Gorgeous

This is Jessie. :)

Manager?

That could describe me... soon...

I'm not sure. Marcia, my boss, offered me a job as a manager of Cold Stone Creamery last night, and I'm excited. I think I'm going to take it. The only catch is that you have to have a car, and I am carless! But Marcia knows I'm working on getting a car, so that's why she offered the job to me. She said she thought of me immediately when the current manager put in her notice.

Applied for a loan on a car, a 2003 Ford Focus. It's 4950, so that's not terribly expensive, nor will it take a long time to pay off the car.

I'm sitting in the Starbucks lobby, it's 6:52am, and I've gotta start work serving coffee in exactly, well, seven minutes now.

:)

gottsta run!

allie

Team Honduras

We've been enjoying the Houston weather, and swimming as much as the sun will allow... And today we leave for Honduras! (For those of you in the dark: my youth group is going to Honduras; we're affiliated with Mission Lazarus.) So we leave this morning about 11. The Alaska Team (there're two divisions within the Honduras Team... The Alaska Team and the Houston Team) is going out to get lunch. We consist of Judy Singleton, Faith & Patrick Hewlett, Kara Vansandt, J.D. Voss, Tim Johnson, Jeff Smith, Brenden Turney, Logan Justus, Randi Collins, Eric Johnson, and myself.

I've been taking tons of photos! I'll try to make a photo post when I return, but no promises. The photos will be on Brenden's laptop.

Well, I've got to start getting ready!

-allie

Lately

• Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
  ~Berthold Auerbach

Lately, I've been thinking about what to do this fall. I feel a bit left out, since everyone's going to college but me, probably. I mean, Jeff Smith isn't, but that's cuz he's not gradgeeated yet. Chelsea, Elmore, Brenden, Randi, and Eric are all doing their thing, except that Eric's going off to the military. It feels like everyone's so planned out, and I'm just floating along, confusedly turning to one thing, and then another. It's hard to know what you want to do when everything you THOUGHT you wanted to do, turns out to not be what you ACTUALLY want to do!

So, here's the deal. I'm probably going to end up renting a single room from someone for a while. Just a room, not an apt, I can't afford that yet. I will probably be working two jobs, ColdStone Creamery on Thursday mornings and Friday mornings, and on Monday-Wednesday mornings, working at Wallace Group Services at a desk. It's a nice change of pace, at least I have two jobs that are completely different; one sedentary and one active.

I'll look around on Craigslist for room opportunities. Meanwhile, this fall, i WILL take one class: Sinfonia! :) Again! I'm so excited. If i can pay for it, it'll happen.

I AM THE MAN

Well, I don't have much time to write a whole lot, since I have to start getting ready for work here pretty soon. I need to be out of here by 9:45 and it's 9:12 right now! O.o ...but I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite stories. It happened about two months ago.

I was riding along on the bus with Brenden, and we were chit-chatting about something. Who knows what-probably music or songs or somethin'. We heard the bus driver, at a stop, raise his voice to a passenger that had just stumbled on. "Are you gonna be good today, George?" "Mhsldfm." "George? Do you hear me? You gonna be good?" "Msdfohdmfm." Painfully drunk, a tiny, scraggly native man came shuffling through the bus and decided to plop his inebriated self down right next to us. Across from us, rather. And up a level, but still. It was too close. I could smell the stomach-wrenching reek of his alcohol. Brenden and I just kind of rolled our eyes and kept talking. I believe I was telling him about my new piece.

"What I really like about it is the harmonics that it has in the 4th measure. It's like, you're in first position, you slide up and hit a harmonic, but you have to be back down to first position so fast that it's a great challen-"

"I AM..." -pause (as I stop in the middle of my sentence)- "THE MAN."

I looked around for where that came from, but the drunk guy was slumped up against the bus window, and appeared to be sound asleep.

However, a few seconds later, here it came again. This time I was watching. It was the native guy-he looked asleep but must've just been closing his eyes. He suddenly did a full-body twitch, and yelled, "I AM THE MAN!"

(Brenden and I tried to control our spasms of laughter.)

The bus driver, profusely angry, stopped the bus, came storming back, and demanded that the man shut up. Now, imagine, if you will, a sumo-wrestler.

The driver resembles one.

Now imagine an angry sumo-wrestler.

