i tried to be a good boyfriend and give erica a special date night tonight, but im pretty sure i failed miserably.
first we went to a quaint little tea room for dinner in romantic main street bethlehem. when we got there, it took about 10 minutes for the waitress to take care of us, even though she was only taking care of one other table. first, she told us we couldnt use the coupon we had, because it wasnt valid on holidays, and their holiday lasts from thanksgiving to new years. oh, gee, thanks. next she tells erica the sandwhich she wants isnt available. so we order the same sandwhich - swiss cheese, turkey, mustard, and tomato on a french baguette. 25 minutes later, our sandwhiches come out. they are long baguettes with big chunks of turkey, no mustard, cheese on the side for whatever reason, and the only tomatoes are on the salad. we put our salad dressing on our sandwhiches to spice it up a little. the sandwhiches were 10 dollars each.
next we went a romantic horse and carriage ride through the town. it was romantic except for the fact that there were a total of 6 people squeezed into the carriage - 2 mothers and their daughters were sitting squished beside us and facing us - practically sitting zipper legged - and they talked the entire time. and the ride lasted about a grand total of 10 minutes or so.
then for fun we went to the moravian christmas putz. erica didnt exactly enjoy that because she was having an asthma attack from the horses.
then we took our free movie tickets to see stuck on you. incredibly dull movie, extremely too long, not very funny at all, and i fell asleep on several occasions.
what a night.
tomorrow we are venturing into the unknown and trying our luck at skating at rockefeller center. holy moly lord help us.

in 10th grade my english teacher had us collect letters from our friends and from ourselves and she saved them and promised to mail them in 5 years. i got mine today and geez what a shocker. it was fun to read the letters but im a little nervous about what i wrote to other people. from the letter erica wrote me and from what other people said, i thought erica and i were dating for a year or two...then i read my letter that said "i've been dating erica for 3 months." that was kinda funny. anyway, it was cool. ummm. yeah. bye.

ps, i woke up at 6:30 in the morning just to post on my blog. SO ENJOY IT.

the day after
another christmas has come and gone. they always seem to sneak up and fly by.
christmas eve was nice. we had a good service at church...it was some unique perspectives that were effectively done and it was enjoyable. some good music. good to see friends. after the service we had our shorb-family-christmas-eve-traditional meal consisting of fondue and shrimp. this year we also were blessed to have 7 dozen hot wings which is what most of my meal consisted. my brother weighed himself in before and after the meal, and gained 5 pounds. it was a very merry christmas eve. we also played a rousing game of apples to apples. have you played it yet? see what the craze is about.
christmas was pleasant. it was one of the first years where i wasnt the first one up having to sit on the couch staring at the presents waiting for the rest of the family to finally roll out of bed at 7:30 in the morning. i must admit im still a little kid when it comes to that.
i got a polaroid camera which im very excited about, and a tascam 4-track recording system which i am excited yet intimidated about. perhaps my little recording of hymns will be a reality in the near future. and i will release it and sell it along with an original polaroid photograph. but that polaroid will jack up the price cuz film is expensive.
i also go the dark days dvd and lots of kids books. erica spoiled me this year and got me a ton of cds. between her and a few others, i received damien jurado's ghost of david and holding his breath, denison witmer's safe away, appleseed cast's low level owl 1, death cab for cutie's transatlanticism, coldplay's parachutes, and godspeed's yanqui u.x.o. wowzers.
but now that i say all this i must admit i am beginning to get a little disconnected (poor word choice, i know) from the whole christmas thing. it was making me a little sick this year...everything it's turned into...how it has been so warped and twisted over the years...and now it is turning into a holiday that cant be properly celebrated because of being politically incorrect. when i was listening to christmas music on the radio, i was kinda weirded out when i took the time to think that all of these songs are about christmastime...does it strike anyone else as odd that we commit whole cd's to the time of the year and everything that comes along with it? not the christmas carols and stuff...but the "its christmastime im so excited lots of gifts and goodies if you're good christmastime is so merry ho ho ho" kinda songs that are actually and only about christmastime. i dont know. and the whole pop stars making money off of christmas carols where they probably dont have the slightest idea of what they are singing, and the wasted money, and the obligation, etc etc etc. call me ebenezer...but...its pretty sad what it has all become. and us christians are quick to throw out the cliches to make ourselves feel better...jesus is the reason for the season, wise men still seek him, blah blah blah...trying to convince ourselves that we arent forgetting christ in all this. but lets be honest, who is really caring when it comes down to it? very few of us. its more about making sure everyone's happy and everyone likes what they got and if this fits or if i like this or if so and so got me something i better hurry out and get something for them and hopefully our house has more lights and looks prettier than theirs next door and dont let the little ones know that daddy actually ate the cookies and not santa and and and and and.......
dont get me wrong. there are few things i like more than the christmas season. particularly just being with family and having fun. but you must admit...it's pretty sick in the end.
sorry for being such a downer. yikes. but think about it, i suppose. enjoy the rest of your break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i forgot to mention i went to see mona lisa smile the other night. it was pretty good.
i was excited to see julia roberts in a movie that wasnt a chick-flick cheesy romance...but then she has this little fling which was disappointing...not only that, but it was a little fling with a complete scumbag. not only was he a scumbag, but girls (ie: erica) cant see that he's a scumbag and think he's the biggest hunk of sweetness around. then his scumbagness is exposed a little later, which helped my case and i was able to say "i told you so"...but for some reason girls are still on his side. i just dont get it.

