What's a Month?

 Dearest followers (and anonymous fans...)

Bozarth Mansion

When I last wrote, I was in the midst of the end of the first semester of my freshman year at Gonzaga U. Just after I blogged, I enjoyed a weekend away at Freshman Retreat, led by Campus Ministry. It was held at the Bozarth Mansion in Spokane. It was a time to breathe and be away from the craziness that was consuming our peers as we headed into "dead-week" preceeding finals. Because of tradition and keeping it secret, I can't say any further for this I am glad; There is so much I could say about the weekend that I fear my little fingers would become tired before I finish with this entry.
Finals went well and I can now happily proclaim that I've finished that first half with solid grades, and am home to enjoy a month-long break at home.

The views we couldn't see...

Saying goodbye was hard. A month to abstain from seeing people whom I have come to call family is a pretty daunting task. Syd shed tears for us all as we whisked her away to the airport; She was the first to go. Sporting 10 layers on top and 4 layers on bottom to cut down on the amount that she had to pack, she was thankful security was a lax and didn't require her to shed it all in front of the long line of angsty travelers. Mica Chelsea and I were set to catch the good ole Amtrak out of Spokane to Seattle at 2:15 am. Last time I took the "Polar Express" (as I affectionately coined it), I was ten years old and thought it to be the most magical traveling experience I could imagine. It beat sitting next to Matt arguing over arm-rest space in our mini-van, and definitely beat the crammed space in the airplane. What I failed to realize years ago was just how uncomfortable the chairs are. Our entire journey was spent in the darkness- we couldn't see out the window even if we wanted to. So "comfortability" as we tried to sleep through the 8 hour ride was key. Nevertheless, we made it there in one piece and claimed our luggage and spent the rest of the day napping- preparing for a jam-packed weekend ahead. I have yet to visit the Amtrak station but it's on my "to-do" list to sell them my return ticket. I can't make that same trip, alone. No way Jose.
Mica and Chelsea stayed with me for the weekend and we all enjoyed the "Battle in Seattle" Arizona V. Gonzaga basketball game at the Key Arena- It'd been a long time since I had been there for a men's game (RIP Sonics). Our friend Kelsey who is also a Seattlite joined me in showing them the best of downtown- Pike Place.

Classic Pike Place signage decked out for the holidays

On Sunday morning, I dropped them off at the airport and bid them a farewell, bittersweet with an emphasis on the sweet. It would have been bitter had I had to wait a month to see them again, but I'll be heading down to San Fran to visit those two and see many other friends I've made at school on January 11th- shout out to Bubba! Happy (preemptive) birthday! I'll be there until the 15th and hopefully get to see all that San Francisco has to offer as well as witness GU pulverize our rivals at Saint Mary's on January 12.

Adam's sitting on the "3"

Between being visited by and visiting my San Franciscans, break has been eventful. Sunday night, I tagged along with the Westermans (my best friend Max and his family) to see their youngest, Adam,  perform his last show of the Broadway musical "Thirteen." Adam was the star, and I was more than impressed. I always knew that kid was something else, but what he was capable of bringing to the stage was truly mind-boggling. Eddie (Adam and Max's mom) had also invited some childhood friends of her own to see her son perform, and realized that she had met them when she was 13 just as Max and I met when we were 13. (Just in case you're still confused, I said earlier the play is titled "Thirteen" so here's your 'aha!' moment if you didn't already experience it.)

From left: Olivia, Lily, Rowan

Besides the play, I spent the first few days in solitude. I needed to be home, alone, to bum around like I used to do before I was shipped off to college. It was therapeutic. I even got a walk in with my dog Coal whom I have grown very fond of over this break. (He's had surgery and been through a lot and for that reason I set aside our differences and have embraced him for who he is. He's taking to me nicely and I even gave up a shirt of my own for him to wear to keep him from chewing at his incision from surgery. How kind, right?) After my few days of solitude (plus family), I was ready to reunite with friends and joined Lily, Rowan, Max, and Olivia in an overnight trip to Lily's cabin near Cle Elum. There was a foot or so of snow waiting for us when we arrived, and we enjoyed the warmth and comfort that the cabin had to offer in contrast with the great outdoors. We watched movies, played games, and got much needed rest. On day two, us girls went on a walk to take in the fresh air and glistening powder alongside the Teanaway River. Max tacitly opted out and was STILL asleep when we returned.
I'm blanking on the next part of my break. All I can recall is that I spent it with my girlfriends and family mostly... sorry 'bout that one folks.

