tin roof rusted

my faithful once a year blogging

2008-09-24T15:37:00.002-04:00

ok, so i totally forgot that i had a blog, as evidenced by the huge gap in time since my last entry. a lot has happened since then. i've gracefully entered the big 2-7 and i'm still wondering what 'it' is and sure as hell can't wait to experience it! i think that whole biological clock theory that they like to scare career-minded gals (not at all like myself) is starting to tick loudly...i can't claim that it is ringing off the chain, but it's begun the process. neither here nor there!
i've officially come full circle as i'm again a student at the university of georgia (go dawgs!). i get the strangest looks when i mention that i was first here in '99, that i'm a good 10 yrs older than a great many of my fellow classmates. the stares of pure shock are initially painful, but then it's always (quickly and smoothly) followed by a "but you don't look that old at all". depending on my mood that's either a compliment or yet another reason to get that ak 47 and tower i've heard about...
but seriously, i love being in school. it took years for me to realize what subject i am passionate about studying; i love studying spanish and portuguese and italian. love it! i'm taking an arabic class too, which is just plain crazy, but i can read words even if i don't know what they mean, so that's kinda cool. gosh i hope i pass that class...lol
that's it for now. i'm studying italian and portuguese, but i got tired of it thus producing the blog you now read. quit enabling me!

good grief, has it really been that long?

2007-07-12T21:33:00.000-04:00

so i feel a little guitly because unbeknownst to me, there is high demand for my upkept blog. who knew?
i gracefully entered the big 2-6. i know i imposed on myself having "it" together by 27, and i suppose i technically have one more year, but i've decided to let life just come at me and not worry about it. not just because age has brought much wisdom, and i really shouldn't think i should have it together by 27, but because that would be one helluva year, with sooo much to do, and really, who has the time for that??
i'm now working as a full-time nanny, soon to be a part-time nanny (which will improve my sanity, i'm sure), and prayerfully starting school (foreign languages) in august. emocionante.
the family i worked with in spain came to visit me today; i hadn't seen them in 2 years, so it was wonderful. i also left a suitcase with them, so once i got past the initial 2 year old funk, it was just like christmas.
well, i'm going to read through all my past entries (yep, i'm that person). i won't write so much this time...gently ease you back into my world. bienvenido.

glorificaré el Hijo

2006-09-06T10:24:00.000-04:00

This is the beach at San Sebastian in northern Spain. It was so gorgeous! I had misplaced my original CD with my overseas pics, and when I visited Tae last weekend, I discovered that I had actually downloaded them onto her computer. Yay smart, 1-year-ago-me!
This past weekend was pure awesomeness. The roommies and I went to H2O on Friday night then drove to Lake Hartwell. Ben came and joined us that Saturday afternoon. I really enjoyed being in the boat and sleeping in a camper for the very first time (yeah, I don't get out that often). And the company wasn't that bad, truth be told. But you know me...I was going through Shanka withdrawals by the end of the weekend, and I got all grumpy and testy. I got to spend the majority of Monday all to myself, so I'm almost back to normal. Whatever that is.
I've been reading Dr. Phil's book "Life Strategies." Being the kind of thinker that I am (that I can have common sense knowledge of something that doesn't become real to me until it is experienced/realized), I finally had an epiphany that goal setting is a good thing.
Life is so beautifully precious and should be lived to the fullest. I don't want to have any regrets; I never want to be one of those people who wished they had said that thing they'd wished they'd said or had done that thing or seen that thing. I pray that I will not waste time acting a certain way or thinking certain things but in all things do for the glory of Jesus. I was just thinking how wonderfully blessed I was to spend years of my life being somewhere that I never thought I could go. That I'm able to strum a guitar and carry a tune (lol) and speak a language (and hunger to speak more!) and be the wonderfully creative being that God created me to be. He's so great.
So, the goals that I want to acheive:
1. Send my mom an awesome package of goodies to show that I love her.
2. Spend more time with my siblings and sobrinos and tios and show God's love to them.
3. Get healthier.
4. Have a really big afro. Eventually a red or a light brown afro; I don't know yet.
5. Write a novella. I've started about 10 stories.
6. Visit New Zealand and maybe Australia. I have always wanted to visit New Zealand, but I never knew why.
7. Write a cool song. Again, I've started a ton, but never one that I was pleased with. Maybe I just need to collaborate with someone.
8. Discern God's good, pleasing, and perfect will for my life.
9. Pray like crazy that it includes a fabulous guy and super kids!
I think that's all for now. You have your perennial faves such as "road trip usa (and the world)" and "be the bass playing/drumming cool girl of a band". But I figured those were a given.

athfest, baby!

2006-06-27T08:02:00.000-04:00

this weekend was pretty sweet. i convinced mr. ben to come over saturday and inspect the ac in the car. he totally got it working (broke a couple of other things in the process, but you know, win some lose some lol) and i'm alls thankful. i truly intended to clean my home, but then i sat down and started strumming and 3 hours later, alicia came home. then rawin came over and he convinced us to shell out 15 bucks to see concerts that night. but it worked out cause he bought all our food. yay!
athens has a music festival called athfest and tons of musicians fill the streets and venues with their various tunes. we met up with cat and michael and that guy who is in his band at hot corner. she looked so cute! then alicia, rawin, and myself walked around, signed up for a free cell phone, got our pic taken by the lady there, listened to some band, stared at several people (not anything creepy...just to see if they would turn around...and they did!), had some bellini's at eastwest, went to transmet and listened to still small voice and joyful noise who we liked, went to 40 watt and listened to cinemacanica who we liked more, went to the ga theater and listened to hope for agoldensummer who i kind of liked but loved the clapping song, went back to 40 watt which now sucked, went back to hot corner and did not listen to the athens boys choir cuz those punks were not there, went to wilson's and did not drink coffee, then went to the grill and had some good stuff. we had this game goin' on to see who recognized the most faces, and alicia won cause she kept seeing people from high school (i think she was making it up, but whatever. i am not a sore loser!). then we went home, but not before the crazy people i was with decided to be drunk. it was quite funny. we did, in fact, find the car. found it indeed.

help me help myself!

2006-06-15T15:25:00.000-04:00

so i've been approached by 2 different departments here to interview for some positions. let me take a break and say, my great good God, i've received so much favor here in my workplace. He is surely deserving of praise! cause i sure as heck don't know what i've been doing that's so great that people would like me so much and want to see me succeed. okay. first lady who approached me was concerning a (somewhat) teaching position where i would go to individual homes and teach families how to interact with their children and help them grow. that would actually be very cool. my boss here thinks i can do it since i've been an au pair before. and this was kind of her plan in the beginning: she wanted me to get a foot in the door so that when a teaching position became available, i'd be considered. the second position would be a clerical one...from what i understand, i'd be somewhat of an administrative assistant's assistant (!). either job would be an increase in pay, with the teaching position being the higher paid one. but we know it really isn't about the money (cause if it was, i'd be a teller at a bank now). i was just thinking in these last couple of days about myself and what i want and what fulfills me. i know i can do a good job in front of a computer and telephone, but can i see myself there forever and ever? do i want to place myself in a position where i have to (egad!) become transparent (cause really, you have to be real in one-on-one interactions with others). won't i eventually become bored and irritated when i have to file ONE MORE TIME something that someone didn't file right in the first place? (that's actually already begun...) can i stretch myself to create meaningful relationships with the people i'll care for? on a slightly different note, should i make myself take classes at a local community college and earn an associate's degree that'll kick up my payscale in the teaching position (assuming that i get it) almost 3000 bucks?
i shouldn't even worry...i mean, i'm not guaranteed any of these positions. they've both told me that "i've heard/seen you've done a good job so far, and i first thought to ask you," which is really so very cool. i'd give me an 80% chance of hiring based on that alone. and with the teaching position, i'd get my gas reimbursed. do you know how much gas is?? well, i guess that's one reason to be glad i'm in the states and not in europe for it's much more expensive there.
anyway.
(almost) any advice will suffice.