hi.
im home.
not much to talk about.
it's christmas time which is very exciting.
my cousin is visiting for the break. we'll just say it's interesting and leave it at that.
i've been discovering recently that i have incredibly poor fashion sense, and it's really discouraging. it'd be nice to have good fashion sense.
whatever.
merry christmas.

if you know how to post pictures in blog posts, please let me know how. that would make things a little more fun around here, dont you think?

so, have i mentioned it feels great to be done?? im pretty pleased with my finals week. i worked hard but didnt stress out and it look like i may have nailed straight A's this semester. and although my finals schedule was packed and rigorous, it worked out to the best possible schedule i think. get them all done as quickly as possible in a spaced out manner.
it was good to say goodbye to transitional mathematics, especially, but i must admit that when it comes down to it, that will be one of my favorite classes of my college career. which, after reading the posts here, here, and here, you may find it surprising. but in my mind there are 3 types of college classes. the kind you enjoy because it is laid back and discussion orientented: it's not hard but you learn a lot from discussing and get an A for putting your time in. then there is the kind that you hate because it's a lot of work and really rigorous, but you end up enjoying it because it's worth your time: it's what a college course is meant to be and you learn a lot. and then there's the kind you hate because it's lacking either one of those. trans was definitely a class that i hated because of all the work and because of how challenging it was...but to look back, knowing i got an A or B, i tried my hardest, and learned a lot, it gives you a pretty great sense of satisfaction. dr. case has it going on...he knows how to teach college kids. he expects a lot and has high standards...and in the end it feels good. will i use any of the stuff i learned in there? probably not...but im smarter for it and that's never a bad thing.
this is what im going for.
the treat of the week: 1 mug of coffee, 1 pack of hot chocolate mix, and a candy cane.
im packing up for home and packing up for ft. wayne and we are leaving around 1:00 or 1:30. hopefully the trip wont take too long. we shall see. i cant wait to get home, that's for sure.
have a super day and a great christmas break. things are good. rejoice.

imagine the following being said in small, high-pitched, squeaky, twangy voices, complete with a deep indiana-hick-drawl:

linda: (to me) will you help me beat up on her?
gracie: (tattletale-like) she's manhandling me!...er...whatever...you call...it.

merry christmas from me to you.

noah would like me to issue an official apology for the BK holiday link having the naughty f-word in it. he showed me a clean version and i didnt know the address and found that version but did not notice the vulgarity. it is neither of our faults so please dont think we are bad people. thank you.
im working the desk and there are people making out inside the front door and it's a little awkward. i think they are wrapping things up now though.
lord of the rings starts tonight...HOORAY. thats mostly sarcasm, seeing as how i still havent seen the first two. but if you like lord of the rings, i dont hold it against you. anyway, it's making the dorm really quiet, including the main lobby, which is allowing me to get some quality studying done at the desk. which is why im wasting time posting on here. what? whatever.
i found out i got an 85 on my final this morning. a little disappointing, but i suppose deserved for the amount of studying put in...i got an A in the class so it doesnt matter much. yippe. ok bye.

my right eye ball has been profusely burning out of its socket as of late. i finally decided that i think it's because my hair is poking me in the eye a lot.