Coal could smell PT

19 year old child

 Christmas came fast, and we spent the day in Port Townsend at Papa and Bubba's (code for grandpa and grandma, respectively). My immediate family opened presents at home together on Christmas Eve morning so that we could get to PT and join my grandparents for a lovely Christmas Eve service. I slept by the tree in my sleeping bag, adorned in my footie PJ's, and snuggling with my blankie. Had I been 12 years younger, it would have been a real Kodak moment but I've outgrown that stage. I just looked like a 19 year old bum on a couch that was far too small for me, in PJs that shouldn't be worn by me, with a blankie that I probably should have ditched years ago. Too bad for social norms, right? Christmas day, my aunt Kathy and uncle Steve came to join us and we all opened presents again. As the youngest and most spry, I was chosen to be the elf, and distributed gifts to the family as they sat on their plush couch cushions and such. Sounds like I'm complaining but I actually loved it. The rest of the day was spent with updating my uncle on the latest Droid applications and anxiously awaiting dinner and Bubba's coveted rolls. I returned back to the couch for the next two nights as Matt and I spent an extra day with the grandparents, helping them take down Christmas decor in preparation for their migration south in their RV.

Papa, Bubba, Matt, and I

Elf in deep introspection?

Here are some gems I found while rummaging through some old photo albums- happens every time I visit Pap and Bub.

Mom and dad circa 1990

Little Natty with some funky hair

On our balcony, 38 floors up

This past (New Years) weekend was ever-so eventful. Friday (New Years Eve Eve), Rowan Lily Carlyle and I trekked up through the border to Canada and enjoyed a couple of days in the beautiful city of Vancouver. When I say 'beautiful city' I really mean it. I probably would have said it had I blogged before I went like, 'we're going to the beautiful city of Vancouver,' but I wouldn't have really meant it, feel me? It blew me away. It was so nice! I mean, I love Seattle and it will always be home, but this definitely rivals Seattle. Our hotel room was 3808 (that's the 38th level, in case you doubted) and we had a spectacular view of the city. Although short and sweet, we enjoyed our time there and returned back to Vashon for New Years Eve. Lily hosted a dinner at her house for all of us girls to gather and do our Secret Santa exchange and get ready for the night! Our friend Sy had a bunch of our friends over and we reigned in the new year with old friends. As many nights on Vashon, it had it's share of drama, but it was a night to remember and a good way to spend the last moments of a very important year in our lives.

All of the girls at Lily's: Liv, Lyle, Phaedra, me, Rowan, Lily

2011 was a huge year for me. I graduated high school, had my first love, said goodbye to friends of seven years, and hello to a completely new and amazing experience at Gonzaga. I've changed a lot but have stuck to who I am at the core, and for that I am grateful.
Though I'm happy with who I am, there are some things that I think could benefit from change. Here are my resolutions:
1. Eat mindfully- I'm not going to commit to making specific changes in my diet because I think they're unattainable at college, but I am going to work on thinking about what I'm putting in my body.
2. Work out twice a week + Zumba (once a week)
3. Take vitamins
4. Never give up on Spanish no matter how hard Gonzales (who I have next semester and hear is awful) pushes me. Even though she might make me question it, I DO love Spanish. (Note to self looking back at this a couple months from now: think how cool it's going to be to raise your children to be bilingual!)

Well, that's all for now!

Congrats on the end of a solid first semester, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Here's Your E-Card

Love, Natalie

Girls Weekend, Another "W", a Job, and Macklemore!!

Last weekend I hopped on the Greyhound and headed for Ellensburg, Washington. The Katz family have a "cabin" (really more of a house) in Teanaway- just outside of Cle Elum, WA. The nearest "bus stop" (which consists of a plastic shed a bit bigger than we have in our backyard with a Greyhound sticker on it located on the side of a gas station convenience store) was in Ellensburg, so there mom was waiting in the Trailblazer to collect her smiley cargo.