a couple of weeks ago

2006-06-06T11:59:00.000-04:00

i had a fun weekend! i did counselor type things on friday night. i like being a part of that! (it's a summer camp for middle school kids on thursday and friday evenings.) i like the people i work with, and stayed up til about 1 talking to leanne and alicia about my experiences there. slept in til 830! and went with ashley to old navy and bought this cute top and skirt. i went in for shorts, but, you know. afterwards we had a picnic at the elder covered bridge in oconee county. then we watched most of moulin rouge. pam came later that night, and we went to atlanta to hear over the rhine. it was great! i even saw rachel there! talk about coincidencies...we are surely meant to be friends. hem is touring with otr, and they were pretty nice as well. we walked around little five points; cause really, how many times will one get to do that at 1230? we stopped for groceries at walmart and drove around in those carts for old people. we thought, surely there are no old handicapped folk shopping at walmart at 130 in the morning! we were surely wrong. then we had some good food at ihop, where we discovered that men act the same at 70 as they do at 18. it was really quite creepy. they gave the poor hostess a hard time! i didn't put head to pillow until 330.
sunday offered a solid 5 hour sleep, and i ended up not as late to church as i thought i would have been. afterward we went up to helen and had a picnic and tubing. now, truth be told, i did not want to tube down that river. last time i fell out and i really did not want to get wet. but i decided to go at the last moment. got stuck a couple of times, but i (and miss ashley...the rest of our actual group did not even try to wait for us! but i'm not bitter...) ended up bumming off this group of clemson guys (we travelled down the river together, and when we'd get stuck, they'd unstick us...it was great!). then the storm clouds came a'rumblin', and completely soaked us head to toe. i mean, it was a good, hard rain. pam waited for us at an "exit" since we were barely at the halfway point, and we found shelter at some restrooms. we managed to flag down one of the buses and met back up with the clemson guys. this other guy told us about how he found shelter in a spider shop. good stuff! then we got to my house and ate pizza and watched the ringer. i really don't care how much attention it brought to the special olympics; i was thoroughly unpleased within 20, and went to bed around 11. monday night found pam and i at the mall shopping for undies and shorts. then we went to the grit and had some yummy veggie food and decided to go to the movies. ashley was on her big date with ryan and joined us, but not before we stopped at chuck e. cheese for some skeeball and got ourselves knocked up with cotton candy and a slinky. we saw "v for vendetta", stayed till after the credits, stayed till after they shut off the lights and all the employees went home. seriously though: bad customer service. we played a couple of rounds of ultimate mortal kombat...we kept trying to finish each other off at the end but to no avail. and i left my purse in ryan's car, so we got to see where he lives. tonight should be fun; we have a softball game and afterwards we're playing games. i like games.

good stuffs

2006-05-30T20:48:00.000-04:00

so my weekend was nice. on thursday we went to ashley's graduation. made her laugh while she was with her class; it was great! saw some very cute barely legal hotties. stayed up til freakin' 2 in the morning playing cards at her house. seriously though, so much fun! pam left the next day, but not before we and leanne went to moe's. i don't really remember what i did on friday and saturday, but on sunday leanne and i went to cracker barrel and had breakfast (mmm strawberry pancakes..so very good), then we went to church. we talked about our mission here, how we are to invade the darkness. it was cool. i've been reading this book called "he came to set the captives free" all about spiritual warfare. so it's been interesting to study that same topic at church.
i then had my VERY BIG TALK (lol) with the person i was angry with all week. i have no idea why i was so scared...it was totally chill and we even hugged afterward. made me feel a whole lot better!
then we went to join alicia and her family and friends at lake hartwell. it's about an hour drive. you know (well, you might not know) that i love long car rides. it was a beautiful day, and i went on my very first sea doo ride. was scared crapless, let me tell ya. but after the initial eyes-squeezed-shut-head-buried-in-stranger's-back-shock of it all, i really quite enjoyed it. leanne asked me later what my fave part was, and i said that was because that was the first time i'd done that. so shanka 1, lame fear of drowning and being sucked up into a sea doo, 0.
let's see, what else? oh, i contemplated calling in sick, cause we actually had to work on memorial day, and i would have loved to stay at the lake with everyone. but i wasn't sick and felt guilty about doing that. then i woke up that next morning with a sore throat, fever, and aches all over. i worked for a good whole hour, and called leanne to come get me. i slept in today, too. my body was sooo tired! it was nice; i don't think i woke up till about 3. oh! and celeste called me that morning (luckily i skipped work) and we talked. then she called back later that evening and i spoke with auntie and randy and theresa. i don't even remember the last time i spoke to her!
all in all, good times.
ps, want to hear (read, whatever) something incredibly sad? i'm on disc 1, season 9 of friends. when did i start this? well, alicia's been with us since 1 april, so a little while after that. i've done the impossible: crammed into less than 2 months what took 9 years to create. marvelous!

a whole year older, but just one day wiser

2006-05-16T09:25:00.000-04:00

so this morning at 5 something, i turned 25 years old. isn't that just crazy? i've only got 2 more years to get it all sorted out! lol
i share a birthday with one of the custodians here, ms lady. she's so funny! one of the other ladies, ms renee, gave her a birthday whack, and before i knew it, these two sweet older ladies were on the floor! it was soo funny! we all just laughed; you really just had to be there. i got her a balloon with a cupcake (thank God that kroger's is open at 720am!), and when i walked in she said "aw, that's for me, ain't it?" i smiled and said "why yes, yes it is." but she thought it was a present for me but it was really for her...that was also funny, but you probably also had to be here. anyway.
i'm about to be treated to lunch now, my choice. i'm excited!

kids are so friggin' cute!

2006-05-12T15:00:00.000-04:00

a mom and her 3 year old son came in today to see one of the ladies here. the little boy came around my desk and said "that's the nurse! she look like the nurse!" when she came up to get them (cause it is soo complicated to get to her office; i'm not even sure how to get there, let alone give someone directions!), he asked her, "are you the nurse?" she smiled and said, "no, i'm miss amy. what's your name?" he smiled and said, "i'm miss jamir."
it was the cutest thing!

my fantabulous weekend

2006-05-01T11:15:00.000-04:00

this weekend was great! on friday, i had a lazy day at work since most of the students had a car wash and i didn’t get many calls. so i read a lot more from my books (beloved, captivating, and the canterbury tales; i plan on starting the davinci code very soon cause i want to read it before i see the movie.) for secretary’s day i received a gift card to a store! so i went shopping during my lunch break with mary, the lady who used to be the receptionist here. that was fun, and i found cute stuff (that i would have never chosen to wear for myself!). then i went to her house to babysit (lol) her 14 yr. old son since she had dinner plans and he wanted his girlfriend over. i got free chinese out of the deal, and it lasted for 4 meals!
then later on that night, we (me, pam, cat, sarah f., leanne, and ben) went to a gay bar (another lol) to hear a band play. i forget their name (well, i actually never knew it), but i liked them cause their instrumentals were really loud. i couldn’t hear the vocalist, so i’d like to hear him one day, but i did say “hi” to him before he went onstage, and it was good.
then pam and sarah went dumpster diving, and i like to ride so i went with them. i promptly fell asleep in the car and woke up at 230 ish cause they’d just dropped me off at home.
then i got up at 930 ish to return the clothes that i couldn’t fit (cause i didn’t have a lot of time to try clothes on when we’d gone the day before), and got ready for lenore and nathan’s wedding at 2. it was sweet. i cried. lenore looked beautiful! we ate, we partied, we took pictures with the bride. it was nice. i saw a lot of old faces, such as keisha and linda and shirley. that was cool. then we got home around 6. there was a demonstration for the invisible children of uganda at georgia tech in atlanta that i, leanne, pam, and shawan went to. we slept in a park, about 400 of us, playing music and writing letters to bush and the senators to do something about it. it was cool. i’d forgotten that i have allergies, apparently, and woke up with my nose in the grass and unable to breathe. it was great! someone with a dog named tank saved me from blowing my nose into my sweater. i truly thank him.
we had to wake up at 630 that we may take a picture in the golden sunlight. we waited until 7. there was no sunlight, but we took a picture anyway. when it’s published, you may find me about 6 people over next to the atlanta sign in the nighttime shot and underneath the “n” in atlanta in the daytime picture. they kept coming over to me, what can i say?
we got back to athens around 830. leanne took a shower and brushed her teeth and did her hair. shanka got chinese food and watched the incredibles (one of my fave movies). we got to church and it was nice. we had a speaker named ken houts on our breakthrough sunday. he’s funny. we had lunch (charlie made some amazing food!) and there were about 20 people who showed up. that was sweet. then we went back to church for the conference. i really enjoyed that. his message was that we are a miracles waiting to happen in someone’s life, and if we hunger for God and His purposes, He’d gladly use us to impact others. his advice? go up to someone and say “hi, my name is shanka. i am a wonderful, loveable, likeable person.” but not in a prideful way. just in a psalms 139 way. if we are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made, then we should be so very confident and expectant of God’s working hand in us. so yeah, i liked it.
then, what else? we went home and watched “friends”. you know how we do. alicia had made it home by then, and we invited shelby over, and i fell asleep before she got there, and woke up at 230 this morning on the floor in the living room (so i’ve gone almost 2 nights without sleeping in my bed!).and this week is just going to get sweeter! i’m finally cleaning my room tonight, we have a softball game this tuesday, i don’t have choir practice this wednesday since it’ll be youth sunday (though i love practice), i should hopefully finally get paid this thursday, i may either go to a dance party or see b. reith in tennessee this friday, and saturday will be our super cool birthday blowout bash. i’m excited!