"i've been known to woe the women with my poetry."
-david blomgren
(he meant woo)

im fairly proud of myself...ive been studying for finals more this year than all of my years in high school and college put together. its a pretty big pain...all of my finals are incredibly easy but for some reason require a large amount of studying. i dont really get how that works but thats the way it is.
i talked scott into going with me to an education study break tonight in order to get free pizza. we went and ended up having to sit there for an hour looking over handouts and listening to the people in charge speak about different seminars they went to. somewhere along the line they forgot it was supposed to be a study BREAK. it was pretty funny and ridiculous.
speaking of study breaks im gonna get pretty fat this week cuz of all these "study breaks." last night we had one at our floor-hook-up's house and i had 6 pieces of pizza. tonight working at the desk, guys were getting pizzas delivered from their parents as little study care packages, and i weaseled 2 pieces out of the deal. then, an hour and a half later scott and i went to this study break and i had 3 pieces. there's another study break in the DC tonight, and im sure there's more pizza there, but im skipping out.
back to studying. hooray.

i pick up the phone and dial...
confused kid: hello?
front desk nate: is kyle there?
confused kid: yeah, this is jon.
front desk nate: uhhhhh....well this is the front desk, there's a pizza down here for kyle.
confused kid: alright
a few minutes later a kid comes down and looks through the stack of pizzas.
confused kid: mine's not here.
front desk nate: well i guess you didn't get one then.
confused kid: you just called my room and told me i had one.
front desk nate: i told you kyle got one.
confused kid: oh. (as he takes the ones for kyle)
front desk nate: is that your roommate?
confused kid: yeah.
front desk nate: whatever.

im pretty sure i destroyed my trans math final.
time to start studying for my 3:00 children's lit final.
finals are awesome.

studying soundtrack for the night:
sigur ros - ( )
coheed and cambria - in keeping secrets...
unwed sailor - unreleased
ester drang - infinite keys
further seems forever - how to start a fire
interpol - turn on the bright lights
radiohead - hail to the thief
pedro the lion - control
the strokes - room on fire

if thats not a lineup to keep you studying, i dont know what is.
studying has gone well, i think. i think im prepared to finish off transitional math. havent even touched children's lit, but that's a make-it-up-on-the-spot final so im not too incredibly worried.
im just ready for break.
word.

last night consisted of wasting time, watching a guy who used to live in morris win 178,000 dollars worth of stuff on bob barker's 80th birthday prime time special of price is right, which was pretty incredible, consuming 6 krispy kreme donuts, making prank calls, wasting more time, watching saturday night live, and going to bed way too late without doing any studying at all.
studying is getting off to an even slower start today. we'll see how things turn out.
have a pleasant day.

i just "went" to erica's graduation, which consisted of me laying in bed, waiting for her to call, her cell phone being put in her pocket, and hearing her name over the loudspeaker as she walked across stage.
it was almost as good as being there, but not really.
i date an amazing woman - a college graduate! - who i am extremely proud of!

noah wants me to put up a link to this. dont hold it against me.

forget it, i no longer endorse nyquil...i am beyond "having some problems shaking it off"...i am groggy and falling asleep at the desk like nobody's business.

i whole-heartedly endorse nyquil for a good night's sleep...although...i am having some problems shaking it off this morning.

christmas open house is over and that is a good thing cuz now it will be easier to get some sleep. i feel better today than i have the past few, so, hopefully i am recovering. i guess i never explained christmas open house on here. i dont really feel like it at this point. but every year our floor puts on a huge open house where we completely transform the floor with tons of cardboard, wood, plastic, paint, and lots and lots of duct tape. this year's theme was hawaii and featured a volcano in the lobby with working water pump, a surf shop, a pearl harbor battleship, a dock with a pool at the end complete with goldfish, a working water in the north hallway leading to a volcano cave. it was a success.
yesterday in art as experience we listened to some of shoenberg's twelve-tone compositions. towards the end, after bashing it a bit, our professor asked what this music had to do with christianity. i was hoping - naively hoping, wishfully hoping, i suppose - that he would say, despite it being incredibly different and displeasing to most listeners, it was an artistic expression of god given creativity...the composer's expression as a person made in the image of god, in the image of a creator. instead, i was greatly disappointed to hear him arrogantly say that it was an expression of someone without joy and without hope because the music is terrible. i was puzzled...and appalled. maybe there's more behind the writing of the music that i dont know about, the composer's motives, etc, but to say that art you find unpleasant must be an expression of someone without the hope found in christ is incredibly myopic and immature. am i making sense? i dont know. there's more to it than that...but...it's not worth it.
1 more day of classes...hard to believe. all the big projects i've been worried about all semester are finally over and everything wasnt so bad after all.
i have stuff i would like to talk about but i dont feel like it at this point. um. so. have a good day. bye!