Obligatory Greyhound pic

"Knock knock, who's
there? Orange...Orange
ya glad I didn't say a
person?"

The bus experience was truly a new one for me. I hopped on with pillow, blankey, and backpack in hand. It was quite an eclectic group. The first seat opposite the driver was open and I took it gladly. I sat next to an orange the whole way there. He was there when I arrived and I just didn't feel right moving him, after all he wasn't mine. Oddly enough I sort of enjoyed his presence. He gave the black pleather seat a nice orange accent. (I stress "pleather" because once many years ago my brother Matt tried to convince us that the bus he had seen driving by as we sat in Subway housed seats made of real leather. We'll never let him live that one down.)
The scenery left much to be desired, but with iPod plugged in and head rested on my pillow (just realized I haven't washed it since I got back... questionable), I was quite content.
The first stop we made was at a gas station near Moses Lake. Having never rode Greyhound, I was under the impression that we were making a potty-break for all on the bus to smoke a cig and buy some chex mix. Unbeknownst to me, it was an official "stop" which I didn't realize until we pulled up to our next stop at the gas station in Cle Elum and I realized "I best get off because those Moses-Lake-bound people on the bus probably did get off at that last gas station..."

To note: brow, best friend, "cabin"

Anyway mom picked me up and she and I went to Mangos salon (highly recommended) in Ellensburg and got my eyebrows waxed, then went to Safeway and picked up ingredients for a fajita fiesta, and then headed toward Teanaway. The minute we pulled up to the cabin, the snow started to fall and about 2 inches accumulated that night. It was so beautiful! We made dinner, watched Envictus (also highly recommended) and went to bed. Lillerz and I stayed up and had some much needed girl talk. It was so nice to see her! We practically do see each other every day (via Skype) but this was much better.
By the time she and I rolled out of bed, the moms were out hiking around in the snow with Bennie (forgot to mention his presence, how could I? It was Girls weekend + Bennie--whatta lucky guy). We got out in the snow for a total of ten minutes before the cold chilled our bones and we were ready to come inside and enjoy the post-snow activities of bundling up by the fire and drinking hot chocolate.
Lillerz brought her guitar (as prodded by Deb and I) and we played some old favorites. She's got a beautiful voice and a knack for the guitar; we had a really fun time with it as did my mom... (see the video posted here).
All good things must come to an end, and mom dropped me off at the gas station at 12:30 on Sunday for my trip back home. This was wasn't as notable. It did feel good to arrive back to my dorm and see my Dooley ladies.

Chels and I bundled doing our shift
Sunday night

I didn't stay posted up in my dorm for long. We camped out Sunday night for the WSU v GU basketball game on Monday night! Boy was that a trip. It snowed on an off throughout the night and into Monday afternoon (so yes it was easily below 32 degrees) and we crammed us 6 girls into a 4 person (honestly more like four little person) tent. We snuggled and kept warm for the most part, but had to endure the tent full of loud and obnoxious freshman boys next to us all night long... we were not as enthusiastic about it as Lionel. Three of us did a shift until 3 a.m. and the closers came in and stayed in the tent until dawn. The only stipulation for camping out is that there has to be someone from your group in the tent at all times. Between classes Monday we all traded off paying our time.

With fellow Seattleites/good friends Kaitie
(left) and Kelsey (right)

A picture captured of the TV screen- Proto Cred: Mom

The game was amazing. We were second row of the middle section. It was unreal. Freshman Kevin Pangos singlehandedly scored over 30 points. I requested his friendship on Facebook that night. Doubtful he will accept it but I figured might as well go for it. I had mom and dad record the game on TV and go through carefully to see if they could spot me! SUCCESS! I got on ESPN!