Again, the driver resembled it.

So you can imagine the intimidation that the drunk guy would've felt. Or should've.

He mumbled something to the driver and the sumo-wrestler stalked back to the front of the bus. Just as the engine started up again, Oh Tiny One looks up through the darkness of his hat with glaring eyes and says, slurring his words, "Yeaaahh...Real..intimidating."

(Surprisingly, he didn't get kicked off.)

Of course, there was another time where we were just boarding a bus and a drunk native guy was leaning over a trashcan, swaying, talking to himself, and occasionally yelling, "I LOVE MYSELFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!"

And now it's 9:24! I really must go.

First, a dialogue between me, Annie, and the IT guy at her work.

"I didn't say you were old!" -Annie
"You said I was like fifty!" -IT guy (Joe)

"I was just joooooking." -Annie

"Well, y'know, you do kinda-" -me

"SHUT UP!" -Joe

-raising hands- "Shutting up." -me

...minutes later...

"MARIANNA! What did you DO to this computer?! It's all messed up!"

"Hey, it wasn't me! The only one who ever touches anything besides My Documents and the Internet is you!"

"Well, it wasn't me!" -Joe

"CHILDREN." -me

"MOTHER." -Joe (...silence from me) "PWND!"

my feet do me no good

my eyes feel so unseeing
galaxies floating unnoticed

my heart so useless
heavy and dull, just for decoration

i feel watched, seen
tied, sad

i'm happy but i'm not
i'm angry but at what?

i'm sad by why?
i can't see an hour from now

i can't see next week
i can't even speak

my feet do me no good
i go no where

Drifting: Thoughts

Lately, I feel that all that I've known for the past 6 years is crumbling around me. Ever since I picked up violin, I knew I wanted to go into music. Music this, music that. I was going to get a bachelor of music degree, I was going to teach music, I was going to start a strings school. I was even going to perform at Carnegie Hall. In fact, I'm still planning to do that last thing, but as far as college is concerned, I've changed my mind. No music.

I'm just TIRED of it.

I'm tired of messing up, I'm tired of having to work so hard for 6 years and not really be much better or have much more of a repertoire. I'm still going to play, yes, but I'm not planning on continuing the activities I've been involved in any longer. No more music lessons. I think I just need a break, really. Maybe I will want to continue taking lessons a little later on down the road... maybe I won't be so put off. But for now, after this semester, no more music.

Perhaps I won't go to college this year at all. Maybe I'll just continue my awesome job and focus on it for a little while. It's not wrong to drift around in life for a while. I think that was one of the things I grew up thinking: If you don't know what you're doing every minute of every day, it's wrong. Just a habit that needs to be thrown away. I've been wearing it long enough.

I'm thinking...
photography.
I've always loved it, and I've been told I'm good at it. I really enjoy it and think that my mind is creative enough to come up with good ideas; creative enough to have lots of customers. Maybe I'll go into a partnership with someone who wants a partner. That'd be neat. :) I'd enjoy that. I love to edit photos just as much as I love taking them, so perhaps someone will need a photo-editor. Now... for a camera. :)

I want a Nikon, but I'm not yet sure which kind. Randi has a d80, which I've used and I love it... Or maybe I'll get a Minolta. They're both nice and sturdy.

Just my thoughts on drifting.

I'll be doing a lot of it in the near future.

Picasa?

Here I am at the fine arts building again on campus. :) I just love this place. Even the leaves all over the floor from the many trees in the main room... They don't even bother me. I'm so used to them. I still miss TSS, but this place is so wonderful.

So I guess Friday, we are going to Westchester, like I'd thought we might. :) That's good. And then on Saturday, I dunno what we're doing exactly. The rides are not appealing (Fur Rondy) when it's 20 degrees out. Ha.

I'm not teaching currently because my schedule is weird and the only student I have (paying student, that is) can only do Friday evenings, and I told her Friday evenings aren't good for me. I just don't want to kill my evenings. If I could get her to come Saturday mornings, that would be cool.

I worked again yesterday from 1 to 6pm. It was fun, and I was so exhausted last night that I fell asleep for an hour on the couch. Then I dragged myself to my bed and was barely even awake enough to talk to Brenden on the phone for a few minutes. Poor guy just got off after a few minutes when he discovered I could barely even make out an entire sentence without falling asleep.

