Quick update before I jet to class from this, the wonderful FIU library. I have to brag real quick because I think this news deserves blogspot bragging - I took a midterm in my health class last Thursday andwe got our results back today in class. Turns out that I, me, Jen, got the highest score in the class - a 100%!! yo yo yo!! What really makes this so amazing and crazily ironic to me is the fact that the majority (actually, all but me I believe) of the people in the class are taking as part of their education in health services or whatever other majors people pick to prepare them for going to medical school...excuse me, but how is it that a mechanical engineering major who wants to design rollercoasters better at taking a test about health than the people who want to take the MCAT and eventually operate on me one day?! Slightly troublesome once you look past the irony of it all.

In other exciting news, after consistant weigh-ins (hehe makes me sound like a pro wrestler or something) I have definitely and officially lost at least 7 pounds since the summer started, and I'm not stopping now :) It makes life happier and more stress free (hey, just like we learned in health class during the fitness unit! wowsers! hehe)

I finally ordered the last piece of the movie-making puzzle yesterday, and should be getting my Secure Digital memory card (for the still photo mode of the camcorder) sometime later this week. Saturday Alex and I are going to make movie magic, or something like that, and once we do the "post production" haha I'm gonna post the results here but I think I'll need to post a password or something to view it. We're mulling over the idea of doing a contemporary update of Conrad's classic, "The Heart of Darkness." hehe....

La physica calls, so until the record button is pressed, my curtain must fall.... haha oh the cheesiness

gotta live with no regrets, yo, it's the only way to do it

AAAhhhhhhhh!!!! I was just on the Diane Rheem show!!!!

I called in to ask a question about the book, "Life of Pi," which was being discussed today. I was going to ask about which ending the guests believed or liked better, and the related symbolism between the two (the different stories Pi told the Japanese investigators), but then someone asked that before me, so in my silliness i hung up, when I was going to be the next caller on the line! So anyway, I called back when I thought of some other questions I wanted to ask; I was going to ask about the carniverous island he came across, but someone else did, so I thought of ANOTHER question, about the blind shipwrecked man he comes across that the tiger eats and what it was an allegory for. I was the last caller, so I had to just ask my question really fast, and I sadly did not get to say, "Diane, I love your show!" hehe, alas, but, Diane, I do love your show :) And she also said I was "Jennifer from Hallandale, Michigan" hehe. It's all good. My whole family was listening to the show because I had been doing a countdown to it since I loved the book so much, and my dad called right away and asked, "was that you Jennifer?" hehe Indeed, dad, it was! Ahhh, what a rush, I'm very proud of myself for getting up the courage to do something I've sometimes thought about when the subject espeically intrigues me, but to get to call about this, this book which I loved so much, was indescribable. My day is complete. No, my week. No, my year :) Contentment....

Back to the real world now :) If you want to listen to the show, go to here and scroll to the bottom and click on the link to listen to today's show.

Tonight has been, by far, the best night of my summer (thus far, anyway). I went to a concert that featured Gavin Degraw, Maroon 5, and Jason Mraz. It was incredible. All I can say about it right now, to sum up what went through my mind during the concert, is this: Jason Mraz rekindled my belief in love, while reaffirming the sexiness of a man who plays the guitar, gently gyrating his hips into the chords, while singing melodically more beautifully than John Mayer (impossible, some might say; I know, but trust me).

Many exciting things happened (besides getting to hang out all night with Hanny!! woot woot! eheh), including me buying a Maroon 5 CD and getting it autographed by all the members of the band (including the super hot, shirtless drummer, and the shirted main singer dude...ahhhhhh), me and Hanny being in the front row the whole time (I promise they all looked into my eyes and smiled. Promise.), and getting to ... get this, prepare yourself ... run into the Gavin, of Gavin Degraw, so I told him how much he rocked my socks and then he gave me a big hug! We're talking arms fully wrapped around, bear hug here. Melting.... hehe and then (how does he not go to Tech and still say this? hehe) he said to me, "Thanks, and hey email me!" AAAAAA!! hehehehe

So that was my wonderfully exciting and invigorating evening, filled with high high quality music (I highly recommend all three bands to everyone and anyone), heartthrobs, and hugs. :)

Off to sleep a contented 6 hours before class :) Goodnight beautiful, wonderful, happy world!