I had a job interview for the position of an Advertising Account Executive with Student Publications on campus the afternoon after the basketball game. It went very well and I felt confident walking away. I got a call yesterday evening and was offered the job! I'll be trained this year, and will be working out in the Spokane business community next year, building a list of clients who would like to be advertised in our student publications here at GU. I'll be paid on commission too- how cool is that? I'm very excited about it, if you couldn't already tell :)

Here I am at Macklemore with some friends fro GU that I met
last year when I visited- Sarah and Megan! :)

I celebrated by going to the Macklemore concert last night. He is an amazing performer. Though I wasn't as close to (sitting on) the stage as I was when he came to perform on Vashon, it was still awesome. It got a little more rowdy than it did at Vashon, and there were a couple people crowd surfing. I was sure to duck when I saw someones shoes advancing toward my face. I guess I didn't contribute to their surf, but I think they got along just fine without me.
This weekend, I'm going to take it easy. I've had quite a long week. Tonight I'll go to the rockclimbing gym with the GU outdoors club! It's free transportation, free climbing, free pizza. How could you pass that up, as a college student? Saturday, Alpha, Conner, and I will meet to finalize our spanish portfolios, and Sunday I'll go to church and rest.
For now, naptime.
More later.

Love Nat

In Three Weeks Time

Oct 21, 2011- Fall Family Weekend

Mom, dad, and Spike!

"I woke up at 7:00 this morning, hopped out of bed and readied myself for a huge spanish exam. I think I did alright. I spent the majority of last night organizing my worksheets and such with color coded tabs... I spent too much time organizing and not enough studying, but my papers are so neat and organized now! I also spent about an hour writing four copies of the same summary of a short story we read in class. I managed to bust that out verbatim this morning. That part of the test, I'm sure, I did alright. The rest... we'll see. [I got an 87% YIPEE!]
Spanish ended at 9:50 and then I was off to college hall for my first meeting with a career counselor. We didn't accomplish much, but she let me ramble and seemed to be interested in what I was saying. I guess she has to be, it's part of her job description. We basically decided that what interests me is the idea of corporate event planning... but I shouldn't pick a major quite yet because there's no need and the actual major I decide really isn't as important in the context of a liberal arts education as many think it is.
I then came home and started to clean house for my parents- I never thought the day would come that I would be cleaning my house for my parents to come visit. I always teased my mom when she'd spiffy up the house for Betty and Gil or Bub and Pap to arrive. Once again, I've become my mother.
Coalie was excited to see me! His bark announced their arrival to the dorm.
Mom dad and I then trekked over to the lower level of the cog and I treated them to subs from SubConnection with my dining dollars! They took so much joy out of spending "my" money, neglecting to connect the dots between the "ZagBucks" and the Kerns bucks they in essence loaded into the card. Oh well though, I'll let them have their fun.

Matching band-aids!

Then we signed up for the 9am-2pm hike tomorrow... should be interesting. It'll just be us girls on that one. Dad didn't wanna embarrass everyone else with his superior outdoor awareness and achievement.
The blood bus was on campus the other day, and today the flu shot devils were in the upper level of Crosby student center. Dad never passes on an opportunity to get shots so he and I now have an immunity to the flu, as well as achey upper arms. He and I sat back to back as the nurses in training administered the flu to us both, and I can say that I think he flinched more than I did. It brought me back to when I was probably 13 and had to get blood drawn and there dad was holding my hand. He seems to always be present when I get shots... Thanks dad. Love you."



Nov 8, 2011____________________________________________________________________

I'm an eskimo and my friend
Chelsea is from SF and
'disgised' as (though she
truly is) a Giants fan

Hey now its November 8 and it's been a few weeks since I began to write about my parents visit that I neglected to post at the time.... that hike I mentioned up there ^ turned out to be such a bust. It was nice bonding time for mama and I, but it was SO cold and wet and rainy. And the "vantage point" that we trekked to for a few hours was nothing whatsoever to look at, even or someone with 20/20 vision. The only saving grace was the Twix mom packed me in my sack lunch. It made it all worth while.

Since parents weekend, it's been pretty great here at GU. "Halloweekend" was quite eventful (especially so, juxtaposed to the family weekend prior). I was a pumpkin the first night, a "gypsie" (pardon my political incorrectness) the second, and an eskimo the last night. We spent Saturday night at Gusties sister's apartment where they had a spooky lasagna night. We welcome any dinner that can be had away from the COG, and it was nice to spend time with Kendra and her friends to celebrate the holiday.

