who's up for a little adventure??

hey friends... it's been a while... i don't make excuses for not writing sooner... it's not like any of you write more than i do... (trust me... i check) - j/k... which reminds me of a story...

one time when i was hanging out with friends in the northwest, (i'm really thinking it was emily and alyssa... erin may have been there too, or maybe she just heard the story afterwards...) i said something stupid and then i said, "j-k" - just to try it out... sometimes i say things that are funny... sometimes i say things that cause ridicule to come upon me... this particular expression fell spectacularly in the second category...

but i didn't give up on it... i thought, sometime, not too long from now, i will say it and everyone will say it with me... much like barney and the lemon law (for all you how i met your mother fans)... anyway, back to the point...

on the 8th grade retreat, i thought i may have my new opportunity... j-k will become the new catchphrase... so, i tried it out... and as soon as i said it, one of the 8th grade boys said, "l-o-l" - "YES," i thought, "victory is mine, not ridicule" and since then, it has become a new middle school phrase... but it doesn't stop with j-k... we usually say, "j-k, l-o-l, b-r-b" and then laugh and walk off... it's great... maybe it's just that i have a middle school mentality or that they're too scared to make fun of me... but it's definitely picked up... and i love it... they even started saying "j-k,j-k" - which means they're really not just kidding... or j-k-squared... which is definitely something i would say...

all that to say - if you love middle school kids as much as i do (which is a lot most of the time and not so much some of the time) and you want to hang out with some of the coolest middle schoolers i know for a week in july... let's just say july 10-15, hypothetically speaking, of course... in the northern part of south carolina... and you're older than 17, you should let me know... because there may be a camp opportunity in your future... j/k-j/k

you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose...

one time in high school, eric told us that the friends we had in high school that we thought we'd be b.f.f. with forever wouldn't necessarily be our friends past high school... and of course, being 17 or 18, we disagreed with him whole-heartedly... of course he was wrong because, if nothing else, he was an adult and they didn't know anything...

i hate to say that, at times, i agree with him... i do still keep in touch with friends from high school on a semi-regular basis... over time, however, the friendships have faded because of time or distance or change or a blend of the three...

then, in college, tim encouraged us to think about our 5... the 5 people that we could count on (not family) to drop everything and run if we asked them to... the 5 friends in our lives who, when crisis or joy happened in our lives, would run to our sides if we mentioned it... no questions asked...

sometimes i forget about who those five would be... and my list 6 years ago (the first time i made it) is not the list i would make today... things change, people change...

i was helping matt out by leading his h.s. bible study yesterday... and i don't really like teaching, so i wasn't too thrilled about it... but i do love the kids... and we were talking about mark 2 where jesus heals the paralytic whose friends have lowered him through the roof... and once again, i was reminded to stop and re-evaluate the friendships i had in my life...

in thinking through friendship, the first thought that comes into my head is not a scripture verse (don't judge me - if you know me, you know what i'm about to say)... it's a movie quote...

it happens sometimes. friends come in and out of our lives like busboys in a restaurant...

i've found friendship to be somewhat of a fleeting thing in many instances... however, there are those friends who have stuck by me - good times or bad... and it makes my heart smile knowing that they love me the same... i hope i've been that friends more times than i think i have... because i know it's not as many as i wish it was...

as the theme song from a great tv show says, "thank you for being a friend... your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant..."

first day with a kick...

thursday was my first day of work at the church... i decided to take it (really) easy on tuesday and wednesday... sleeping in, watching movies, reading... doing nothing, really...

on wednesday afternoon, i get a call from matt (high school/college minister) asking what i'm doing friday, thursday night and saturday morning... somewhere in my life i learned to ask questions fast and not to commit to anything before knowing the full story... yes, i'm still adventurous, but i'd like to know what the adventure is (or the rough outline of the adventure)...

he had a trip planned starting thursday night at 10:00 called "24 hours of madness" - and that's exactly what it was... so i told him if it was okay with john (my supervisor) that i'd go... and it was okay... so i got up thursday morning at 6:45 in order to get ready to go to work and be there by 8:00... worked until 4:00 (i was supposed to leave at 1:00 to go take a nap, but i rarely ever leave work when i'm supposed to if it's early)... went home and ran errands with amy, got back to the church at 8:45...

we got back about 9:30 friday night... i probably got about an hour worth of sleep total on the bus on the way home... and then i got home and went to sleep about 11:30 last night and definitely slept until 4:30 this afternoon...

here's what we did...

