"The most beautiful discovery true friends make

is that they can grow separately without growing apart."_Elisabeth Foley

I cherish the friendships I have where we can pick up right where we left off. No awkwardness whatsoever. If I learned anything during this past year, it’s that amidst all the friends that come and go, there are the few that outlast the others and in those people exist the friendships that are worth maintaining.

I had Coldstone’s ice cream THREE days in a row. Ugh, I’ve consumed so much food during break. It’s kinda gross. At least I didn’t order the same thing each time I went to Coldstone’s. That’s about $20 spent on ice cream alone.

I just finished watching an episode of Degrassi, the one where Emma gets a social disease… so sick haha.

Aside from all the junk food and TV, I’ve spent most of break in the company of good friends. I’m really glad I was able to spend time with old friends. On Wednesday, I hung out with Kristina and Annie. It consisted of drawing pretty pictures on the table cloth paper at the Macaroni Grill, window-shopping around Burbank, eating “luxury” food, and watching Failure to Launch, predictable romantic comedy but cute. Then I went to Gia’s apartment in West Co and slept over! That was our first official sleepover since 7th grade and we didn’t even stay up as late as we did when we were thirteen. That’s pretty pathetic but we were tired. All we ended up doing was going online and watching Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi and the Disney channel hahaha. Some things never change. And THEN we ended up talking until we fell asleep around 1:30 or something. Her sore throat and my asthma kept us up. We’re sickly lol. On Thursday, we got ready and went to Theresa’s house in Riverside and met up with Paul. Then we went to Ontario Mills and Victoria Gardens to shop. Then we ate at Thai BBQ and watched White Chicks at her house until we all went home. Thanks for the tour around your neck of the woods Theresa :)

Note: I meant “littering” not “loitering” Gia! We experienced a role reversal on Thursday. A few weeks ago, I supposedly said “dude” too much but now look who’s talking!

This quote summarizes the past couple of days:
“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”

_Ralph Waldo Emerson

Anyway, today was spent with my mom. We spent quality time shopping in Downtown L.A. I went home empty handed but it’s okay. Some angry homeless guy approached the car and started yelling at us while we were waiting for the light to turn green. But he wasn’t yelling obscenities… he kept saying “na na na na na” repeatedly. It was weird.

Speaking of weird, we had another strange encounter today after coming back from Alex’s school. We were stopped by a red light again and we were waiting for the pedestrians to cross the street and this bum pushing a shopping cart with all his belongings inside, crosses the street while crip walking! Seriously. It was quite the sight. Only in L.A! He seemed really happy as opposed to the man we had seen earlier in the day. Life is what you make of it. I wish we videotaped it or something hahah my brother and I were so amused. He was pretty good.

So far, I’ve been successful in my attempts to answer my phone when it rings. I’m getting better at it so much so that I answered this one call from an unknown number which turned out to be a collect call from an inmate in prison somewhere. I hung up. Oh the downsides of answering the phone.

I read one of my old blog entries that I wrote during spring break last year and I apparently spent a majority of my time making a senior scrapbook…one that I still haven’t finished. That makes me sad.

I hope everyone else has been having a fun, relaxing, well-rested spring break!

I don’t really want to go back to school yet, kinda, sorta.

If I don’t blog for the rest of break, I’ll see you later.

P.S. After re-reading this entry, I've come to the conclusion that it sounds really dumb. I hope you got a good laugh out of it though haha. The end.

Matthew Winkla had been tha minista at tha Fourth Street Church of Christ fo` jiznust over a year, n tha congregizzle loved his straight-by-the-Bible sermons n his quiet wife, Mary mah nizzle. But tha Selma, Tennessee, pastor was found slain -- shizzot in tha back -- in his parsonage on Wednesday night. Afta a daylong search, Winkla's wife n children were found in Alabama, n authorities say tha wife is a suspect in her husband's slay'n.

annanymouslizard (10:47:57 AM): are you back in Echo Park
splndrinthegrss (10:48:36 AM): YOU FRIGGIN' KNOW ITTT

Yay for spring break! I hope that spring break brings a ton of reunions. I miss my high school friends... a lot.

Finished with winter quarter. So relieved. One more quarter of freshman year and then I'm done. I don't know how I feel about this year ending though... a lot of ambivalence. I guess I'll just have to make the most of spring quarter.

My dad called me the other day to check up on me. It was surprising because it's usually my mom who calls me. It wasn't a long conversation but it was long enough for me to hear how much he misses me. Sometimes it's easy to neglect the parts of your life that aren't there with you all the time. I get caught up in all this independence that I tend to forget about or overlook what or who I've left behind. Balance is a hard thing to achieve but I'm trying. His phone call was more like a wake-up call, a reminder of the people who are constantly thinking of me or praying for me. I'm grateful for my family and I'm especially grateful for my dad. That one phone call changed the course of my week for the better or at least my attitude towards it. The older you get, the more your appreciation for love and life grows. Coincidentally his phone call fell on the feast day of St. Joseph. He really loves me and by "he" I mean both my dad and Him. Good thing I'm going home soon!

