So Fly Like a G6

Oh my gosh. I finished a semester of college. What a weird thing to say and feel. It wasn’t that hard I guess. I would give myself an A in academics, a B+ in swimming, and a C in social life. I’ve heard before that within those three spheres of college life, it’s possible to be really good at two of them and mediocre at the other, or just be okay at all three. I received A’s in all my classes, so that’s an obvious A. In swimming, I dealt with some injury so I couldn’t do as well as I could have if I was healthy. As for social life, well, I have a few good friends and even though my inner social butterfly hasn’t been fulfilled, I think I’ll survive.

Everyone asks if I’m so excited to go home, especially since I haven’t been since I left several months ago. I don’t know, I am a little I guess? I suppose I’ll realize how much I missed home as soon as I return, but then maybe I’ll start to miss Whitworth. Who knows. I am excited to see the few friends I’ve remained in contact with, and also see some that I’ve been disconnected from. The thing I’ll miss the most at Whitworth over the next two weeks is my baby, my computer! At least I have my laptop; it’s the next best thing. Oh, I guess I’ll miss a few people, too. But I’m also going home to people whom I’ve missed, so I suppose my emotions will balance out.

As for swimming, Steve has been going crazy with the stroke and fly sets. I suppose it’s good for me. My fly has been feeling stronger in just the past week of doing more fly. He also tried to tweak my breaststroke and I ended up tweaking my knee. Wonderful. And my backstroke feels crappy again. I just can’t win! Maybe my body just wants me to do butterfly and freestyle. Greeeaaaatt.

I’m on the airplane now. Free Wi-Fi! Kthx Google Chrome + gogo!

Quickster

Hey all, I'm taking a quick break from studying for finals. I have cell biology and calc 2 tomorrow. I think I'll finish up this semester with a 4.0. I'll be home in two stinkin days. Super duper.

FINALS!!!!!!!1111one+shift11!!

Oh hey.

So Thanksgiving break was such a nice break from school. It was very much needed, as is the swiftly-approaching Christmas break in T-minus one week. While in Oakland, I was able to swim in an outdoor pool which was something I have not had the pleasure of doing since Y nationals. The air was in the 50s, but the pool was heated so it was nice. I also swam in a 25 meter pool one time there, which is something I haven’t done in a while. It was kind of frustrating swimming in the 25 meter pool because the lanes were tiny and I had to share with slow middle aged people who were in awe of my ability to swim butterfly.

Also, Vero fed me super well, and I am still trying to burn off all of the delicious homemade thanksgiving food and desserts that she and John had prepared. I also had a bunch more banana bread with nutella, and ice cream, and chocolate, and like 8 cookies one night. Oh man.

It was really good seeing all my cousins and their spouses, too. Theres nothing like spending a few days eating, socializing, playing card and board games, and sleeping. It took me until my final day there to start doing a bit of homework, which was an ugly self-reminder that I had to return to school the next day.

Since the Thanksgiving weekend was a bit of a swim break, it was interesting getting back into swimming when we resumed practice on Monday. However, we rested that week since we had the big Husky invite that coming weekend. At around the time of the beginning of break, my shoulder started bugging me a little bit again. Since then, I started icing it a lot more since I stopped icing and doing special exercises since my shoulder felt perfectly fine before then. This week, I started doing my exercises again. I also figured out that I was doing something wrong in my freestyle. After I changed my stroke a bit, I noticed that the discomfort was virtually gone and I feld smoother and faster in the water.

You can see the results of the meet here, and the school wrote about us here. Since we didn’t do a real taper, shave, or wear brand new fast suits, we didn’t expect to totally blow the competition away, but we did expect to swim pretty fast. A few people did phenomenal, and most everyone else did very well. As for myself, I was only a few seconds off my best times and I can now see where I need improvement in training. In fact, another swimmer and I approached Steve and asked if we could do a little more stroke in practice since we tend to mostly do freestyle sets. Much to other people’s dismays, we’ve done basically only stroke this week. People hate us. Haha. Ha. Haha. But it kinda sucks because that means I have to do a lot more fly now, which is fun in small amounts I suppose. I just hope Steve doesn’t go crazy with the fly sets now.

School has been a giant ball of stress in my life, simply because we left Thursday morning for the husky invite and returned at 2:30am Monday morning. This weekend left virtually no time for homework or really anything, since the day consisted of breakfast, swimming prelims, napping, and swimming finals. So since Monday, and even currently, I’ve spent nearly all my free time doing homework and a little bit of final review. This explains why I haven’t updated the ol’ blog in so long.

On the bright side, school is almost over for the semester, and Jan term will be refreshing with only one class to focus on, and it should be an interesting class, as well (African life and culture).

Last night was the BJ Christmas party. I wasn’t going to go for very long, but since it sounded so raucous and fun from my room, I stopped by a few times to grab a cookie and hot cocoa, and ended up staying for about 45 minutes at one point to play “musical knees” (which is like musical chairs but the girls were the chairs) and to listen to Christmas stories that Evan, an RA, read to us all with a very animated voice. That was about the only fun I’ve had all week though.

Tomorrow I have my last Calc 2 exam, which I’m ready for. I also have some Chemistry homework due tomorrow which I haven’t looked at yet. Blah there is just so much to do! I was busy doing other homework and studying and lab reports the past few days so that I couldn’t look at the Chemistry. Anyways, I have all of tonight after swim practice to do homework, so I will do just that. Speaking of which…I have to go to practice right now. Stay classy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So Korey and I wasted away last weekend completely on playing Alpha Centauri. For a game that came out in 1999, it’s really freaking addicting. After Saturday morning practice, we came back to the room, played for a while, ate dinner, and then played for a while more. And then the girls and I had another girls night! We watched 27 Dresses which, like all other chick flicks, was so cliché and totally predictable. I’m never going to see a chick flick with an unpredictable ending, it’s just not in the definition.

I am now at my Uncle John and Aunt Vero’s house in Piedmont, California, which is a suburb of San Francisco. It’s awesome here mostly because it’s not snowy and not cold. Don’t get me wrong, I love the snow, but when it gets all gross from cars and gets all over everything, then I like it less. And even though I’m from Wisconsin, where apparently, people here think that means that I’m immune to cold, I could do with a little less cold. Especially walking to and from the pool. I do have a hat though, so my hair doesn’t freeze.

I didn’t even mention how we got snow. Well, you see…it snowed. From the sky. Sometime in the last week. Everyone totally flipped out because we had like a centimeter and they ran outside and had snowball fights somehow. I sat inside like Scrooge and shook my head disapprovingly.

And then, a few days later, some girls from the team were chucking snowballs at our window. Which, by the way, is so dangerous because someone’s window totally broke from that already. Then they came into our dorm, but Korey had locked the door so they couldn’t come in. And then, they pretended to leave, and got someone to pose as Aaron’s voice and Korey opened the door, and the Banshees barged in and put snow in our shirts. Needless to say, I was pleased. Just kidding, I was really angry.

“COME PLAY WITH US,” they shrieked horribly. “NO!” I replied happily. I mean, grumpily. Korey relented and went outside, but I have no shoes for playing in the snow, so I just watched from the window like a total creeper. At some point I suggested that we go to late night to eat thousands of empty calories. Before we left, however, I gave Abby the whitewash of a lifetime, since she had been the one to put snow down my shirt while I was on the computer. How dangerous and insensitive.

They accused me of being grumpy. I have no idea why. But anyways, since we have the Husky invite next weekend, and every year the girls make cool, fancy posters for the guys’ team, my poster has Grumpy the Dwarf on it (from Snow White, duh!). Some people’s offspring…

The snow is awesome and stuff, but walking five minutes to the pool at 5 am when the wind is blowing directly in your face is not awesome, and it is definitely not stuff. I hope someone reading this understood that clever wordplay.

Back to the present, I am now at the house of the Sumnichts of Piedmont. It is great here! They have banana bread. AND NUTELLA! So you can just imagine my pleasure. Oh, and I slept in today, so I feel fantastic. And I am so so so so excited to eat everything in the world in about six hours.

Getting here was a little bit of an experience. I’ve definitely flown before, but not without the guidance of parents. I knew I had to be at the airport early, and that I needed stuff to last me the next few days, and that I needed to get to the airport somehow, and that’s about it. I thought that my flight was at 11:45 am based on what I remembered from checking my flight info about two weeks ago. So on Tuesday night, I double-checked just to make sure. Turns out, my flight was at 5:35 pm. So, having made earlier ride plans, I quickly changed them. Christine brought me to the airport at about 2 o’ clock with Jen, Rae, and Mel. I know, right?

Christine told me that she would pick me up at closer to 1:30 on Wednesday afternoon, so I planned to eat lunch at about 12:30, pack, and be ready to go about then. Turns out she had told the other girls that they would be leaving at about 12:30. I got a text at 12:45 while I was nomming on my pizza and cookies saying that she was coming to get me, so I thought it prudent to return to my dorm room at that point to pack.

I ran back to my dorm room with a box of vitamins I had just received from Stephan because it was cold out and because I was running late. I stormed into my dorm room and threw a bunch of stuff in my backpack and into my Pulaski Dance Team duffel bag. Don’t ask questions. Anyways, I was in a sweaty flurry when Rae and Mel came to my room, and I was pretty sure I had packed everyth-oh wait! Can’t forget the shaving cream. My facial hair had begun to become unruly.

