Sunday Afternoon - Rachel

There haven't been a whole lot of blog posts on my end lately, because frankly my life has been pretty uneventful. Case point: the most exciting point of my day today was wrestling with the printer here at work. A boy in the lab came up and asked for my assistance, which basically meant I spent the great part of 10 minutes pulling sheets of paper out of the printer that had been jammed in the most ridiculous of spots. I'm sure I looked ridiculous as well, partially owing to the fact that my hair is somewhere in the mad scientist range and also due to the fact that I didn't really know what I was doing. Also, I couldn't help but feel a little triumphant each time I yanked a piece of paper out, and I'm pretty sure I held each sheet of paper up like some sort of prize. Oh dear.

Well, we can't all go to Melbourne.

However, I did go to Strongsville on Friday, which is barely worth mentioning, but I will anyways. Roberta and I went on a mall trip, which ended up being sensory overload for me. While at college, I work hard to forget the tempting allure of bright clothes in stores with pleasant music piping from the ceilings. Eventually, I start deranging myself into thinking that $30 is a sale, and I do love that pair of black and orange plaid pants! It gets absurd. Luckily, I had the restraint to channel these urges into only buying a 99cent hot dog and a C. S. Lewis book from Borders, both of extreme quality.

Stars - Rachel

As of right now, I have exactly two classes, and two assignments due before spring break. Knowing that is a wonderful feeling, especially since I'll have plenty of time to finish them this afternoon during the time I normally have choir.

I just realized, I have to pack too. Oh dear.

Last night was the first night in astronomy where the skies were clear enough to observe. When we were finally out observing I remembered why I was taking astronomy in the first place. It's unbelievably cool to look at the surface of the moon, or at a cluster of forming stars. We got the chance to look at a "trapezium" of stars inside of a gas cloud. You can't help but marvel looking at these beautiful creations, minuscule and unimportant from our standpoint yet remarkable in their power and distance away from us. I was even getting into trying to identify as many constellations as I can. Quick astronomy fact for the day: the bottom right star in Orion is called Rigel and the one on the top left is Betelguese (pronounced beetlejuice actually). Although I'm pretty sure Orion isn't a constellation you can see in Australia.

An assortment of events -Kristen

I am currently in the car on the way home from Berea where I had the unparalleled honor of observing Nicole Scelsi's "sparkling personality" in action. But before I get to that experience I'll think as far back as I can from where I left off.

Basketball is finally over. It's a good thing that my family is so supportive of the team's loss yesterday because it will probably be quite a bit worse tomorrow at school. My family definitely qualifies as some of the only people I know that congratulate me and are genuinely excited that I lost because they were ready for me to be done. Before we lost our game to Greenville yesterday though, we had lost to Girard in the second round of the playoffs on Wednesday; however, we had won our first game against North East last Saturday, which was fun no matter what my family thinks. Also on last Saturday I dyed a little piece of hair in the back hot pink with the rest of the basketball team. Luckily I can hide it fairly well if I want to because after dying it, I remembered that I hate the color pink.

Last Sunday afternoon was quite fun as well. The youth group went on our annual ice skating trip in New Castle. I was extremely proud of the fact that I did not fall once despite the fact that many people tried to take me down with them when they would fall. One such offender is none other than Ike because he had never been ice skating before. My family does give him credit for subjecting himself to the laughter of the Jr. High boys just because I invited him, but it still has not stopped the adoption of the new family motto of "take a hike Ike." I'll have to remember not to let Ike know of this development because I'm afraid he could easily take it the wrong way and hold it against my family. The good news for him is that my family also just enjoys teasing a lot.

Also this past week, I have learned that I get to start mandatory practices for softball tomorrow. I'm kind of sad that I don't even get a week off in between seasons, but I guess that that is the result of making the playoffs. I've heard that there will actually be enough players to have a JV team this year unlike last year, but I still can't decide if I like this idea or not because that means much later nights on game days but a lot of my friends playing as well. The only other piece of information that I've heard concerning this particular sport is that I'm going to have to wear a facemask if I play infield due to a new PIAA rule which has led me to consider volunteering to play outfield or catcher, but hopefully they won't be that bad.

Now back to my "unparalleled honor" of this weekend. After my basketball team's loss yesterday, I had to head straight to Berea along with my parents and Nicole to watch Rachel in a choir concert. After a detour for me to take a shower to the hotel where my parents were staying, we proceeded to the concert. The music was extremely refreshing after the day in and day out experience of listening to the Reynolds High School Mixed Chorus. After the concert, Mom and Dad went back to the hotel, while Rachel, Nicole, and I went on a freezing cold tour and other stops before returning to Rachel's dorm. At approximately 12:30 we decided to go on a 4th meal run to Taco Bell, but this involved finding somebody with a car. This took a little bit, but we still managed to get back at about 1. This was already much later than my normal night, but I stayed up for another half hour eating my nachos and taco while visiting with Rachel and her friends. At 1:30, I finally called it a night and headed to the floor of Rachel's room to sleep. This morning was much more uneventful with church and eating at Panera for the first time. I'm going to be done with my blogging for a couple weeks again because I'm almost home, but hopefully my Transfer news was a little exciting. : )

