Thursday, March 31, 2011

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

fun day :)

was at UMBC today.
was pleasantly surprised.
now am faced with a decision I didn't want in the first place.
but it's okay, because the decision is between two good things and not two bad things :)

And they have a Tea Appreciation Society. How cool.

Kathryne

gah.

Good: Went to bed early last night
Bad: The tea I was drinking was caffeinated (and caffeine does bad things to me)
Good: I got a bunch of college mail, and I was accepted at 7/8 schools applied to!
Bad: The 8th (waitlisted) was my top choice. sigh.
Good: Some great small group discussion
Bad: Some *interesting* phone conversation... -.0
Good:
Thank You for the trials
For the fire, for the pain
Thank You for the strength
Knowing You have ordained
Every day
- Sovereign Grace Music

(before you yell at me for having an uneven number of good/bad, remember this is an OPTIMISM initiative. not perfectionism. I don't need that one :P)

Kathryne

Monday, March 28, 2011

mmm :)

There are few smells I like better than a big box of fruit & floral teas. Yum.
I am currently snuggled up in my cozy knit blanket with a mug of lavender tea. It's a really nice feeling. That and being... almost finished. Almost finished thesis (3 pages to go to hit the minimum limit!), almost finished math, almost finished high school... :)

:happy sigh:

I think I am going to go to bed now. At least, after I read a few more of my fairy tales.
(I am taking today as a mini-Christmas break. I liked Christmas break. I miss it.)

Kathryne

Sunday, March 27, 2011

20 Second Praise Choir

I had a college admissions event at 12:30, so I went to the early service today.
and I am SO GLAD I did. If only for the reason I got to be there for
-worship
-20 Second Praise Choir
-Nathan's song
-Secret Ambition mime
-sermon
-AND Bible Force

...and the Praise Choir at the early service is fabulous. Because there were only about 20 of us, as opposed to the about-a-hundred at the second service, and most of the 20 were singing in true 4-part harmony. I was standing in the middle of a real choir, which I haven't really ever done before. It was crazy. And we only had the normal 20 seconds to get up front and get our music and start singing. :D

And I drove home from the college thing, and went on the beltway for the first time, and almost died but didn't. YAY.

I also went shopping with my mom and neighbor-Megan, which was a lot of fun. We made my mom all red in the face teasing her about funny dresses and shoes we found at TJ Maxx.

Kathryne

Saturday, March 26, 2011

planning and plotting et cetera

...Did you know that should actually be pronounced, "eht KEH-teh-rah"? Yeah, that does sound funny.

Soooo I talked to Christine on the phone for almost two hours, which was really really good. Like super good.
And I started another list. I love lists.
We have the "List of Things To Do When Christine Gets Home," and now the "List of Things To Do The First Night Christine Gets Home." It's pretty epic. It may involve walking to the stone wall in the dark, and will definitely involve fettuccine alfredo.

Also, my mom made my favorite salad for dinner tonight! :D

Kathryne


PS- can anyone (coughColincough) explain Riemann sums to me? I do not see how they are useful.

drama and ick >.<

I thought signing off of Facebook would deliver me from the drama-monster. Apparently the drama-monster does not recognize the computer screen as a legitimate boundary for his nefariousness.

But that is not the thing that made me smile.

Neither is the fact I have 18 days (10 class periods) to complete 22 lessons in my math book, as per the AP test. YAY for crunch time...

Dancing was lots of fun tonight. One of the guys I met in Lancaster came down and (again) shook up all of my presuppositions of what swing dancing "always" looks like :P

I wore my lavender polka-dotted hairsticks to go with my lavender polka-dotted dress, as well. That made me happy.

But after people catching their arms on my hair like 12 times, I decided I cannot wear them to swing anymore. This is sad, because they actually stay in all evening, unlike a hairtie. Those useless things.