So we got to the airport in plenty of time, spent about 15 minutes finding a parking space, walked through a snowy field only to turn back because we ran into a fence in an attempt to get to the front door of the airport, and we eventually found our way to checking bags. I also printed out my boarding pass! Those are pretty important. I then spent the next several hours watching Seinfeld with Rae and Mel after seeing off Christine and Jen. Then Renae found out that our flight was delayed until 7! So then eventually Mel left, and Renae and I watched How to Tame Your Dragon, or whatever it’s called. Then I got on the flight, yadda yadda, got here, ate some food, talked about myself, and took a nice shower. Went to bed, slept. Got up. Typed blog. Read Theo’s blog. Ate banana bread with Nutella. Spent a few seconds in heaven. Breathed. Bye. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

My Diet is Poor.

I got a letter from grandma today and that just made my day! And encouraged me to steal a few minutes from the day to write another blog post.

The meet last weekend was rough, to say the least. Don’t get me wrong, as a team, we completely destroyed the other teams. One of our team goals is to win the conference meet by over 200 points, which is an insane amount. We won the second dual meet 170-something to 30-something, so I think we’re well on our way. However, personally, I realized that I have only been training for three weeks, and on Thursday I lifted with extra vigor. So, on Friday, I swam the 1000. I kept up with their guy for like a 400 but then the heat of the pool and my numb forearms gave out. I got 4th place, out of 4 people hahahahahahh. Next was the 400 IM, and I got a decent time and won the exhibition heat with a time that would have placed me 4th (out of more than 4 people this time). Then I led off the 200 Free B Relay and we got 3rd.

The next day, we had some crappy hotel food for breakfast, and then took off to arrive at the meet 2 hours early again. Steve loves being early. Andrew likes sitting around for an hour stretching and sleeping, so I guess it kind of works out. I definitely was hurting from the 1000 and 4im the previous day, so my 200IM and 500 free were kind of pretty bad, but not bad in the grand perspective of where I’m at and where I will be down the road. However, I had a solid split in the 400 Free A Relay, and we won that. And as I mentioned earlier, we totally crushed the other team, no offense to them. They were really nice guys!

On the bus ride down to the meet, I was so productive. I spent 3 hours doing my cell bio lab report, which, by the way, is so frickin good. I had better get my ten points! On the way back home, I also did most of my chemistry take-home test. Did I mention that chemistry is going better now? The professor is learning how to teach better, and this was our second take-home test. Sweet.

So, Sunday was an awesome recovery day, and I checked out a new church called Branches which I liked. There are too many good churches here, and I can’t decide which one to consistently attend. The pastor was pretty funny, and apparently he teaches a leadership class at Whitworth. He went on a practiced five-minute imitation of a black revivalist preacher. I laughed. Also, in small group, we read the first two chapters of Jonah. Chapter two is really good, it’s Jonah’s prayer and I really loved the wording of it, you should check it out.

The next day, Steve had prepared a little speech for us. For such a kind, Godly man with a warm smile, he can be completely cold and soulless! He basically told us that we swam crappy at the meet and so he was going to make us do a bunch more distance crap at practice. Also, we upped the weights by a significant amount and got rid of the aerobic circuit. On Monday we did all these 1000s and on Tuesday we randomly pulled out a mile. Oh, and on Wednesday we did all these 400s at a high intensity. He’s killing us! I had a good practice today though. I think I had a backstroke epiphany, because I did 7x200 backstroke descending 1-3 and 4-7 and I swam them really well. I surprised myself.

Tomorrow night, a whole bunch of swimmers have gotten tickets to go see Harry Potter (including me). I’m so excited! I wasn’t really that excited a few days ago when I said I would go with the group, but this last movie provides total closure on the Harry Potter part of my life. I’ve read all the books, and after tomorrow, I’ll have seen all the movies.

Did I ever mention my girls night? Yeah, me and some girls exfoliated and ate pizza and watched “Ten Things I Hate About You”. And I think this weekend we’re going to do back massages and watch “500 Days of Summer”. I hear it’s a must-see. Eeeeek! (that’s my imitation of a girl’s excited squeal)

Look what college has done to me!

In other news, I’m really excited for Thanksgiving break. I’m still doing well in school, but it’s exhausting me mentally and I’m feeling a bit burnt out. So burnt out, in fact, that I just spelled feeling “fealing” the first time. It’ll be nice to rest, enjoy the company of my relatives in California, and only swim once a day. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll study a little bit for finals. But I probably won’t. But I’ll bring my stuff to say I tried.

What else…My mom sent me Alpha Centauri in the mail, which should arrive tomorrow. That’s a really sweet computer game made like ten or more years ago that Korey and I have been getting the itch to play. And a week ago I got cookies, a card, and $20 in the mail from her! Sorry grandma, you’ll have to beat that next time you send me mail.

……………………..kbye!

HVZ

By the beard of Zeus it’s been too long since I’ve updated my life for my loyal viewers and for that I sincerely apologize. I’ve been no busier than usual, just lazier and tireder. More tired. Whatever.

After last Monday’s insane long practice, the rest of the week was also very difficult and tiring. I didn’t sleep more than 7 or 8 hours each night on the weekend, either, so I didn’t recover incredibly well either. Even though it was daylight savings on Saturday night, I was up late playing video games (surprised?) so it didn’t even phase me. Actually, I haven’t even noticed the hour time change physiologically so I guess that’s a good thing.

This week has been very rough, as well. On Monday and Wednesday we did some threshold sets, and I am just dog tired. However, I swam the sets pretty well. Much better than I did the past two weeks. And on Tuesday we did a sprint set and I hit some really good practice times, so that was cool. This morning (Thursday) we did some longer stuff, so it wasn’t too hard but I was dragging on the bottom of the pool anyways.

I found out last night what events I’m swimming at my first real dual meet this weekend. Tomorrow I have to do the 1000 free, 400 IM, and 200 free relay. Saturday I swim the 200 IM, 500 free, and 400 free relay. Maybe I should rephrase that to say that I am privileged to swim those events, but I’m actually going to die. I think I say that too often. But seriously, look at those babies. Frick!

As far as school goes, I very recently created a rough draft of my 4-year plan. I had the help of my advisor’s TA, and it took about an hour, so I was very glad she could help me so I wouldn’t spend four hours of my own time trying to figure out how to create it. At this point I am going for a biology major and a chemistry minor. I was considering going for a Spanish minor, and it could still be a possibility, but my credit load might simply be too full to do it. I really like Spanish, which is why I would want to do it, and I could take classes just for personal enrichment and not for a minor, but then it would feel sort of pointless.  Regardless, I have to take a proctored Spanish exam at some point to test out of the modern language requirement, so I should brush up on my skills at some point.

Nothing else is really that new, I’m sorry if I’m getting a bit boring. I’ve fallen into a routine, and getting up at 5 isn’t as bad as it used to be.

Actually, the past two days, it has been kind of rough to wake up early, because it’s been hard to get to bed early. Our campus started this thing called Human’s Versus Zombies, or HVZ. Basically, this one guy started as a zombie and about 450 people started as humans. When zombies tag humans, they incubate for 3 hours and become zombies who can tag other humans. However, humans can neutralize zombies for 15 minutes with a nerf gun or a balled up sock. I think it’s ridiculous but kind of funny to watch, too. The way I figure, since I’m not participating, I can’t technically be “killed” by a zombie or “neutralized” by a human. I’m actually invincible. I like it.

But the downside is that people are running around screaming until the wee hours. And when you go to bed at 10, 11 is a wee hour. It’s so annoying.

Anyways, next semester I am probably taking chemistry, biology, revelations, and core. Doesn’t sound too bad. For Jan term I’ll probably try to take mask making, drawing, or making glass in a kiln! I gotta get that art elective out of the way at some point.

I’ve been healthy, except that I am tempted by the pizza more often than I should be, which should be never since it’s so greasy. My room is messy, but it’s okay. My clothes are really clean! I was going through a crisis of having wrinkly clothes, but then I went out and got some fabric softener and fabric softener dryer sheets and bleach so the last load I did was so fresh.

I just thought of something cool I did. Last Sunday night, this dude originally from Spokane came to Whitworth to play some music. His name is Tyrone Wells, and he’s actually kind of a big deal. One of his songs was played in Grey’s Anatomy, if that impresses anyone. I like his music, and he played pretty well live. He was preceded by Noah Peller and Jessemac, who are guys from Whitworth. Noah is actually basically the best RA/bass player in the world. And the other guy who actually sang the songs was really good, too. What an exciting day for music.

I downloaded Tyrone’s music from a friend who bought the cds, so now I can bask in his sound. Yay! Alright, that’s all I got for now. I’ll try not to space the next update so far apart, sorry! BYE!

Whitworth Dominates This Conference...ARRR!

Sorry again for the long length of time between this post and my last. I was reminded that my blog even existed by my good friend Quinn Mason, who gave me a shout out in her blog so I guess I should give people something to read.

Last weekend was pretty awesome at Coeur d’Alene. The big gooeys were pretty delicious. Matt Brody and I shared the Big Bash, which is cake batter ice cream with frosting swirls topped with strawberries, fudge sauce, and pieces of chocolate cake. Sounds glorious, right? Well, our table was basically the last table served, and since our party was about 60 people strong, they were out of goblets, so we got ours served in like a soup bowl. Also, after later viewing some people’s pictures, we got ripped off on ours since we only got 2 small pieces of chocolate cake and others got 5 or 6. What the heck! Whatever, it was still super tasty.

