 2nd floor lounge. I watched for awhile, and that was quite interesting as well -- now I finally know what it is that Eric obsesses over. ;) Oh, and I discovered that the Mirrielees piano is now in the 2nd floor lounge!!! And it's been tuned (or so Eric claims)! YAY!!

Time to chip away at my to-do list:: math problem set (Tu), chemE problem set (W), pchem problem set (W), study for Chinese midterm (Tu), study for chemE midterm (W, F), write TSF for Tmony (Th), write TSF for Opening (W), and prep for Tmony rehearsal (tonight). Hmm...that's a lot. :P But I will be okay. :)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate.
The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/11/01/BA172669.DTL
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Friday, November 1, 2002 (SF Chronicle)
Castro Valley to cast vote on cityhood
Kelly St. John, Chronicle Staff Writer

       Castro Valley is a hilly East Bay enclave of 58,000 crisscrossed with bridle trails and boasting safe neighborhoods and family-run shops.
       But a pitched battle -- complete with shouting matches, name-calling and allegations of campaign sign-stealing -- has erupted in the last year. The issue: the impact of cityhood on a community that once claimed some of the nation's biggest chicken farms and still retains an easy, almost rural, quality of life in the midst of suburbia.
       "It has been a very passionate issue," said Steve Dimick, a five-year resident who wants Castro Valley to become a city. "Fears are being put out as facts."
       On Tuesday, residents of the largest unincorporated community in California will decide Measure Q, a plan to incorporate Castro Valley and allow it to create its own local government, including a mayor and council and a police force.
       Incorporation would cut the community's ties with Alameda County government, which today fixes Castro Valley's streets, provides sheriff's patrols and regulates development.
       "We want to take control of our own destiny," said Bonnie Dettmer, executive director of the Castro Valley Chamber of Commerce, which is supporting the measure.
       "If you want home rule, you've got to become a city," agreed Sal Tedesco, a 32-year Castro Valley resident and president of pro-incorporation Citizens for Castro Valley. "You shape and control your own future by having control of your own tax dollars."
       But pro-incorporation forces have been fighting an uphill battle to win over longtime residents, who have defeated repeated attempts to incorporate in the past.
       A decade ago, a citizen petition failed to collect enough signatures to study incorporation, and when incorporation last came up for a vote -- in 1956 -- it was defeated.
       "We will all agree that there are benefits to local control, but do you want to pay $3 million for another layer of government?" said Glenn Carlson, founder of an anti-incorporation citizen's group called TRUTH, whose red "No on Q" signs are posted on lawns and at intersections all over town.
       "Most of my customers are against it. They just don't believe they can make it work," said Janet Lemmons, 41, the owner of Rowell's Saddlery Shop, a Castro Valley fixture since 1942.
Carlson and other opponents fear that the 11.5-square-mile, newly incorporated city would not be able to afford to pay for existing services. And they are not swayed by a recent county study which found that the new city would not only be self-sufficient, but have a surplus of $1.6 million.
       "They've reduced services to try to get the budget to balance," he said. "We're looking at a 26 percent reduction in uniformed police officers."
       Carlson said he also thought that pro-incorporation backers had relied on economic forecasts that are too rosy. In poor economic times, opponents fear, a city strapped for cash would bring in new revenue by trying to raise taxes or by promoting new developments.
       They point out that the Measure Q campaign received $10,000 from a housing developer who had planned to build 59 homes in the Castro Valley area before the passage of Alameda County's Measure D prevented that.
       Castro Valley resident Beth Palicz fears that one day that winding canyon of golden hillsides and oak trees on the way to the horse ranch on Cull Canyon Road where she works could become crowded with tract homes.
       "There are enough cities to visit," said Palicz, 59. "Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to preserve our country setting."
       These are the kinds of arguments that frustrate incorporation backers, who say there are concrete problems that emerge without local leadership.
       There's the giant and bland-looking office building on Castro Valley Boulevard that was built over residents' objections. Some streets have sidewalks, while others don't.
       "We're going to have better services and more responsive services if we do it ourselves," Dimick said. Cityhood is contingent not only on the passage of Measure Q but also on voters' approval of two funding measures on Tuesday's ballot: a new 10 percent hotel tax and an extension of a utility users' tax that is set to end in 2009.
       Voters will also select five City Council members from a slate of 19 candidates on the Nov. 5 ballot, to take office only if Castro Valley incorporates.

E-mail Kelly St. John at kstjohn@sfchronicle.com.
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Copyright 2002 SF Chronicle

My back was so happy this morning!
But then I went to class. :(

Seriously...I woke up and was like, Wow. And I moved to sit up, and was like, Wow, that wasn't too hard!! And I felt really good until halfway through my first class. But this is a good sign, right??

I did, in fact, go to all of my classes this morning. And I wrote two TSF letters during my 11:00 class (which is just a "TA review" for 171...the TA's are SO ANNOYING. Yes, Erin.)! Quote from one of the TA's, when asked about whether a particular equation only applies to ideal gases:: "No, that's a general equation. But...there is a question as to whether it is completely general or not." What??! :P

Wow...it's actually looking like I have a fairly clear weekend. :) And Testimony is singing tonight! :)