I'm going to download Picasa now.

Cheers

Well. Here I am again.

I've only worked two days. I can't get a hold of the boss so I don't know what my hours are as of yet.

Am about to go on my daily "jog." :) I need to swing by Value Village and look for black shirts. I don't have any but one and I'm not wearing the same one over and over to work every day! Haha. SOMEONE would notice.

Friday, if I don't work, Brenden has no school, so we're trying to figure out something to do. Ice skating seems to be on the top of the list; the big lake, Westchester Lagoon, has just been cleared, so, we'll see. Also, we could rent a movie and watch it here at home as long as Dave and Annie aren't doing anything that evening away from the house.

Cheers!

Cold Stone

I GOT A JOB!

Cold Stone Creamery hired me last Saturday during Ladies Retreat. :) I'm so excited. My first day of work is today. In fact, I've already been there; only to discover once I arrived that they were asking me to come in at 5pm, not 10am for opening... Urg. Which means I miss the Thursday night Bible study at the Hewlett's house. I'm pretty bummed out about that...

But hey.

Money is money!

Is money.

Summertime

Good morning!

Yes, it's really good, even if it IS zero degrees outside. Ugh! :)

I'm drinking coffee and awaiting the arrival of my student in a few minutes. Yesterday, I completed the FAFSA form and sent it in. I should get an email in 3 or 4 business days. I so hope I get a grant; I need one. I also need a job, still. Jess and I are thinking about singing at a restaurant for a commission, till we have enough money to pay off everything. It'd be fun, and we'd get money at the same time! What more do we need? Haha. Anyway, I'll have to ask her about that. We could sing "Pie Jesu" since we both know it, and we could sing "Summertime." I want to work out an arrangement of "What a Wonderful World", Louis Armstrong styleish.

Summer time...
And the livin' is easy.
Fish are jumpin'...

and the cotton is high.

Oh, your daddy's rich,
and your momma's good lookin'...
So hush little baby, don't you cry.

One of these mornin's...

You're gonna rise up singin'.

Then you'll spread yo' wings...

and you'll take to th' sky.

But till that mornin',

there's a-nothin' can harm you

with daddy and mommy

standin' by.

Sinfonia, whoo!

This morning, I sat down and watched Tom & Jerry with my cup of coffee and a blanket and I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time. It was a tribute to Mooky and Erinn; we used to watch it all the time. :) We used to get up realllllly early and watch cartoons and other shows that only came on in the EARLY morning, like, 5am. :) I loved doing that, so I thought I'd relive it a little, sadly, sans Mooky and Erinn and it was actually about 9am.

I'm at Sinfonia right now, watching as they play through the pieces. There're quite a few rough places, but honestly, I think they're doing better than we did at this point. They're playing Divertimento Number II, and I LOVE that piece. They've only been playing for about 5 weeks now. Twice weekly. And it's almost over today. It's 5:29pm and it ends at 6pm. From here, Dave will pick me up and take me to the church building for the weekly Bible study. :) I love them. They make me happy. (Yay!)

One of the bassists just looked up and said, "Well, I almost played that in a lower octave, but my brain got mad at me." (Nolan) Silly.

I NEED A JOB. Badly.
Tonight, I have to finish labeling every envelope, then learn how to use Mail Merge, so I don't have to individually insert every name on every letter.

Blabberings from Allie...

Yesterday the high was 3 degrees.

But I just wore a blanket over me during my walk and tada! Not a problem. :D As long as the cold can't surround you, you're okay. The lake is cleared for ice skating, so I may do that at some point. Turns out, every Friday night at UAA, in the gym, they have open skate! Also, Brenden downloaded the schedule for open swim since I didn't have internet access at that point in time and told me what days and times there was open swimming in the same building. :) I'm going to try to go Saturday, since I can take the bus back, whereas, if I went in the evening, it would be too late by the time I was finished (10 pm) to take the bus back and Annie would have to pick me up. Eh.

I got some more work done on my letters that need to be mailed out. Really, what I need now is for Randi to get me the rest of the envelopes (we're sharing) and I need to go buy stamps. :) I can do that because last Friday, I worked for 6 1/2 hours at Annie's work and got paid.

Funny memory I thought of last night:

NOTE: Timothy is my older brother, but he has down syndrome, so his mental level is probably that of a six year old or younger. :) He's highly functioning; can cook, clean, etc... but his speech is slightly hard to understand sometimes.