Also, might I add that the scenery there was beautiful? We arrived there at nighttime, but there were spans of gardens and the lakefront was gorgeously bathed in moonlight. Too bad I didn’t have a date. Actually I had Matt, so I guess that works out.

I suppose last week was also my first week where I was able to do pretty much normal practices. I did all the lifting and swimming that everyone else did, and by Thursday, I was able to do all the dryland stations that use pecs minus pushups. We also had some hecka hard sets on Monday and Tuesday. I got no break from being out of shape, so I was thrown right into some threshold type sets on those days. I was pretty beat by the end of the week…I guess I still am. Actually, I guess I never feel not beat until taper comes around, but I don’t want to throw that word around just yet.

Last week was also some more midterms and stuff for other people, not me hahahhaha. But I did find out my Animal Biology grade, and it was rather pleasant. I have another calc exam in 2 days which will be kind of rough since we’re doing some really long problem types right now.

So, on to the meet. If you want to view results, click here. The sprint meet sucked big time, because for one I’m not a sprinter and for another I was so very dead tired. The relay meet was a little better; Korey, Oliver and I won the 300 IM Relay and I split 2 seconds faster than I did in the 100 IM the previous day. Also, my 900 free relay with Austin and Squeak got 2nd. Funny story, so I tried to catch the Whitworth A team, and I almost did, but after taking out the first 100 really fast, I was like, “oh yeah, I’m not in shape”, and I died.

To be fair, I’m not really that out of shape. Today we had a 4 hour swim workout which included about 14000 yards (a little more, actually), and I was able to pull out a little extra at the end. I’m so sore though. And it’s really weird, because I only ate a power bar before the workout, and after the workout I just had some Cytogainer and a bowl of cereal and an apple and that was it. And I haven’t eaten yet since then. And I probably burned like 5000 calories. Oh well, I’ve been getting a gut anyways. They fed us Domino’s pizza after the sprint meet, so I think I just used all of my fat stores on the practice.

Or maybe I grew chloroplasts so I don’t need to eat as much because I now get a lot of my energy from photosynthesis.

Guess what, Avatar: The Last Airbender is an awesome show. I started watching it yesterday, and I just finished season 1. You should probably watch it, too.

Okay that’s all I got for ya…PEACE! Actually I hate saying peace, that’s not me. How about, FAREWELL!

Coeur d'Alene

I’m still alive and well, don’t worry! I know it’s been a while (like six days!) since I’ve last updated. That volleyball game was so intense! Even more than the previous one.

The team that they played was tied with them for the top spot in the conference, and it was apparent as they played that they were evenly matched in skill. Our ladies won the first game, lost the next two, and powered through to win the fourth game. In the fifth game, the victor has 15 points as opposed to the normal 25, so this game was a bit more fast paced. The score was tied at 15-15 and Whitworth scored a point. However, because of some stupid technicality, the point was taken away. Stupid. Then, the other team scored a few points and won.

It was so sad! All of us swim guys had gone to the pool to put on our speedos so that we could streak around after they had won, but I guess that will have to wait until the next game. A few guys on the team know a few of the volleyball players and they’ve said that they are for sure coming to support us at our swim meets, so that’s really cool! We supported them very well, and actually, some guys from Mac (Whitworth’s version of a frat house but not quite the same) also painted up and helped us root them on.

After the game, Costco had a special night for Whitworth students, so Korey and I got a ride from Devon and we totally loaded up on food. I only spent $63! So now I have industrial amounts of food. And I forgot my underwear and shirt in her car, but don't worry about that story.

Last week was also midterms, but I only had them in one of my classes. In calc and chem, I had some tests two weeks ago, and I did fairly well on them, but in biology I had my second lecture exam and cumulative lab final on Wednesday and Thursday and I think that they went pretty well, too. Yay!

Another significant happening this week is, once again, the recovery of my pec! It felt really good on Monday, so I swam an hour instead of the recommended 40 minutes. However, that, along with lifting, made me pretty sore the next day. But I swam again on Tuesday, and I swam for only about 40 minutes Wednesday, so then my pec felt really good Thursday again, so I swam a whole practice! Surprisingly, I’m not that out of shape and I’m relatively close to where I used to be. Well, in freestyle. I can’t mix in any other strokes until next week. Today (Friday), I was really sore from yet another deep tissue massage I endured yesterday, but probably also from swimming a full practice. Oh, and also I’m probably really sore from lifting yesterday too, because we did some high-weight stuff. Rory made me leg press 550 pounds, and I’m not exaggerating. I think I broke my ankles. Just kidding, they’re fine now.

So, next weekend is our first swim meet, and it’s a little sprint meet thing. I think that by next weekend I should be at about 100%, but I’m supposed to try to sprint either at tomorrow’s practice or next Monday to see if I can handle sprinting. I know that I can handle intense swimming, but maybe not quite sprint intensity. But we’ll see. I really hope I can do the meet, even though it’s not a huge deal.

Tonight there is this haunted house in Mac that is apparently usually pretty legitimate actually. I guess you’re supposed to wear a costume to it, but I don’t have anything but my speedo. Speaking of dressing up, our team does “fancy Fridays”, where we dress up fancy on Fridays (obviously). I don’t have that many fancy clothes though, so I have to go and buy some, sometime.  I’ve just worn sweats…I think those are pretty fancy.

Also, tomorrow, the team is going to dockside in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which is this place that has these things called big gooeys, which are giant bowls filled with 5000 calories of joy. The entire two weeks I just spent working my butt off were all for naught. Kbye!

MOOOONEY

Hello everyone! My calc exam went well yesterday. So did practice(s). I’m still recovering from the massage though, like it feels like I got punched so hard like 5 times in the same spot! Ice is totally the answer though. And I started taking ibuproFUN 3x per day to alleviate swelling and pain, but only for 10 days so I don’t die.

Today was Saturday practice. Crazy, right? Saturday practice on a Saturday? Anyways, it was lactate day, so I sat around and drank milk and ate yogurt. Sorry, bad joke. But really, I did have yogurt after practice. And I swam warmup and used fins  and just kicked really, really fast for the lactate set, which has now made my legs sooooo sore and tired. I probably should nap today, but there are so many worthwhile things to do, like things that are totally a waste of time but oh so much fun!

Last night, a majority of the swim team went to cheer on the volleyball girls. We got eleven guys (including me!) to paint up, and spell the word “Volleyball!”. I was an “L”. Everyone else who didn’t paint was lame and just wore clothes. That paint is really itchy and peely too. I’m pretty sure that if you add baby shampoo, it makes it smoother.

Anyways, we all crowded into Kalen’s hippie van, and it was really crowded and uncomfortable. And we were late, so we went kinda fast. We ran in screaming though, and stood on the side opposite the fans so they could admire our handiwork, and, of course, so that the volleyball girls would see us better.

I had never gone and watched an intense volleyball game before, other than seeing a few rounds in the Olympics of the 2v2s for beach volleyball. It was actually fun to watch. Our girls are really good at volleyball! For those of you who don’t know, in order to win the game, three rounds of up to five total rounds must be won with 25 points, or by margin of two if it comes down to the tie near 25. The girls won the first round. The second round was super crazy! The girls were down 20-24, game point, and then they scored and totally caught up to the other team (PLU). However, they didn’t win with 26 points. Or 28. The game went on until the winning score was 29-31, Whitworth. It was so epic that I got goosepimples. Then, PLU kinda sorta gave up a little bit and Whitworth took the third game home.

I guess it’s tradition that we cheer on the volleyball girls every year so that they come to our two home meets and support us back. As master Rory Buck says, “If you want a friend, be a friend.” I’m sure someone else quoted that first, so if you ever say it, don’t give that South African scoundrel the credit.

Tonight is another volleyball game against a team that is at the top of the conference along with the Lady Bucs. It shall be intense and sweaty, and we’ll be there all painted up again! That’s actually where I’m headed now.

iEstoy Cansado!

Stephan thinks that since I haven’t updated the blog in a week, I’ve “stopped” blogging. False. What happened was that I “started” swimming. The quotation marks are necessary in both cases. In the latter, it’s because I started swimming for 10 minutes on Monday, and I also did the weight circuit and 45 minutes of biking plus doing rehab exercises at the trainer. But overall, very little real swimming took place.

Forty-five minutes of biking is boring, makes me really sweaty, and makes me lose feeling in my bum for about 5 minutes after I get off.

Also, don’t underestimate the term “rehab” as doing a bunch of stuff with 2lb dumbbells. They weigh three pounds. No, but seriously, I have to do 30 reps of seven different stretch band exercises, and they make my shoulders burn like no other and I pour sweat.

Each day this week, I’ve done +5 minutes a day of swimming in order to build up my strength and endurance. There is no pain in my pec, but there has been some inflammation in my biceps tendon outside of the water (though it is no problem while I swim). However, there is definitely a tugging sensation in my pec since the scar tissue is still present and not fully broken down yet.

This morning, I went to the chiropractor/massage therapist again, and got tortured again, but it wasn’t quite as bad as last time. I got my front worked extra well, so I was kind of inflamed so I ice cupped it up just now.

