pet peeves

i have just come to fully realize two of my pet peeves today: bush bashing and foot pedestrians anywhere near a bike path.

first of all, bush bashing. our president, george w. bush, is the butt of many, many jokes. i hate it. today, during class, my teacher showed a video on the internet of bush defining the word sovereignty using the word sovereign. everyone around me was laughing. was the video a little silly? yes, i suppose. i, however, thought that it was totally inappropriate. we are making a mockery of our leader. it's even worse that this is done on an international campus. what do the international students think of us? what kind of country are we portraying to them? the majority voted him in, so even if someone didn't vote for him or doesn't like him, he is our president and we should all stand behind him. what has america come to? most people don't even respect or support our leaders! how are they supposed to lead people that don't want to be led? it's sad.

and of course, bike paths and the foot pedestrians around them. students on campus are totally oblivious to anything and everything around them. they are in their own little box that barely surrounds them and have nothing to do with anything outside of it. because of this, i have to hold my hand on the brake while riding my bike so i don't run anyone over. bike paths will often have bikes on them. how hard is it to look both ways before crossing it? foot pedestrians can stop a lot faster than bikers can. and why do people walk directly on the bike path??? this phenomenon amazes me. i just don't understand.

anyway, that's my rant for the week or month or so.

birthday

it's not actually 11:59 on august 28th. i just fixed the time and date so that it would be a post on my birthday. oh well. it's over now.

one looooooooooong post

ok, i'm sick of long posts, so i'll keep this short and sweet. i'm all moved in. i love the place. i started school yesterday. i've gone to every class so far, which is a new record for me. my birthday is this sunday. no one is planning anything for me. i might end up just going out to eat with my parents. my roommate travis offered to take me out to eat. the weekend after, i'm going to phoenix. hopefully morgan will email me back so i can make sure i can stay with him. this three day trip is my vacation for the year. purdue singing is next weekend after that. family reunion is next weekend after that. i'm afraid it might be the taylor invite as well. skip two weekends. chicago train trip is back on schedule. college weekend is the weekend after that. skip two more weekends. will and erin get baptized first weekend in november. then thanksgiving, snowboarding, finals, graduation, graduation party (with a mountain dew keg), new nephew/niece, christmas, new years. considering attending the second annual new years phoenix invite. apparently no one went last year. they need support people! hopefully a colorado snowboarding trip in there. kyle doesn't want me to go without him. he has to take care of his new baby. maybe i'll wait for spring break...oh wait! i won't have one anymore! oh yeah, in the middle of all this, i've got to find a job. ok, that was longer than i wanted. i'll stop now.

i'm in! are you in?

whew, what. a. week. so i guess i'll just step through it slowly so you can all follow along.

thursday: spent most of the evening cleaning up the old apartment 1. it's a little sad. it's the end of an era. sigh.

friday: worked all day and finished cleaning out the apartment over my lunch break. and later that evening, finally time to relax.

saturday: finally went home in the afternoon to change lucy's oil. it took longer to get her up on the ramps than it took to actually change her oil. later, i went to erin hodel's with david for a pizza cookout. pause for food break, i just woke up and i'm finding it hard to remember what i did that long ago. oh yes, joe knochel was there! yay! and the ever popular, quasi-famous luke knapp as well. good times, good times.

sunday: church at gridley and i got to sit with my youngest nephew in the afternoon. if i had a picture, i'd show you how amazingly cute he is. during the first five minutes he chugged his entire sippy cup of milk, then during the first silent prayer, he faked a belch and then he really did one. it was pretty loud, but i was too proud of him to scold him. then a little later, a little girl was leaning over the bench in front of him and puckering up. korey kept leaning back as she leaned forwards. i leaned down and told him, "korey, i think she wants to give you a kiss." the next time she leaned in, he leaned back up and kissed her. ah, what a good day for korey. also had a family supper and left early to go out to leo! 4 1/2 hour car ride with three girls talking the entire way...i'm just glad i got to drive most of the time. finally got out to the truckstop and stayed with morgan, sam, and kenton.

monday: breakfast in the morning with all the girls too (bethany, natalie, natalie, charla, kaitlyn). finally got to start working on setting up for the sale. monday was full of setting up staging areas, chairs, and tables. for lunch and supper, i ate at east house with kenton and kaitlyn and house parents kurt and kristen slagell. it was great to get to spend time with the residents. after supper was bluffton night in which bluffton people come up to play games like ultimate frizbee and kickball. i played spoons intstead. afterwards the leo people and the volunteers had a Bible study. it was a great study on the difference between seeking and serving at church.

tuesday: more setting up of tables and chairs and also a swingset over by new house. unfortunately, we had the wrong parts so we couldn't complete it. i did get a nice tan though. and also some rolling up of the tent sides. lunch at east house again. supper at buffalo wild wings at sam's expense and some relaxing times with the truckstop boys. and later, we had a praise singing at gateway woods. and then we went to steak-n-shake. good times, good times.

wednesday: i woke up with allergies running rampant and an eye infection. bleh. it was awful. i was barely able to help set up quilt racks and then i laid down with ice on my eye because it was burning. lunch was at the fellowship center and then after that, bethany, natalie and i headed for home. i slept most of the way. i picked up some stuff at my parents' place and then headed for home.

thursday: moving...all day long. and then we went out to eat at cheddar's. mmhmm. good.

today: unpacking...

so that's my last week and i finally have internet again to be able to do this once more.

is this irony? i think so!

i am struck by the irony of my blog title. fantastical journeys? dreamland? scott? ha! i'm too old for fantastical journeys. those days are behind me now what with the hip i broke in january. and another birthday coming up in two weeks! ya know? i've never had a surprise party. i've been involved with many but none for me. i'd always hoped for one when i was younger, but now i think i've outgrown it. oh well, megan said she'd plan one for me anyway.

