argyle in spring: April 2009

4.30.2009

tick-tock

today i finished my second year of college.
i can't believe how fast time flies.
i feel like it was yesterday when i was doing this:

so much has changed in a mere two years.
i feel so different, yet so much the same.
some days i miss carefree high school life.
but then i think about all the amazing things
i've learned in the past 2 years about
myself, others, life, love, forgiveness,
boldness, communication, appreciation,
tender mercies, family, strength in distance,
true friends, loneliness, and answers to prayers,
to name a few things.
and i would never forfeit where i am right now.not in a million years.

how is it that each day goes so slow,
yet time slips away too fast?

goodbye 435

tonight was my last free night in logan this year.
tonight was katie's last night ever in logan. forever.
tonight was whitney's... ok, so whitney's staying for another month...
but, we celebrated by:

el toro viejo
tie dye shirts
sweet rolls
bride wars
pictures
kmart photo booth
jason mraz
lila
chatting the night away
& birthday planning
(i can't believe i'll be 20 in 6 days!)

so, with "paper bags and plastic hearts,
all belongings in shopping carts,
we said goodbye".
{ until tomorrow when we play again hah. }

i love 435, but after tomorrow, it's
back to the 801! woot.

4.29.2009

packing

i've been packing ALL day.
my room is a cluttered disaster.
i would post a picture,
but i can't find a spare place to stand
where i can get the whole effect.
my bed is sideways.
joyce's bed is covered in boxes.
it smells of lysol and clorox wipes.
i've emptied my vacuum 3 times.
4 dirty rags. 3 laundry loads.
i like to clean. but not all day.

every time i move i wonder
1. how i have so much stuff, and
2. how i fit all that stuff into my apartment.

4.28.2009

my chacha monkey

my joyce left me today.

all the way back to shen yang, china.

she couldn't wait.

i could. wuwuwu.

what a year it's been.

at the beginning, i was so scared for

a chinese roommate.

but honestly,

it's turned out to be the best thing

that's happened to me this year.

two people shouldn't be allowed

to get along as well as we did.

i cannot imagine my life without her.

bu zhi dao if it's possible.

hou zi, chacha, monkey, wu dan, joyce:

wo ai ni!

thank goodness we're neighbors
next year.

"spring row" for all.

wan an!

create

"the future is not some place we're going to

but a place we are creating.

the paths to it are not found,

they are made."

--jane garvey

4.27.2009

7:30

*YAWN* i have a 7:30 final this morning.

naturally, i woke up early for some last minute cramming.

really, though? 7:30?

why would you torture students like that?

on a MONDAY morning!!

at least i live on campus and can walk to class in

5 minutes or less...

but still. 7:30 is way too early to be taking a test.

studies show teenagers (which i still am)

don't wake completely up until 10 or 11.

all i can say is, during the test

i hope i don't fall

a.s...l...ee .... zzzzzz

4.26.2009

naked

i have the best telephone in the world.
i can drop it 5 times a day
and it stays invincible
this phone of 2 years broke yesterday.
just up and stopped working.
it's been a day and a half now.

at first i resented it, felt naked without it.
even cried a little. but today, i like it.
i haven't had this much peace & quiet in a long time.

i feel somewhat ashamed to belong to a generation
so ridiculously obsessed & addicted to technology.

what is our world coming to?
i don't want the answer to that question.
not yet anyway.

10

10 months?
really?
gaaaah!!

february
cannot
come soon enough.

4.25.2009

impossible

"on tuesday morning
she woke up and realized
she had forgotten the definition
of the word impossible.
shrugging her shoulders,
she decided it must not have been
that important. . . "

4.23.2009

3 generations

a fantastic advisor.
three generations of presidents.

the past: amazing leadership.
advisor sister burns: 06-09
natalie 07-08
jami 08-09
>sara 09-10<
talk about big shoes to fill.
i hope i can do it.

4.22.2009

summer wedding

parker got engaged tonight.

3 months from today he'll be married.

laci is my age and i love her already,

even though i don't know her really well.

being at school, i feel so distant from it all

but i know parker picked the best

and i love him for that.

my parents adore her.

my grandpa admires her.

my sisters look up to her.

coleman thinks she's pretty.

i know she is.

but most importantly

parker needs her.

i love watching parker get so excited,

wanting everything to go right.

i love hearing he's nervous to propose,

then the excitement as he reports,

"she said yes, mom, she said yes!"

i love imagining laci talk to her mom, her friends,

about how parker makes her smile.

they are truly perfect for each other.

i thought it would be sad letting parker "go",

watching him move to a new phase.

but i can't describe how thrilled i am for everything.