In other news, school is still going quite swimmingly I’d say. I had a chem exam yesterday that I felt pretty strong on, and a calc exam tomorrow that I have to do some reviewing for. Also, next week is the second (and final) animal bio lecture exam, and the cumulative bio lab exam. That’s hardcore. But I think I’ll be prepared for it.

For those of you who read my blog like it’s your daily bread, and can’t get enough of me, you can set up a twitter account and follow me @swimnicht. I think that’s my screen name. Yeah, cause that way, you can see all the interesting things I think about or have the need to express during the day.

Honestly, nothing that fascinating has been happening lately, which is okay by me because swimming is taking enough of a toll on me. I took a 3 hour nap on Tuesday, which was glorious. Also, I’m eating a lot of food which is so awesome. OH! And today or tomorrow I think I should be getting a highly anticipated care package from mommy with dress shoes and winter hats and my pro ball-mouse, so then I can play DotA really well again and be warm and stylish all at the same time! I hope that made sense. Probably not.

Shout out again to Grandma and Grandpa! I love you guys and hope you’re doing amazing!

blahghg

Well, I can’t come off as happy and chipper in all of my postings because that would be an inaccurately reflection of myself. I’m kinda bummed right now because of my pec, which has become quite the motif if you haven’t noticed.

I dare believe it’s true because of the mental aspect of healing, but I feel that swimming on Tuesday may have been detrimental to the process. I mentioned I was sore after swimming. However, after heating and stretching in the trainer’s the next day, I felt able to do all of the exercises well enough.

On Thursday, I got my deep tissue massage and IT WAS PAINFUL. It wasn’t a day-in-the-spa type of deal, no way. She got all up in there! She seriously stuck her fingers inside my body and squeezed my neck and skull in weird attachment points and made me whimper and cry. I was like, “oh, I’ll be sore for a few days after, but it’s okay because then I’ll feel better after I recover. It’s Saturday and I’m still sore and I actually had a knot in my back for a few days, but that’s gone now.

Cheree explained to me that I will now begin to build up my endurance by doing stuff with higher reps with the stretch bands, and then eventually, I will do lower reps and higher resistance to build more strength and power. The crappy thing is that we start season on Monday and she gives me about two more weeks until I’ll be able to swim unrestricted.

On Monday, I only get to swim for 10 minutes and then I have to sit on the bike and do other lifting and dryland stuff. Oh, and I have to do it during morning practice….and maybe the second practice too, which I hope isn’t the case because that would feel like overkill on my legs. But, who knows. Today, Steve is talking with Cheree to get an idea of what her plan is for me. But I’m kind of disappointed.

On the bright side, I’ve been getting quite the number of letters lately! I got one from Ceci and Snobells, and Gma and Gpa! And I wrote Gma and Gpa back, so you guys should expect a letter to come within the next week. I didn’t write the animals back because they’re too dumb to read or do anything else.

And school is going well.  I can’t believe it’s two weeks from midterms. Crazay. 

Season Starts Soon.

My oh my it has been so long since I’ve last updated my loyal following from the US, Canada, and Germany. Represent! Anyways, since my memory on trivial events isn’t that great, I’ll highlight the…uh…highlights, I guess, from the past week.

As I stated, I had calc and bio exams, and I basically bashed them on the bridge of the nose. However, chemistry is still the bane of my existence. The class itself hasn’t gotten much better, so I’m going to see about switching sections or something. I’m at least going to talk to my advisor about it. We have another chem exam next week, which made my stress vs. time graph shoot through the roof. I illustrated one this morning. Basically, if I integrate it from 5^th grade to next Wednesday, I’ll have the approximation on my shortened lifespan.

This weekend was more or less not raucous at all. On Friday night/Saturday morning (it’s hard to judge when your “night” goes until 4am), I did some rather mellow activities. I got about 7 or 8 people in my room to watch Prince of Persia until about midnight, and then I went to the swim house to play some DotA until 4, when I returned to my room for slumbering purposes.

Oh yeah, last Friday, Korey also had a pre-frosh/swim recruit. I felt bad sort of because I didn’t really talk to him (Nathan was his name) or hang with the team, but I wasn’t the one getting paid so then I felt less bad hahahaha. Anyways, he seemed pretty cool, but I just think it seems really early to visit but that’s probably because I did my visits until rather late in the academic year.

On Saturday, I slept for a while, then went to Goodwill to buy some clothes for the following day. You see, our guys small group thought it would be a good idea to go roller-skating with a girls small group on Sunday evening. At this roller-skating place, it was to be a retro-themed eve, and so we determined it would be to our best interests to wear dazzling suits of style and poor 70s fashion. At Goodwill I bought this nice caramel-brown suit and a bright purple and blue collared shirt for underneath, all for about 8 dollars. What a steal!

The rest of the day I spent not doing much in particular; so little, in fact, that I can scarcely remember doing anything at all. I played some Guitar Hero, whence I stretched my skills by playing on hard. Also, at midnight, about 7 guys and I went out to a place called Shari’s for pie and hot chocolate (SO good), and then we went to delinquently chill at this construction site for deep man talk. The sky was so clear and the moon was huge, yellow, and waxing. ‘Twas beautiful. The night was titled “Riley’s Bro-mitzvah”.

That night was pretty good for sleep, considering I got to bed at 3:15 and woke up at about 9:50 to get ready for church. The church I went to was one that AJ went to last week and he liked. I thought it was okay, not bad, whatever. It was a college-age group which was cool but I think there are better churches, in my opinion. After the service we went to a really really nice neighborhood and had lunch in this really nice house.

When I got back to campus, I had to (first, take care of some bathroom business, and then) go to my small group for bible study-age. After that, I slept from about 3-6:15 because I was so dog tired from not sleeping. Then, I got ready for skating.

Skating was pretty cool I guess, but roller skates are so awkward, so I switched to inline roller blades which was more what I’m used to. I only wiped out once because I was trying to do a 360. It wasn’t embarrassing because I stood up tried to look really cool and smooth. Just kidding, I was embarrassed.

As far as the “small group date” aspect goes, it was kind of a failure because only one girl from their small group showed up to our 7 or so guys, so the small group girls leader invited some of her friends. It was fun anyways though, and the roller-skating place had REALLY good pizza.

This week is going pretty well. Chem lab was rather painful but shorter than last week. My pec is getting stronger from rehab and it felt really good yesterday, so I decided to swim, like 700 yards even after stepping it up in rehab with more exercises. In retrospect, this wasn’t that good of an idea because I was sore last night and a bit today from that. I’m really anxious for my massage tomorrow.

I think I forgot to mention my massage. Last week Thursday, I went to this place called Advanced Health Chiropractics or something along those lines, and I got some Active Release Therapy (ART) and some cold laser on my pec, along with getting my back, shoulder, and neck cracked. I felt so good after that. I have a deep tissue massage and appointment to get it worked immediately after, tomorrow morning. I’m really hoping that that will go a long way with me and that I will be able to do some swimming without discomfort next Monday, because that’s when the season starts. Cheree, the trainer, said that at the very least I’ll be doing restricted practices next week. But still, it’s kind of like a big UGH that I’ve been trying to recover this stupid thing for so long.

Anyways, that’s my life, how’s yours?

Yay Homecoming...not

Funny how easy it is to not update the ol blog. Hazing was pretty nuts. Well, first, all the swimmers went to Pirate Night, which was a banquet full of rich people who auctioned several, overpriced items for our benefit. There, we cleaned up the rich peoples’ dinners. On our way back, Aaron’s car stopped at Safeway to buy some fruit, because each person needed a fruit for the evening. I bought a cantaloupe.

We arrived at the pool a little late, but it’s okay, because we were made to wait around for 30 minutes anyways. When Dan showed up, he first gave us a disclaimer and offered a way out if we didn’t want to do something so that it wasn’t REALLY hazing. Then, he yelled at us for a while and had us leapfrog to the baseball field, which was kinda far. Then we had to carry Austin to “Touchdown Jesus” which is a statue by the football field. Then, we turned our sweatshirts around, lined up with hands on each other’s shoulders, put our hoods over our faces, and were guided around for a while.

When we finally got somewhere, we spun around then lined up again and walked some more. We finally arrived at the bottom of this huge sandy hill. We had to climb it while staying connected to each other. It was kinda hard but not too bad. After we all made it to the top, we were taught the team cheers. Then it was back with the hoods, more walking, and then we were all shoved into cars.

The drivers cranked up the heat, drove around for 15 minutes, then brought us into a basement. There, we removed our shirts and received frosh names, unceremoniously sharpied on our chests. Mine was “frosh if you like it put a ring on it”.

Remember how I told you about Morgan the cutie pie girl I taught for swim lessons? Well, someone was like, “Andrew, your girl for lessons is sooo cute!” And I’m all like, “I know right? I’ll probably marry her. I can wait 13 years!” So that’s kinda creepy, but that’s how I earned my name. Please don’t think less of me.

After this, we drove back to campus, which was only 30 seconds away since the earlier 15 minute car drive was in circles around the campus. We went behind the pool building, where we met the girls to share our names with them and to teach the freshmen girls our cheers.

After that, the girls left, and the guys stayed to do some more random crap. We did an egg toss, burst balloons with our bodies, (some people) put on frozen T-shirts, and that was it. Notice that this whole time, we never did anything with our random fruits. I carried that cantaloupe around for 4 hours. I was so mad at it, that I threw it on the ground and cursed its existence.

