You're gonna wanna read this...

What up wid it!

Awesome new stuff going on in the land of Lauren. Overall, this school year is going super well. Academic wise, I'm loving life. I don't have Core this semester which translates to, I don't have 2 books to read every week and papers due every 4 days. Yes, that is an exaggeration, but you get my drift. Regardless, I'm hyped. Just signed up to volunteer at Rockwood Retirement Community, so that's fun too! I think the first event I'll be helping out with is Saturday Scrabble, I'm pretty excited to do that! Also, I started the radio show I'm doing with Nikki! So epically fun. Honestly, go to whitworth.fm and tune in a little bit before 5 p.m. on Wednesday evening. Our show is 5 to 7, we play some tuneskis and get crazy on the mic, aka talk amongst ourselves and any other friends we convinced to come hang out in the booth with us. My dad listened this week and told me it was like we we're just chillin in the room over, which I was stoked about. If I haven't convinced you to tune in on Wednesday nights yet, just do yourself a favor. Listen, and your ears will thank you.

Also, mega-sweet updates on me traveling abroad. To all family members reading this: remember when I was a wee high school student, and you would periodically ask me where I wanted to go to school, what major I was thinking about, etc.? Do you recall these precious moments? I do. Now let's think back to what I said... "Whitworth... blah blah... maybe UW... blah, I WANT TO GO TO SPAIN." I'm so glad you remembered that part too! So yeah, had a meeting with the lady in charge of letting people travel abroad, and she was pumped about me going to Spain, as am I!! So that went really well, my next step is choosing where I'd like to go. Options are endless, I'm really excited to dive into some researching of universidades espanolas.

Yup, those are the things my heart has been bursting to tell you all. Enjoy your October, y hasta pronto queridas.

school has begun, my friends

Sophomore year started Wednesday. This is incredible! I feel the slightest bit nostalgic toward my freshman year, but nevertheless I am thoroughly enjoying what 2009-2010 has in store for me. Nikki and I have a super sweet room, and to my surprise I often find myself telling her, “no really though, I like our room a lot!” That feels pretty neat. We live in Stewart, which if anybody knows the Whitworth campus that means 25 paces away from the freshman dorm I lived in last year. Cool.

Classes are AWESOME. Monday Wednesday Friday consists of Spanish for Christian ministry (love it) and Spanish culture and civilization (not so much love but still a Spanish class). It’s incredible! Honestly, I wake up and go to a class where we pray, sing and discuss in Spanish. I love it so much! Seriously, the best way to start my day :) As for Tuesdays and Thursdays, my schedule consists of public relations class, ballet (woohoo!) and then interpersonal communications. Also, on Mondays I have the Whitworthian, the school paper, for an hour then intro to public speaking for 3 hours! Yikes bikes. Haven’t had that class yet but I’m hoping it doesn’t stress me out too badly.

So those are my updates. Keep it real. Oh, and if you get the chance to see Inglorious Bastards, watch it.

The weekend

Whew.

That's what it comes down to. If time travel was an option right now, I'd be on that.

First of all, let's start with a little update on this hair bananza. I think I'll use photos to describe this transition.

before hair color

after

AND post-bangs action

Goodness me. I'm diggin it. I once struggled with bangsxiety, but oh-so quickly overcame it. (yeah I made up that word, defining moment in my life) Lexi cut my hair, and dang she is good!


So getting on to the good stuff. WARPED TOUR 2009.

To describe my experience with Warped Tour is simply impossible. There is no way to accurately recreate through words how excited I was. With that said, here's my attempt.

Take a moment to imagine your few favorite music artists. Those glorious, cherished ones that you always turn to for musical inspiration. The default tunes for anytime you get into a car and go. You got those in your head? Okay, now add your next 10 favorite bands to that list. Now picture going to a music festival and seeing EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Does that help in visualizing how amazing my weekend was?

Here's a list of all the bands I saw this weekend (in order): We The Kings, Silverstein, The Devil Wears Prada (absolute favorite), Underoath, Attack Attack!, Senses Fail, Chiodos, Meg and Dia, Less Than Jake, A Day To Remember, Streetlight Manifesto, Saosin.

Wow. Just wow. All those, in one location, all playing music for me to enjoy! Pure awesomeness.

Highlight of the weekend (and my entire life) was for sure seeing The Devil Wears Prada, AND THEM HAVING THEM SIGN MY SHIRT. That's right. I bought a shirt, well, more like an awesome Devil Wears Prada jersey thing, at their merchandise booth earlier that day. Then I just so happened to walk around the corner and see my favorite band signing autographs. If you want to know the honest and brutal truth... I cried. I really did. I realize that basically NOBODY else looked as overwhelmed as I did, but seriously, in that moment I had no other choice. My ability to handle emotions plus the level of happiness I was experiencing left me incapable of heeding socially accepted norms. Haha


Well shoot. I'd say you get the jist of my spectacular weekend. I'll keep you posted on more sweet slash somewhat entertaining news in my life :)

It's been a while

Like I said, I've totally been neglecting business on the blog front. Oh well, if you really care that much you can simply creep on my Facebook. Yes, that's me giving you permission to do so... weird.

Recap of my life (based on academic calender)

Jan Term: Absolutely ballin.

Maybe the most fun I've ever had at college so far. Intensive Oral Spanish, you changed my life forever. I am incredibly grateful. Somehow I won Mejora Actriz (best actress) which was pretty legit. Also, basketballs games rocked! No more cheering at football games, where all one does is stare at the crowd as they peer right back at you. Not anymore, my friend! Much more dancing (YES) and... well yeah that's about it. More red lipstick wearing too, a for sure plus. To say "I dig it," would be a foolish understatement. Snow was fun as well, although snow fights had their ups and downs.