Timmy and I are standing in the kitchen, I'm eating and he's just finishing up. He says something, I come back with a slightly offensive response, and he goes, "You peesa wope!" (You piece of rope.)

I laughed and said, "Hey, two can play this game, hangar head!"

Total and complete BLANK look from Timmy, he stands up, opens the door to outside, plops his hat on his head, says, "That's it. YOU'RE FIRED." and storms out, slamming the door behind him.

KEEP PRAYING FOR TONY! Check out his blog for updates. www.tonycollinsstatus.blogspot.com

Hatcher's Pass [July 2008]

Me, Randi, Dave, and Annie all took a trip to Hatcher's Pass on July 4th of last year! Here are photos I never posted. :)

Stupid Paddle Boats

I just randomly remembered the paddle boats at camp and what a pain they were.

Jess and I wanted to go out on the lake for a while, so we hopped in a paddle boat and took it for a spin. We were really enjoying hitting the small but fun waves that the big camp boat would make every time it passed, and then KLUNK. Something happened. We laughed and wondered what it was.

We found out when we started paddling again.. It would only go in circles to the left. It wouldn't turn right. Of course, the big boat was all the way at the other end of Lynx Lake and we couldn't get their attention. The only other boats were a few canoes scattered here and there, using the word scattered literally. They were far out of vocal distance.

But that didn't stop us from yelling!

"HELP!" "WE'RE STUCK!" "IT BROKE!"



You know what we got from the people on the dock?



"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Way to go you guys!"



*glare*



We were finally rescued by a couple in a canoe. And when we got about waist deep, I jumped out and walked it to shore, since the canoe couldn't get in where the paddle boats belonged.
Then I was wet.

January 25th

Yesterday was my new birthday.

I was baptized. Re-baptized, that is. I felt that the reasons for my baptism last time were not the right reasons in God's eyes, so I did it again. The "rather safe than sorry" theory, as well as, I felt it was really what God wanted me to do.

Tada!

This has been going through my mind for an entire month and I'm glad to finally be assured that I'm on the right path. I know I am, despite what some people think. I'm taking it one day at a time, one step at a time, one breath at a time.

My godmother called me the other day! When I was at Randi's house for Saturday, she randomly called and said hey! Of course, I had texted her earlier in the day, so I guess that's why she called. Apparently she doesn't have unlimited text. Unfortunately, I don't have unlimited minutes or long distance, so we'll have to settle with email! Which is fine.

And I randomly feel like going bowling!

MY FRIEND SARAH GOT MARRIED! Wow! I didn't even know she was engaged!! I knew she was being courted, but I didn't know.. wow. It happened fast, I guess! Though I haven't talked to her in over a year. She's 19. So cool!

Well, Brenden gets an hour or more today at school where he's not doing anything, so I get to go spend time with him. Gotta go get ready! Hafta look pretty, dontcha know.

Via con Dios!

Randomosity.

Youth Forum is coming up again soonly! :) Yay!

Praising the Lord! Tony is still doing well, is supposed to move to a different, normal room (out of ICU) but there isn't one available. :) Still praying that it's a good tumor, not a bad one...

I'm feeling better today, too. I've cleaned my room, and now I'm exhausted. I'm spending this whole weekend with Randi at her house. :) I'm excited. It'll be lots of fun. Lydia may drop in at some point, so that'll be nice.

I left my phone accidently in Mr. Turney's car last night, and we had to go get it... Oops. I had a lesson yesterday. We read all but the first movement in the Lalo and the same in the Bach. I like Bach better than Lalo, I think. It's just clearer, not so much weird timing. :)

Bach Solo

Wednesday

Well, I finally caught the flu. Brenden warned me the day I got home that he'd had the flu the day before, and it seemed like the week that I got back, I got a corner of it. (What shape is the flu, anyway? We decided it's a triangle.) I had a slight cold and a bit of achyness, but it turned out to be nothing. Last night, I got really sick. Fever, headache, stuffy nose, hurting all over, so I went to bed at 8:30pm. Pretty early, but it felt nice. At 3am I woke not able to breath, so I took Niquil and hoped that that would help. Today, I feel lots better!