WEATHER UPDATE- It's so cold here. It gets below freezing here at night, and Gusterz (whose bed lies opposite the heater, window and I on the other side of the room) roasts at night and thus we keep the window just cracked. No biggie, just cracked, right? Cracked enough for the crisp 27 degree air to breeze right over me. I've changed my comforter to the thick winter one, so I tuck myself in, pull up all three of my fleece blankets and ride out the night hoping to still have feeling in my nose and ears when I awake. The weirdest thing about the weather here is it's always freezing, but almost always sunny. It throws me off!! It's so beautiful outside, I just want to go play in the leaves and be merry, but I fear the sneaky icy tundra that awaits.

I met with my advisor, Professor Kafentzis, the other day. He and I decided I'm headed toward a double major in Spanish and Public Relations. Sounds good to me, and I feel so relieved to have a goal in mind. At midterm I have a 3.8 GPA and am breezin right on through. I will admit that my classes are pretty easy and I haven't had this little of work since my sophomore year of high school. This is not to down-play my accomplishments though... I am proud I s'pose.

Our intramural volleyball team "Bumpin Cuts" (grandma, grandpa, bubba, papa-- it is a pun: to 'bump' in volleyball is to make a table with your arms and let the ball bounce off for a teammate to set and another to spike as heard in the common mantra "bump, set, spike!" Often times when us youngins play music we refer to it as "bumpin cuts." Our team likes to groove to the beat of our athleticism..? Thus we bump cuts... that's as good of an explanation as it gets) lost yesterday and have in turn lost our chance at claiming those "Intramural Champion" shirts as our own. In an attempt at us winning, I pulled myself out of the game and refused to swap in as a sub. I took one for the team. Volleyball's not my thing- they know it, anyone who saw me attempt a serve in 8th grade knows it, I know it. I spastically cheered on the sideline jumping from side to side as I hoped my teammate would on the court. We were so close and had the best game of the season, but we lost. The team bonded though, and I've made some great friends along the way. We've talked about starting a new team with the group- it's pretty solid.

This weekend, I'm takin the greyhound to Ellensburg and meeting my mom there who will pick me up and bring us to the Katz family's cabin in Teanaway- about 30 minutes away from Ellensburg. Lily and her mom Marian will meet us later in the day after Lily's gone to class and her UW Daily Staff meeting (cool, huh? Check out her article! http://dailyuw.com/news/2011/oct/28/bill-gates-speaks-cse-students-about-opportunity-a/). I'm so excited to see my mom, best friend, and island-mom too. :)

Time to do some homework! I've got a portfolio of all of my spanish journals (15 150-word compositions written in spanish) due on Friday. On Sunday at midnight I'll register for classes and most likely won't get any that I hope to. It should be interesting. Freshman get shafted as we are the last to register, after all of the upperclassmen have already picked away at every class that's desirable.

More later!
Love Nat

Beauts and Buttes, Rejection, Deactivation, Defeat, Ace, Ace, Ace!

Sorry it's been so long since I've gotten on here. Couldn't help but notice that my page has gotten over 700 page views! Not sure if that's mom, dad, and the grandparents logging on multiple times a day in hopes that I've posted a new blog, or if it's randos stumbling upon the page taking a quick look and finding that it's not what they bargained for, or if there truly are many silent followers... I'm thinking its the second hypothesis. No matter... I'll just continue to ramble in hopes that strangers, family, and friends alike will find something entertaining or interesting on this page.

