The Oregon Trail

Today I reminisced about the good ol' days - my elementary school days.

Today I traveled through The Oregon Trail and survived! My family and I arrived in poor health (one member of my party died on the trail) but we still had money in our pockets and food in our bellies (hardly).

I found this EXTRA-old-school version available to play online for free. Yes, free! My favorite word.

http://www.virtualapple.org/oregontraildisk.html

oh how I love productive summers

chicago part uno

 So... the airport was great. Busy as always, just how I like it. The TSA workers had a drill as soon as we passed through security. Everyone seemed a bit startled when they started shouting to not move and they blocked the exit into the hallway. The drill didn't last long at all though, maybe 2 minutes. It was quite entertaining though.
I saw zero celebrities, but a man behind me in line said he saw Justin Beiber. I didn't feel very sad to have missed him. I am definitely not a very big fan.
We only got drinks, no food-food, on our flight which was a total bust. I like unlimited drinks on land, not in the air. I can never actually finish a can of Diet Coke in an airplane. I just don't know why. But hand me a can on good ol' solid ground and I'll down it in an instant.

So we woke up bright and early on Saturday and had an Abraham Lincoln filled day. The history buff inside of me absolutely loved it!
We first visited the Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site - a reconstruction of the village where Abraham Lincoln spent his early adulthood.
Everything was so green and covered in moss my California eyes couldn't believe it. It was drizzling, but also really humid, you could hardly feel the rain. Oh... and I got eaten alive by mosquitoes. :]

We drove a bit farther and got to go on a tour of the house Lincoln lived in right before he left to the White House! woohoo Then we visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, and the Lincoln Tomb.

Oh what a fantabulous day... except for the tornado.
Yes I said tornado. We were driving though some light rain for a while on our way back from the Abraham-Crazy town of Springfield. We were watching the lightning around for about an hour, then we hit some crazy rain. The clouds were really dark and scary, then we saw a funnel cloud begin to form. The rain got so hard that the wipers just couldn't keep up. We could hardly see anything around and were out in the middle of nowhere. We slowly made it to a gas station. My mom rushed over to the car next to us and asked if they knew where we were and the lady inside was totally scared and clueless. The National Weather Service took over all the radio stations and issued a Tornado Warning. It all became reality. We had no where to really "seek shelter." The winds were howling, the rain was pouring and the tornado was incredibly close. We sat there in the car for what seemed like forever. As soon as the rain calmed down a bit all the cars crowded around the gas station took off and got back on the freeway. The tornado flipped 2 cars over on the side of the road less than a mile from where we were. It was pretty scary to see. I now can say I've had a "near death experience."

I hope I never ever go through another tornado ever again.

off to the windy city!

I will be leaving the second largest city in the country to visit the third largest city, Chicago, in just a few hours with my momma. woohooo. I'm pretty excited. I'm one of those strange people that absolutely love airports, long flights, and airplane food. Seriously. LAX is just such a fun place, I love all the hussle and bussle, and all the waiting around isn't too bad. Sure it gets boring and frustrating after a while, but the people watching is the best! I didn't see anyone famous the last time I went somewhere from LAX but the time before that I saw Seal! oh yea. Beeee jealous. ha. We practically went through security right next to each other. He was on the same flight as me. (which means we shared the same oxygen for 13 hours straight) Ha. Oh man. That just makes me sound like a complete creeper. I should just end this now.

The End.

summer summer summer

"Most people gaze neither into the past nor the future; they explore neither truth nor lies. They gaze at the television." -Radiohead

I will not just stare at the television this summer. I promise. I will definitely be catching up on Brothers & Sisters/Desperate Housewives at some point though.

I will also...

visit

as much as possible

...

bike/subway adventures to

the sunset strip

...
visit my friend Maegan at

and harass her while she's working

(I'm looking forward to this one the most)

Hello Finals Week

This is the week we college students count down to, but absolutely dread. Summer doesn't officially start until finals are over and everything is moved out of the dorms.

Finals week for me isn't too crazy. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. I don't have anything on Monday, I have 2 finals on Tuesday, 2 on Wednesday, 1 on Thursday and 1 on Friday.

I really don't want to pack up all my stuff and move out. I want to go home for the summer, don't get me wrong, I just really, really hate packing.

well... here we go...

I’m On The Pursuit Of Happiness And I Know 

Everything That Shines Ain’t Always Gonna Be Gold
I’ll Be Fine Once I Get It; I’ll Be Good

no more speeches!

if everything's embarrassing, you're never gonna to have fun

I had my last day of Communications today. It was actually a little sad. I was so worried about giving speeches, so worried about being embarrassed. I dreaded taking this class. I thought it'd be awful. But it wasn't too bad. It actually wasn't very bad at all. People used to always say, "Oh, I'm sorry. That sucks." when they'd find out I had a 2.5 hour night class every week. I actually really enjoyed it.

So... as this spring semester comes to an end, I have learned a couple things 

1. morning classes are just not fun, even if it's psychology and super interesting

2. night classes are a whole heck of a lot better

3. communications is a really cool subject

4. not having a class before chapel every monday, wednesday, and friday makes it incredibly hard to actually get out of bed and start the day