i don't really know what to expect.  so i guess the safest bet is to not expect, because once you set expectations, either high or low, things always seem to not go the way you anticpated...

i go back tomorrow for 4 days -- what comes after i still have not decided.  but i know somehow, things always seem to fall into place for me.  so i have faith.  but still remain a little antsy in my pantsy.  but if all else fails and i end up with no fall semester (yippie!), i apparently already have all my breaks planned out.  wonderful.  hahaha, my parents should get ready for another curve ball thrown at them by their one and only daughter, who is always full of surprises.  woohoo.

dara torres is an amazing (and beautiful) female athlete.  i do remember bits and pieces of 2004's olympics in athens, but this year's olympics is sure to stick in my mind because of this woman (and well, i guess michael phelps or "mike-oh flaps" as my grandma would say).  her sportsmanship and humility really shined through specifically friday's night semi-final for the 50m (MYYY FAVORITEEE).  not only has her sportsmanship inspired me, but how fit and healthy she has maintained herself at the current age of FOURTY-ONE.  i mean, watching all the swimmers in the olympics generally tugs at my heart as a reminder of my love for the sport and being in the water, but watching dara torres honestly takes my breath away and inspires me to get back in the lanes and sprint again.  what a role model.

chris left for school last week.  it's kind of weird to think he has finally hit college.  i think it would be amusing to see how he is living on his own.  yes, quite amusing.  in some ways i think he is super lucky to go to school all the way down in the south, where the environment and community is truly a different story.  and i would also love to be plane-ride away from home rather than a car/train-ride.  mm, overall, i don't know how i feel about the little dude going away to school, but i'm sure he'll survive just fine.  it's kind of funny that our parents essentially picked out an all woman's college for me and practically an all men's college for him.  aw, my poor grandma will probably find it more difficult to cope with an empty nest at home than my parents.  my grandma is such a cutie (yeah i said it).  no, wait let me edit that -- she's a cutie, but a crazy cutie.  anyways, during one my random outbursts of singing/screeching on the top of my lungs at home, she asked me to record myself singing/screeching so that she can play it in the house when it's too quiet for her to handle.  hahahaha.  oh pau pau. 

some randoms, as if this entry wasn't random enough -- i like my new glasses, i think i'm getting sick and ellen degeneres and portia derossi got married yesterday.

being a summer bum i watched the marathon for america's next top model.  and totally forgot about an old obsession... 

...KIM IS SO FREAKING HOT!!!

okay one last one...

haha okay i'm done i'm done.

dude i was so freaking STOKED for bermuda.  until i hit up weather.com.  it's supposed to rain (as in 60%+ that it's gonna rain) for the next WEEK AND A HALF.  what am i supposed to do.  seriously?!  SERIOUSLY.

well... leaving in 5 hours whether or not the weather will cooperate with me or not.

but let's leave jersey with a positive note.  HAHA, OF COURSE.  i bought the cutest flats today -- they were originally $70 and i got them for $20.  sweet huh?  i totally dig summer sales.

as tigger would say, TTFN!

digging through my "Ancient Old Documents" folder on my laptop, i re-encountered many, many homework assignments, online conversations, power point presentations, etc... from the good old high school days.  most, if not all, documents brought a big smile to my face, remembering all the good (although sometimes painful) times i had working with some of my closest friends on school projects.

one of the word documents that particularly caught my eye was titled "peter lauer".  i double-clicked to see what i could have possibly saved under peter's name and discovered a written essay.  not written by me, but by him.  this was our senior year and peter was probably one of the first people who got into school prior december.  i remember peter IMed me one school night at a classy 2AM, asking me to read this short essay he wrote for some random (of course) writing contest.  he didn't win, but i think he deserves some recognition -- or whatever recognition my xanga can give it.  so here it is!

     I am optimistic about the future for one reason: Angelina Jolie.  Flashback- return to the year 2000.  We’ve survived Y2K, George Walker is about to enter the White House, the final Peanuts comic strip has been published, Angelina Jolie has just made out with her brother at the Oscars.