if i were a guy, my name would be henry and i'd be 3% german

2006-04-22T18:51:00.000-04:00

so i was lookin' on wikipedia (instead of cleaning the kitchen) and i typed my name in the search. it gave a list of short name forms, and apparently "hank and shanka" are diminuitive forms of henry. henry originates from the norman version of the germanic name haimrich, which means "ruler of the home" from 'haim' meaning home and 'rich' or powerful. sure hope that's prophetic. and my family's last name (given slave name, whatever) is keller, which means cellar in german. maybe i am german.
i was reading slate magazine the other day, and apparently this *white kid got a dna test done and discovered that he was like 80% european, 11% north african, and 9% native american, but was too late to file for financial aid based on his minority status. Another girl gives this story:

Ashley Klett's younger sister marked the "Asian" box on her college applications this year, after the elder Ms. Klett, 20, took a DNA test that said she was 2 percent East Asian and 98 percent European.
Whether it mattered they do not know, but she did get into the college of her choice.
"And they gave her a scholarship," Ashley said.

so sad. it's the benefits of being on the short stick of racism without having experienced it.

lol when i set out to include this article, i was going for the "i wonder what percentage german am i" and not something that just makes me mad! ah well.

good night, everybody!

*may need to sign up for ny times online to read this article.

you are soooo good to me!!

2006-04-13T16:21:00.000-04:00

(i finally got a pic up!)
i wrote an email to my movie night group about last night's trip to snellville, where in highpoint church waterdeep performed (on tour for like a week) with robbie seay. there are only 3 bands in the world whose concert i'd pay to see: jars of clay, waterdeep, and we versus the shark (cause if they make it "big" i can say, "ah, i knew them when..."). incidentally, this "concert" was free, so that's where the title comes in! the email is as follows:

hey all!
so last night was wonderful! pam came and picked me up and we then met up with miss ashley (that really does have a nice little ring to it, no?) at my place. then we had an enjoyable car ride (where i read psalms, and we got to partake of ashley's really nice voice, and pam revealed to her about why there were rubber gloves in the car) to snellville and listen to some supa dupa music from don and lori and robbie seay (not C, as first thought). it was nice. then robbie's brother blank spoke and it was great. then they sang more. then pam gathered the courage of us all and we went to meet the folk on stage. there was an artist (rob from london) there who was doing "reflective drawing," which is drawing with your eyes closed, apparently, and we met him and offended him (not really) by trying to use him to meet don and lori (lol). then we all shook lori's hand, and i told her my *dream about the worship camp and ashley offered her babysitting services. to us both, she was like, "uh, okay". lol then we went and all of us shamelessly flirted with rob. we all did, but pam most of all; don't let anyone tell you differently. lol then pam was all unsettled cause we never officially met don. so we followed lori back into the sanctuary and finally said, "hey, introduce us to your husband." SOMEONE almost made lori fall, cause she had to turn around to hear us, but she shall remain nameless. the three of us who went will take it to the grave (until it becomes financially opportune to reveal, of course), but the guilty one knows who she is. so don comes out and meets us. we talked about everything, like how old he is to be able to remember sanka coffee, allergies here in the south, and other important tidbits as such. then ashley asked about the white chocolate chip cookie he was eating, then he shared it with us. then pam said he was amazing. then i said "sorry for sounding cheesy, but your music moves us" something along those lines. pam groaned, and then we almost went "mano a mano" but then we broke it up then don tried to start it again. it was great!
oh! and we also discovered that "shahi bazaar" is an international grocery store. good times. another great adventure for the books.

*my dream was that waterdeep got together and had a worship camp thing and they would teach in the mornings and we'd gather 'round a huge bonfire at night. it was a sweet dream! i told her to let me know if they did that.

what made "una cosa graciosa" graciosa

2006-04-01T08:19:00.000-05:00

i totally forgot to add one of the main reasons that night was so funny. you remember this:

we work up the nerve to actually go and knock on a perfect stranger's door. and his girlfriend (dari) answers the door. pam and i kind of look at each other. i'm praying that this woman doesn't have a shot gun in her hand. she says "i'm always in my pajamas when you guys come." pam and i look at each other again. i mean, we weren't carrying a pizza or anything, but we smiled and nodded anyway.

lol, well i forgot to mention that at the end of our conversation, she says "yeah, i totally thought you guys where with the church of christ or a jehovah's witness or something. i'm always in my pajamas when they come." we just laughed. and slowly stuck our tracts back in our pockets.

yeah, i'm doing pretty good. this week sure has been busy. i went to quitman with pam on saturday and came back on sunday. ah sweet impetuous youth. her family is great. and strange. but that is what makes them great! i really enjoyed my short stay there, and would highly recommend it.

i had a translating job on tuesday for a meeting with the advisors to the board office here. i felt all important and stuff, you know, sitting in on this meeting. but then the hispanic lady i was supposed to help out didn't show up. so i went down to childcare. the director has the cutest baby ever, so i played with him. i may have a babysitting gig on the side. that would be sweet.

we're doing some babysitting at church tonight to raise money for chapter camp for the bulldog students. okay. bulldog is a campus fellowship affiliated with intervarsity. intervarsity has "chapter camps" in the summer where members of chapters come together and learn and grow closer to one another. nicely caught up now? i thought so.

so, yeah, i think that'll be lots o' fun.

i've been thinking about me and what my interests are and what i'm all about. i'm not very politically minded, but that's probably because i'm ready to 86 this country. is that the right number? well, basically, i want to leave it.

lol

anyway. there was a meeting on monday for all of athens to come together and discuss the poverty of our county. of all the counties in america (159 in the state of ga alone...gotta love 8th grade georgia history), athens/clarke ranks number 5 among the poorest. number 5! that is amazing. we we're outranked by 3 counties in texas and the harlem area in ny. we're poorer than those in new orleans, people completely displaced by a huge natural disaster! in the tuesday meeting, one of the speakers from monday night came and shared what he'd talked about. the poverty line for a family of four is a little more than 19000 and for an individual is a little more than 10000. heck, i barely make 19000 year and i'm struggling. i can't imagine life for a poor family of 4! and a lot of people say that the number is skewed due to the large amount of po' college students. but even if you remove the 18-24 population from the data, we've still got a huge number of those living below the poverty line that is disproportionate to the state and federal levels. it's just crazy. we're trying to find out why this is.

so, yeah, other than what i think of legalized abortion (let's make it easier for people to be completely irresponsible, and no one is fooling anyone with that "rape, incest" thing because most people are not having abortions due to those reasons), capital punishment (eye for an eye), legalized drugs (i say legalize 'em!), immigrants (heck yeah they should be legal, but it shouldn't be a difficult process for them because that is what this country is about and they make up so much of our workforce) that's about as politically minded as i'll go.

okay, so i really don't know about the legalization of drugs. i can see pros and cons. gosh, maybe i'm more liberal than i thought. spooky.