i have no internet at home for a whole week! but it's ok, because i'll only be there for a total of about a day before i move anyway. and by home i mean apartment 2 at gabe's place. yep, i'm totally moved over. i spent last night eating steak at alexander's, helping david move his heavy stuff to brown house, and cleaning the kitchen/bathroom of apartment 1. i got to keep most of the stuff because scott and adam are gone and jeremy is only taking what he can fit in his rental malibu and that's mostly clothes. so i ended up hauling out another three or four boxes of stuff. the worst part will be trying to find everything i'll need for my three days at gateway next week.

oh yeah, i'm going to gateway. leaving sunday afternoon with natalie and bethany and probably won't make it out there until like 10 or 11 pm. workin' for three days and heading back wednesday, probably around 5 because i've got to go all the way back to gridley and then drive to urbana that same night. and i'm moving next thursday! i'm so excited. it's annoying having to move twice (david agrees) but i'm thankful that andrew let me crash at apartment 2 for the in-between time. it seems like everyone around here is packing/moving. i'll just be glad to get into my new apartment and have everything set up. but who knows where i'll be next year? i may even be moving out in january (if i get a job somewhere else). but that is in God's hands.

justin info

here's some info and contacts for justin. post a note on the message board, he seems to like it. it's so great to see so much support and prayers for him. so everyone keep up the prayers!

Justin’s address through at least September 23 is:
Craig Hospital Room 316 A
3425 S. Clarkson St.
Englewood, CO 80113

He can also be contacted through the Craig Hospital Web site, where both he and Kathy write updates on his condition. This Web site can be accessed as follows: www.carepages.com Once in the Web site, click on “Visit a Care Page” and “sign up” which involves creating a member name and password. Where it says “Enter care page name”, type JustinWiegand (no spaces) and it will take you to his page where you can leave messages for him. Justin would really appreciate encouragement and support from the folks back home!

moving madness

what a week this has been! i thought i'd get to relax since i was done with summer school, but nooooooo!!

monday~
finished project. did nothing rest of the day.

tuesday~
megan came down. we had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch with david. work in the afternoon. office politics are horrible! you think you know some people after working with them two days a week for two years, but nope. apparently our new boss is shaking things up. one lower-boss really doesn't like her at all and the other is welcoming her with open arms. then volleyball! classic tuesday night. a few of us went to steak-n-shake afterwards. mmmhmmm.

wednesday~
this time for lunch, we raided katrina's fridge. megan made some chicken salad. david brought some food too and will said it was like a potluck. i had a pizza party for the end of my class and when i got back there's a really, um, interesting story about megan's car, but i'll let her tell that one. i didn't know where anyone was so i took a short nap then started cleaning my room. awhile later, i got an im from lucas knapp. not luke, but lucas (the one from bloomington). he offers to pay me $300 to help him move to aurora the next day. i was like, "forget work! i'm helping you!"

thursday~
i got up early to help lucas move. we left at nine and didn't get up there until 12:30. traffic around aurora is terrible! lucas had to sign the lease first and then he filled out his deposit wrong, so he had to find a bank. we didn't start unloading the uhaul until 2pm. unfortunately, his new place is on the second floor so we had to carry everything (couch, futon, dresser, two good chairs, kitchen table, boxes, etc.) up the stairs. nice workout. we set up the computer first and put on some techno to keep our energy going. the enterprise people came and picked lucas up so i unloaded the last of it myself. then we took back the uhaul to a local dealer place. since my clothes were soaked with sweat, i borrowed some trunks and we went swimming in his pool while the clothes were in the washing machine. we went across the street to get some food and accessories. then we unpacked the kitchen stuff and i made mac-n-cheese with hot dogs for dinner while lucas unpacked other boxes. my clothes were clean and dry and dinner was in my belly so i was ready to head home! lucas paid me the $300 and had me sign a sheet so he would get reimbursed for it. since i recently came into such money and i was hungry for a dairy queen blizzard, i took the first two people i saw at gabe's (will and megan) out to dairy queen on my dollar.

friday~
for lunch today, will, megan and i went to zorba's and had gyros. mmhmm, good. a few hours of work (i got promoted! i get to be administrator for the mcat because upper-boss is hiring some new staff for proctoring) and then i bought five t-shirts. i realized that i'm going into my xth year at illinois and i only have one illinois shirt and it's got stains on it. so all five have illinois or chief on them. later, megan, will, katrina and i went out to eat at cheddar's. took a nap, cleaned my room some more and now i'm writing this.

saturday~
it's the future right now, sure. my parents and neal are coming down to help me clean and fix up everything in the apartment. paint and spackle and clean some more. i'm going to move some stuff over to apartment two tomorrow including my loft and entertainment center.

i realize that i started most days with lunch, but that's because i start most days with lunch. it's summer, that's just what you do when you don't work full-time. now i have to wait until my sheets dry before i can go to bed, which means many games of solitaire.

finished!

at long last, i have completed my senior design project. there were many ups when i did a little dance because something worked right. there were many downs when i just wanted to throw the whole thing out the window. but i didn't because i knew i'd fail the class if i did. i survived the demo, i survived the presentation, i survived the writing of the paper. and now it's all done. it's 14 pages with a 24 page appendix. most of that appendix is code, but there are pictures and diagrams and tables in there too. if you're bored, you can wander over to the "my project" link and check it all out. you gotta have adobe reader to be able to open the pdf files though.

[whew!]

and megan is coming down to visit tomorrow! yay! laissez les bon temps couler!