a new addition to the ence clan in a summer wedding.

i'm finally getting an >older sister<

4.21.2009

bahamas

"instead of studying for finals,
what about just going to the bahamas and catching some rays?
maybe you'll flunk, but you might have flunked anyway...
that's my point."
--jack handy

4.20.2009

today.

why i love today

sunshine
school ends next week
10 months till i get my michael back
true aggie weekend :) yay collin
can't wait for wednesday and parker!!!
brady came for lunch
3 miles this morning
my mom is 49 yesterday
i actually enjoyed women's choir
my toenails are black
summer with jen
the fountains are turned on
health class is accompanied by country music
talked to seth today!!
i love annie carney
my saw concert this week!
national dart throwing tournament was on tv today
5 free dinners this week
liz whit and joyce are the best in the world
barefoot weather

4.19.2009

her letdown

Her beautiful letdown.

Lacking harshness.

Satisfied.

A sweetest goodbye -

take note of that smile for

it's the last you'll see.

Acutely aware of their bond
only once its subtlety was broken.
Polite conversation,
reality: social fatality
Thoughts paralyzed,
distance maims.
Her kidnapped (by choice) heart
thrust back, hollow.

Words unsaid, too many said.
Locked in daydream,
heart shrunken, shuddering.
Someday, a word for her lack
or a shape to fill said lack.

But today,
short glances devoid of meaning,
intense looks, dreaded dismay.
Gazes familiar yet cold, foreign.
Unknown future.
Incomplete.
Her Indefinable let down.
Let go.

written april.08

4.16.2009

love story meets viva la vida

i found an amazing thing.

"love story meets viva la vida"

my two favorite songs in the whole world.

by one of my favorite pianists in the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys

life is good today.

4.14.2009

joyful girl

you do it for the joy it brings
because you’re a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe each other the world

i do it cuz it’s the least i can do
i do it cuz i learned it from you
i do it just because i want to
because i want to.

-soulive.

4.13.2009

the abandoned city

a california city
busy and popular
but the outskirts hold
different lifestyles.

piles of age-old trash
hungry birds
deserted lots
homeless
cobwebs
graffiti

behind the mask of prosperity. . .
t h e. a b a n d o n e d. c i t y .

photos: sara.michelle '08

4.12.2009

the texting chronicles: v. 3

texting + absentmindedness = failure

i think perhaps the worst thing that can happen when you’re texting is to text the wrong person. granted, this isn’t always a bad situation, but i’m talking about when you text someone about someone but that someone is the one you accidentally sent it to because that someone was the one on the brain, but you didn’t want that someone to get that text because it was about them and meant for another someone.

for example: once i was going on a date. (once? ok that made me sound way pathetic. i've been on more than one date in my life, for the record ☺) this one time i was going on a date… (does that sound any better? ahh well) anyway. i texted my friend sarah ( so i thought ) saying, “aww… he's taking me to a chick flick, how adorable is that?! :D” turns out i sent the message to my date… and he wrote back with a, “i’d say that’s about a 6 on the adorable scale… ;) ” wow. luckily we were dating at the time and after a simple explanation it turned funny… but sometimes it doesn’t always turn out that way.
such as: at the beginning of the school year i was kind of dating someone and one day while we were texting, i was also texting my friend meagan, conveniently about said boy. it was coming to the end of things with me and this boy, and i accidentally sent a message to the boy about the boy that said something that wasn’t meant for him to hear, but rather for meg to read and analyze for me. (oh the complications of the female mind. one day we’ll learn to just talk to the boy about the problem up front without getting other girls involved… someday.) luckily he didn’t get too mad, but it definitely ended things quicker than they might have ended otherwise. if that makes sense.

i suppose some of us are more prone to it than others. i know a girl named mary that is notorious for sending texts to the wrong people, and others who haven’t done it ever in their life. as for me, it hasn’t happened in a while, but occasionally i'll have a dumb blonde moment (ok, i get those a lot actually…) and fail at texting the right person.
i don’t have a clever ending to this post. so: the end.

the texting chronicles: v.2

texting + bathroom stall = awkward

one day [among many] i was texting while in the old main bathroom. i just happened to be famous for dropping my phone at least twice a day, and on this particular day i just so happen to pick one of those times to drop it during this bathroom episode. my phone happens to break into three pieces every time i drop it. lucky me, the three parts of my phone happened to slide into three different stalls. the first was ok, the lady saw it and slid the main part of the phone to me. the next, i reached under to grab the battery because it was just within reach and the lady in the stall screeched and squealed, "what are you doing?!" yeah, definitely didn't respond to that... the third presented a bit of a problem. the back of my phone was all the way on the back of the stall, there was no way i was reachin it any day soon. looking back now, i realize i could've just waited for the lady to be done with her business but i wasn't really thinking at the time. so i knocked on the door to ask her to hand it to me. who knows what she was thinking, personally i would've been a little weirded out had i been the one in the stall where someone was knocking. but she chuckled and, with some effort, kicked the remainder of my phone to me.
i forfeited washing my hands for making it out of there before any of these three fine ladies emerged from their stalls... needless to say i was a bit embarrassed :-/ however, proud to say i did learn from this lesson and i haven't texted in a public restroom stall since.