many a wintry splendour...please don't ask

2006-02-16T18:11:00.000-05:00

(i like big heads and i cannot lie...you other brothas can't deny)
so this weekend was supa cool...we went to cat's parents' house up in north carolina for some skiing galore. i, going without saying, did not ski, but had a blast anyway. me, pam, and andy were in the late car. seriously (sorry hanne and mike and tom): best road trip ever. i laughed and cried and wet myself on numerous occasions. good times.
we played taboo. we ate brownies. we slept. we got to meet the neighbor shannon. he wanted to know who the people rolling down his hill were. we built a big headed snowwoman with a baby. we got lazy and cold and decided she was sinking in quicksand rather than make her some legs. we had a snowball fight. we ate mamma norman's good cookin'. on sunday we went sledding down the BIG hill. we (meaning i) got whiplash or something and my butt still hurts. we decided to build an igloo. i think you know who the "we" are. we made a foundation. we got no farther.
we drove towards athens and tricked cat into thinking we were ahead of her. we stopped in boiling "springs", south carolina. the word springs was in quotation marks on the big green government sign. we laughed. we found a playground and played. we got back to ga around 11 pm. it was great.
i start my receptionist job on monday. i'm so stoked! all the spanish and the kids and the spanish speaking kids! *smiling happy shanka*
barbara and jon finally found me on myspace. yay! i would love to see them both so very much. and george and barbara and tate and jefta and phil and esther too. aww. so many cool people in the states that i never would have met if not for the SHELTER EXPERIENCE. it was good stuff.

(that stupid metric system's gonna ruin us all!!!...heeey, wait a minute!)

OR ("i'm 6 foot 5" whateva!...just like a guy to lie about his height.) so hard to choose!

my quest for the perfect 'fro

2006-02-04T13:38:00.000-05:00

so i took by braids down, and am rockin' rough and stuff with my afro puffs (dude, yall remember that song?) it took about 18 hours to take them down. i actually missed church last sunday cause it turned into a weekend affair. lol i was so tired monday morning! and after sunday lunch and cat and pam's, pam and i went to walmart and bought hair products galore. before i go on, i must remind you that i decided to not put a chemical straightener in my hair back in feb. '05. so i'm still strong a year later. yay! when i was kickin' it with hanne and marise in spain, i almost gave in. lol i went into this one shop and asked if they did braids (and they didn't). then i asked if they gave relaxers. this cute little spanish lady came up to me and said (in spanish, of course), "please don't do that to your hair. promise me. it's so bad for your hair." i told hanne and marise what she said, and we just cracked up at this lady being so concerned about my hair.
anyhoo, back to the present. so pam and i bought all this conditioning, moisturizing goops and antifrizz gels so i can get cute natural curls. i washed my hair after i took out the braids. now, i have never, ever had this happen, but i ended up with these huge matted clumps of hair like dreads on the top of my head! freaked me out. pam spent the better part of 8 hours combing that mess out! i've never been one to be tenderheaded, but man oh man! i fell asleep so i wouldn't feel the pain (aww). i woke up at 2 am and she was finished. i looked at myself and cried. oh how i hated my kinky hair! i've had relaxers for as far as i can remember. i've never know my hair any other way than chemically straightened.
and i had to drag my butt to work in less than 6 hours!
i slapped it back into a very short ponytail, said bye to my hoarse roommate, stepped outside to walk to work, and promptly began crying. it was so sad..i'm glad no one saw me!
i read this book a few weeks back about body image. it talked about all women, and how asian women aren't small enough and latina women aren't big enough and white women aren't skinny enough. the black girl's plight is her hair isn't nice enough. a girl rocking naturally kinky hair is frowned upon. i can't complain too much...in all fairness, i have really nice hair. it's curly, to be sure, but it's very soft and "napless" (lol you know what i mean!), something i know not a lot of black girls are blessed with. but it's not beautiful and straight and shiny and light. lol. geez don't we need a paradigm shift??
but i think i've arrived. lol. a solid week later, with my hair still rockin' the puffs, i absentmindedly picked off strands of hair from my tigger sweatshirt. most were light brown wavy long leanne pieces. but one was a tightly curled, dark dark brown, shiny shanka piece. and i held it in my hand and said, "now, that's very good."

(okay, okay, okay, okay. actually, i said "that's very pretty." but i'm trying to play up the fact what God's been doing in me. ya know.)

my, how quickly the times are a-changing...

2006-02-04T13:16:00.000-05:00

so a minute ago (but not really) i was hurting for a job, sad and depressed that no one thought i was good enough for their stupid places of employment. now i'm in the uncomfortable position of being offered two jobs and not knowing which to choose. ah, to be pursued is a grand feeling! lol but i hate making big decisions.
will it be...
bachelor #1...a full time teller position at a nationally recognized bank? where salary and benefits are much more than i've ever received, where i get on great with the manager, where i have the chance of tuition reimbursement if i ever decide to put myself through the torture of formal education ever again, where i've never thought i'd be something-enough to work (smart, classy, whateva). cons: where i may not like it so much cause i'd have to learn so much, where i can expect promotion in a year's time, where my coworkers may not be as cool, where some jerk may be bold enough to rob me, where somebody might shoot in my general vicinity.
or bachelor #2...a full time permanent receptionist position in the school district? where i'm actually considered "temporary" only in the sense that i'd be promoted almost immediately, where i'd work with little spanish speaking kids, where i've already had time to thoroughly enjoy my coworkers, where someone told me for the first time in my professional career that i in particular was wanted and would be hired immediately, where i'd have first shots at choice positions that would come up simply because my foot's already in the door. cons: possible pay cut in receptionist position (but would rise once i'm out of it, so this con balances out, but still for a little while..), where it would put me in a position to have to say "no" to the bank that i've already said "yes" to. that is all. you'd think it'd be an easy decision, but that last con is actually worth about 3 cons.
so that's 4 pros/5 cons to 5 pros/3 cons.
and the winner is (drumroll please...)...tune in this monday or tuesday for the exciting conclusion!

'una cosa graciosa' happened on the way home the other night...

2006-01-29T21:01:00.000-05:00

my friend pam is happily working as a delivery person for papa johns pizza (oh yeah, 50% off, baby!). now, pam has always been a stalker. so now armed with personal info of law-abiding citizens, man, i don't know. so she told me of a spanish speaking gent she delivered pizza to around 1 am one night who lives within walking distance of my house, and this makes us both quite excited cause i love to practice my spanish at any chance i get, and being the good friend she, she likes to share in my joy. so we decided one night, just in the moment, to go to his house and say hello. or "hola". you know. and by this time it's about 9 ish, 10 ish pm, so, i'm secretly wondering if we're finally about to share a cell block. cause with our adventures, it seems to be a likely scenario. we work up the nerve to actually go and knock on a perfect stranger's door. and his girlfriend (dari) answers the door. pam and i kind of look at each other. i'm praying that this woman doesn't have a shot gun in her hand. she says "i'm always in my pajamas when you guys come." pam and i look at each other again. i mean, we weren't carrying a pizza or anything, but we smiled and nodded anyway. i tell her my story. you know, that my friend delivered a pizza to your home and came and told me where you lived. i tell her that i love spanish and want to meet other spanish speakers. she calls her boyfriend (aron) to the front door, and for a glorious 10 to about 15 minutes, we chatted it up in spanish. pam and dari chatted in english. it was so wonderful! they suggested i go to tasty world on saturday nights where they have salsa dancing. we got in the car and just cracked up. the things i get into while with her!
i met a spanish professor in the grill (a 60's type cafe in downtown athens. a must-see, eat if you ever visit) about 3 weeks back. well, i eavesdropped on a conversation the professor was having in the grill about 3 weeks back. he gave me the email address of a guy who leads up a conversation hour with english and spanish speakers. i'm very excited about being a part of that.
my boss' boss is a skinny guy from cuba. i haven't had many conversations with him (i hardly see him), but he seems like a very nice guy and his coworkers seem to have nothing but good things to say of him. there was a "soul food" lunch this past friday, and i wasn't sure if i was invited (after all, i'm a lowly temp!) but he invited me and even had someone cover a part of my reception shift so that i could at least grab a bite to eat. he spoke to me in spanish and introduced me to everyone in the department, saying how they should feel free to speak to me in spanish. some of the ladies said that "we should talk" as there may be possibilities to work in a different department (but as a permanent worker! yay!). lora, my boss whom i really do adore, said she would help me with my resume and with finding a real job. my christian coworker veronica said "see? i told you things would work out."
life's just been 'dulce', no?

