So many things, oh where to begin?  A list you say?  Well... I suppose it would be most efficient and I do have so many topics to cover.  Very well, as you wish. 

1) School is over!!!!  Well, for this year at least.  My philosophy paper merited good critique, which means more to me than all the useless multiple-choice tests I was forced to take. 

2) I have just returned from Bald Head Island... aka the nicest beach and the nicest beach house (hosted by the nicest friend) that I've ever had the pleasure to be at.  Many adventures were had, including getting desperately lost on bikes on the other side of the island (would I be me & company if we didn't?), holding various sea-creatures, endless star-gazing/moon-setting/storm-watching, and of course, lots of lovely times with friends. 

3) I have recently purchased my first ever automobile.  It is affordable... one of those kinds of cars, but I think its of a loyal breed and shall not quickly desert me in my time of car-need. 

4) I'm dating someone.  Yes, my first car and my first boyfriend all at once (it is a bit much, isn't it?).  He's quite the gentleman, worthy and amazing in all known aspects.

5) Because of the car purchase... I have amazing job oppurtunities for next year which are in my field (psychology), pay well, and would help me for grad school experience and future real-employment. 

6) My father and brother have new jobs, so my house is simply topsy-turvy with change right now. 

7) A friend of mine that I worked along side at camp died recently.  Her parents are missionaries in Africa, her death mysterious (likely some odd African virus problem), and the celebration of her new life in heaven tremendous.  Her memorial service was in the midst of final's week, but many of us counselors still came out from near and far.  She was young and lovely, such a sweet, smiling Christian girl, which a heart for everyone, esp. her people she was raised among on the Ivory Coast of Africa. 

8) My brother returns home from Honduras tonight.  He's just spent a week or so constructing for missions down there... I can't wait to hear his tales!  I went to Honduras for missions (different city I think) three years ago.  It'll be interesting to hear the differences we experienced. 

9) I won the Lyricist (local college publishment) poetry contest!  This means $100 and the deep satisfaction of earning money by my written work :)  My dearest roommate won first place for short stories, which means a similiar prize.  Honestly, roommates just don't get much cooler than us. 

10) Summer is here.  This means I have many friends to attend to, a family to help, a job to uptake, research to begin, grad school to search, books to read, stories to write, and somewhere in between it all... relaxation to find. 

Ha!  A grand storm's begun outside.  It'd be a shame for me to miss it. 

I wish for a giant robot.  He would come and take care of all my problems... including upcoming exams, busy schedules, flute jury, and papers.  He would be freakin' cool and I would get to ride on his shoulder (as the honor of the girl who wished him into being).  We could create a new world order... although personally I think that's a bunch of trouble to maintain, so perhaps I will be satisfied by taking my robot and myself into the deep of a mighty wood ... or the recesses of outer space.  Yea, let's go with that last one.  So we shall live on the moon for a time and bounce around the galaxy for vacations.  And perhaps, just perhaps, I will let you come too. 

It seems I may have underestimated the cleverness of the bees outside my window.  They've made habit of whooshing right up to the open window, peering in with their tiny bee-eyes (that's an odd thing to meet gazes with), and deciding not to come in, whooshing up and away to other things and places. 

Lovely weather lends itself well to things like impromtu jam sessions in the middle of campus.  There was a mandolin, and two flutes involved with a small audience of friends and campus comrades.  Friends sat in the dried-up fountain reading textbooks and humming along.  It was amazing. 

Currently, I am watching Dr. Zhivago (extra credit for Russian History) and preparing myself for a long day of philosophy writing, which doesn't seems that bad, I just have to do it.  Isn't that like so many things in life?  I do feel like I've been jumping through hoops of fire lately.  I'm getting rather good at it.  Wind Ensemble had our concert this week, I spoke at the honors banquet about NYC (mission trip), finished a large project in psych. testing, lots of exams everywhere, reading hundreds upon hundreds of pages per day about history, psychology, and Freud, and somehow I'm still retaining my title as super-cool upperclassman by hanging w/ my people as oppurtunity arises. 

The weather is currently a constant silver drizzle, slightly chilly, making rings of yellow chalk (aka pollen) around the puddles on the bricks.  All this makes me feel not so awful that I am trapped inside finishing a psych. testing project, which has become interesting, in spite of myself.  Despite the slight lapse in sunshine, the spring is here.  We've been sleeping with windows open and each morning it helps to make it on time to the 8am classes to wake up to pastel skies and birdsong.  School is still that lovely balance between mad-frantic work and enjoying time with friends.  Hard to believe that in a year I'll be on the brink of graduation and looking for all sorts of new things to come in my life.  But that is a year and this is today.  And today I am more than content to run around with my dear friends after long days of school work. 

Our latest advents have included a trip to the Old Mill (high time!) to show some of the new ppl around, sitting in all sorts of wood-like places discussing all sorts of lovely and philosophical things, and the Formal (which occurred only just last night).  As usual, as is tradition at some point on Formal night, we all got terrifically lost together in the big city late at night.  Dancing was splendid, though Campbell is apparently promoting mo-town instead of my usual big band (oh- they'll pay), but it turned out grand. 

In philosophy class, we're finally getting around to writing our papers.  Mine's on social consciousness... or I suppose more appropriately the history of consciousness as it appears in society.  I'm wildly excited about it, since it will incorporate many of my own thoughts beside those of my favorite philosophers and address in detail some issues that I find fascinating as a psychology major. 

So I think I will run to dinner- out in the world that is currently busy disguising itself as a black and white picture.  Maybe truth is easier to discern on such days... at least until one sees the chalky pollen smears and remembers all the complications life and spring and testing projects hold. 

Moments in time- taken like snapshots, frozen pieces of recollection even while they live. 

Spring is almost come and the campus is alive night and day with soaring mild winds and chirps of birds.  I saw a robin... a robin mind you... out and about quite late at night the other night.  Chirping, pecking at the soil, making quite merry in the dead of night!  Now you tell me that's not odd. 

I'm trying my best not to talk about school here- so I shall instead tell jovial stories and divert the minds of both reader and author.  Over Spring Break I ended up going with the band to Nashville (for the ultimate purpose of playing/cheering for the basketball teams at tournament).  I was excited about music museums and street musicians, but alas, twas not meant to be.  Instead, I had wonderful bonding time with some unexpected characters in pep band.  10 hour bus trips will do this to one you know.  In summary, I actually enjoyed the games... even though our teams got beat, got great advice about investments, insurance, and stock, talked politics with someone I vehemently disagree with but respect, learned the life story of a graduating senior I admire, shopped in a huge mall... (they had a giant music store, if that helps), and ran through the rain in a flooding parking lot at 6am to get a Cafe Mocha.  Fun jazz, I tell you what.