     Flash-forward to 2006.  Weve survived 9/11, George Walker in still in the White House, George Shultz’s classic strip has entered comic syndication, and Angelina Jolie has just attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  Times have changed.

     Since the year 2000, Angelina Jolie has had an impressive list of successes.  In that year she was named one of People’s 50 Most Beautiful People.  Next, in 2001, the woman once famed for wearing a vile of Billy Bob Thornton’s blood around her neck was named a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador.  In 2002 she adopted her first child, Maddox, from Cambodia.  In 2003, she won the United Nations’ first Citizen of the World award.  And the list kept on growing.  In 2005 Jolie was voted by the readers of People as the “Sexiest Woman Alive” and now, in 2006, Angelina Jolie has visited more than twenty underdeveloped countries, doing hands-on charity work and raising awareness.  She has tackled subjects ranging from human trafficking to AIDS, and exhibits an unabashed passion for her fellow humans.  She is a model human being.

     Which brings me to my optimism.  We live in an age where the media focuses on the end of morality and universal violence.  Ignorance is celebrated and our most distinguished citizens are the ones whose skirts are the shortest.  Sexiness is next to godliness.  And yet Angelina Jolie does social work in Africa.  Here is a woman who could have anything she wants.  She is talented, beautiful, and wealthy.  And yet she spends her time visiting babies in AIDS-afflicted countries.  Here is a woman who is dating Brad Pitt, for heaven’s sake.  And yet she’s traded in Hollywood for Ethiopia.  It’s astonishing.  

     I see Angelina Jolie as a picture of hope.  I can not help but think that if the country’s “sexiest woman alive” can take on such honorable causes, others will all but have to follow her path.  Perhaps we will see the end of Age of Celebrities, and the start of the Age of Compassion.

     Thinking of Angelina Jolie, I am always optimistic for the future.  After all, if the woman who once said (after more-than-kissing him) “I am so in love with my brother right now!” can do so much for the world, perhaps we all can.   

keep in mind that this was written a little more than 3 years ago.  i think when i first read this, i kind of scrunched up my nose at his topic of choice.  and so finding this saved under my documents surprised me.  why did i save this?  reading it again now, this short essay just stands as another reason why i love peter so much.  he's so freaking unique.  and brilliant.  everything about him.  this sounds absolutely absurd, but i miss peter and wish he was coming with us to the city tonight.  just like old times.  i wish he wasn't in colorado working for some hidden buddhist camp in the mountains.

old school.  that is all.

<< ummm yeah.  i look a little too happy, but i really was enjoying the moment in the land of my amish lovers and fields and fields of CORN!!!  this weekend was pretty stellar taking a road trip to witness seth getting hitched!

it's a lot better than before, but i'm still trying to learn that silence is okay.  i don't know what makes silence such a killer for me, but i always have that feeling that i MUST fill up any space in a conversation.  which makes me a chatterbox, which makes me come off as a "peppy" and "perky" chick.  haha ohh, the miscommunication.

summer has been pretty banging.  i choose when i want to go in to the office (a.k.a. when i need $$$), i hang out by the pool, go shopping, feed myself continuously, go to the gym (now, occassionally), watch endless hours of tv, go out for dinner, hang out with friends, watch movies, etc... i'm a slug for life.  slugs anonymous.  hahaha.

RESTAURANT WEEK BEGINS TODAY.  AND I AM SO SO SOO EXCITED!!!  i'm gonna feast on japanese, steak, latin americano, and seafood.  mmm, mmm, mmm!!!  i cannot wait.  it's gonna be awesome (and pricey...).

also to look forward to: going back to the amish this weekend with the family and hitting up the outlets with momma kung.  and then next weeek, some under the sun with the kungs fun in bermuda.  hopefully the big p's will be there!

we're cutting it close kids.  i want to do something drastic and crazy before school begins again... hmm, what to do?  haha, maybe i'll get new glasses.  i'm lame :D

okay time to eat lunch.  the guy in the next cubicle heated up something that smells AMAZING.  i kind of want to ask if he wants to trade lunches.  time to feed my angry stomach.  TA-TA!