temping

2006-01-24T12:46:00.000-05:00

guess who is no longer jobless?
oh yes, that would be me!
what have i always wanted to do?
be a secretary
what is my job?
secretary for the board of education

ok, enough of the q&a.
i'm working full time mon-fri and it's so great! the ladies like me (already invited me out for lunch! score!) and my boss's boss does too...so the only problem is that the lady i'm replacing is sick and we need to pray for her to get better, but then when she gets better i'm jobless again. a paradox of sorts.

my girl Jen from Australia was in Amsterdam the other day missing me and my singing voice (so i've been told) and so i'd like to let her know that i am singing again...in the choir! it's great fun, especially cuz there's a lady in the choir who speaks spanish and is also alto. so we've been getting along great, but the only problem is she's super busy with her 3 teens.

ooooooooooooh! guess what? my dear barbara's coming to the states, woohoo! i'm so excited; i've got my excited pants on. hopefully i'll be able to visit her...perhaps with the help of wendy's...

oh, one more bit of exciting new...we now have furniture! it's nice to have places to sit and sleep and eat off that aren't the floor. ok, it wasn't that bad, but new furniture is a very good thing.

here no job, there no job, everywhere no job, job

2006-01-13T20:24:00.000-05:00

so today was a day of interviews. i went to holiday inn (i really want to be a receptionist of some sort, either in an office or a hotel. well, i guess there really aren't receptionists in other places, huh?). anyway, i wanted to work at the new hilton downtown that opens in a couple of months. so i was really excited when i got an interview. i was dressed very cute-ly in mostly pink, and since it was cold out, i got to wear the pink overcoat of tiffany's that i love so much and striped scarf. i went in and sat for a while since the person i was supposed to meet with was having an interview with another person. she told me to wait and asked if i was cold earlier, but not in a nice, funny way, but in a "you idiot, why are you wearing a scarf?" kind of way. in the phone call i had with her for discussing an interview opportunity, she was very short with her answers and how she spoke; i assumed she was stressed and busy and probably dealt with a million applicants already, so i let it go as such. but since her demeanor was exactly the same during the actual interview, i really wasn't sure what to make of it. she demanded to know what i did that day, what i was going to do for the rest of the day, why i hadn't researched being a receptionist, why i left my last job, why i hadn't applied at my old job, why i hadn't researched the new location of the old job that i thought was out of business since it wasn't in it's place anymore, and said if she'd decided on a second interview, she'd call me. i smiled and remained courteous throughout the entire 10 minute (it takes me 15 just to get there!!) interview. but i was just uncomfortable the entire time. which really sucks, cause i actually wanted to work there.
luckily for me, i maintained my composure until i got in the car, and even maintained until i got to my friends pam and cat's place. also luckily for me cat was home. i finally broke down into tears when i plopped on her couch. we both kinda hoped that she was pretending to be like an irate client and wanted to see how i'd handle that. we both kinda doubted that, though, but you never know. maybe there is a phone call from suntrust on my answering machine. hopefully it'll be good news.

pps on the free flight

2006-01-12T18:29:00.000-05:00

did i ever say that pammalamma found like 100 cups on her way home to quitman (south south georgia)? we totally now have 2 round trip tickets, and she even had enough for a third. yay!

but,

i have no money and am going to a million and four interviews. no esther and phil wedding for shanka and pam. aww.

i wonder where we'll go. i'm taking suggestions. only in the continental 50, though. if we decide to choose your location, you'll receive a prize!

my day today

2006-01-09T20:32:00.000-05:00

the funniest thing just happened:
we (pam and i) decided to go to this massive student learning building on campus so that we could use their computers, since our roommates decided to take their laptops with them (how dare they!!). and the parking spot we find is right next to this huge white truck that's kinda doing this diagonal parking thing. we both look at it and pam says "i hope he doesn't hit me" and then i say "you know what we should do?" then at the same time we say "write down his license number." then we laugh. and i'm holding a blank envelope of hers, and for whatever reason, we both say "what are you doin'?" at the same time. i don't even remember why i said that, but it was really funny. then i say "maybe i'll take a picture." so we get out and i says to pam i says "you should get in the picture" and we both did. so we're on the ground behind this truck taking pictures of this guy's license plate, then all of a sudden, we hear a engine start, and it sounds just like the truck. in the span of about 2 seconds, we jump up (well, i jump up cause i was squatting, but pam was sitting, so she kind of rolled over the asphalt) out of the way. then we notice a car right across from where we parked had started and was slowly backing up. i'm telling you, that was like the funniest thing, cause we thought we were about to get backed up on, but you really had to be there cause words don't really do the story justice.
in any case, today was a good day. i even got to get some bikeage in. it was sweet.

random stuffs

2006-01-03T15:41:00.000-05:00

omg, so i'm sitting in the quite busy athens-clarke county library reading the comments on my various posts, and trying very hard not to crack up. seriously, you guys know me: it's very hard not to laugh aloud!
thanks rawin for your number. i'm glad to know you care (aww!).
and meghawoman, i hope you had a blast (haha, i'm funny even when i'm not trying to be!!) at dam square. last year kathrin and i danced it up at the dwaze zaken. it was cool.
i'm trying to kill time before i catch the bus back home. i went to randstad (a dutch organization, so i've learned..the recruiter saw amsterdam on my resume and was like surely you've heard of us! i was like, um sure). i have an appointment with them tomorrow at 930 am. i had to be prepared for a 2 to 3 hour interview full of tests and essays galore. i'm so stoked! lol
ugh, those freaking bulldogs! i watched and later listened to them lose to west virginia in the sugar bowl last night (the game didn't end till like after midnight! all that precious time wasted!!). it was an exciting game though...but it would have been cooler had we won. oh well. someone at the game party we went to said that west virginia and virginia should just merge. i asked, "do you mean the states?" he said yeah. i thought that was funny. sorry to the tall pretty violin player whose name i can't remember who i think is from west virginia! lol

oh crap, what's her name?? someone help me out. really long hair, freckles, nice smile, sang with marco that time, should be finished working at the shelter by now.

ps on the free flight

2005-12-30T19:10:00.000-05:00

pam and i thought we were the bomb, collecting about 100 cups in just one night. we went to a party at our friends dustin and jen's house in atlanta. we met up with some others; we played games and ate junk. it was a grand ol' time. we told joey about our escapades into the dankness that is the wendy's dumpster. he, in return, told us that he and his (3 or 4 others, i don't remember) roommates were doing that, too. they scored about 90 cups. each. joey was telling us how he actually put his ENTIRE BODY into the dumpster and just went to town. ahh, good times.

ugh, we were so jealous.

but we haven't gone back diving recently, but we need to get on it cause those tickets ain't gonna pay for themselves.

more bored than a plank of wood...aka shanka's pity party (for one)

2005-12-30T18:01:00.000-05:00

so leanne is in cali at a wedding, and ginger has moved (and with most of the furniture in the living room, except the christmas tree) to her new place. and all friends i have phone numbers for (that's a whole one person) are out of town for the holidays. so shanka has been racking up some serious player hours on iwin.com in the spades room (if you visit, look up me under almeria@iwin.com. i could use a familiar face. you know what i mean.) good thing leanne left this comp behind, else i don't know what i'd be doing now. cleaning my room? washing my clothes? moving my things to my new room? cleaning the mess i made in the kitchen? ugh. thank goodness for the glorious, glorious internet.
oh, and i have no idea what i'll do for the new year. when i'm home, we shoot firecrackers. when i'm in atlanta with kedra, we'd go to the downtown party. but the last 2 new years i've spent in amsterdam. i'm sorry, but unless i go to frickin' new york times square and watch the ball drop with that old guy any time soon, nothing's topping ringing in the new year in dam square with actual fire being thrown at my feet. so i'm all sad. :( pity me. pity!