I was freezing, so I sprinted back, then slowed down because I’m out of shape, jogged the rest of the way, and took a hot shower and went to bed. On Saturday we woke up early to see Kevin Wang’s hall of fame induction, which was pretty special because that dude is a beast. Then there was the alumni meet.

The alumni meet has a rich tradition of the alumnic always winning through various methods of cheating. For the most part, all they did was false starts, freestyle instead of other strokes, relays during individual events, and really, really false relay starts.  It was a good time though. Some of those old guys can still swim really fast.

As I returned to BJ from the pool to take a nap and rest my weary body, some guys were like hey, you should body paint for the football game! And I’m like nooookay! So I watched half of the football game, which they won, then watched some soccer, which they tied. After that I went back to BJ and made some more crappy banana bread and I was so mad that it didn’t turn out well, you have no idea. Then I did laundry.

That evening was the homecoming dance, which I didn’t go to because I was just so tired and I don’t like dances that much any more unless I have sufficient dancing energy. Instead, I went to the bonfire for prime time and after about an hour I got dragged away by some swimmers to go star tripping. Star tripping is fun.

I went to bed and slept for a while.

Sunday, I went to church again, ate chili again (YUM), and did some studying and stuff. I can’t remember what else I did. Nothing spectacular.

On Monday, I went to the trainer to get some stuff done for my pec. I heated it, stretched, did some range of motion exercises, and did some stretch cord exercises. I’ll be doing this every day for the next few weeks. Also, I need to arrange to get some deep-tissue muscle massages twice a week which I’m kind of excited for.

Today there was a calc test which I’m pretty sure I dominated, and there’s a lecture exam in bio Friday which I’m not too worried about. I’m still worried about chem though, so I think I’ll have a chat with the professor tomorrow.

I Gotta Feelin'

Today is such a good day. But first I’ll talk a little bit about yesterday.

Well, I started to do all kinds of pain and I started to feel all kinds of pain in my pec. Just kidding, it wasn’t that bad, but I started to feel the strain a little early on into the practice so I hopped out and did about 20 minutes of squats,  lunges, and abs nonstop while everyone did that plus the swimming part of the set. The all kinds of pain set was 30 x 100 swimming at about 90 percent effort. The rest between each 100 was a dryland exercise. The first was 25 abs, the next was 10 block pullups, then 25 abs, then 10 pushups or dips, then 10 lunges or squats. Repeat six times. Not gonna lie, it looked pretty fun.

Anyways, I got some ice and went back to the pool to watch for awhile and wait to teach my lesson. I forgot if I mentioned this earlier or not, but our team fund raiser is swim lessons, just like we did for our high school team. I had a cute little 5 year old girl named Morgan, and she is so cute! I taught her for 30 minutes Monday through Thursday and she went from not even being able to put her face in the water to swimming a 200 butterfly. Just kidding, but she did show a lot of progress. She was able to jump in and pop up all by herself by the end though, and her mom was pretty happy so I done good.

After lessons and dinner, we had our sports physicals which was a huuuuuuuge pain. It was two hours of sitting around and getting different measurements and tests and stuff. I’m kinda stoked because my wingspan was 6’4” which is apparently “abnormally long” and means I could grow taller! Then I got a hernia check cough cough which is always awkward.

Let’s see, then I procrastinated on homework from about 8 til 12, then I did some, and went to bed.

Today I’m going to visit Cheree, our trainer, to have my pec evaluated. Now it’s legal since I’ve had my physical. I’m also not going to swim today because rest makes it feel awesome, but I’ll probably lift.

Oh right, here’s why this morning was phenomenal. I’m not one to brag, but I’m going to really quick, so brace yourselves. I scored a 100 on my first chem test, and this girl who I’ve been corresponding with about banana bread gave me like half of a loaf of her finest make. It is SO good. But, and I’m sorry Theresa, I think Nathan Freier has the best recipe out there, and it is now in the cusp of my authority. (I’m not sure if that makes sense but I just wanted to use the word cusp) Tomorrow I plan on making some and I’m really excited for that.

Tomorrow is also the Alumni meet, which shall be interesting to say the least, and tonight is hazing. Very nice!

Banana Bread Love

Yeah this week has been pretty average I’d say. I got sick a few days ago which is really annoying. I’ve been popping Echinacea pills every now and then but I really, truly believe that it’s not doing anything.

On Tuesday, all new students (with the exception of those who slept in) took part in Community Building Day, which was about as fun as it sounds. It was dumb because we had to wake up soooo early to make it to our first-year seminar groups at 8. We all hopped onto our buses, and there were a lot of buses. It was about a 15 minute drive, and I think the driver got lost twice which is kind of embarrassing, and then we got dropped off in some random alley in a slightly-less-than-upper-middle-class part of town. Someone said we were “going to some sketch place to pick up trash” and that was about one eighth a true statement.

This cowboy dude who I’m just going to call “Doc” was there to tell us what to do. There were about 40 or so on our bus and we split into groups of four-ish and took different roads off the main street, along with short segments of Main Street. We were to pick up trash and generally clean up the roads and sidewalks.

My group took a road, and we started sweeping leaves and dirt off the curb. I was like, seriously?! We’re sweeping dirt off the ground!?? But whatever, I did it with a cheesy, fake smile on my face. Actually I was probably scowling because I was tired and sick.

The roads were actually pretty clean to begin with. The area, called Hillyard, had received a $17 million grant that they used to redo the streets and sidewalks so it was all in all a pretty nice area. There was still a fair amount of litter though, and as we walked down Main Street, we found this alley with like a billion cigarette butts, and we picked up all of those butts. Hopefully the hooligans that smoke in that alley will note the err of their ways after seeing this new cleanliness and will stop tossing their butts where they please. But that probably won’t happen.

Doc stopped by our group twice in all of his cowboy glamour, and gave us donuts and muffins and water and stories. He’s basically like the sheriff and self-proclaimed town dude who gives kids lollipops and makes small talk to every resident. He has a Ferris wheel. And a really old building.

After that, I had swimming and lab. Wednesday was boring, except that we made banana bread for the first time. Aaron drove us to the store to get ingredients, oh and I also replenished my snack stock. When we made the bread, it was gone in one minute within taking it out of the oven. I was like what the heck. It wasn’t that good anyways, so I think that next time (tonight), we’re going to add one more banana and cook it for less time. I’m pretty excited.

Another interesting thing was “fake out make out”, which was the prime time event. There were a few sheets of plexiglass, and the RAs would spread peanut butter or nutella on either side, and two people would have to lovingly eat it off of there. I was forced into it twice, and it was extremely awkward. So awkward. Wow.  Tasty though, and fun to watch. But wow.

Today we have a set at practice that is called all kinds of pain. Fun. I have a lab right now. Tomorrow the freshmen swim boys are getting hazed. Sweet. Ta ta for now (TTFN).

Good news!

This post is going to be quite short. I'm really excited because over the weekend, my pec started feeling alot better, and today, i was able to do 9 200s pretty hard and they all felt good! Nobody probably cares but I'm really happy and excited about it. Is anyone even reading about my life anymore? Oh well, it's still like a journal.

Rainy Weekend

Saturday. Weekend. Time to sleep in and not do much else. Which is what I did. Actually, the team had “team-building” in the afternoon, so I guess that counts for something. I rolled out of bed at about 10:30 and Korey and I grabbed breakfast before the BBQ. I had a huge breakfast, including pancakes, eggs, a biscuit, and copious amounts of fruit. Then we walked over to the pool for the BBQ.

On a quick side note, I realize that my grammar hasn’t been shiny or polished, but I’m just writing how I think and talk. That may also explain why some things you read on my blog make absolutely no sense.

Anyways, after waddling over to the pool all plumped up from breakfast, we had the BBQ, which wasn’t really a BBQ but rather was an enormous order of pizzas. Even though I was entirely bloated, the pizza smelled SO good, so I had a piece. Actually two. And a ton of veggies. Then, Steve made a speech to get us jacked for the season before we did teambuildings.

For teambuilding, we first did a little icebreaker/fun fact type activity, and then we went outside to do a more challenging activity. All of the freshmen and transfers (which, I think the only transfer is Austin but I could be wrong) went to one side of the rope, and everyone else stood on the other. This rope, however, was about six feet off the ground. All of us noobies had to cross to the other side while touching each other. The older kids helped us bodysurf the first few people over, and then we continued doing that until there were three left. Actually, we failed two times by touching the rope, so this whole event took close to 30 minutes. I was one of the last four people, and I got surfed over, and then two people boosted over the third whilst touching feet with freshmen on the other side. The last two people required assistance from people on the crossed side, and then everyone was happy, yay.

That was the official end of team building, but then a bunch of people decided that we should play lap tag. I had never heard of this game, and I wish I had because it is actually really fun. Basically, everyone pairs up and one person sits in front of the other, except for one person who is alone. That person calls the names of two people who are in front of their partner. These people must race to get to the lone person, while their partner has to try to stop them. If these people are having great difficulty, the lone person may call others to try to race over. Then it starts all over again. It’s basically an excuse to wrestle. We played for like two hours! So we finished, grabbed some of the extra pizzas, then headed back.

Korey and I finally got our fridge right after that, and we also had gotten our couch the day before (did I already mention that?). However, we had to wait a day to plud in the fridge for some reason, so we let the pizza sit out for awhile and it got pretty stanky in our room. It’s okay now though, it’s in the fridge and it’s chilled.