It also made me smile that when I had resigned myself to go eat a freezer-burned hotdog bun, because I was hungry, David *happened* to have a granola bar, and it *happened* to be exactly the kind that my family buys, which *happens* to be my very favorite... Apple Crisp, yum.

Kathryne

Thursday, March 24, 2011

:)

feeling better about things than yesterday.

Also, my fears that Christine had been swept into the Bermuda Triangle and lost forever were assuaged. :D

Also, I love fairy tales. I mean, just listen to how this one starts... "In the old times, when it was still of some use to wish for the thing one wanted, there lived a king whose daughters were all handsome, but the youngest was so beautiful that the sun himself, who has seen so much, wondered at her beauty each time he shone over her."
<3

Also, Alexis de Tocqueville is TOTALLY making my thesis. He and Emerson.

Kathryne

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

weirdest day EVER

- Apparently it was senior skip day but nobody informed me. So I had 4 study periods today. That's 2/3 of my day.
- Went on a treasure hunt in my basement for mom's Till We Have Faces. After digging through all of our old boxes, we never found it, but we DID find some other awesome things... including a bunch of my mom's literature essays from high school... I know what I'm going to be reading tomorrow :)
- ...and OHMYGOODNESS...! Antique books make me happy. Found some GREAT old volumes of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson in the mess of the boxes. With gorgeous pen & ink and watercolor illustrations. I am, like, in love.

Also... it's interesting. Interesting how, when it storms, the sky stays brighter long after sunset. It's like the light particles are trapped up in the clouds and reflecting back to Earth, and so even though the rain might be inherently dreary, there's something beautiful about it. And whenever the wind blows, you know it's not only blowing you and your hair around... it's blowing the clouds away, and after a strong gust of wind you can be assured that it's only moving you closer to the warmth of the sun.

Also interesting how much I am loving 1 Peter right now. Had never read it with a pen before, and now I'm underlining pretty much the whole thing to the point of uselessness.

Kathryne

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

the epic continues...

if Sunday was epic, and yesterday was epic fail, today was like epic mood swing.

It began quite poorly (see: 1st period math.)
Then it got slightly better (see: Latin test postponed to Thursday!)
Then it got like EPIC BETTER (see: writing thesis, in a porch chair, outside, in my happy skirt.)
Then it got like EVEN BETTER (see: I <3 small group)

and now I am tired but happy.

and tomorrow and Thursday I am taking Lent a bit further. just to test. I will be on an unimportant-email fast. That is, any email that:
  • is not work, school, or college
  • does not have the word URGENT in the subject line
  • is not from Christine
will not be opened, read, or responded to. No matter HOW BADLY I want to. I spend too much of my life, I think, looking forward to discussion with people, especially via email. I don't spend much time actually engaging in it; I just wish for it.
(read: Christine, get thyself some internet!!!!)

This also applies to chat.

Goals and structure make me happy. :D

Kathryne

Monday, March 21, 2011

two days

How could I forget to post last night? Yesterday was epic... Celtic Night, mostly, and singing awesome hymns in four-part harmony with the rest of the congregation. And wearing flowers in my hair, because IT WAS THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

Of course, if yesterday was epic, today was more like epic fail... c.f. integration by parts and transcendental functions. For a grand total of 3.75 hours today, I did math. Let's just say my last homework was covered in blank spaces and angry emoticons, like >.< and >:(
But ne'ertheless, I did smile today... Lit class was good, as was planning for the graduation ceremony-thing. And neighbor-Megan's cheesecake... YUM. and the crunchy black potatoes :P

Kathryne

Saturday, March 19, 2011

You know what?