how sad is it that i don't know anyone's phone number? lol if you know any, have my friends call me! the only thing ginger didn't own was the telephone.

you can't spell "christmas" without "dysfunction"

2005-12-27T22:14:00.000-05:00

in all seriousness though, mine was a lovely christmas. i got to see my former 4 ft 7 in (139.7 cm) little girl niece as a 5 ft 7 in (170.2 cm) pre-woman (i'm 5'5" or 165.1 cm). craziness!! my mom was completely civil!! my great-niece loves me even though she doesn't know me (but you just wait till she does! then it'll be a different story!).
today we went to the mall of georgia, which i swore up and down i'd never been to. but then i remembered once the church choir sang there. but i never really went inside, so it didn't count. we went there to get a couch, since our third roommate ginger is packing up and heading east (east athens) and she's the actual grown up and with furniture. (we need a new roommate!!) so leanne saw this couch she wanted when she was in savannah yesterday, and called to see if it was in athens, and asked for it to be put on hold for her to pick up the next day, and left her name and number with some unnamed associate at the store, and was told "no problem" by said unnamed associate, and today rented a uhaul at 130 pm for 100 bucks, and drove 45 minutes to the mall of georgia, and applied and was approved for the store credit card so that she could get an extra 10% off her purchase for today only, and was told (after the credit card approval, mind you) that someone had called today and asked to come and see the couch, and she pleaded that she was the better deal as the person who called today said he was coming to see the couch and she was willing to buy the couch now, and was told to wait until 7 pm, and waited until 7 pm, and called back to check the status of the couch, and was told that at that very moment the guy was buying the couch. it was a frustrating day indeed.

on a good note, i had an interview at a temp agency today. it went very well. i may have a job in 2 to 4 days!! i sure hope so...i can't buy all this junk at now after-christmas discounted prices without money!! the government and their stupid rules!!

the moral of the story: when dealing with people in retail, make sure you get all their vitals (first name, last name, middle name, nickname, home address, telephone number, social security number, credit card number, PIN number, blood type) before you do any business with them lest they forget they ever spoke with you.

learn to dumpster dive for the low, low price of 19.95!

2005-12-16T00:07:00.000-05:00

so wendy's (yall remember wendy's...biggie fries, biggie drinks, and coming soon, biggie bankruptcy) has this idiotic promotion where one can collect either 24 oz or 32 oz size drink cups, cut out the coupon on the side, and get a free flight anywhere air tran flies in the us. i mean, it's so great especially for the broke college student. or the me, who still lives like the broke college student except for the college student part. so you collect 32 for a one way and 64 for a return. you probably have to pay taxes, but seriously, that's a great deal. so my friend pam and i decided that we would totally take advantage. there’s a little colorado wedding in january, and if it’s not a black out date, i’ll be introducing my friend to the new mr. and mrs. ball. yay!!
so tuesday night, on a whim, we decided to hit up the wendy’s close to her house. armed with a garbage bag and a stool, cause we are some shorties. i think we scored about 15 cups that night. a wendy’s employee strolled up and said, “yall looking for cups, aren’t you?” with pam conveniently hidden behind the door, i was the one scrambling for an answer. “what’s your name?” pam said molly. shanka said shanka. hey, i’m an amateur at this whole thing, but i’m learning. he told us about a coworker who could “hook us up, for the right price, you know.” we were alls excited about some stolen goods. we came back to meet with said coworker, struck up a mighty fine deal, then hauled our butts out of there with the handy excuse of having to go the bank. seriously, what kind of witness would that have been? pam suggested taking him a chick tract, but his soul is messed up as it is, stealing from his company and all. he sure doesn’t need jack chick to do him in.
so after we scouted out the wendy’s on alps and on the east side (both too well lit…we’d return later), pam remembered that there was a wendy’s in monroe. it’s about 930 now, and monroe is about an hour away. sure, why not? it’s not like we have jobs or any pressing obligations.
monroe was sweet, man. we got about 25 cups. but not before stopping at the local wal-mart for some latex gloves, a little flashlight, and some chocolate covered cherries. the door to the little enclosed space of this dumpster had a metal rod at the bottom, and it made this horrible screeching sound. so much for being discreet. people placing drive thru orders were staring at us from their cars. afterwards we went to the door, and the restaurant was locked, but there was a lady eating inside. pam asked her if there was some trash we could throw away for her, as we were trying to collect these cups. “all i can say, ladies, is check the dumpster.” little did she know. we cracked up once we got back in the car.
then we headed to another wendy’s about 20 minutes away. that was pretty sweet as well; we got about 15 cups. by this time pam and i were starving. poor girl was all queasy from the smell. i was a little concerned that i wasn’t… we decided to get the dollar menu. what the hell were we thinking?? we just went through all that delightful wendy’s garbage and it made us think “mm, mm, i sure could go for a wendy’s jr. bacon cheeseburger right now.” thank goodness pam had some antibacterial stuff in her car (makes you wonder why she was so well prepared, doesn’t it?) we slathered on a bottle each. and i still ate with latex gloves on. i’d show the pic, but we had the wendy’s fry box in the picture with me licking my latexed finger…we’re not trying to get sued, you know. but email me if you really want to see it.
we decided to stop in watkinsville on the way back, cause surely there’s a wendy’s there. there was not. but it was a nice ride anyway, mostly because as we were heading down a long stretch of highway, pam suddenly stopped. then she slowly backed up, and turned right into a dark gas station. i was a little scared cause i wasn’t sure why we were stopping, and so abruptly. turns out pam saw a cup on the side of the road (my side of the road, mind you!), backed up, pulled up next to it, and was very disappointed to discover a cup from kfc. that, unfortunately, was not the only time kfc’s dark blue cups would foil us that night.
then we went back to athens' east side. still quite lit up, but not as many cars, so we’d thought we’d give it a shot. by now we had this down to an art: after parking, we’d “latex up”, i’d hop out of the car, and she’d pop the trunk. i’d get the box, she’d grab the flashlight, and we’d head on. so we’re doing a great job, at least i am, cause i grabbed the prime position. i got about 10 cups in about 3 minutes, i was on top of my game. pam says, “uh oh, i just saw a police car roll by.” i say give me about 10 more seconds….i’d gotten up to 17 cups by now, and i wasn’t ready to quit yet. then pam walks toward the car, and i follow her, but not without noticing out the side of my eye a silent patrol car pulling up right behind pam’s car! and i’ve got all this evidence in my hands and on my clothes! one day it would be a great story for the grandkids “yeah, i got arrested for stealing funky dirty cups from a dumpster. good times.” who needs that on their record?? “so, how many you got there?” he casually asks, still seated in his car. i look down and sheepishly answer “35.” he proceeds to tell us that there is an ordinance on dumpster diving (it’s illegal) but this particular wendy’s is okay with it as long as you ask first. also that if he needed a plane ticket, he’d probably do it, too. but the real gem was “you guys are the third group tonight caught in this dumpster.” hahaha it was soo great! he let us go, and we just about died in the car laughing.
we went back to the wendy’s close to her house, but the guy we stiffed on the earlier deal was standing outside, smoking a blunt, so we casually kept driving by. we came back around 20 minutes later, people free, and grabbed about 10 more cups.
i plopped into my own house at 2 am. i was in the right senses of mind and smell to shower first, and that came at a great price, cause i was sooo tired.
pam calculated that with the cups we’d collected and the price of a ticket, we’d effectively earned about $25/hr a piece. we are so good at what we do! but we still got about 2/5 of a one way plane ticket left. we’re going to monroe tomorrow morning. it’s almost 1 am now, so i’d better get rested up!! dumpster diving ain’t no cake walk in the park, lady!

who's your daddy??

