broels's Xanga

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 23:31:24 GMT

It's been a while. It seems that life comes at me in waves - for a while, things are steady and reliable, and I'm mostly at ease. Then, suddenly, some jolt blindsides me and I'm left with a lot to straighten out, and a feeling that I should have seen the jolt coming.

I've been kind of quiet on the site lately because I'm trying to figure so much other stuff out - These are the times when I wish I were still in college and could put off responsibility and big life decisions for at least another year or so.

Pray for me, will you?

Thanks.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 17:06:31 GMT

"When I stepped onstage at a competition two years after I first began trying so hard to bring up my calves, and I turned my back to the audience, my calves were so huge that I got an ovation even before I flexed them."

Had a blast last night.

I'm part of this Bible study with a bunch of other gals (to say women makes us sound too old). We have it on Wednesday nights, and it usually becomes mostly a chat-fest and somewhat a Bible study, but we feel it is valuable either way.
Anyway, we have this Bible study, and we occasionally plan potlucks with all our spouses and boyfriends too, if we have them. Last night, we had a grill-out potluck, then played a game.

This game is the important thing, and it is responsible for all the fun we had. Here's how it came to be:
At the first potluck-dinner thing that we had, we were in a friend's apartment, and her husband happens to be REALLY into weight lifting. He owns the Arnold Schwartzenneger Encyclopedia of Body Building. We were looking through it, and my Dan was reading passages of it in his best Arnold voice - which is hilariously close to what Arnold actually sounds like. We were all laughing our pants off, and none of us has forgotten since then the fun that we had with that book.
When our study was planning this potluck, someone brought up that fun memory, and decided that we should all put together a trivia game based on Arnold and body building. Our friend the weightlifter (who is now doing body-building training with another friend at the gym and is huge) went crazy with the idea, and put together an extensive game.

The game included the following fun activities:
1. Arnold quote: team members had to read an Arnold quote in their best Arnold voice.
2. Arnold pose: team members had to imitate an Arnold (or other body builder) pose from the Encyclopedia
3. Mold-a-pose: team members had to use a man-shaped sponge to imitate a body building pose. (my favorite was a "kneeling vacuum pose". None of us have any idea what it is supposed to look like.)
4. Movie quote: team members had to guess which Arnold movie a chosen quote was from.
5. Arnold trivia: team members had to answer trivia questions about Arnold.

We finished out our Friday night by watching home videos that our friends made for fun or for grad school (yes, Princeton University has its Ph.D students make dorky videos for their classes). I hope your Friday was as fun as mine.

I leave you with the quote that started it all:
"It is important to choose the right posing trunks well before competition. If you wait until a few days before the event you are taking a chance. There is no hard and fast rule on this, but depending on your build and skin tone one color trunks can make you look great while another might easily detract from your overall appearance."

Friday, June 16, 2006

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 20:44:34 GMT

What a month. I've been having the opposite of summer so far - overworked and underpaid, dealing with a lingering cold that won't quit, unable to sleep at night, and applying for jobs. I'm almost getting excited for fall just to get out of summer!
Things should calm down smooth, and my boss is promising me a bunch of comp time in the next week or so, but right now I don't quite feel myself.
Summer goals: Spanish, getting through my booklist/bookstack, sewing a skirt or two or three, crocheting baby blankets for the baby boom that's sure to come from all my friends, and convincing Dan to let me keep all my houseplants if we move to a new apartment.
I'll try to post here more often too.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Wed, 31 May 2006 00:08:37 GMT

What a great weekend! Dan and I met up with our friends Seth and Jen for a weekend full of camping on the Chesapeake. We ate ourselves silly on junk food, and got to vicariously return to being 10 years old when the boys in the campsite next to us made farting noises when they were supposed to be sleeping. It made us all giddy.

I'm all bitten up from the bugs, but this week feels great - the last week of school, and I'm relaxed.

I hope y'all had a great holiday weekend too. Congratulations to those of you who are graduating this week, and have fun if you're camping at Holland State Park. I mean, have good fun, not irresponsible fun that you can't tell your someday-children about. Stuff yourself silly on marshmallows and make farting noises or something.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Fri, 19 May 2006 13:41:36 GMT

Hey Folks, for those of you who call yourselves past students of mine, thanks for stopping by. I had a blast seeing all of you again yesterday at school, and hope that the next week and a half goes REALLY fast for you so you can finally get out of high school (those of you who are seniors). Like I said, let me know if you're okay with me seeing your blog - I won't look unless you tell me I can.
You're also probably already aware that I'm not completely faithful with updating my site every week. I often forget to, so give me crap if I don't for a while - especially if you keep checking and keep getting disappointed.
I'm off to give Dan a haircut. Wish me luck.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 19:51:55 GMT

Hey there - sorry I've not posted in so long. I don't have time to put much here now either - gotta get ready for a big date with Dan. (duh... who else?)

Have a great Saturday!

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:46:55 GMT

Nothing happened; I was just frustrated with having to make a doctor's appointment, and as I do not yet have a doctor here, I had to see who my insurance will cover... blah blah blah...
Spring is here and it is great. I miss the MI rainstorms and thunder, but I don't mind the sunshine that we're getting.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 14:20:51 GMT

I hate dealing with insurance companies!! I wish I'd never grown up.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 12:16:48 GMT

Nothing to write about, but I wanted you to know I'm still breathing.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 13:36:11 GMT

Scary Thought: My friends have begun having children. This is another one of those frightening changes - like when everyone starts hitting puberty, or classmates start kissing classmates, or people get married and then you're third wheel. True, I had a couple of high school classmates who were moms before graduating high school, but I never felt I had anything to worry about - my parenting days were years away. Now, I'm older than my mom was when she started having kids. I don't know how some people start so young! I'm ready to wait another few years, and I'm not feeling any pressure from friends or family... but it sure is an eye-opener when my peers are parents.

My Bible Study is going to try to have a Sader meal this year - we thought it would be a neat way to lead into Good Friday and Easter. Our church did this once when I was in junior high, and I still can picture the layout of the meal and the taste of the bitter herbs and of the lamb. I think I would eventually like to do this in whatever churches Dan pastors.

I'm getting the itch to make a puzzle.