So much to say since I last posted. I've been taking notes, so I wouldn't forget any of the random things that felt so very important at the very instant I thought them, and I don't want to rob myself of my impromptu psychological analyses. (analysi?)

First, since it's on right now in the form of "The Even Stevens Movie," (on the Disney channel, of course) I have to gush for a minute about two things relating to the show the movie branches off from: one, that Shia Labeouf (sp?), who plays Louis Stevens, is gorgeous. Very cute. And even thought he plays a 7th grader (I think) on the show, I do believe he's about 19 years old (just like me!). I know that the girl who plays his sister on the show is 19 and goes to Barnard (woot woot Sara! hehe). Second thing to point out is how much watching the show takes me to *another place* makes me believe in young, childish love and first kisses and the kind of embarrassement that makes you grow as a person, and hope and yearning and uh, just everything true and innocent and wonderful about those awful teenage years. It also makes me hate tv shows like it, though, for having people who are almost 20 years old play characters 7 years their junior - it's a twisted way to put stereotypes of what you're supposed to look like and think when youre that age. I know when I was in 7th and 8th grade people didn't really "date" or wear "bras" (I prefer the term "unders" as Smelly makes fun of me for), and when I watched shows that were supposed to be about my peers, I felt extreme piercing jealousy of their clear superiority of me, emotionally and physically. And then when I see Louis surprisingly kiss Tawny, I think about how it took me until 12th grade for that to happen!!!!! Where's the justice?? Where?!

But, even with all my qualms about the show, I still love it and love the mood it puts me in, that pure, anything can happen in life to make it even better and more adventurous. But at the same time, I want to shout to all the kids out there, "Don't worry! It's ok if you don't have boobs like Ren, she's been growing them for 7 years longer than you! They're not even that great, I promise, and don't feel bad if you don't have the same fashion sense, and still carry a lunch box to school (I know I did until I graduated high school; ain't no shame), and don't like boys yet! Hold on to what youth you still have left - cherish it, grasp it, don't try to pull on the years of adulthood "responsibility" and love yet - it'll still be waiting for you when the time is right."

Speaking of shouting out to others around me, a very strange, coulda-been-a-movie-scene something happened to me last week, TUesday to be exact. I was working out on the elliptical/running machine at the FIU gym, and the machine is situated right in front of a huge wall of somewhat-tinted windows (you know, the kind that you can see through from the outside if the sun hits them just right, but otherwise they serve as good mirrors for the passersby). FIU was holding some high school graduation ceremonies that day (which made parking for class in the morning a complete bizznatch), and in the middle of my workout, a flood of white cap-and-gown wearing graduates rushed out of the nearby building, smiling, chatting with friends, passing heavy loads of purses/diplomas/awards off on proud parents that were left behind in the rush, then summoned to take pictures of the excited groups. In each batch of these kids there'd be a few who peered into the big reflective windows, smile big smiles, and wave big waves, and then there'd be a few kids in the back of the batch who didn't really walk next to anyone, didn't really chat or smile, looked sad and reflective (gasy maybe? hehe) and would peer into the window without really seeing through it, just looking at the surface and their reflections to check for fly-aways and make sure their smiles didn't look too fake. I wanted to shout at them, scream at the top of my lungs, "DON'T DO IT!! Don't gladly, willingly give away the easy times of high school. You'll never again have these times in your life! Cherish them! Be nice to your parents, tell your friends how much you love them before you're states apart, keep in touch with your grandparents, eat the good food while you still have it!!" Although, I think this somehow makes me think that there might be someone else out there, shouting at me through a proverbial reflective glass window, "Enjoy this period of your life -- you'll never have it ever again! You'll never again have the freedom and intellectual stimulation and ability to grow and make life long friends as you do in college!" Makes me want to sing the "Circle of Life" song from the Lion King, yo, cause that's what all this is. Heavy stuff, saddening and yet simultaneously exciting. This is what i had written down before: "The past is peaking in the window at me in the form of newly graduated kids peering in and waving lightheartedly at me; I wanted to shout out a tthem, "be careful! it's not as easy as you think! value what you have now!"