To celebrate the previously mentioned event of getting a couch, we had a movie night with some people on Friday.

Saturday night, some of the swimmers though it would be fun to “do downtown”, which initially meant to go get dessert somewhere and check out some shops. What ended up happening was kind of similar.

About twelve of us freshmen piled into two different cars, and used Vegas’ iPhone directions to get us to this place called the Chocolate Apothecary, which was supposed to be the best dessert place in town. Also, nobody in the group was from the area, and Spokane is a big city.

We eventually found this place called the Flour Mill, which was this three story shopping center. From the outside though, it looked like some weird restaurant, because the top floor was at ground level and the other stories went downwards. Inside the Flour Mill was the Chocolate Apothecary, and guess what, it wasn’t open Saturdays and it was only open until like 7 most other nights. Riddle me this, what kind of dessert place is closed at what would be the most popular times?!?!!?!?!

Anywho, we googled the next popular dessert places, and discovered that Baskin Robbins and DQ were the next hottest locations. We decided to go ahead and pass on those options and instead, we attempted to navigate towards the mall area. We found a parking space, and walked down the sidewalk until we discovered this fancy pants restaurant that was actually too expensive for us, so we left. As we kept walking, we discovered this little coffee shop that we decided would be good enough. They had decent desserts I suppose; I got chocolate cake. It was okay.

When we left, we had no idea what we were doing, but we walked into this big six-story shopping mall. Actually, the top three stories were all dedicated to the movie theater. It was still pretty big though, with a lot of escalators. On a whim, we decided to watch a movie called The Town, which I wouldn’t recommend watching. Apparently it has good ratings, but not from this guy. The ending reminded me of the movie “Logan’s War”, if anybody has seen that, which I doubt anybody has except for James or Mitch. Or Teddy maybe?

After that, we ventured back home. However, we split off in a different direction from the lead vehicle because, apparently, we were going on an adventure at 12 o clock. Oh yeah, and I was sitting in the trunk because the car was overloaded. This adventure included flying over this huge construction bump in the road, which gave me like a foot of air and a concussion/spine fracture. After taking a few random turns and going straight on this one road for like fifteen minutes, during which the driver thought she should have turned on a couple of roads but whimsically decided not to, we somehow came to Whitworth. It was seriously the craziest thing ever. It was so surprising. We’re driving, and all of a sudden we were there without even trying to be. It was a miracle.

Yeah, then I went to bed.

The next day, I tried out this other church, and I really liked it. It smelled really good like candles and cinnamon and stuff. The style of it all was pretty comfortable too. I like!

Oh, going back, another thing that happened Saturday was that we had a small group meeting with our small group leader. I should explain. So, a few weeks ago, I filled out a sheet saying I wanted to do be in a bible study, and so did the other guys that I am now in a small group with. So we met up and decided we’re gonna go through Ephesians and maybe a C.S. Lewis book, meeting Sundays at 2. Cool beans.

Yeah but then Sunday, I can’t remember what else happened because nothing else really did. I lifted. My pec feels pretty good right now.

Quick shout out to Quinn Mason. She is going to produce and direct really famous movies one day. George Lucas and James Cameron will be inferior beings compared to the works that she will masterfully piece together. And she has brown hair, and uhhh she goes to USC. Shout out over.

This week might be boring, but some fun stuff might happen too. I’ll keep y’all posted.

Oh hey

I love Calc II. Not because math is so cool and stuff, which I don’t believe, but because of the people in it. There are often several kinds of people in a class: brown-nosers, quiet geniuses, people who just want to sit there and learn, people who don’t want to really learn, and people who sincerely believe that they know more than their teachers. The last category I mentioned is my favorite and is what makes class so entertaining. I won’t mention names, but if you’re reading this, you know who are you are and I love you for how you are. Once again, I don’t want to poke fun, but seriously kid, the most complicated answer is almost always not the best answer, and is rarely even correct. Okay, enough about that.

Time is flying by really quickly. It’s only been 2 weeks, but at the same time, WOW it’s already been two weeks?!? The days fly by so fast because there is so much free time! Yesterday, I’m pretty sure I sat at my computer for 30 minutes just spacing out and listening to music, but I don’t really remember doing that, but I think it happened.

This weekend should be fun, there are a few activities going on, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll ACTUALLY get the couch and fridge…it keeps getting postponed. I know I just posted a post like a few hours ago but here’s another. Think of it as a nice little extra treat specially delivered from me <3.
 

Shower Time

Rather than go over all of my boring schedule ALL of the time, I’m going to focus in on specific things about living in a college, specifically at Whitworth, in addition to adding in some interesting things that happen. Also, since everyone I tell about my blog is always like WAH WAH YOUR BLOG IS SO LONG AND I CAN’T READ THAT MUCH, I’m going to keep the posts shorter…maybe….sort of.

Okay a huge moth just flew in and I totally destroyed it with Korey’s sandal.

Anyways, this morning, I was inspired to write about the showers. I remember my first public shower. Actually, I don’t, but I remember my first shower of gym class my freshman year of high school. I was so afraid of my new man’s body and the power it contained (I don’t know what that even means, but it’s a way of saying I was really self-conscious). But anyways, it was so awkward for me showering by other guys who weren’t wearing clothes either.

By the time I got to my sophomore year, I joined the Bay Port cross-country team, which basically destroyed any issues I had about self-confidence. I will spare the details, but basically, being naked was as natural as not being naked and peeing on other people’s legs was okay.

So college. We’re all young men who are no longer ashamed of our bodies (for the most part), so showering isn’t a big deal, plus the showers are in stalls and not in an open space. In the bathroom there are five showers. So, on an average morning, I’ll grab my clothes, towel, and showering gear, and pick a shower, close the first curtain, hang my stuff over the bar, turn on the shower, and close the second curtain as I soak up the warm water. Ahhhh, privacy.

Then I turn to my right and make awkward eye contact with somebody else who is showering a few stalls over. Oh. The separating walls are only about 5’ 8”. That sucks.

The key with that is to just look down the whole time. But the eye contact is still bound to happen every now and then. On a different note, prime time last night was prison tats, and I got a really gangsta tat on my side. It’s a really beautiful flower! Shout out to Bethany. I also wanted a unicorn on my shoulder and a butterfly tramp stamp, but I couldn’t find anyone who was a good artist because all of the good artists all had sore hands. I ended up giving a few brothas some sweet tats though.

I had bio lab yesterday, and that was really, really long but now I feel like I’m getting a good grasp on the material. Between the lab and periodic studying, I feel like getting to know the biology material hasn’t been too hard. Chemistry is a whole different story. We sort of flew through the first three chapters by going through a roughly thrown-together powerpoint with little explanation, and we keep getting assignments that have ambiguous due dates. Hopefully we slow down once we’re caught up, whatever caught up is.

I hope you enjoyed reading that random jumble of thoughts.

Getting in the Groove

Okay it’s been a long time since I’ve written a post (like four days! Sorry!!!).

So apparently Sunday was pillow talk, and I ended up going wearing my new cloud snuggie! My sister Jojo made fun of me for getting one but it turns out that they actually ARE really cool and stylish, I knew it. The only thing is that it smells like chili or something because I haven’t washed it since opening it. Anyways, there were like 30 or 40 people squished into a big circle in the lounge, sharing first kiss stories, prom experiences, stalker exes, worst injuries, and other similar topics. I told a few things, the juiciest being the story of Kayla, my first true love. I knew when I first laid eyes on her at the age of 2 that she was the one for me. Anyways, more details on that if you ask me about it sometime.

Wow my memory really fails me. Classes happened again on Monday and I was stressing over some things like homework or studying or whatever but nothing’s been too overwhelming. We started swimming on Monday too, and that was the beginning of something I’ve experienced many times. It’s called getting back into shape. When I jumped in, my legs were like dragging on the bottom and I was pulling like one molecule of water with each stroke. Anyways, I didn’t swim that much since I’m still healing my pec strain. Don’t be worried though because it feels like its pretty much almost healed. So I swam for like an hour, then got out and had a bag of ice awkwardly saran-wrapped to me by a trainer. I say it was awkward because in order to get the plastic all around me she was basically giving me an extended, plasticy hug.

As cool (pun intended) as it was to walk around with a shoulder that looked like I was part Hulk, it was annoying that I had to tell the story 100 times that my pec was a little injured but it wasn’t a big deal. And it’s not a big deal so don’t worry!

Oh yeah I know what else happened Monday! I got a care package from mommy! I got wheat thins and peanut butter cracker sandwiches and peanut butter pretzel sandwiches and thank you notes and my hat and my gloves and hugs and kisses. And I skyped with mommy and daddy and ceci (my stupid, stupid, but SO cute dog), and snobells (my fat, awesome, cuddly, cute, and decaying 14-year-old cat).

Later that night, I went to check out a bible study with AJ. I’m not sure if I mentioned him before but he lives a few rooms down and he’s white but Hispanic too, so he puts his race as Hispanic or Latino whenever he can to get benefits. Isn’t that awesome? Anyways, we couldn’t find the study for like 10 minutes but then we found it and met some of the people. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it there weekly and homework won’t be too overwhelming. I just felt kind of stupid because we are going to do the study on the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, and he kept asking all of these questions about bible history as an intro. He was like “how many brothers did he have” and “what was his name” and “what year was oil invented” and “when did so-and-so do this” and other questions that some people whipped out the answers to! It’ll definitely be a learning experience for me.