4.11.2009

the texting chronicles: v.1

texting + walking = pole to the face.

scenario 1: freshman year i was texting while walking when a skateboarder appears in the corner of my eye. to avoid collision, i veer to the left without looking up. suddenly, a tree branch that'd snagged on the backpack of the guy in front of me swung back and smacked me in the face. it hurt. but it wasn't until i got home that i realized i was bleeding. it left a pretty nasty scratch for a couple weeks right on my cheek under my eye. that led to lots of good stories, let me tell ya. "hey!" (then examining my face) "what happened to your cheek?" "oh i ran into a tree" "you ran into a TREE?! how?" "texting." (funny look then laughter) i love my friends.

scenario 2: about a year and a half later, walking back from a concert, i was texting while walking again (a fairly common occurrence for me, actually). just walking along talking with some friends when a pole suddenly jumped in my way and smacked me in the head. it was one of those times that it took a minute to register what had just happened, but melissa on the ground laughing help solidify the fact i had just indeed ran into another inanimate object. no scratches this time, just a bruise or two. i've considered learning a lesson from these scenarios, but then i think what good stories they make and decide i'll learn my lesson next time. or the time after that. yeah.

4.10.2009

victims of love

Love is predator; we are prey,
leaving no survivors, sparing no victims.
For some, love comes easily –
falling in and out day to week, month to year,
many suitors in a lifetime.
Others, content to be loved by one.
Some long for love,
others carry burdens of love from too many.
Some too willing to settle
for anyone,
others wracked with constrained emotion,
waiting for a one and only.
We’re not all loved out loud.
But love, however it may come,
gives us something to believe in.
Something real.
That reality consumes our every notion and deed
to the point of hating that we love someone
or merely the thought of a someone,
someone we’ve loved all along,
someone we can’t get over,
or someone we haven’t crossed paths with just yet.
Sleepless nights in lonely beds,
pillows caked with thoughts, tears, hope, and prayers,
while thick bedroom walls smile at files of secrets.
Stories of meeting and falling
are common, yet tenderly unique.
We may believe that love always comes
as a knight mounted on white horse at the opportune moment
when the deserving,
having waited so long for a rescue,
is about to give up.
But i believe more often than not,
love jumps at us unexpectedly in moments
when we start to fall little by little
unknowingly
more and more
until it’s too late
to break the
strategically
secret
connection.

4.09.2009

11 reasons.

why i "love" my math class:

1. i attend the 1:30 class but i'm on the 12:30 roll.
2. exams are called "opportunities".
3. day 3: fifteen un-funny jokes in the first twenty minutes.
got sick of counting.
4. on the opportunities you only get half the points if you know
how to do the problem. the other half is explaining why it works.
5. i had to buy a weird saftee compass for 2 assignments and 1 problem
on the final. worth it? absolutely not.
6. lessons by overhead projector and felt tip markers? really?
7. tangents about "when i taught ninth grade...."
8. our desks have computers in baskets where my kneecaps hit.
everyday i bruise both kneecaps. and i can never scoot in all the way.
farewell good posture.
9. two words: geometer's sketchpad.
10. i climb 82 steps to get to my class on the fourth floor.
11. the good thing is: we can use notes on opportunities,
and she doesn't take roll.

*i guess it's fairly bearable after all... three more weeks...*

4.08.2009

her morning elegance

stop motion.
"objects are moved in small amounts between
individually photographed frames,
creating the illusion of movement
when the series of frames are played as a continuous sequence."
fascinating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY

the illustrious james rasmussen introduced me to oren lavie,
an Israeli songwriter and singer that
"enjoys squeezing big worlds into small spaces".
this movie mesmerizes me. my favorite part? when they dance.
james'? the friendly sock fish. jordan riley's? the bike.

if i dreamt like this i would never want to wake up.

so it begins.

today katie came to visit and sat in the arm chair.

an hour after she left the arm chair buzzed six times.

i texted katie to tell her she left her phone here.

when the phone buzzed again,

i opened it to see who it was from.

it's been a long day.