2005-11-28T07:18:00.000-05:00

(photo by kedra...she insisted i include that!)
ok ok ok ok, this will be the last time (this week) that i'll post pictures. this is of my dad (larry) and me hanging out in posing position in front of his house...the first time i'd seen him in 2 1/2 years. i like this pic. i'm looking forward to being as close to him personally as we seem to be in the photo.
i'm still hanging with my sister, very nice. my future roommate leanne has been detained for a bit (so she couldn't pick me up...don't worry, she's not in jail or anything!) so if you're of the praying kind, do that for her and her family, particularly for her dad.
i was watching, of all things, desperate housewives last night. the very skinny brunette character had just found her biological father, a fertilizer salesman. she was describing to her friends how she would tell him the news. the blonde one asked why it was so important to have that relationship, that she herself grew up without a father, and look how well she turned out. the other blonde one asked when she'd lost her virginity. i think the 1st one got the point.
then the brunette (and i'm not just being cute; i seriously do not know their names) went to her dad and the sight of her gave him a heart attack. he decided he wanted nothing to do with her. she vowed to keep trying to win him over.
in conclusion, racy clichéd primetime does have something to offer. you just gotta look for it.

more pics

2005-11-27T15:18:00.000-05:00

i'm really proud of these pictures...i think that they're beautiful, if i do say so myself. i've always wanted to be a photographer, you know! and if you follow the links to my favorite online encyclopedia, you'll learn something, too!

My first visit to gay Paris. Not to complain, but it did not live up to the hype! But this thing sure is pretty.

Following the trail to Santiago de Compostela in Castrojeriz, Spain.

Remains of a 2000+ year old castle in Castrojeriz. Dude, I've slept in a castle on a mountain!

Lovely Vondelpark. I love this picture! I'm all talent riding a bike and snapping photos!

pictures for freekosaurus

2005-11-22T17:55:00.000-05:00

here's ian in traditional incan tribal wear.

you're not cool unless you have your own handshake.

welcome to miami (bienvenido a miami)

2005-11-20T07:39:00.000-05:00

(ok, i just published this blog, and just so you know, it's frickin' long. just so you know)

(yall remember that will smith song from waaaay back??)
but i'm actually in atlanta, georgia, home of such marvels as coca cola, mlk jr., "gone with the wind", and of course, yours truly (you surely know me well enough to know i'd say that!)
anyway, it's my 2nd day in atl, and i'm doing okay. i started experiencing that "reverse culture shock" thing people kept threatening me with when i was in schiphol. there was this group of southern businessmen chatting away about such things as dubya and college football. i really, really had to have God be like "shanka knock it off!" because i was totally developing hateful feelings toward my fellow countryman. and then i had the delta 9 hour plane ride, which was no cause of complaint...though i did develop this headache, the flight attendant gave me some non-aspirin medicine and i was right as rain. aww.
and yes, there was food lol sorry twin.
i actually took public transportation to my sister's house. it was a pretty minute or two (that's southern slang meaning it took a while), but i got there just fine. i hadn't been on atlantan publ trans in such a long time; i think about 10 years! wow! i'm old enough to say that i hadn't done something in 10 years! lol craziness
and thank the Lord for pub tra; in amsterdam that 2 hour trip would have been so much more expensive, in atlanta $1.75 baby!
then my sister came and we hugged and chatted, and saturday morning we went and visited family. first stop my dad. we spent about 3 hours just talking. it was so nice! i even hugged him. thrice! and there is no God? lol please! we're going to hang out next weekend with chinese and bowling, my 2 favorite things to do. i'm so stoked!
i love my sister kedra (tae). we are so much alike...like we'll talk about stuff then switch subjects about 50 times and are still able to follow one another, and we have about the same sense of humor. i told her that we aren't as close as i'd like to be, but we get along so well that it really seems like we are. it's so great to be with her.
i went and saw friends and aunts and my other sister...i hadn't seen her in so long! my sister tae walked in pretending like she was alone and started talking to tawon, then i walked in afterwards. tawon's mouth dropped, then for a good 3 minutes she just jumped up and down screaming, then lunged for the hug. nearly hit the floor. never have i felt so loved in my life! lol it was so great.
i got to eat checkers fries; some of the best fries on the planet. we had american chinese buffet last night. can you just hear the swells of "star spangled banner" ? dude on the plane after we landed they totally played that over the pa. like right after they said "tot ziens" to our dutch flyers. i actually laughed out loud. then i went through the maze that is hartsfield and about 1.5 hours later, i claimed my belongings. it was cool though. i kept getting slightly funny looks from people...this black chick with these obviously european type clothes on and a guitar on my back. lol i was just 2 decades too late, people!!
ooh ooh then i went to wal-mart!! so far the pinnacle of my stay here! there was a salesgirl "playing" the bass. i had to go and try it. lol so fun!
anyway, i'd better wrap this up fellas. it's 730 am, and i have no idea why i'm up. i woke up at 640 (!?) and started cleaning (??!!)...i really don't know.

my date and time thingy still reads 130 pm. aww.

yay! that dang jet plane finally arrived!

2005-11-15T10:43:00.000-05:00

it'll be taking me to atlanta this friday at 1010...i'll be in the us of a at 3 pm. craziness! but i'm very excited. i am so looking forward to going to my church(of the nations)...it will be wonderful to back in athens. and these last couple of days are even chock full of activities! today i went to see the amsterdam queen's symphony practice at the concertgebouw. it was supa cool. there was a solo violinist (first chair, is he called??) playing up a storm...it was so beautiful! that was my first time inside. and i went with linda, heidi, and magda, which was very nice. then i finally took some pictures of amsterdam...while biking. lol i live life to the fullest!!
then we went and had lunch and chatted as ladies are wont to do. now i'm typing this and wasting time before i have to pack and clean my room.
tonight i want to go to the home group...i hope hanne's going...she is now if she didn't know it before!, since i have a bike to get me there (yay linda!! have fun in austria!), and i want to go to the worship meeting in the willemstraat cause it sounds like coolness. pure coolness.
tomorrow i'll visit the jordan. that should be lots of fun. they have a staff day ice skating, so i hope they have a wonderful time. gosh, i wish i could go...*mischievous grin*
then i have to lug my butt to the airport a full 3 hours ahead of the flight. yes math wizards that's 7 in the morning. well, 710 in the morning, cause i can picture marco or laurissa or meghan politely pointing that out. lol. dude, i didn't even know they made a 7 in the morning...grrr. but there i shall be with passport and e-ticket in tow.
well then, those clothes sure ain't gonna pack themselves. i might as well get back into my southern vernacular. shucks. cuz i'm goin' home!! yay!
oh! and i spoke to barbara the other day! we had us a good time cackeling. it was so great to hear from her!

Katya and Shanka's KillerSmoothie!!

2005-11-14T05:32:00.000-05:00

a cup of yogurt
milk
2 trays of ice cubes
1 banana, sliced
vanilla ice cream
a splash of orange juice
a breakfast cup of strawberry jam
2 packets of decaf coffee
3 more trays of ice cubes
vanilla sugar
milk
coconut flakes
1 whole banana
milk
cashews

blend the first 7 ingredients very well in a blender until concoction is smooth and creamy.
pour into a cup and enjoy.
spit out (or swallow at own risk) and completely abandon idea of drinking any more since the product is so hideous.
blend (in another jar) the next 4 ingredients until no longer clumpy.
you may have to use the highest setting to get the lumps out...give it about 10 minutes or so.
pour into a cup and enjoy a very delicious blend.
have Katya add to the first drink disaster a whole banana and about 4 pounds of cocunut flakes.
take a sip of it and nearly choke as the cacophony of coconut flakes completly coat (like the alliteration??) your esophagus rendering you partially unconscious.
add cashews and blend again.
now drink both drinks in different glasses with 2 straws at the same time, and enjoy!! it's actually not that bad. seriously.

What's love without pain?