Tuesday wasn’t so bad except that I had morning class again. After calc, I did a lot of homework through the morning and then Amanda was like, “hey, you should do calc in the afternoon” and I’m all like, “woah, if I do that, that means no 8am classes, meaning I can eat breakfast when swim starts!” So I spent a good hour running around to get different sheets and signatures to make the switch. Awesome. Then I had seminar at 2:20 during which I almost lost consciousness because it was so boring and pointless. Then I swam again. Then I iced more. Then I ate. Then I had freakin chem lab which was soooo boring. We went over minute safety details for over an hour then spent half an hour making sure we had everything in our drawers. On the bright side, we got out an hour early.

Later that night was this thing called Hosanna, which is just a collection of students in the chapel for worship. It was so cool! Everyone sang so loud and the song selection was good. By the end of that it was pretty late so I went back, finished homework, then checked out for the night.

The next morning, Korey didn’t hear his alarm, so he woke up just in time to be 3 minutes late for his Greek…oops. Then I got to sleep a little longer and went through all my classes. Tuesday through Thursday this week is a poster sale in the HUB so I went there after Calc to get lunch and some posters to decorate our room with! I got a really big one of clear water, palm trees, and a hammock, one with a tiny monkey on somebody’s hand, and posters from House and Heroes. Now the room is a little bit less boring. I think tomorrow we’ll get the couch and fridge finally! After we get those, our room will be mostly complete. Mwahahaha. Everything else is going well, I hope everyone reading this is doing well too!! If I haven’t talked to you in a while it’s because, as you can see, I’ve been kept busy. Call/text/e-mail/snail mail/ skype/visit/facebook me!

Sundae Sunday! (and chili)

Hello readers of mine life! Yesterday was Saturday and it was pretty full of activities and funness. We woke up, ate delicious French toast and eggs, and then went to the pool to meet for cliff jumping. It was maybe about a 30 minute drive there so it wasn’t bad at all. Once we had gotten lost deep within the mountains we parked and took a short hike down a rocky and slipperyish path with the 40-some swimmers who decided to attend.

After stumbling over some rocks in my flippy floppys, we made it to the little cliff, which was 20-25 feet.  I was kinda scared because it was my first time and my only previous experience was jumping off a 5 meter at UWGB. I just ran and hurled my body off the edge and screamed kinda loud, but I landed okay. Then I went off again and screamed less that time. After that and watching several others jump off and land on their backs, fronts, faces, etc, about half the team decided it was time to man up and take it to the next level.

After another short, rocky hike, we made it to the top of big mama. Big mama was big and high (about 60 feet) and stuff and I was so scared. I got down on all fours and crawled slowly to the edge to peer over and I actually peed a little. That’s girly but whatever. So Austin, one of the transfers on the team, decided to be the first one to go. After about five minutes of deliberation on the edge of the cliff, along with cheers and jaunts from the team, he jumped, and I got goosepimples!!! Then three more guys went off a little more hastily, and I decided that I would simply not do the disservice to myself of looking over the edge before I went. Oh, and before I went, some guys told me to yell “frosh power” because its tradition, so I did. So anyways, I got a running start. I ran, I jumped, I regretted.

I’m going to run through this in slow motion. I took three steps, since I was about five feet from the edge. With a powerful launch from my hindlegs, I rocketed my body into the open air. Gusts of cold wind rippled across my body as the sun gleamed off my bronzed, toned, abdominals. I looked below and saw the specks that were the heads of the watching swimmers at the bottom who were too fearful and timid to conquer big mama. I saw the trees that were mere toothpicks on the other side of the lake. Most importantly, I saw the water as it accelerated towards me at 9.8 m/s^2. At first I was like, oh, this isn’t so bad, you know, it’s like 0 gravity and I’m just chilling. Then as I fell and got faster and faster I was terrified. At about 10 feet away from impact I wanted to go back. Then I hit.

My entrance wasn’t so bad; my hands were totally numb and my elbows had smacked the water pretty hard but at least I didn’t land on my butt or back or face or die.

After everyone was done jumping off rocks, we all returned to the campus. It was the nicest day of the week, besides Sunday, but it was still kinda cold and breezy up high so I was chilled. We got back at about 2:30 and had a late lunch. They had tomato basil soup and hot chocolate so that warmed me up quite well. Then I took a hot shower because I was still cold and that was also really nice.

After those events, Korey and I helped Rory and a bunch of guys move a hot tub to his backyard and then we went to Target to get a few things. The most important purchase we made was three more sweet, cheap rugs to “carpet” our room. We also got some really awful, hideous Hawaiian shirts at TJ Max for the beach-themed swim team party that night.

By the time we got back from shopping it was time to get dinner and then get ready to go to Austin’s house for the social gathering. As we waited for Rory to come get us outside, we had to explain to like 30 people why we looked fashion-retarded, but I think they still thought we were special anyways.

At the party I sang my little heart out and played my little heart out on the drums on Rock Band for X-Box. I also met a few people that I hadn’t met yet so that was nice. And no, there was no alcohol!

When we got back at like 11, there were some folks walking out from BJ and they said they were gonna go walk around, so we were like “what the hey” and followed them. So that was pretty pointless but I got to flaunt my Hawaiian gear. We accidentally lost Korey at Arend (a dorm) but he was chilling with swimmers so it was okay. Then when I got back to BJ I chilled with a bunch of cool cats.

Now I’m going to give a shout out to Dani Dellavella, AKA Reno, because she asked me too, but I probably wasn’t supposed to mention that. She has a really cool last name and she’s from Reno, Nevada (duh). And I was supposed to tell her not to procrastinate today and put my speech on here that I prepared for her to not procrastinate, but I actually didn’t make a speech. Oops.

I went to bed after that, and then woke up to the Pokémon theme song as my alarm at 8:30 to go to church with a bunch of people. It was pretty good but I’m gonna church hop for a few weeks/months/years/decades til I decide on one. Then uhhh I guess I pretty much did some homework and lifted and ate and stuff and now I’m not doing anything, but for prime time there’s pillow talk! I don’t know what that is but it sounds cute. 

I Need More Sleep

I will sum up most of my social experiences thus far by saying that I have been meeting numerous people every day and am remembering more and more people and faces and names and beginning to develop deeper relationships with a lot of the people who I initially may never have thought I would end up being buds with.

On Thursday morning I went to get breakfast with one of my new friends, Kelsey, because she and I had morning class and nobody else we knew did. So that was nice, you know, we got to know each other a little better, and our classes were in the same building. Well, I got there and my classroom was empty. I was seriously 98% sure that I had class Monday through Thursday. Upon inspecting my syllabus outside the building before making any rash decisions, I learned that class was, in fact, mon-wed and fri. Dag, yo.

However, this was sort of nice. It meant that I had all day to do whatever I pleased since normally I would have a lab but this week there are no labs. At 11 there was an assembly for convocation, which was an inspiring speech by the president about taking courageous steps forward and stuff like that. It was good, but boring in all honesty. Oh, and since we had to write an essay on the assembly for seminar, I took notes. After that, I had lunch, and then hit the laptop (rather than books). I wrote the convocation essay, which is due next Tuesday, and finished the summer reading. Go me!

Funny thing about those assignments though. Right now it’s 1 am and the summer reading was due by like midnight on Friday, so that makes me a little late, BECAUSE, I submitted the essay and summer assignment today at like noon via e-mail, but it was stuck in my outbox rather than my sent box for whatever reason. I thought that since it was in the outbox that meant that it was in a box, with e-mails, that were out. So then I sent another identical e-mail just now to be safe, and then the one in my outbox sent! So I’ll be super mad if points are deducted, but I think Margo is a pretty nice lady so I don’t think it should be a big deal.

Anyways, the rest of Thursday was kind of really lame. Since all my homework was done I wanted to hang and chill and meet people and stuff but then everyone else was doing all of their homework! So I was bored for awhile. Then at night we played screaming ninja for prime time (which is a time set aside at 8-11pm every night for doing fun activities) and I went to a horrible, awful, terrible athletic code meeting where we learned not to get concussions or do drugs OR ELSE. It was really horrible.

After that meeting, I was so tired and angry that I had to sit through it (actually I wasn’t that angry, just sort of in a not-really-angry sort of way), that I was ready to crash into bed. Little did I know that Korey and I would receive visitors in our little corner room! Yeah this girl and two guys wandered in and we had a lovely conversation til maybe like 12:30 then we finally got to bed and then woke up at 7 on Friday for class. The silver lining is that I actually had class that morning.

Friday was cool I guess, calc was pretty simply stuff, we started learning stuff that I already learned in AP bio last year in biology, and in chemistry I shared that banana bread is my favorite food. Yeah all we have done in chem is nothing, which I rather enjoy.

So now it’s the weekend. Friday night there was an outdoor dance party, which was sort of lame. Everyone was totally packed in the center of the dancing so there was no wiggle room. So then some people and I were freestyling out on the side. I pulled off a mean chicken wing. Just kidding I’m really bad at dancing but I pretended like I wasn’t.