This no myspace and no facebook thing is killing me. Blogging and AIM just doesn't cut it for me. But I'll survive. I'm gonna watch so much TV when I get back. I don't know why I'm still in Irvine! But the late night treats at Commons & Pippins really are an incentive for staying...kind of.

I've been making an effort to actually answer my phone so keep calling me so I can practice answering my phone or more like practice leaving my phone off silent and picking it up haha. I'm getting better, I think!

So I was bored...
The superficial definition of "Emo" according to Urbandictionary.com:
"Genre of softcore punk music that integrates unenthusiastic melodramatic 17 year olds who dont smile, high pitched overwrought lyrics and inaudible guitar rifts with tight wool sweaters, tighter jeans, itchy scarfs (even in the summer), ripped chucks with favorite bands signature, black square rimmed glasses, and ebony greasy unwashed hair that is required to cover at least 3/5 ths of the face at an angle. "

By the way, I'm not 17, I do smile, I don't wear itchy scarves (even in the summer), my chucks may be ripped but they don't have a favorite band's signature, my square rimmed glasses are grey charcoal, not black, and I don't have ebony greasy unwashed hair. Therefore I am not "emo" and apparently emo doesn't even really stand for emotional... it stands for "emotive" whatever that means. Urbandictionary.com = greatest invention ever (besides youtube.com, myspace, facebook, etc.)

Thanks for all the comments guys. I feel loved. I bet everyone's gonna stop commenting now because I said that hahah. But I really appreciate it :) You guys make me smile. Too bad this entry wasn't as enlightening as the other ones.

Good luck to all those who are still taking finals. I'll be praying for you!
"You got this."
Yeah I really did write that on the first page of my blue book & I don't know if it gave me an "A" but it did make me laugh during my final... and that's all that matters.

That is why fear is a major obstacle on the spiritual path,

fear of change is most insidious of all. We fear change

because we believe that externals control our lives.

In self-defense, we learn how to live with them,

respond to them, be dependent upon them. In order to

feel safe, we need all life's externals in place, remaining the

same as they were so we can cope with them. We do this

even if we are unhappy with the result. Should we be offered

a chance to change our something new or unknown,

we often choose to stay exactly where we are... When we are afraid,

it is because we feel we have no control over what is happening to us.

But when we place our emotional center on anyting external,

it is inevitable that we will live in fear."

Yeah that's all I have to say about mass today haha.

I forgot to do my laundry. It sucks but it's okay. I spent 6-7 hours in the library hopefully absorbing biodiversity information. That seems like an even exchange. I had really good company this weekend. Thanks for making my finals weekend not so serious guys. Spending time with friends is always fun.

That's all.

"Sometimes we put up walls not to keep people out,

but to see who cares enough to knock them down."_Unknown

It's sad that I still find myself putting up these walls a year + later.

But there's beauty in having people in your life trying to break these walls down

...and succeeding.

"f e a r builds walls; l o v e tears them down."

how fitting.

"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle.

I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."

-Mother Theresa

There's so much to do that I don't even know where to start. I'm feeling so unbelievably overwhelmed right now. sigh. I wish I believed in myself as much as my family and friends do. It's hard. I'm not saying that I don't believe in myself. It's just that I find myself underestimating my abilities way too often. I can do this. 3 more days till the weekend and exactly one week until my last final is over :) Winter quarter has worn me out so much so that I don't feel like writing a long entry. This will have to do. Back to the books!

Gross.

"Enjoy it. Relax.

To be taken in hand and led, like being a child again,

even without the innocence, a child -

It's like being given a prize,

an extra slice of childhood when you least expect it,

as a prize for being good,

or a compensation for never having had one..."

_R&G are Dead by Tom Stoppard

Vista de-stressed by making dirt cups.

The last time I made dirt cups was as a kindergartener at IHM. Ms. Terich had a cookbook and we made food in groups. But that was then...

Although I made dirt cups before, I didn't know what to do first. Pretty dumb, I know. The pudding goes in the cup, then you sprinkle the oreo crumbs, and then you place the gummy worms on top. My RA asked me, "how could you forget how to make the most delicious food item in the world?" Well maybe those weren't his exact words but close enough.

Is my forgetting how to make dirt cups analogous to my forgetting how to be childlike?

Perhaps.

Funny how such a simple combination of gummy worms, chocolate pudding, and chunks of oreo cookies can attract even the most studious of eighteen / nineteen year olds.

I saw a couple of faces that I hadn't seen in a while... probably because everyone's been "studying." It felt like welcome week again, kinda.

We celebrated Bri's birthday at Ruby's tonight. I had two large glasses of Oreo Cookie Fantasy shakes. So good yet so bad. I feel gross. Dirt cups + Oreo shakes = unhealthy junk food.

But everyone needs an oreo shake or dirt cup once in a while.

This entry sucks.

I think I'm spitting out nonsense in a desperate attempt to avoid working on my Beitz paper.

I don't mind though.

Finals, essays, endless amounts of reading...

Whatever happened to naptime, recess, duck-duck-goose and music class?

Even though I'm barely beginning my college journey, I'm thankful for days like today...escapes from the adult routine.

"What makes the desert b e a u t i f u l,"

said the little prince

"is that it hides a well somewhere."