2005-10-31T12:44:00.001-05:00

ahh, the Shanka squeezes. curses on meghan who invented the painful hug. but blessings too, cuz it's so wonderful. amen, but not the curses.
and my bulldogs lost. i cried.

life's just so darn random

2005-10-28T19:40:00.000-04:00

so i was updating my personal info (yes, it is 1:18 in the morning...point??) and the offered random question of today is "what is the earliest time you got up to watch cartoons and what did you start with?" i would start at 630ish with "zoobilee zoo". it was such a weird show actually. these adults in animal costumes. i even remember the theme song (zoobilee zoo, zoobilee zoo, magic and wonder are waiting for you...gosh what a creepy kid i was!)
and later on that morning i would watch "reading rainbow". i loved, loved reading rainbow! i looked it up (on my fave online encyclopedia, of course) and it is actually STILL on the air! that made me so happy. i love that black guy! but you don't have to take my word for it! lol, good times.
and i liked transformers. they were so more than what met my eye. s. and teenage mutant ninja turtles. i wanted to date leonardo cause he had the blue bandanna. i love blue!
and gargoyles and batman and he-man and thunderkats.
and you have all your goofy stuff like the smurfs and my little pony and gummi beeaaarrrsss (bouncing here and there and everywhheerree) which were cool and all, but.....i guess i was more of a hard ass. a hard ass who wanted to date a turtle. and loved a reading show.

yep.

tonight was hostel night at the good ol' shelter jordaan. it was dutch night. and the customary flyer said that there would be dutch lessons. i was surely let down this night. but i'm not one to hold a grudge. beyond that, i think a good time was had by all. we ate potatoes and carrots and bacons all-in-one. hanne told me later that it was a spanish invention: apparently the spanish troops had the poor farmers trapped and unable to eat, so one day this little boy (always a kid, huh) went snooping in the enemy's camp and found it to be COMPLETELY EMPTY! except for a huge pot of mashed potatocarrotmeatballdstuff and he took it home and fed his entire village. the end.

so i'm alls excited bout some dawg/gator action tomorrow night! my beloved bulldogs shall be playing the hated gators in one of the finest college football rivalries there is. and for the title. the title!! oooh...intriguing! i've prayed for God to get me a ticket and a plane to go to jacksonville, florida tomorrow, but since He's obviously just not feeling me on this one, i'll settle for a listen over the internet. oh well. should still be a thriller. i'm so stoked!

a win...but at what cost?

2005-10-22T16:42:00.000-04:00

is the question me and other (dramatic) bulldogs' fans are asking now as georgia barely pulls of its 23-20 win over arkansas. our qb (dj) may have twisted something in the 2nd quarter and he seems to be the one who pulled them through their recent victories. by the way, i got to see this game (live!!) via the internet. !! so excited! i have not seen football, let alone college football, in more than 2 years. !
oh man, i think i scared hanne cause i was screaming at the screen. i even surprised myself, but i guess 2 years of suppression would do that to just about anybody.

so yeah, i'm feelin' good, man.

i had a super time last night at the game night. i won a game of settlers (first ever win!!). but this didn't cost me anything, even though it made others lose.....sooo i guess i can't make my seemingly profound title relate to anything more than college football.

yes!!! we won!!!!!

Revelation by Shankaleena

2005-10-19T18:24:00.000-04:00

so I was watching tv today for the first time in...idk, a long freakin' time, and I stumbled across Hunter which was one of my favorite shows as a child (instead of, you know, smurfs or something) and I had a REVELATION!!! I know, revelation from an old cop show? But seriously, all the shows I like now are law/cop shows such as Law and Order, SVU, Matlock and Court TV (Yeah Nancy Grace!!) and I've discovered that it's all due to the fact that Hunter was more appealing to me than smurfs.
Tonight I got to do my most favoritest thing ever in life: BOWLING!!! duh, right? so um yeah, it was way fun! Freek is the AWESOMEST POSSUM EVER for paying for us (and by us i mean my twin (meghan) Ryan and Katya aka meghawoman, turbo, and katinator). So way good times, and I almost died (to use a oft-quoted ryan phrase) due to the fact that I was cycling Katya's bike back because these evil dudes flattened her tire and ryan can't cycle with another bike or he'll fall over and freek ditched us (which was understandable since he was almost home...but still...) and then Katya decided to bowl posts with meghan's legs and trash cans with her head as they cycled home and it was quite the adventure. we came back and Katya and I made the saweetest chocolate smoothieishthing that was the proverbial cherry on top of our sundae evening. and now I'm about to eat the pit as I head bedwards.
the end

are ya ready for some football???

2005-10-19T10:32:00.000-04:00

ok ok ok, so i'm a sports nerd. not in the total fanatic sort of way where i paint myself black (lol) and red and bark and can rattle off player stats (as if i have nothing else better to do than to busy myself with unimportant and useless things...time to write now!).
but i'm a devoted fan, and have been known to lose my voice at a game. stupid, stupid referees!
anyhoo, so my beloved bulldogs are 4 and 0 conference and 6 and 0 all and now number 4 in the country. yay! we play (unrated) arkansas this weekend. oh would i love to get in a couple of games before this season is over. that would be pure sweetness.
hmm, what else? i had a wonderful time with hanne and michael (the lovelies who are letting me crash in their living room) at her parents' house yesterday.
i'm having a good time in amsterdam...i finds meself looking forward to athens, though. i think i'll have fun eating chinese buffet with my dad. i think it's time.

on a different note altogether
i was reading in my favorite online encyclopedia, and i learned that when a female has 3 x's (instead of 2) chromosomes, it makes her very tall and slender. and in amsterdam (XXX!) you find the tallest women. coincidence??

(okay, most likely)
(not)

the banana song

2005-10-15T17:13:00.000-04:00

so Meghan just taught me a way cool song and Nynke her and I sang/danced it in the open mic night. sweet deal. you should've seen us going bananas. it lightened the mood greatly. then we sang a song (meghan and me, but she butchered it) and then I sang with Marco accompanying and it was saweet if i do say so myself. but of course, myself refers to the ghost blogger. ahh, I love throwing you for a loop! who is this for real? that's for me to know and you to...not find out.
mwahahahahahahaha!
in case you didn't know, that's an evil, sinister laugh.
picture Claw from Inspector Gadget.
next time gadget, next time. meow!

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

2005-10-12T07:35:00.000-04:00

don't know when I'll be back again...
So for serious: I have the money for a ticket and I really don't want to leave, but I know that I have to. Such a difficult decision to make! It's so hard to leave all the way cool people here because they are so much fun and they love me, but I have to do what God wants me to do so...I'm heading back to the States, for who knows how long? Hopefully I'll be able to come back here really soon!
I had another cafe shift today...I prefer reception so much, but with the new program I'd need to be trained and since I'm not staying...yeah. So bummer for cafe, but it wasn't bad cuz super duper awesome possum Meghan came right when it got busy this morning and saved the day! Also, I felt a little sick, so she attempted to make eggs (but I am waaaay better at it than she is. no worries, I love the girl!) so that was super terrific.
Well, my shift has ended and I have things to do so...adios!

Wow! 2 in a week!

2005-10-07T08:37:00.000-04:00

So hopefully I will think of something exciting to tell you.
Oh! thought found!
this way cool girl named Meghan likes to do all my sudokos and it really annoys me. but she got me to read this superduper book called "the atonement child" by francine rivers and you should read it. her books rock. the end of that thought.
new thought!
i have a cool laugh. you should all try to be like me.
otherwise...you suck.
i'm going to get my hair done now. meghan cut her own hair. she rocks. i wish i could be like her.

Welcome to the world o' blogging...

2005-10-02T21:22:00.000-04:00

Hey there!
So I was convinced to do this only with the help of a ghost blogger. She'll (or he'll...you never know) get on that later. But first, I must tell about my day. It was supa cool. I went to Spanish church, and those of you who know me, and the (unlucky...ha!) few who don't, know that I love me some Spanish speakin' folk. So I went and understood nothing. But it was good. Then I went to Da Dam where Victory Outreach Church were, incidentally, outreaching victoriously to those passers-by who stopped...by.
And then...
Now I'm at the Shelter were I was wonderfully loved by Katya's yummy homecooking. Feta burritos taste as lekker as they sound!
I'm fixin to go church now; I know, I'm very holy lol. But I really enjoy the worship there, so.
Yeah, I've got nothing.
Yesterday was a wonderful day as well. I went bowling cause Freek is a nice guy (yay!). I lost horribly, but that's okay. Later that evening I had a nice chat with Rose and a surprise phone call from Nick, a cool Scottish guy I was on staff with (back in 2003). It was so wonderful to hear from him...I've got like a perma-smile going on!
Anyhoo, I'm done for now. I hope that you all have a wonderful day!