EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i just bought a digital camera! i'm soooo excited. i've been looking around forever and drooling each time i see one...and now...i've finally given in. it was such a super duper good deal from dell. i love dell. :) oh yea...it's the canon s400 digital elph...'twas an insanely good deal.

remember mash? that game we all used to play in elementary school? you can now play online! woohoo for when you're totally bored...or procrastinating :)

i should be writing my paper. it's due tomorrow. it's supposed to be 4-pages and based on a reading. i haven't read it or written anything other than my name. and it's already past 10pm. whoops.

my brother quit that college painting "internship" - internship is in quotes because really, the whole thing sounds like a scam/legal pyramid scheme-y thing. he went to like 40 houses one afternoon, and got a crappy 4 potential leads. that seriously sucks. and his little territory is way far from where we live...far. like 30-35 minutes. before the unfortunate afternoon in question, he was all like defending this lame job. i'm glad he finally came to his senses and realized how much it actually sucks. there is real potential to make a large sum of money, but as i've heard over and over again from people who've participated, the money is so not worth the blood, sweat, and tears.

there was a jems concert on saturday and that was fun - though it was a bit...lengthy. and on sunday, it was good times celebrating the birthdays of amy and june! the present-opening part of the evening was great! lots of funny moments. very similar to the christmas gift scene in about a boy. amy opens her banana republic box and screams "it's a shirt!" (as if the rest of us were confused about what it was) :) and then june opened her harry potter dvds, and as she opened her next present, which is a large and flat box, she's like "what is it?" (the rest of us are thinking...does she not see DVD-some model number written on the box?) then she asks, "is it a car deck?" since we all chipped in for the gift, we all know what it is already, and we're just cracking up because we have no idea where her train of thought is going...or coming from. she felt silly when she realized it was a dvd player. and i think somebody got that captured on digital camera movie mode! woohoo! you can't buy this kind of entertainment :)

i'm finally back in a small group where i get to be a participant and not a leader! woohoo! i haven't been in a women's small group in FOREVER! i was seriously giddy yesterday...i think i even did a happy dance :) meeting up with christine (the small group leader) and other girls who are graduating from college or have just graduated is so great, especially since we're all in the same situation, which is like total confusion and soon-to-be chaos. yippee!

this morning, i woke up earlier than usual so i could haul it over to redmond town center for an early coffee meeting with the mentor i'm paired up with through this IS class at UW. sadly, i got lost on the way there, which is odd, since i usually figure out directions in relation to major areas of shopping and consumerism. :) anyway, it was great to meet both the mentor guy and his coworker/friend. i have to say, working people are pretty fun. i know, that sounds horrible, as if people with jobs automatically have all fun sucked out of them, but my perceptions have been seriously distorted since i've had my own anxieties about the post-college job hunt. as much as i complain about studying and homework, school is this total safe haven and the mental picture i've had of working has been like i'll to heading toward prison. so, it was really nice to get some real perspective and proof that work can be pretty cool, as long as you like what you do. so simple, yet not, since not everyone gets to do what they like.

and today was also a good day because i got an ego boost! i had applied for this internship thing working with international companies to facilitate employee exchanges (think student exchanges within a business/corporation context) and i spoke with the executive director of the program and he was telling me that i seem like a great fit for the job. it doesn't even matter that i may not get hired because i'm graduating in june, but the fact that they like me and see me as someone they'd want working for them is enough for me. woohoo. ha...apparently i'm more of a business kid than i thought. ;)

i just signed up for a self-defense class with the women at my church. sounds like fun! and if i ever find myself in such a precarious situation, let's hope i retain the instinctual knowledge of self-preservation combined with stuff from this class.

am recovered.

first week of school was alright. it's a bit weird because i don't have a groove yet of what is expected of me in class. actually...i'm not even sure what we're supposed to be doing. it's quite ambiguous and the profs lecture for 2 full hours (that's 4 straight hours of spanish lecture) and there's no classroom interaction so it's weird...it's throwing me off.

it hasn't been stressful at all yet...so i'm glad. on saturday, i watched some kids so that my church's married couples fellowship could have well...fellowship, without their kids :) i changed two poopy diapers...and i was pretty good, and by pretty good i mean that the diapers stayed on and there weren't any accidents that occurred outside the diaper during the changing. the baby, ben, is the absolute cutest and bestest baby. he doesn't cry at all and he's fun...well, actually, he doesn't do much since he's only 9 weeks old, but just holding him and looking at him is fun because he's so darn cute! :D

i was sick...yet again. boo.

and now i'm watching letterman and colin farrell is on. :D

during spring break, i had time to rest and sleep and veg. yippee. i also hung out with friends that i hadn't seen in awhile. i got to see jessica, probably the only person from high school that i actually keep in touch with, and it was fun catching up and hearing about how she got pooped on by a 10-month old baby while she was nannying :) it made me feel better when i realized during our dinner at old chicago (a sports bar) with her and her friend, that the ND in ND vs. ARIZ (of college basketball) does not stand for north dakota, but rather, duh...notre dame. am i tool? ...yea, i am. whoops. i also saw some old friends from youth group days and that was fun times too, though i felt ultra-americanized since all of them were intermixing japanese. i offered up my one meager "punny" joke in japanese. i think i need to learn some new fun things to say so that next time they'll be amused and impressed. :)

watch bend it like beckham...it's great!