Spring Semester: Down-right amazing.
Classes were as follows; Spanish-302, Finite Math, Acts of the Apostles, Sociology. My favorite was spanish, duh. Angeles Aller is ferociously cool. I do not know how she does it, but I always end up loving that class more than anything. Also, I went to some sweet shows and crowd surfed for my first time, excellent. Spokane definitely has won me over in the live music aspect, my gosh. So then spring time came, and oh was it glorious. If you haven't yet, come visit the Whitworth campus. Sunshine + the Loop = nirvana. Toss an ice tea and/or frisbee in the mix, and it's absolutely perfect.

Summer Time: Alright, alriiiight.
May 16, 2009. School's out. I'm leaving my new beloved friends for three whole months. Life seems... pretty bleak, despite the sunshine anxiously tapping on my shoulder, desperate to distract me. (did it bother anyone else how many d's were in the sentence?) Yeah yeah, I can be dramatic sometimes. Oh don't worry, I'm trying to stop. It's not very becoming of me.

But yeahhhh, all jokes aside (jokes that hold very much truth, I might add) summer is going very well. Hanging out with friends from home is so sweet, literally. We go to DQ all the time! I've certainly missed them, though. And now that most of them are leaving this week, it's been rough letting them go, again. Round two... awesome. Lucky for me, summer coming to an end brings a truth I can't bear to ignore; I get to go back to Whitworth!!

I've taken a few noteworthy trips as well. In May I picked up Cyrus and Jake, and we voyaged down to Oakdale, CA, to see Amber, as well as Santa Cruz to visit Wes. It was awesome! So much fricking fun. Then in June I went to Montana and saw Nikki, man that was a much needed visit! I'm pretty sure it would have been physically impossible to spend an entire summer away from Nikki. And last weekend for Seafair I went to West Side and frolicked in the Seattle sun with Jake and Sara. All in all, it's been awesome! Oh, and this weekend the fam and I went down to Hood River (I'm so hood) and white water rafted! Wow, I truly recommend it. So much fun!! I can't wait to go again!

So if it hasn't become obnoxiously obvious that I love Whitworth, you may want to ask someone you trust to give you a good slap in the face. Alright, don't do that, but honestly. I've found my niche. My happy place. My own corner of the world where the ever-changing concept of "me" appears to makes a little more sense, (I'd be lying to your face if I said I had it all figured out).

If that was a little less (or more) than you bargained for, than I'm sorry. Stay posted and I might unleash more college/life/randomness into the world wide web, via this awesome blog.

Yeah! Thanksgiving break was a success! Delicious :)

The broseph and I.

I have two weeks left of this semester, and I'm stoked! I'm pretty ready for some new classes, and ready to no longer have an 8 o'clock class anymore. Score.

My classes for next semester are finite math, intro to sociology, spanish 302, and acts of the apostles. I'm pretty excited for acts of the apostles, it's supposed to be really good.

Oh, and the explanation behind the name of my blog. Right now, and this summer, I really love Bob Marley. So there you go! Check it out :)

Well that's all I have for now. I'd be sadly mistaken if I said I didn't have anything better to do then write this blog... haha.

Disclaimer on the spacing of these blogs: I am apparently having loads of trouble getting the spacing to look remotely normal, bear with me.

But hey, how bout some more pictures! (note the flannel)

First Post!

Exciting stuff: I started a blog! Never thought I'd see the day!

Let's start this puppy off with a few FAQs:

Q: HOWS COLLEGE?!
A: AMAZING! I love it so much!


Q: How are you liking Whitworth?
A: Again, I love it. Without a doubt, it's the perfect place for me. The community, environment, people, I dig it all!

Q: What have you been up to?
A: Well, I can happily say I've been going to a church with my friends every Sunday. It's a new experience being a regular attendee, but I really enjoy it. Also, I've been to over 5 concerts since I've been in Spokane! (This is definitely something I'm really stoked about!) I've acquired the ability to ride a longboard, decently throw a frisbee, and how to successfully pull off wearing flannel multiple times a week :)

Q: How are classes?
A: My classes are great. Hard, but great. Right now I'm taking Spanish 301, writing for mass media, intro to business, and CORE (more or less history of religions). My favorite class is writing for mass media. I love my teacher and we always have guest speakers, which make me get so stoked about the career the person is telling us about that day (public relations, television reporter, etc.).

Q: Any boys?!?!
A: You wish! Then I would have something you all would be truly interested in hearing about right? Just kidding!! But of course, the answer is no! Freshman year in college is probably the worst time to be thinking about dating someone. Life is already as confusing and hectic as it's ever been. I'll be sure to update everyone when something comes along, but for now there is nothing to report on!

Q: Made any new friends worth mentioning?
A: Okay, so somebody probably wouldn't ask that specific of a question, but I really just wanted to tell you a little bit about my new friends! (and have an excuse to put pictures on my blog, wahoo!)

That's me and my new great friend, Nikki. I'm so glad I've found such a great person to share this time with. She's outgoing and silly, just like me! We met during orientation, and since then we've been have the best time!

And this is my roomy, Sara! We get along SO well, it's a little upsetting to the rest of the girls in my hall. While everyone is complaining about their roommates waking them up at 3 a.m. or about how they eat all their food, we congratulate ourselves and high-five each other for being considerate! Yay!

Well, it's a tad bit late... I've been working on this blog a little longer than I'd planned to. But it's so worth it!

To all my family: I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU! Christmas is going to be so sweet, I simply cannot wait!