The next day, when I went running, I came across a little kid (2 maybe?) in a stroller being pushed along by who I presumed to be his nanny, and waved at him. I felt like I was running by the dichotomy of all that is separated in life in these American states - the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the soon-to-be-privately-schooled-educated and the uneducated, the still life-optimistic and those pushed down and run over by beaurocracy and power, the naive and the jaded... And I just ran away with a wave and a smile. Kind of like a politician does....

Sidenote; my ma just came in here and was like, what are you doing, and i was like *nothing* and she was all suspicious and i was super embarrassed and like "ok fine!! im writing in my online journal, ok, but forget about it cause i dont want you reading it! and no, i dont know why im so embarrased about it, ok?!" to which my mother curtly replied, "you and millions of other people." ugh, to be trivialized....

I saw TWO rainbows last week. And I bought a digital camcorder. Aaaaaaa!!!! I'm sooooo excited about that. I searched online for a good couple of weeks to educate myself all about features, figure out what I wanted, where to get the best price, etc etc, and finally got my 5th week's paycheck which meant that I had saved up enough to get what I wanted, so tada! I ordered the Canon ZR-65 MC. My heart goes pitter-patt just a-thinkin about it; I can't wait till it gets here. Just call me Dawson Leery or something like that hehe.

Spending so much time every week with my grandma has been awesome, but at the same time very sobering and slightly sad. I'm almost afraid to ask her questions sometimes, and challenge her on some things she says, because she can't hear very well, and she sometimes has "senior moments" and it makes me really sad to provoke things that remind me of her growing frailty. I feel like I'm trying to shy away from seeing her weakness, but it's hard. I guess I should just feel lucky and happy that I can spend this time with her now. It also makes me sad to think about how much time she's all alone in her life, living alone for almost ten years since my grandpa Bill's been dead. I don't ever want to be living alone for that long when I'm old- who'd kill the bugs? And keep away the scary burgulars? Good thing that's still really far away for me, but it still makes me sad for grandma.

And how about these strange relationships I have with my classmates? I don't even know what to say about it...we don't ever really talk, but we do, and they're nice and all, but no one speaks english! hehe ok thats an exaggeration, but not by much, I don't know...it's just different. More on that later when I can think of what to say abotu it.

I have more to say - about Life of Pi (aaa! Wednesday on the Diane Rheem show!), about mi familia, about a new obsession with Scattegories (the game), about getting to see Maroon 5 and Jason Mraz tomorrow! in concert! aaa!, church, hypocrisy, and all the other things i wrote about candidly in the back of my planner. But homework awaits. THat's all for now. And I'm still in search of a really good name for this blog, since "I'm still Jenny From the Block" is slightly 5minutes ago hehe, not that im a slave to trend. and once i get the camara, i'm gonna try to change the picture and some other stuff on here if i dont get too sick of dial up speed :)

Goodnight, world. I love you, cookies. (hehehe those who aren't in the "know" might think that's a little strange. but it's not. just a little shout otu to a certain turtle. woot woot)

If you look into my eyes, do you see life?

All I have to say is that I'm a girl. Utterly and Completely. Oh yeah, and I have an overactive imagination.

Other than that, I had my first circuits test today. 16 multiple choice questions. It was okay, definitely not a Tech test but still challenging. We'll see. Not like it really matters, though, since the class is pass/fail.

I cleaned my room and bathroom today, and it's the first time since I got home for the summer that I could see the whole entire floor at once, plus the surface of my desk. I feel like a huge weight has been taken off my shoulders by cleaning; it's funny how that works.

Must call Alex, must call Alex, must call Alex, must call Alex :)

I love my friends. That's all.