Bob

In my last blog, I wrote about my travel to Colorado. Turns out the psychic United airlines employee was right, and my flight was delayed a few hours... until it was all together canceled. My trip went from delayed bad to non-existant in the 10 seconds it took the brave lady to make the announcement, and then deal with the long line of angry travelers all trying to find a way to escape the teeny, suffocating Spokane airport on that foggy and depressing day. As I waited in line among the rest of the chums, I decided I'd take the bull by the horns and call the United number. I found a tip online that someone had posted that said the key to getting a hold of a real human to talk with was to keep hitting "O" until you heard a human voice. That's just what I did. Some lady answered the phone who said she'd call me back and I never did. Again I dialed, 0,0,0... Success! For the purposes of this, we'll call him Bob. He answered the call with the courteous and helpful tone he was likely taught in training, and I explained to him my situation- where I was headed, where my canceled flight was routed to take me, and that I just needed to be on one of the 3 or 4 flights that were brave enough to take off through Spokane's dense fog that afternoon. He acted as if he understood my plight, and put me on hold so that he could call up a rep from another airline and get me booked. After an hour of intermittently being on hold, chatting with my boy Bob, and handing Bob over to the representative at the counter for the flight I was vying for to Salt Lake City, my phone was on the verge of lifeless. I was pissing off people in line who had been waiting because the rep for the Denver flight told me to keep coming straight to her because she understood my situation with Bob being on the line and all. Those in line however, did not. I got a few angry glares, which would usually make me really sad and send me sulking to the back of the line in guilt. BUT NOT TODAY! I was on a mission. I worked my magic and booked a flight from Spokane to SLC, SLC to Grand Junction all for the price of my initial ticket from Spokane to Denver.
I won't try and hide it, I'm proud of how I handled this situation, especially without mama Deb there to work her magic.
I landed in Salt Lake City at 8:47. There I stood in the first row behind first class (truly incredible leg room) just itching to get off that flight. My connecting flight to GJ left Salt Lake at 9:05. I had just about twenty minutes to get off the plane, find out which gate to go to, run through crowds of people like a mad-woman, and plop down in my seat next to Cindy who was on her way to visit the grandkids in Palisade. She and I got to chatting and before we knew it, we were touching down in GJ!



BEAUTS (Family Beauties)
After the hour long flight to Grand Junction, I arrived weezy still from my run, but delighted to find my mom, grandma, and great gram all there waiting for me (Ok--I'll be straight with you, they were a couple of minutes late, but my flight was early--I'll give it to um).

Slumber Par-T!

The trip to Colorado was really fun, and it was a blast spending time with my mom, staying up late and having girl talk, laughing hysterically and deliriously because we were so darn tired, eating grandma's famous batista in the morning (I was sure to leave her my mailing address here ;), and getting some mama lovin. She made me toast. I was so happy. Also good to see the bro and my dad. I'll be seein' more of mom and dad this weekend when they come to visit for Fall Family Weekend!

Gram was super excited about the
hummingbird decal on the cake

The family pictures were chaotic but I think we got some good ones, and the party was a huge success. They were super surprised, because their birthdays weren't even relatively close to the date of the fiesta. There were many elderly folk there, and when I say many I mean everyone that was there. And it makes sense. If it were my birthday party, I wouldn't expect to see anyone a day older than 50 (sorry to out you mom). At this rager there wasn't anyone under 50 besides us kids. Nevertheless it was nice to see people I dont often get a chance to see, and Betty and Gil had a blast- that's what matters!

On the guest-list: the Gillespie family
doctor! SURPRISE!

BUTTES
Cousin Brit and I ditched the party a bit early and hiked (I'm using this term loosely) a butte! It took us about 20 minutes to find the little dirt road that crossed the highway to get to the rock formation, but boy was it worth it. We felt so accomplished after our little hike. She and I drove to Denver on Sunday afternoon, and make quite a few stops along the way to get in touch with some more mountainous nature. She dropped me off at the Denver airport and I flew with no delays from Denver back to Spokane. Home sweeet home! Here are a few pictures we snapped along the way. We joked that it seemed like we were driving through the seasons. We started out in sunny colorado, saw some fall colored leaves and flowers on the first stop, and when going through vail experienced winter!

Driving through Vail was amazing... looks like a painting, huh?

