go, go, go...and stop

Exhausted but content. That's the most descriptive pair of adjectives for a dreary Monday. The weekend was just grand. Friday began the institution of CCF's Friday Night Live. The fun for this time was a night at Chuck E. Cheese's. Imagine 200 college students descending upon such a place and the utter mayhem that ensues. But it was fun. Rick, the CCF campus minister, sent his kids along for the fun. I tagged along with Grayson, the youngest, for a while.

After Chuck E., I headed back to the CCF house for a few hours of fun with the 3rd years. I've kind of come to consider myself as an adopted 3rd year. Thus, I'm going to start doing activities with them and being more intentional. After less than enough sleep, I woke up for the Tech basketball game and then did some homework till the goodbye-Chile-people party. Sunday was filled with church at All Souls, more homework, a trip to Borders, the end of a long game of phone tage, and some good old relaxing.

Today I had to bid farewell to a few good friends. Michael and Brett, I'm sure you will do great things in Chile. You'll be sorely missed here in the states. This is a week to slow things down and catch up. Have a great week, friends!

the times, they are a changin'

Highlights of last weekend:
-Zaxby's Buffalo Tenders
-Georgia Southern interview
-Flamingo football ringer
-Taboo domination
-magnetic haiku
So this weekend I went on the CCF TRFKATCR (The Retreat Formerly Known As The Christmas Retreat). It was mostly good times all around. Unbeknownst to me, this retreat is also infamous as the "sex" retreat. Normally this just means talking about relationships, but this time we actually talked about sex. Awk-ward. Between worship and talk times, I spent most of the time talking to anybody and everybody. A group of Georgia Southern CCFers came, and one of them interviewed me to get a better idea of what Tech's CCF is like. That was good cause it forced me to put some definition on my thoughts. Then, Saturday afternoon came the notorious flamingo football game. For those of you not familiar with the sport, flamingo football is guys vs. girls tackle football where the guys must play on one leg. Being 6'6" and fairly athletic, I turned into quite the asset. I caught passes for three first downs and generally boosted morale. However, it was not good enough as the girls went on to win 12-7. The retreat ended and I came home tired and incredibly sore.

THEN last night I went to a belated birthday party for my friend Rachel. It involved a large number of things on my favorites list: Fellini's, Taboo, Catch Phrase, and magnetic haikus. First we played guys vs. girls at both Taboo and Catch Phrase. 3 guys volunteered to be on the girls team, but the competition was still heated. I played with the girls, and we slaughtered the all guys team. We're talking 22-11, 20-12. Catch phrase was a little better as the guys forced a game 3 tiebreaker. The guys were crazy. Every point in Taboo had them out of their chairs, jumping up and down. After we all calmed down and ate some cake, we played with the magnetic poetry. 4 of us sat around a table, and we created haikus. Each person would add the next word to the poem. Once the poem was done (and they were decent poems if I might say so myself) we talked about the interpretation and what we saw in the poem. I'm not English major by any means, but it was just grand fun. English is one of those things that I love but have never been quite good enough at to pursue further.

So yes, good weekend all around. Now it's time to do a little work to balance all the fun.

Thus endeth the reign of the beard.

Puerto Rico!

Well, after a week of total laziness, I'm here to tell the tale of my trip to Puerto Rico with my sister, mom, step-dad, and grandma. As expected, it was glorious. We flew into San Juan and then drove to Rincon, a small beach town on the west end of Puerto Rico. Several blissful days were simply spent lounging on the beach. Rincon is somewhat famous as a town for a good sunset, and heaven knows I love a good sunset.
This is a taste of what greeted us every night around 6 p.m. On several nights, we dined at beachside restaurants at sunset. There are few things in life that I like more than eating dinner at sunset on the beach. It's just about the most relaxing meal I can imagine.

My sister got a little testy on occasion at dinner. Don't ever deprive her of seconds on sweet tea. Otherwise, you may have to deal with her dark side. Nobody likes the dark side of a 16 year-old girl.
While at the beach, we did a fair amount of snorkeling. The entirety of Christmas day was spent snorkeling, laying out, and swimming at the beach. Once we had our fill of the beach, we took a few day trips to other places in Puerto Rico. One day we visited several small towns and ended the day with a boat trip to a bioflorescent bay. It wasn't nearly as amazing as it had been portrayed, yet still quite fascinating to see people glowing as they swam in the water. The day after the glowing, we took a guided tour of some underground caverns. Finally, the last day, before heading to the airport, we visited Old San Juan. It may be a tourist trap deluxe, but it is one beautiful city.
Imagine cute little shops, restaurants, houses, and plazas interspersed among old gates and churches and surround all of this by an old city wall and several Spanish forts. That's a glimpse of what Old San Juan was like. I'm no great photographer, but it was the kind of place where you'd be hard-pressed to take a bad picture.
We left the old folks to occupy themselves while my sister and I went galavanting. We only had a couple of hours, so I agreed to spending the second hour shopping if Crissy would spend the first hour in touring the city.

Much like the rest of Puerto Rico, Old San Juan was not meant built for tall people.
Notice several things about this picture. First, I am wearing shorts on December 29. Second, there is a small puddle of liquid ahead of me. Apparently some dumb (I will assume American) tourist decided this old Spanish sentry box would serve better as their personal outhouse. Thus instead of being greeted by the faint smell of the blue ocean below, I was overwhelmed by the putrid odor of the makeshift outhouse. Yet, I was so enthralled by the rest of Old San Juan and the beautiful day that this did little to curb my enthusiasm. My hour ended, and I willingly followed my sister into every little shop that tickled her fancy. A few hours later and we were on the plane headed back to Atlanta.

Since returning, Christmas break has felt quite disjointed. Not the Puerto Rico was a poor substitute, but it took away a certain amount of order. I have two days left until school starts, and I feel as though I haven't accomplished anything I set out to over the break. Blast.

And thus I ring in a new year. A year to feel old. A year to become bold. This is the first year in some time that I didn't have a list of resolutions of some sort. I do have one: post on my xanga (or new blog if I end up switching) at least three times every month. I would say once a week, but I'm too honest to think that could truly happen. I'll shoot for three times, and if I post more often I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Time for jean shopping and family brunch. Good morning to all.

giving in to the powers

Alas, here I am setting up what figures to be my 3rd blog. The only blog I really use at this point is a xanga, but I like the format of blogspot much better. So soon and very soon I may be switching over. As for the name, I was shooting for the idea of being crazy like a fox. While your minds are telling you I must be some vain and overconfident young punk, my explanation throws in a wrench. Welcome and I hope you enjoy yourself from time to time.