I am still alive.

  The capstone proposal is submitted.

  I feel like my life is a runaway freight train with me running behind it holding onto the caboose railing.  But I'm pretty sure God is the engineer, so we should be ok.

  I won first in brown belt kata at the Oklahoma City tournament.  This is a landmark event of my life.  I have been competing with Wansai Ni for 5 years.  This is my first time to win first in anything!

  Should I go visit Erica and do her spring cleaning over spring break or should I go on the BCM mission trip to Shreveport?

  I got a cricket cellphone, free texting and calls.  I don't get the best reception sometimes, but I'm happy with it.  918-933-2303.

  Winterjam was incredible!  My favorites were "Arise My Love" by Newsong, Brandon Heath, and Toby Mac.  Toby Mac was the most incredible performance I have ever seen live, with the possible exception of the laser light show at the Grand Coulee Dam.

  RSU's men basketball team is doing extremely well.  They are ranked number one in the nation for schools their size, have had only one loss the entire season to a team they later beat, and are already in the semifinal round at the conference tournament in Lubbock.  I seriously think they might go to nationals this year!

  I have discovered a good, free puzzle site.  www.jigzone.com  All the fun of puzzles without having to take over the kitchen table!

  Good night all!

Gypsy Lady

  My traveling itch is getting worse.  I drove to the NE campus of TCC today to take the U.S. History II CLEP (passed!) and almost didn't come home.  When I was leaving TCC I got onto Highway 11 East like a good girl, but I wanted to take it West through Sand Springs where it gets smaller and more country like and follows the Arkansas river.  And then on the Will Rogers Turnpike I wanted to keep going into Missouri, but I got off at Claremore like a good girl.  *sigh*  My family doesn't travel much since Dad doesn't like driving (and if he reads this he's going to assume that I don't like being home--not true!)  I don't mind driving by myself but it would be kinda rude to take off with my parents' car.  I'm saving up for a car (I know I'll need one by May if not sooner), and until then I'm kinda stuck here.  If I really begged they would probably loan me a car, but they'll worry about me the whole time.  Maybe I could talk them into letting me and some boys drive to the Brown's this weekend.

  I think I'll go finish my filing.

Lazy ramblings

This is a meandering post of my random thoughts. Proceed at your own risk.

I want to learn how to play this.

I had such a lovely time yesterday! I don't really care for baby showers (they're just so feminime and trivial) and this was a very stereotypical baby shower. So I played with my cousin Sarah's baby Zoey most of the time. I wish I could have taken her home. The good part came after the shower when we just got to visit with Sam, Samantha, Tobin, Erica, Kent, Linda, Adam, Matthew, and Nathan (it gives me warm fuzzies just to write their names out!)

Erica has gained 32 pounds and it's almost all entirely in her baby bump. She's as gorgeous as ever! It still freaks me out to think that she's actually having a baby! I'm insanely excited, too! If it's a boy, his name will be Blake Cameron. I don't care for the name Blake, but if she has a boy I will instantly love the name Blake. If it's a girl, she'll be Molly Jean, carrying on the family name of Jean. :)

Adam went against all of our advice and bought a pick up truck--a huge truck. It's a Dodge Ram, double cab, really nice bed liner, silver, seats 6. I don't think he should have gotten in debt for it, but it is pretty awesome. I forgot to ask him what he named it. He's working two jobs and going to school--typical overachiever Sutherland, I love it. I like his girlfriend Sam more every time I see her.

While we girls were in Texas, Samuel, Ethan, and Joshua went with a bunch of other karate people to the Murrow's Children Home in Muskogee. The famous Zip Taylor was there! Erica, I hope you realize what I unknowningly sacrificed for you! Zip Taylor is old, old school ABKA, and THE kata man. He's helping out at Vicki Rutledge's dojo in Lawton. I think that's a good thing--their kata needs help and Vicki's health isn't going to be getting better. Vicki asked him to help out because she's been having trouble with gangs at her dojo.

I LOVE driving on the Indian Nation Turnpike. It's relatively flat and straight and almost desserted. I went 85 the whole way--Mama wouldn't let me hit 100, even though I really wanted to. Next time, I'm not gonna ask, I'll just wait until she falls asleep. I had a moment of pure joy when I came over a rise, got hit with a lovely view of pasture land and straight road all to Josh Groban singing Panis Angelicus on the I-trip.

I've come down with some kind of throat infection and left my voice in Texas. Poor thing, it's probably cold and confused, trying to hitch it's way North along highway 69. I'm sure it will eventually find me. I still have Whisper with me.

I'm reading Blue Like Jazz right now. I'm really enjoying it. It has deep truths, but it's still very readable.

There are a lot of CDs I need to get, which is rather unusual. Usually I just want specific songs, not the whole album. I want Dark Horse by Nickelback, Fearless by Taylor Swift, Anti-Meridian by Brave St. Saturn, Weezer: The Red Album by Weezer, And Winter Came by Enya, Peace on Earth by Casting Crowns, and the Twilight and Prince Caspian soundtracks. I think I'll space it out throughout my yearly budget, one CD a month. So I should have all of these in a year!

I need to make a point to read some poetry over my break. If you read well, you write well and I'm already nervous about my poetry class next semester.

It's sleeting right now and the low tonight will be 19. Yuck.

Starting tomorrow, I'm job hunting. Jia-o!

Facebook etiquette is confusing. Is it rude to peruse someone's wall? Does anyone read my notes that are a feed from this blog? Do people only read notes in which they are tagged?

Uncle Evan fell off a ladder after Thanksgiving and broke his pelvis. He's home now. Mama called Esther this evening, but I haven't debriefed her yet.

I finished reading Mort by Terry Pratchett. It was stunningly clever. I think I'll read The Color of Magic next, also by Pratchett.

I think I'm going to go play a mindless computer game, read my Bible, and hit the sack. Love y'all!

Contentedness

  I'm curled up on the couch with my laptop and a mug of sleepty time tea.  *happy sigh*

  I'm so glad Samuel talked me into buying a laptop.  It's definitely been worth the investment.  I love my Hermione!

  Tonight was Chloe Cobb's birthday party.  I had so much fun!  I got to visit with Papa Ed, Jason Murry, and Mama.  We talked about drugs, Glock semi-automatics, babies, driving, Dad, Mama's dad, and other sundry topics.  And I danced a lot--Virginia Reel and the Cha-Cha mostly.  Not enough people knew how to swing dance for us to do that.  I would like to learn how to swing dance.  What little I've done, I've really liked.  Some of us did kata to Move It from Madagascar--great fun!  There was a small dance competition--some of us white kids can actually dance, whudda thunk it?  Carrie and Jeremy won, hands down.

  Tomorrow there's a karate demo and gift distribution at the Indian children's home in Muskogee, hosted by Vicki Rutledge.  I know that Samuel, Ethan, Joshua, the Murrys, and the Browns are going, not sure who else.  Pray for them.  This is a really neat ministry opportunity.

  Mama, BonnieJean, Naomi, and I are driving down to Arlington for Erica's baby shower tomorrow.  It's so ridiculous that showers are only for girls, but I won't let my outrage get in the way of seeing everybody.  I love my extended family!

  I love the fact that the price of gas has gone down so much.  It's made me really itch to travel!  Not long trips, but impulsive day trips.  The other day, in the middle of finals, I got the urge to see if I could drive to New Orleans in a day and still have time to see some sights.  I resisted, but, man, it sounds like fun!  That's just one possible destination.  I've never been to Galveston, it's been a long time since I saw the Texas capitol or Alburquerque.  What else is within a day's driving distance?