Jesse McCartney? - Rachel

When I had been talking to my friend Catie earlier this week she mentioned to me that she might have 2 free tickets to Jesse McCartney concert for Tuesday night and she was looking for someone to go with. I told her at the time that I'd go with her, not because I particularly enjoy his music, but because I thought it would be a lot of fun. As it turns out, Catie was able to borrow a friends car and I was the only one to take her up on the offer to go see the show. This is why last night I found myself in the midst of quite a lot of preteen girls all shrieking as loud as humanely possible. It was especially fun for me because the show was at the House of Blues in Cleveland where I've seen a few shows before, but none ever like this. Every time Jesse would do something as small as taking off his sunglasses, the crowd would erupt in screams. I have to admit, just to get it out of my system, I let out at least one obnoxious shriek.

The most strenuous part of the evening was the driving. Catie and I have always bonded over the fact that we both view driving the same way, we hate it. Merging sometimes felt stressful, and we did miss a few roads, although never with any drastic consequences. I'm afraid sometimes I added to the problem as many of the Cleveland street names are now familiar to me. I did usefully know that Chester ran parallel to Euclid, for which I was very proud of. And despite any of our mishaps, I was back on campus before 10:30.

Activities of late - Rachel

I'm pretty sure it never stops snowing in Berea. Brr!

On a happier note, last night I went to a student dance performance here at B-W with Roberta and Leah. Watching the ballet numbers really took me back to the old Carol Lee days. I can see Charity in a tutu now. She was always my favorite dancer. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the dancers here were much better than Charity ever way. It was all very entertaining, and it was especially fun for me because I knew a handful of the dancers and choreographers.

Then this morning I went to a nursing home in Cleveland to volunteer. It was through our office of community outreach, they have monthly Saturday service trips. It was definitely a home in worse shape than Ridgewood, but I still had a good time playing bingo with the residents. I even had a good chat with a nice old man about Reynolds (he saw the name on the t-shirt I was wearing).

Tonight will be more fun with Kathleen, we're probably getting Chinese food and staying in out of the cold tonight. First though, I have to go get my laundry out of the dryer!

Heat and other agrievances - Rachel

My dorm building has been having some very mysterious heat problems lately. I live on the second floor (woo, room 203!) and it has been stifling up there! It's not uncommon for Emily, my roommate, or I to open the window, despite the fact that it is winter and very cold outside. Now, travel down to the basement of 21 Beech and the exact opposite is the problem. I have a class in the basement, and yesterday sitting down there was like being in an igloo. It was very bizarre to feel the temperature rapidly drop as I traveled down two flights of stairs.

As I'm sitting at work, I'm not exactly looking forward to the rest of the day (three classes in a row without a lunch break and an astronomy exam in the evening!), but there are some consolations. One is that as soon as I get off work at 10, I'll run over and grab some delicious breakfast. Two is that I finished all of my homework for today, so I'm prepared to go into my classes. Three is that I actually enjoy my classes once I get there. At least this is what I'm trying to tell myself.

Bis später!

Transfer -Kristen

Well... I've been informed that I should contribute to this blog sometime. Charity will be telling all about her exciting adventures in Sydney, Rachel will tell all about her equally exciting college life, and I'll attempt to make Transfer sound slightly interesting, although I don't think that all too many people will care.

I'm keeping busy as always. My basketball team has finally finished out the regular season (21-1), and now it's off to the playoffs for us. I've been getting a pretty decent amount of playing time, but it will be interesting to see what happens from here on out.

The school production of Guys and Dolls is starting practices too. I have three minor roles (Agatha, Hot Box Girl, and Havana Dancer). I'm not particularly looking forward to the dancing part of it, but hopefully the rest of it will be better.

The annual Students for Charity penny drive is occurring once again. This year I've actually helped out though. First period Friday found me counting the pennies in the guidance office and left me with the disgusting coppery smell on my hands until I could wash them. I still can't believe that Mrs. Jones hasn't called for the election of a new secretary since my notes of the meetings quite frequently are accompanied by : ) or : ( faces to entertain me.

Church and youth group keep me busy as well. It's still weird being the oldest member of youth group, and the horde of Jr. High boys can definitely get on my nerves (Wesley being one of the worst). Their enthusiasm for frisbee at the beginning of the year helps some though. The crazy members of Zion's and St. Mark's also felt the need to elect me joint consistory secretary today. I was rather disappointed because now I can't eat cookies at the meetings, and I actually have to pay attention.

I feel like this is enough of my wonderful life for now, it's a lot more than Rachel, but she'll probably write a lot more often than me too. : )