I am finding more and more how much stuff I have to be thankful for. It's kind of incredible, really.
  • In the realization that I might have to get a 40-hour-a-week job over the summer... how crazy is it that I have not had to work a "real" job during the school year through all of high school?
  • In missing Christine... how beautiful of a thing is it that I can even talk to her on email, let alone (soon!) phone and video chat? And how awesome that I have friends like her, who I actually like well enough to miss (I'm talking to you, Megan and Rachel...) when we're away for just a few months?
  • In driving to a remote (and smelly) branch of the library to get materials for my thesis... how amazing is it that I have never once crashed or hit anybody while driving? And how great is it that my branch of the library does not smell like cows and gasoline?
  • In reading one of my thesis books and finding lots of quotes by Marcel Marceau and actually knowing who he is and wondering why he is in a book about animation... how blessed have I been to get to be involved in such an amazingly artsy and colorful and non-cookie-cutter church, with all its activities? And how wonderful is it that I can still become close to people in those activities and work my way into their "circles" even if I don't really participate myself?
  • In actually working on my thesis... how cool is it that I get to do this before I even know where I'm going to college? And really, I know I talk about it a lot. But I've decided I shan't anymore. It's just another five-page paper every week, pretty much, that I have similar motivation to complete as any other paper. Which means I don't always want to do it, but so what? I don't need to gripe about it. Please slap me on the back of the hand with a ruler if I complain from now on. 'Kay?
I'm done now. Not really. But I have to go to bed. I'm really excited about that. I like sleeping :)

Kathryne

70 and sunny...

slept in.

two full 55-minute class periods outside.

was productive in AND after school.

MEGAN'S PARTY OHMY. 
[Herman Melville Catstick the Third]
[will never watch The Princess Bride without remembering Dalvin... "And the second was Humperdink and his wardrobe." HAHAHA.]
[spinning around in circles in my spinny-spring-skirt-sub-two in the cool grass in bare feet under an almost-full moon]

talking to Christine. after my absolute-chat-curfew, regardless.

all is right with the world.

Kathryne

Thursday, March 17, 2011

happyhappyhappy!

9.5 hours of sleep.
Beauuuutiful day.
St. Patrick's Day accessorize-the-uniform day.
Lightbulb moment in math.
Lightbulb moment in David's latest puzzle.
Scrabble in Latin (tied for first... didn't win, but then, we only got to go around 3 times).
Did homework outside!
Thesis Thursday going pretty well.

Cutest film short EVER:
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_3lAztMhIWI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

...Isn't it?!

I could not have asked for a better day. Unless, of course, my thesis was done, it was a Saturday afternoon, and Christine was here. I could ask for that kind of a day. And I suppose I'll get it, in a few months :)

Kathryne

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN

^^ that.

today was fairly good. I got to school at 7:30 for Chapel Praise Team practice and we didn't start until 8:30... haha.

But I had a total lightbulb moment in Lit class. To Kill a Mockingbird... the scene where Scout is all cute and defuses the mob about to beat up Atticus in front of the Maycomb County Jail... is it not so very much like the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery? Someone tell me you are tracking with me. I could explain now but that's what I did in my essay and I don't feel like typing what I handwrote 9 hours ago.

Kathryne

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

epicvescent :D

epic / effervescent.

today was kinda fantastic. longlonglonglong, but fantastic.
Best part: skipping around the campus, barefoot, and throwing tennis balls "borrowed" from the woods behind the tennis courts at each other.
Oh, and hearing the first few chords of what I believe was a Rachmaninoff prelude (I know I have it on my iPod. but I am too tired to look it up) from the piano solo room.
And Doug. haha. And hiding out in the storage room playing Liar... and finding out it was apparently off-limits.

Kathryne

Monday, March 14, 2011

books!

Worked on a book today. fun stuff :)

Also went to the library to check out thesis books... and C. S. Lewis books... and did you know that nowhere in the Maryland public library system does Till We Have Faces exist? But my mom said she actually might own it from when she had to read it in college, which was a serious :D :D :D :D :D moment! That book makes my top-five list. I need to read it again. With a pen, this time.

I also read through Wednesday's assignment in To Kill a Mockingbird, which I adore so much.

AND today is a very special day for Christine, which made me smile much for her sake. eep. :D
(see: March 14, 2010.)