I went to Wal*Mart today to pick out some new deodorant (I decided I like my friends and would like to keep them around me), and, as always happens, I found myself standing, enraptured, in front of the display of a myriad of sprays, rubs, and powders, alternately lifting caps and sniffing contents for 3 levels of product-filled shelving. And at each sniff of a deodorant scent and brand I have used previously, the scent would send my emotions rushing to make me feel the same way I did that last time I remember wearing that brand. I can almost categorize the last couple years of my life by what deodorant I wore for that period; I look forward to shopping for anti-persperant because I know walking down those shelves is like taking a walk down memory lane (please, forgive me for the cliche).

I decided to buy the Dove brand, original scent, "goes on clear" stick this time, and when I took a whiff of its sweet, clean and fresh smell, it made me think of the summer after 12th grade, when I may or may not have gone out with Jimmy, and made me think specifically of the time when he sniffed my armpit (I guess it was especially appealing that day) and said something along the lines of, "Mmmm, that's good," and proceeded to ask if he could lick my armpit to taste it. With this mental image, how could I not laugh right there in the middle of the deodorant aisle, guiltily holding a tube of deodrant with the cap conspiciously off?

I also delved into the Soft'n'Dri Cool'n'Clean scent (the one with the green flower on the can) spray deodorant (the only spray I've ever tried), which reminded me of SSTP '99 (Student Science Training Program, only the best summer program ever for high schoolers at UF) and all those good times with Komal...aaahhhh, it's healing to meander through the Health and Beauty department every now and then, really.

Tonight I went to Mandy's house for her family birthday dinner, an annual tradition that I have always attended and adored (who wouldn't love fried pork chops, home made, from scratch mashed potatoes, fried okra, corn on the cob, biscuits, and drippings gravy?!). It felt especially awesome tonight, like a second home-coming almost, because I think of all her family as my own and I love big family gatherings (with just a ma and a pa, things can get kind of lonely and boring after a while). It reminded me of how simple life really is -- it really just boils down to your friends and family, and your values. There's not much else that truly matters and is worht getting upset about. I like being reminded of that simplicity when I'm with my friends and realize everything's ok, the world is safe and happy. That's a good way to describe how I feel at Mandy's -- safe and warm. I'm also happy for her that things are working out with Erich; he's fun to talk to, funny and interesting, and it makes me happy to be able to hang out with him and her AND her family, it's a good step.

I feel like this weekend has been one of the most active I've had in a long, long time, and yet even though I was constantly busy and doing something, I found that I missed the Sprout more than usual. Maybe it's because doing so much reminds me he's not there more, as opposed to when I'm holed up in my G-ma's house or my own, deadening my brain cells or doing homework. Friday night, Danny, Hanson and I went to Senor Frogs in South Beach (related to the bar/club of the same name in Cancun and Cononut Grove); we all got in because one of Danny's fraternity brothers was working the door ;) I had a great time. It was a spanish club, so they played lots of fast-paced spanish dance songs, to which Danny tried to teach me how to dance, with only a somewhat-successful result. Hanson and I danced together a lot, during which I had to try really hard not to laugh because of his "moves" and facial expressions. Great stuff, just great. Then on Saturday night, the three of us went with Hanny's parents to a Chinese party that was a celebration/fundraiser for the 1st annual Dragon Boat Races of Miami (to be held in October, if anyone's interested in going hehe). The guy who threw the party had a huuuuuuge house, with a huuuuuuge backyard, and an excellent seafood-filled buffet. Mmmm....I prolly ate about $30 worth of high quality food. It was funny to hear everyone talk, though, because most of the people there were bilingual....in Spanish and Chinese. How strange to hear people blend "Que pasa" and "cocina" into chinese conversations.

Today I saw "Finding Nemo," the new Disney/Pixar movie, with my parents. It was soooo good! I absolutely loved it and recommend that everyone goes to see it. Very heart warming and hope-renewing :)

Time to go study for my first test of the summer....noooooo! I don't want to go!!

Goodnight all!