NEWS ON TONY

I don't think I'd said anything previously about Tony on my blog, but Tony Collins is a member of our church here. He's the older brother of my friend Randi, and my adopted brother. :P On Friday of last week, we all found out that he had a brain tumor. He underwent surgery on Tuesday, and they removed all the tumor that they could "see." We have yet to know what "see" means. He's still in ICU but is functioning faster than everyone thought he would.

You can visit his BlogSpot here for updates. Please continue prayer for Tony.

I'm still writing letters for fundraising! I'm finding it difficult to word it just like I want to. It's interesting to solicit prayers, yet say, WE WANT YOUR MONEY at the same time. I mean, how DO you word that?! :P Just kidding. It's coming along great.

Conversations With Brenden (Never a Boring Moment)

"Who put a TOOTHPICK in the CHILI?!" -Annie (yelling from the kitchen.)

"I was checking the beans to see if they were done..." -Dave, sarcastically.

"It was an assassination attempt." -Brenden

"There's a bruise on my knee and I don't know how it got there..." -Allie

"For future reference, I wouldn't recommend using Dave's hammers for checking your reflexes. Even if they DO need checking..." -Brenden

*pause*

"-bangs head on table-" -Allie

"Banging your head DOES burn calories, but I don't really recommend it as an exercise..." -Brenden

"'Sides. Your head's already addled enough." -Brenden
*Glare from Allie*

"BJT. Bacon, jalepeno, and tomato." -Allie

"I am not a sandwich." -Brenden

*pause*

"I should thank my mother more often for not giving me a middle name like Lee, or Luke, or any other ell word..." -Brenden

"BLT!" -Allie

"No lettuce here! Get out!" -Brenden

HONDURAS MISSION TRIP

We are currently in the throws of writing fundraising letters. It's a slightly complicated process! So much information you have to be sure to include.

But I'm SO excited. This mission trip will be amazing. We are all looking forward to it.

So far, everyone that's going from our congregation is:

Randi Collins

Jeff Smith

Brenden Turney

Eric Johnson

Tim Johnson

Faith Hewlett

Patrick Hewlett

Kara Vansandt

Allie Billings

Logan Justus

We're all amped. On Sunday, we have an envelope party. Meaning, we all bring envelopes and then we stuff letters. I suppose we'll go about copying our letters that day with the office's copier. They have an amazing bulk copier.

Gotta go! Letters to be written!

The Three Stooges

My mother calls them "Who", "What", and "I Don't Know", but I call them the Three Stooges. Gamaliel, Jesse, and Conrad have been in my life for a lonnnng time. They're staples. They will always be there. They will always be in my mind as "Those Holy Terrors" or "The Ravenous Hoards" or "THOSE DARN BOYS!"

I can recall a couple incidents in which both I was to blame and they were to blame..

• THE TREE HOUSE INCIDENT

So I'm four years old. And the boys are in their tree house. What am I gonna do? I have no friends at that point, since Jesse's sister Sarah was only like, two.. So I stood just below their tree house, whining and complaining and hurtling insults up at them when they wouldn't let me up. Finally, it got to a point where nothing that came out of my mouth was comprehendable, and in my four-year-old wrath, I picked up a rock half as big as my head and proceeded to chunk it through the air: up. Of course, you know the saying: What goes up, must come down. And down it came! Right on my head. (It's most likely that the reason I was offended was I'd done it to myself.) There was hell to pay. I screamed; I yelled; I danced around the yard holding my hands over my head and hollering accusations like a typical little girl would at her brothers. I then took it a step further and went inside, still crying and holding the growing red knot on my head. The result? Groundage for Jesse (one week) and a spanking for Gamaliel. They've never let me forget it.

• THE LEMONADE STAND INCIDENT

Anyone who knows me very well has heard or read this story. Basically, my friend Katie and I went through a lot for a seven and ten year old to go through to make a lemonade stand. We tediously prepared the lemonade, stored it in the fridge in glass jars, and then went outside to make the actual stand. After digging around in the bodega (shed) and the back yard for an hour or so, we came up with an ugly yellow metal table and two falling-apart chairs that would just barely support our weight. When we got back inside? All the lemonade had been drunk by Gamaliel and Conrad. All of it. We've never let them forget it.

New Camera

It's Katie, Shelby, me, and Jordan!

Cute little Jordan!