ALSO today is PI DAY which makes me SO HAPPY because I THINK I LIKE MATH and why am I using caps? And the Algebra 1 class raised like $5 per person for Baalah Primary School in Kenya (which was the most of any math class), and so Ally got to throw a pie in Mrs. C's face :P
(that was very entertaining.)

I'm just happy.

Kathryne

Sunday, March 13, 2011

alive.

I drove a lot today. Including the windiest, shoulderless-est road in the immediate area, in the dark, and I am alive.

Also, after dinner out with the family... (my dad :P)

Saturday, March 12, 2011

cleaning!

I cleaned out my inbox today.
In 2010 I received approximately 3.28 times the number of emails I received in 2009.
I received 1800 emails in 2009.
You do the math.
It's kind of sad.
But kind of happy, because I like email.

I also did some spring cleaning of my room. But not really. I cleaned it just enough that it isn't annoying, but there is something comforting about walking into a slightly cluttered room. :)

...did you notice I said "spring cleaning"?!
Because I am WILLING Spring into reality. And today I did my homework outside, in my militant-fairy skirt and bare feet. (and apple slices with cream cheese dip... thank you Kristen!!!!)

Also, I got new glasses! that I actually like!

Also, it was the first Saturday without internet... which was kind of miserable, but I suppose it's supposed to be. I only accidentally clicked my Facebook bookmark out of habit once, but I was logged out so I caught myself :P

Kathryne

good, good day...

Things that made me smile. with times.

6:20- wake up
7:30- get to school, eat breakfast
7:40- hang out with Caleb, who is also there
8:00- practice for Fine Arts Festival with Doug
8:40- school starts
9:15- integration by parts ABSOLUTE LIGHTBULB MOMENT
9:16- decide I officially like math. it's like a game of chess, in which I am actually familiar enough with the rules to be a competent player
12:00- first "fight" with Megan... ever...
12:01- not really. we sat at different lunch tables and everybody assumed it was so
1:10- beg Megan to let me do penance
1:11- rejected
1:17- by saying something totally stupid about "feely" topics, get Megan to speak to me again (I knew it would work!)
2:25- bring my math book home even though I have no homework
2:26- feel strange guilt/shame and try not to let Megan/Rachel see what I just did
4:00- o.0 Fantasia has some weeeeiiiirrddd parts
4:45- try to iron my skirt for swing. iron my hand instead.
6:10- arrive at church
6:12- sit in library watching the sun set and writing to Christine
6:45- walk to swing; do a basic lesson refresher thingy; talk to Sarah
--insert dance here--
--insert good music here--
--insert more dancing here--
10:40- DAD IS HOME FROM CHINA!!!!!! :D
10:41- skip across the room (because 'tis faster than running) to say hello :D

Also, I wore my Spring Skirt. It is white with yellow and pink flowers. And if it does not make Spring come this weekend I do not know what will. It must work. It WILL be warm this weekend. WILL.

Kathryne

Thursday, March 10, 2011

love<3

talked to CHRISTINE today! EEP!!

also, was in Joann Fabrics and heard Eet on the radio. lovelovelove.

also, watched the first half of Fantasia... Disney representation of the beginning of the world is HILARIOUS. and so, so, so scientifically inaccurate for 70 years later, it is not even funny. Actually, it kind of is. very funny.

I think I might be morphing into a morning person. this scares me.

Kathryne

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

productivity COMMENCE

I loved today.

I finished my Latin work for this chapter... no weekend homework!
I got some serious stuff done on my thesis.
I spent time with my family.
I finished my Physics.
I made *secret* decisions about a certain birthday present... ;)
And I got an awesome letter from University of Richmond telling me I will, I quote, "likely" be accepted. haha.

Kathryne

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

more grace

Math test continued to be horrendous, but as I am the first person ever to take it... I might get partial credit and not-fail? Maybe?

Government quiz was a lot easier than I anticipated.

And I am actually not-fail-ing at translating The Aeneid from the original Latin. It's actually kind of (gasp) fun. ish. I dunno if I would go that far. Anyway.