REJECTION
Over the weekend, I found out that I did not get the Kennel Club position that I had applied for. Oh well, I'll still be able to sit in the crowd and be in the Kennel. Maybe it's good for me to take a break from having to be so involved in everything I do. I'm applying for the Comprehensive Leadership Program though.. haha. We'll see if I get that one! I wont take the time to explain it unless I get it. Then I'll go into detail. :)

DEACTIVATION
My best friend Lily made a bold move the other day when trying to accomplish some homework. She deactivated her Facebook. With her deactivation, about 600 tagged pictures of myself went missing, but mostly I mourned the loss of being able to type in her name and see what she was up to that moment. In the spirit of scholastics I too have said "hasta luego" to my Facebook account. It's been deactivated, which means that I can go back to it at any point and time and all of my photos and information will be there, but if you were to search for me now on the site, you couldn't find me. This helps me to focus on the more important things in life, such as Blogging. Syd was inspired by my story and she too deactivated today. We've admitted we have a problem (that was the first step), and now we're taking steps to overcome our addiction. I'll pour everything I have now into this blog, and she will anxiously await to refresh the page and read it.

ACE
Our club tennis team had a scrimmage versus "Moody Bible" (??) college in Spokane on Saturday morning, and a match versus Eastern on Sunday. I arrived at the scrimmage and awkwardly stood around with my "teammates" for a good ten minutes before I got up the courage to ask where the heck the other school was... My "coach" replied, "we have no idea where any Gonzaga people are," to which I said, "wait, you're not Gonzaga....?"
It was embarrassing to say the least, but hey, I'd only been to two practices before this, so how was I supposed to know who everyone was! I just thought they were people I'd played with and they just looked different in the daylight (practice is at 7:30 pm weeknights). It wasn't until I realized I was among the enemy that I noticed they were all wearing garb labeled "moody bible." HA!
Once the team got there, Sam and I won our match, as did John and I! Woohoo!!

DEFEAT
Sundays match versus Eastern did not go as well, and I played terribly. Shawna and I lost, and it was all my fault. I felt like such a n00b, and she doesn't know I am any better than I showed her that day. Such a bummer.

ACE
Our intramural volleyball team won yet another "D" league match on Monday! Only four more games until those shirts (that dont specify what league we're in) are OURS!
I got my serve over the net this time! It was so exciting.

ACE
Also "aced" my art midterm! It was half project and half test. I got an A- on the test (which genuinely surprised me) and 100% on the project, which brings my over-all grade to an A. My friend Sean and I spent 7 hours in the art room the night prior/morning of the due date for our midterm project. Seven hours is an average school day! I spent just as long working on one project as I would spend at VHS trekking from class to class, lunch to class and so on. CRAZY! Sean is one of the artsiest people that I know. No, I take that back. He IS the artsiest person I know. His paper bag was almost entirely done by hand-- like he drew out all of the stuff that was on it. Mine was a creative cutting and pasting job. I'll post both here.

Here's mine-- the eye in the face is a photo of my eye printed on transparency paper! 

Aand here's Sean William's ©

Take Off!!

I am spending my 20 complimentary minutes of WiFi on here. Just throwin that out there. I arrived to the airport today just after noon, and was greeted by a (apparently) misinformed United employee who told me (without looking at my boarding pass or me having told him) that my flight to Denver was two hours delayed. Questions going through my mind: 1. How does he know I'm going to Denver? 2. How does he know it's delayed and why didn't I get a text update from Orbitz!?
I frantically called cousin Brit who is will be collecting me and my belongings when I land in Denver and we shared a sad moment wherein we realized that we wouldn't arrive to GJ until midnight.

I have no shame.

I proceeded to go through security anyway and figured 'hey i'll take advantage of that complimentary wifi for a few hours and get some homework done' (they left out the 20 minutes stipulation on the signs...) I was about to go through the security scanner and realized I had a full water bottle that I had filled last night and put in our mini fridge (so prepared, I know :) and proceeded to chug it like a champ. Just didn't feel right throwing it away! Super hydrated now.
I sat at gate B1 where my flight is scheduled to depart on time at 1:40... contradictory to what the man told me when I first got here. Initially I was sitting in between a lady doing a crossword and a dude, both in their late 30's, early 40's, and of course I try to strike up a conversation with the lady... she wasn't havin it. Now I'm sitting across the terminal from them keeping an eye on the gate, yet keeping my distance. Hope she's not my neighbor for the flight. It's times like these that my similarity to my mother scares me. I am just like her when it comes to talkin to folk. We both recognize that we should work on understanding when the person is interested in listening to us ramble or not, but when we find ourselves in situations like this (airport is a perfect example), we forget all about it. It's like when you're going through the check-out line at the grocery store... first they ask you how your day's been and you say its been good, and that you're tired but still trekking on, and that you were up really late last night because your husband was up sick all night because he bought smoked salmon from a gas station in Chimicum... their eyes glaze over. REALITY CHECK: They don't care about your husband, they dont even care about you, they just asked you how your day was to fill the awkward moment as your items beep across the scanner. Awareness of this is what we should strive for. :)