I got bored of that dance after like an hour so I decided to go make friendship bracelets for prime time!!!!! I exchanged friendship bracelets with Amanda and now we’re friends for real. And one of my birdies from birdy and the perch, Sadie, is gonna make me a hemp bracelet I think? If anyone else wants a friendship bracelet from me, then too bad, because I am never wasting that much time of my life spent twisting little strings into a bigger string.

After being bored of that, I went to my room and macked on some Sun Chips, then people from the dance came back inside because the dance was over, and the afterparty commenced in my room! I’m sooooooooo glad I shipped my sub here, it’s so awesome. It’s seriously the only way I’ve gotten people to come and visit my room, since I blast it so loud. So me and AJ, a cool dude down the hall, compiled a short playlist while some people were gathered, and then there were maybe like eight people dancing in the room. It was pretty righteous. I learned how to do the “take a shower” and I’m still perfecting the jerk. College is a great tool for learning dance moves.

That was pretty much my night and past few days. Oh yeah and I played some Frisbee. Actually, today, I probably spent three to four hours playing Frisbee. I’m getting a mean forehand and slice toss. I’m not sure what a slice toss is, I made that term up, but it’s just this Frisbee throw that I got really good at today. Yay!

Okay it’s late so I’m gonna crash. Tomorrow is cliff diving with the swim team, Frisbee, and bingo, and probably a bunch of other awesome things going on. Kbye!

Boy to Man; School Starts.

Tuesday was pretty sweet, yeah. So after that pre-med meeting our dorm designed the most juicy and amazing choreographed dance performance to a music mix that has ever been seen by anyone, ever. The boiz of Jenkins West, which includes me, were put in charge of a segment from Taylor Swift’s “Love Story”. The show we put together in about three hours came together beautifully. At the start, everyone laid on the ground as a siren blared and a voice announced, “BJ men, report to the dance floor immediately.” Then, well, I would explain more, but I’ll just give you a link to watch it yourselves. The quality isn’t that good, but it can give you a better taste than if I were to explain it with mere words.

When we took our shirts off, along with maybe a few other elements we included into our performance, it was an immediate disqualification. This is good, because it treated us freshmen and brothers a lot. Once we had learned of our astoundingly incredible finish in the ranks, it was time for our last few hours together as frosh before we became brothers of Baldwin. We ran outside, me in my flip-flops since I had forgotten to borrow an RA’s stinky shoes, and ran around screaming our chants. Eventually, we found ourselves at a small outdoor stage area with a white brick wall backdrop.

One part of becoming a man involved going around to the back of the stage wall and climbing over, all of us at once. With a ten foot wall and around 50 men, it was no small task. On the first try we were a mere five seconds short of breaking the old record. On the second try, one guy simply could not make it up and ended up needing ice for his manly wounds. Finally, we broke the record by like 50 seconds. Pretty sweet.

After running around and yelling some more, we named like 20 guys. Then we ran to the library and screamed at the yelling wall some more, then we ran around and screamed some more. Then we ran to this field (screaming). At this field, the second part of becoming a man occurred. There was a tarp laid out on a hill, covered in chocolate pudding. I later learned that $120 was spent on that pudding alone. Everyone went down at least twice, getting covered in the chocolatey mess. The other thing was that it was like 40 degrees out and I was straight up freezing. But I had grown from a BJ Boy to a Baldwin Man. Our shout no longer incorporated the word BJ, but rather Baldwin.

After our fun, everyone sprinted half a mile back and headed straight for the showers. I was ahead of the pack and got to one right away, where I rinsed away the chocolatey mess. That night everyone hung out their shirts to dry so that we can proudly wear the brown-spattered garbs in all their glory.

It is now Wednesday. We had our first day of classes. By the beard of Zeus was I ever nervous. However, as the morning went on, I realized that all of my fear was in vain. Calc 2 is mostly everything I learned in AP Calc but just a little bit more. In chemistry, we took a placement test and I think I did really well despite not having chemistry for three years. And in bio, well, I took AP Bio last year so it shouldn’t be a problem. The only thing is that we actually had a summer reading assignment for the First Year Seminar class that I should get to work on. Kbye!

Camp Whitworth is Over Soon...

Okay so I became Wee Wee Man. I’m okay with the man part, but not so okay with the wee wee part. Whatever you think that means, you’re probably wrong. Shortly after assuming this worthy title, the BJ male crew huddled into a circle filled with our manly stench borne from running all over campus screaming our bloodcurdling warcries. We were then told that it was time for birdie and the perch.

No, it is not perch as in the fish, it is perch as in the strong, muscular thighs of the gentlemen (us) who would kneel down and serve as perching points for one or two of the lovely BJ women. Once again, we were teased by the RAs as we were forced to stare at the ground as the girls slowly walked circles around us. Then we finally turned around and met a few girls by staring deep within their eyes and gazing into their souls. However, the brothers felt that it was not quite right, and made us turn around again as the girls continued to loop around us. The same thing happened another time. So, on the third pairing, we finally were ready to transform our bodies into perches as our birdies (I had two) took rest on our bodies. As we continued to stare into their souls, we sang a tear-jerking ballad that would have immediately arrested the heart of Athena.  Then we shouted “LET’S GO STREAKING!!!” and ran away to eat dinner.

After dinner, which was a little BBQ thing with plates too small for my rumbling tummy, there was some volleyball and soccer action, along with one of the most incredible musical performances I have ever witnessed. One of our RA’s, Noah, gave us the gift of three of his own perfected masterpieces by layering with his pedals and making sweet love to his bass guitar. It was the most amazing thing my ears have experienced. It was as if my ear was a mouth eating sound waves of delicious food and candy and sparkling apple juice. Or putting on fresh silk boxers after shaving your legs and putting lotion on them, which I may or may not have done before. Anyways, it was cool.

After this and more chill time, the guys once again geared up in our stinky shirts (oh yeah, by the way, we aren’t allowed to take off our T-shirts until after traditiation, which ends Tuesday). We ran around for a bit then practiced our performance for the Yell-Off, which we had put hours into learning. Once we decided that it was good enough, we hustled over to the gym and did our performance along with all the other dorms’ guys and girls. The alumni watching plus the freshmen made for an extremely raucously loud atmosphere.

We were the third group up, the BJ Boys, and we did the school fight song, our mott-toe, our cre-toe, and a little thing we made up from the movie “300”, then we WENT STREAKING!!! Based on my spot in the lineup, I got to lead the pack out in my short shorts and got the brunt of all the whistles coming from the lovely Whitworth ladies. Also, at the end of the school fight song, I had the honor of doing a really awkward somersault and awkward run offstage, so that was probably what will win the “best dorm” competition for BJ.

The other groups were a mix of good and bad performances, with the BJ alumni being the loudest and most obnoxious all along. When all was said and done, I don’t think there was a winner announced, but I didn’t care because then it was time to woo the ladies.

This was another highlight of my time here so far, but pretty much every event has been a highlight. We ran from dorm to dorm to caress the lovely ladies of the campus with our voices and made them melt in the palms of our hands. Our song selection was Back to One, A Whole New World, I’ll Be, and, for the BJ ladies ONLY, BJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love Again. Although a few of the dorms sang back venomous words of rejection, I was later told that no man wooed better than the BJ men did that night, and that the RAs controlled the song selection and picked and chose which of the dorms would be rejected or accepted.

By the time we had wooed the hearts of nearly all of the ladies on the campus, I had perfected my method for use on my BJ woo-ee. The first song was simply for gazing upon the fair maiden and penetrating into her soul with our eyes. As we articulated the  second song it was time to feel the soft skin of her hand, and perhaps brush a stray hair from her gorgeous eyes. And by the third I was kneeling on the ground, pouring my entire essence into my song and finished with a small kiss on her precious hand as I gazed into her eyes. Then we started BJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love Again and everyone broke out into a dance party!

After a two-song dance party (the second was Tik-Tok), the RAs gave us the promise of a continued dance festival at the local Fred Meyer. For those of you who don’t know what Fred Meyer is, it’s because you’re not from the west coast (or other locations that have it, I guess), but apparently it’s a huge chain around here, basically like a Wal-Mart. Every week they have a night just for Whitworth students with heavily discounted prices and there was a dance on this one night. However, I just bought a ton of food and left because I didn’t want the womens flocking to my raucous dance moves. And props go to Rory for giving me and Korey a lift there and back.

So then we put our food away and basically went to bed I think. Some people were loud and obnoxious but I crashed by 2am, so it was a good night.

The next day, today, Tuesday, whatever, is more transitional into the whole school scene. There was a meeting with our advisors/First-Year Seminar teachers, where we talked about basic advisor type things. Then there was another outdoor lunch and in the HUB (Hixon Union Building, also where the caf is), there were a ton of tables for different clubs. I signed up for a prayer group thing, Young Life, Cancer Sucks (or something?), a Frisbee tournament this Saturday and Frisbee club, a service group, and ballroom dancing. I signed up for ballroom dancing because about 100 girls signed up and like 10 guys. I forgot if I mentioned this earlier, but there are about 500 girls and just under 200 guys in my class, so the odds are smiling with white, straight teeth and shiny lip-gloss lips at the guys. But anyways, I just signed up for e-mails to get information on the different things, it’s not like I’m going to participate all the time in all of those activities.

I just went to a pre-med meeting, where about 100 of us got scared about our stressful futures in and out of the schoolroom. And later I have more stuff that I will share with all of you later. Kbye!