And then my laptop battery died *just in time* for the discussion part of small group... thesis. meh. I'll do it in the morning. I was glad I went, for some of the time :)

Kathryne

Monday, March 7, 2011

list

I can list the things that made me smile today!

-thinking about yesterday
-imagining it was yesterday again
-watching Sandy in Fighter

Kathryne

Sunday, March 6, 2011

weather

I like the rain.

I like spinning around in the rain.

I like playing with my dog and chasing him barefoot in the rain.

I like camping out in my treehouse with my thesis book and listening to the rain.

It rained today.

I am happy.


Kathryne

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Sock Hop

epic.

legs tired.

was on the sewing machine for 5 hours.

then decorated and socialized and danced for another 6.

it was fun.

but my legs hurt.

Caleb danced! As did Wesley! And Mrs. Bond! I am proud of them.

and good to see Sandy :)

Kathryne

Friday, March 4, 2011

blind seams

Did not realize until these past few days just how important my vision is to me. Had I lived pre-glasses, I would be pretty much... in a bad spot, let's just say.

However, I did begin the top for my Sock Hop dress tonight (YES I KNOW IT'S TOMORROW) and although I was very nervous (never actually made a top that fit well/looked good without a pattern before)... IT WORKED. and the hem I did is nice and even and straight, even though I could not see what I was doing. Maybe I should always sew without glasses/contacts. I hate hemming.

Kathryne

PS- HAHAHAHAHAHA just remembered, FUNNIEST thing all day... while setting up for the Sock Hop, Rachel's little brother Zach goes, "I like Katie best. She's not a perfectionist like you all!" (speaking of Rachel and Megan.)
I am in tears. Rachel is on the floor. Mrs C goes, "Zach, Katie is the worst of the bunch."
And I say, "Well... not everything has to be perfect. But if I deem it must be perfect, it must be VERY perfect."
Mrs C: "The world according to Katie."

PPS- this is not very optimistic, but... in March 2010, there were 9 functioning & active Optimism Initiatives. By mid-April, there were 11. Now? poor, lonely me... okay, and occasionally Colin, and about every three months David. BUT STILL. Did I really initiate a (dare I say it) fad? And did it (oh, it hurts) die?! And if it's dead, why am I still doing it two years later? Because, yes, Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and the internet goes off again (aside from email, and I CAN still do remote-posting through it!)
I think it is going to be hard this year. Last year I just got 20-45 emails/day from various people, but I don't think it will be quite that intense this time around (see: Christine in small-internet land). So I will actually, like, have to find other things to do with myself that do not involve the computer and obsessively clicking the "Get Mail" button. Fascinating. Also, last year I was on chat quite a lot, and this year I have effectively grounded myself from chat after the 5pm on weeknights, which is the time when I am most likely to be looking for distraction.
I think I need to go to bed. Yay ramblings...

Thursday, March 3, 2011

accomplishments.

That is, absolutely NOTHING. in the Thesis Thursday Dept.

I got a lot of things started but nothing finished... yet...
kinda sorta drives me CRAZY. I like completion, you know? :P

but I woke up this morning after 9 hours of sleep, all on my own, and was actually awake enough to start my math homework at 7 o'clock... ugh. usually a bad idea, but it worked for me this time :)

and got to talk to my dad on the phone; that was nice.

Kathryne

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

ummm

can't open my right eye. I've flushed it out and rubbed it into oblivion...

this is making math homework difficult.

BED THEN!

Kathryne

PS- today was Mr. VanBemmel's last chapel, and we all cried at least a little... but some of the speeches made me laugh. As did his last "rounds" through the classes with his new "language."
("Heidi. Hire yew?" :P )

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

joy.

:)

just happy.
God is good.

...As for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise You more and more.
My mouth will tell of Your righteousness,
Of Your salvation all day long,
Though I know not its measure.
Psalm 71:14-15

Kathryne