I had an interview today at 11 before I left campus with the Kennel Club Board. I'm applying for Freshman Representative for the board. I'm really excited about it! I feel the interview went well. They asked me many questions, one of which was "what's your favorite cooking utensil?" This threw me for a spin... I thought back to making baked goods and my instinct was to say "spatula". I did, and then I scrambled to have a reason to back it up. "...because it gets all of the ingredients..nothing's left behind!" *heh awkward laughter, move on*

I fear that my complimentary time here is just about up...I'll let you know how my trip goes!!
Let me leave you with this question: what's your favorite cooking utensil, and why?
More later,
Love Nat

Ta-Da!!

On left: uses the first applies shades white-mid grey. Middle: ultimate contrast created by the use of white to black. On
right: mid-dark tones...arguably a bit too dark. It's easier to see in person, I swear!

Here's my finalized design project. Took me a couple hours after class today to get it all finished, but it's so worth it. Never been so proud of a piece of art before. Actually, that's not entirely true. This rivals my 8th grade pastel "self-portrait" which hung in the hallway of our home until the week after I moved out... There it was for 4 plus years until the moment I move out, and now it won't go back.. it won't stay. Eerie, right?

Time for an ab workout with Mica!! I'm too tired to write anymore.

There she is with me on the right. We're discussing Halloween costume ideas... apparently at college you get three different nights to be three different identities!! Another plus at college!! haha

More later,

Love Nat

The Diggs

It's late and I've not accomplished anything at all worth while tonight so I figured I should at least have something to show for the random thoughts that have been popping up into my mind on this frigid fall evening. Though it doesn't look amazing from an exterior view, our room is quite spectacular. We're right in there nudged in the inside nook of the right 'tower'-- haha sounds so fancy. Here are some shots of our room! 

I've already established that I live
here, in this gem of a building.
Constructed in 1980, it was built
quickly and inexpensively to house
the baby boomers generation of
students...

Knock knock on our door- this is what
you'll see.

Gustie's side- the "dark" side.
She's being studious.. definately
not just posing for this picture
 as I ordered that we clean
our room so that I could take
 pictures for my blog....

Up there (^) is my humble abode. Mama Deb (shout out to my mom- love you!) found these magnetic strips (one of the many Ikea purchases unearthed from the garage years later) that I've stuck to my wall so that I can hang pictures on the wall above my bed. That's what you see there. I've got some nice storage under my bed there from Ikea too (on the right) and compliments of GU on the left (you can hardly see it.) The first day I noticed my drawer was givin' me some trouble when I went to shut it and it took me about a month to discover that the track on which the drawer ran was not all the way screwed in. I called over our neighbor Jack (who has been laboring all night on this english paper and came up with a few sentences to show for it) who supplied me with a phillips head screw driver and I got 'er done! Woo! Girl power. Proud, ma?

Jack's writers block...
this is the makings of
three hours work

Birthday boy Scott!! Happy 20th!

Speaking of neighbors, neighbor Scott turns 20 today! In honor of this milestone in his life, I'm going to post a picture of him and say some nice things! Scott is a sophomore this year and lives in the "Doolstar" with Gusterz and I. He's such a kind soul, runs cross country, and loves his family! He embodies Mr. Rogers definition of a good neighbor. Ironic that, as I say this, I can hear him yapping outside of our door at 1:03 a.m.! Oh well it is his birthday.

It's way past my bedtime, and I think I'm secretly keeping Gustie up but she knows I love to blog so much that she isn't telling me to shut off the computer and go to sleep already!
More later,
Love Nat