there's a freshman on the floor who is my long lost brother. we are both tall and skinny (well, he's skinnier than i am) and lanky, we are both musicians, we both have big nipples, and we both have unibrows. seriously, i saw the size of his nipples the other night, and i got really excited thinking his were bigger than mine. everyone was arguing about it, so we got out a ruler. mine are .6 cm bigger. i was disapointed. oh well. but he's a good kid. he's much cooler than me though.

i have never tasted anything so incredibly awful in all my life. oh my goodness. oh man. you have no idea. and a can of gatorade isnt even taking the taste away. why in the world would you stop making that stuff in pill form?!?

i finally caved in and went to the health center for medicine. the good news is i got 4 cans of gatorade out of the deal. the bad news is the medicine they gave me is syrup. i swear, just smelling the stuff will clear my sinuses just fine. i'm about to take my first dose. i'll let you know how it goes.

its a blah of a day. lots of homework, still feeling sick, open house prep going slowly, feeling a little lonely, just cranky in general, and the father of a kid on my floor died suddenly today. all of that's adding up to a pretty crappy day. i dont know. i think i may go to bed really early tonight.

today was a really great day.
i slept til 11:30 and had a snowy saturday morning...i showered and put on my comfy sweatpants and sat around the room doing homework and stuff.
at 3:00 i left with jared and steve to jam at jared's house. that was really great. we had a drummer which made things fun and i played some accordion and some bass both of which were enjoyable and things sounded pretty fun. jared played his super sprite funmaker 3000 or something like that...a super cool wurlitzer organ. but, yeah, that was a good time. its just fun when a song evolves...one person starts out playing something and slowly everyone joins in and it builds and builds and fades and fades and builds and builds and fades and fades. and then there's always that post-jam silence when the song finally ends..where everyone's just like "wow...what was that?" and it's too beautiful to say anything and ruin it.
the original plan was to have some of mrs. cheek's home cooking..but she was out of town. so we had a feast of frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, breadsticks, cheese-filled pretzel nuggets, doritos, dr. thunder, and fresh strawberry smoothies that were out of this world.
then we went to the josh garrels cd release concert. it was good but we had to leave early so i could work the desk which was a real bummer. one of the songs included an accordion and it was quite beautiful.
ummm yeah so party harty see ya later.

instead of studying for a quiz i have to take in less than 10 minutes, im posting on here.
it's snowing and it's really really nice. it's a good wet snow which makes for lots of fun snowball fights between classes. scott and i went into chapel and then decided to go back outside and pelt the other el ed guys coming from class. we didnt really pelt though...i have terrible aim and throw like a girl. it was fun nonetheless. the sidewalks are 3 inches of slushy water, though, which makes for some wet vans and wet socks.
i suppose there's a chance for the boxer run tonight. im pretty sure i wont be participating this year after my experience last year....nearly passing out and puking my guts out.
off to math. if you're getting the snow, be sure to enjoy it. but be sure to be fully clothed. rolling in the snow in your boxers does weird things to you.
penthouse christmas open house prep also begins this weekend. im a jaded junior and am not really looking forward to it..but hopefully my attitude will improve.
its a pretty great day.
hooray.

it's snowing and it's pretty great.
im working the desk for the 3rd time today. i live here.
that's it basically.

bands of the day are hey mercedes and the album leaf.
temperature is up and doesnt look like snow will be happening.
math is coming along.

just had a little IM chat with brian becker. i miss that kid.
losing touch with old friends is one of the biggest bummers of life.
i saw a kid from elementary school/middle school when i was visiting erica. it was just in passing and erica pointed him out to me and i was much too scared to say hello. maybe out of shame that i didnt care for him in the past - keep in touch, check in, etc - as much as i had wanted to...maybe out of fear of awkwardness...i dont know...there was just a boundary of comfort in not talking that has been moreless established and i didnt feel up to crossing it that day. and it stinks.
well. that's that.

you know it's a good day when you sit at the lunch table for an hour and a half telling stories and laughing. there's not much that is better than that.

weather.com says:

... WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR TONIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING...

SNOW MAY ACCUMULATE 1 TO 3 INCHES TONIGHT... WITH ADDITIONAL ACCUMULATIONS EXPECTED ON FRIDAY. STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF 6 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE.

A WINTER STORM WATCH IS ISSUED WHEN SNOW MAY BE HEAVY WITH SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS. ROADS COULD BE DANGEROUS AND TRAVEL DISCOURAGED....

we went to krispy kreme. we got there at 11:10. they closed at 11:00. we told the lady who was kicking us out that we had driven 45 minutes. it didnt work. we went to steak and shake instead. but it was fun. i guess all in all i was proud of myself for going. lets just hope math homework gets done tomorrow. i finished off a roll of film that has been in my camera since like, the summer, so, it's gonan be a lot of surprising pictures and it will be fun. you dont need to know all of this. im tired. goodnight bloggerland.

so bryce came to pay me a visit just now.
he wants to go to the krispy kreme factory in ft. wayne with yoder and noah.
i've wanted to go to krispy kreme for 2 and a half years.
bryce moves to montana in a month.
ive been tired and sick all day and have been waiting to go to bed since 7:00 AM.
and i have a lot of math homework to do.
but they talked me into it. here we go.

this morning for some reason i decided to try and "be natural" or something like that.
i didn't drink any coffee and i didnt take any cold medicine.
i ran to my room in between classes to get sinus medicine because i could no longer handle not being able to breathe and i was falling asleep miserably by my 12:00 class.
in conclusion, it was a bad idea.

as i was getting ready to go to my ifc meeting, i bent over to tie my shoes, and i pinched a nerve or herniated a disk or cracked a vertebrae in my back or something. honestly...im in a lot of pain. its kinda funny.
i went to the ifc meeting. it was cancelled.
i wasted some time with the boys.
i got excited cuz i thought i was finally gonna get some music from jared, ie: pedro the lion christmas vinyl, coheed and cambria, unreleased unwed sailor material, jared's meeeean christmas mix, and karl blau's reggae version of the nutcracker, but he misleadingly led me out to the parking lot only for me to find that the stuff was in his jeep and his jeep is in muncie and i was left there alone with no music.
then i came back and laid on yoder's couch while he lectured me about stupid sociological family counseling mumbo jumbo stuff.
im thinking about taking the night off from here on out.

taken from amazon.com...

Are you a nervous reck over the constitution?? I was!, December 13, 2001
Reviewer: A reader from Turlock, Ca United States
Hi! I am a twelve year old girl from California and i was verry nervous about the constitutioin test.This book helped me a lot on the test. I was so woried and nervous, but once i read this book, along with If You Were There When They Wrote THe Constitution,I knew i had studied to my full capability! I was so overloaded with information i didn't even need for the test! But all of that studying paid off because ,with the help from this book, I got***********100%*********************! My family was so proud of me. well i didn't just write this review to brag i wrote it to tell you that this book was a great investement for me! also if you are anything like me you will still think you need to study more so you should also buy if you were there when they wrote the constitition.Good Luck!

Sign of the Beaver, November 2, 2003
Reviewer: A reader from Hilton Head Island, SC
This is by far one of the worst books I have ever read. one star is the lowest I could go but I would give it negative ten. I was forced to read this atrocious book in the 4th grade, 4 years later I am still repulsed. Who really wants to read about a boy and a indian tribe.

Yuck! This is the dumest book EVER written, DON"T BY IT!, August 13, 2002
Reviewer: A reader from Richmond, VA USA
I hated reading this book, boring, dull, stupid, pointlessly depressing, and may I add HORRIBLE grammer is what this book is! I can't believe i actually WANTED to read this book. DO NOT READ IT!


kids say the darndest things. i havent laughed so hard in a while.

still feeling pretty sick. didnt get much good sleep last night. trying to prove for the 4th time around that the square root of 3 is irrational and the set of prime numbers is infinite. need to do some other catching up in math class. working for amy this afternoon. groggy. cold. tired. but christmas is coming soon.

holy moly it's cold outside. i dont like winter. give me one good blizzard and get on with spring.
im sorry, but honestly, tasteful christmas decorations is something that indiana still hasnt gotten the hang of. honestly.
on a different note...all these cheezy church signs kinda make me angry...but while i was visiting the lavatory i found out that it's a righteous anger:
matthew 7 from the message says...
"dont be flip with the sacred. banter and silliness give no honor to god. dont reduce holy mysteries to slogans. in trying to be relevant, you're only being cute and inviting sacrilege."
yes! thank you!
and the cheezy step-by-step devotionals to make you the next billy graham:
"dont look for shortcuts to god. the market is flooded with sure-fire, easygoing forumlas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. the way to life - to god! - is vigorous and requires total attention."
yes! thank you!
thats all.

im writing things on my hand so i dont forget them. but i wrote "CD" on my hand and i have no idea why. i cant remember. this is pathetic.

ummmmmmmmmmmm
a kid just came to the front desk and asked if we sold toothbrushes. i laughed. he was serious. i said no, sorry. he asked if the union sold them. i said, i doubt it. he was surprised and disappointed. i was baffled.
happy december hooooray.