10:30 - left the church and made our way (only getting lost a couple of times) to climb nashville - over 20,000 square feet of rock-wall climbing...
1:00 (or so) - left climb nashville and went to laserquest in downtown nashville
4:00 - left laserquest and headed to cracker barrel somewhere near owensboro, kentucky...
8:30 (i think) - left cracker barrel and went to holiday world/splashin' safari... (theme and water park in santa claus, indiana)
4:30 - left holiday world and went to eat at ryan's in owensboro
9:30 - arrived back at the church (a little early)

so that's the rough outline of what we did... but it doesn't really do it justice... it was a ton of fun... here are the highlights:

*got to meet and hang out with a bunch of the high school kids... they are incredible... there were 47 members and visitors on the trip... and 5 "adults" - no one over 30 - 2 were college students...
*at laserquest, my name was laserqueen... someone said it sounded like a chat room name...
*holiday world is the best theme park ever... it really is amazing... it's not super expensive like every other theme park... they give out free sunscreen and soft drinks are unlimited and free all over the park... and the food is cheap... we gave each student $5 and it was enough for them to eat lunch on with money left over, usually... and it's clean and all the people that work there are nice...
*the raven, the legend and the voyage are the three roller coasters... the raven was awesome and then we went on the legend... and it was better... then... i had the experience that changed my life... the voyage is the second best roller coaster i've ever been on... and the 1st was 5 years ago... the magnum at cedar point and it barely beat out the voyage... and the voyage could be considered better because their dimensions are so close and it's wooden (the other was steel)... and wooden is awesome... i went three times in a row... and i was such a spaz about it... but it was awesome!!!
*we went into the glass blowing shop where there was definitely a sign that said, "we encourage intelligent touching" which could end up having it's own entry on my site because it made me laugh so much...
*all the way around it was just one of those experiences much like an mastercard commercial... it was priceless... a great experience...

on a completely random side note... at about hour 27 of me being awake, 16 of the trip - i found out that two of the students (twin brothers) are cousins of lindsey and beth little and jacob smythe... it was pretty cool...

i guess they know how to really "break people in" at clearview... :)

word of the day...

my word of the day for today is...

RIDICULOUS... it's such a fun word to say... if you think about it... say it... it sounds funny... it's way better than weird or out of control... here's the definition from dictionary.com - Deserving or inspiring ridicule; absurd, preposterous, or silly.

sometimes i feel absolutely ridiculous... i don't even think i realize it until it's too late... tonight i hung out with a fun friend i get to see on a not-so-regular basis... but i always leave feeling refreshed and encouraged... maybe it's the freedom to say whatever we want without fear of judgment or ridicule (i threw a form of it in again...)... since we don't see each other that much and aren't really in the same circle, there is a freedom that comes with our friendship... i love it...
but tonight there were a couple of people with us who don't really know me at all... and looking back on it, i think they must think that i'm ridiculous... i kept thinking things were funny and then i'd snort... and i don't know if it comes across as annoying or endearing... and i kept asking questions for the group - because it's kind of what i do... and i shouldn't really care what other people think... but a lot of times, i do... because it's also kind of what i do...

on a side note... kind of related... tonight i found myself missing things about the northwest... i miss my friends who are there... i miss being a part of things and only being able to hear about them on the phone... i miss the people i worked with and went to school with... i want to go visit soon and hope that my work schedule and my budget allow me to... if you want to contribute to the "send robyn to portland for a visit" fund, let me know... although it's not tax-deductable, anything helps... :)...

i have some other deep stuff to write, but i don't want to ruin a fun entry...

so i'll go back to where i started... here are some questions for all to answer... a)what's the most ridiculous thing you've done, b) what's the most ridiculous thing you've done today (and if you can't think of anything, then maybe you should try ridiculosity (yes, i just made that word up...)...), c)what is the most ridiculous movie or song that you can think of?

here are my answers:

a) this is just one example off the top of my head... singing "you've lost that lovin' feeling" at the top of my lungs with 2 of my favorite northwest friends and another fun northwest friend while waiting for the seattle-bainbridge island ferry.b) acting kind of crazy at dinner and at starbucks - asking everyone if they knew what a lingonberry is (it's on the menu at ihop) and acting like the starbucks employees are my friends...c) my boss' daughter - it's just too over the top... followed closely by the notebook...

and, in writing this post, i was reminded of one of my favorite quotes from a movie...
"if you can't laugh at yourself, life's gonna seem a whole lot longer than you like..." be the first one to name the movie, get some points...

Rest In Peace, dear friend...

I had to say goodbye to a good friend this weekend... This friend has been with me for a while, proving her friendship by supporting me when i was overseas... at times, i felt like she was the only friend i had...

but she was sick... some rare disease and they i knew that it could be anytime when she would finally pass, leaving me heartbroken and alone...
and saturday night it happened...

my laptop died... it's been threatening a hard drive failure... and the cd drive didn't work anymore... and it was getting slow... but saturday, something went crazy... and it took me 20 minutes to try and restart it... then a few error messages... then a crazy screen... then the error message that i need to install a windows cd because a file is corrupt or missing...

i don't have windows cds, because someone put it on my computer for me... and before the offers roll in, remember, my cd drive doesn't work... so i don't really have a way of getting the file onto my computer... i tried attaching the external hard drive i have to it, hoping it would be like life support... but it didn't work...
so, even though the hard drive didn't completely crash, my computer is completely non-usable... hopefully i'll be able to get a new computer soon... until then, i will mourn the loss of my dear friend...

i heart my friends...

today i had an incredibly boring day at this place where i'm temp-ing to make some extra money until i can start working at the church... it really might be the most bored i have ever been in my entire life... sincerely... i never got that bored in school and i was bored in school a lot...

but, it's one block away from an amazing restaurant that i LOVE... it's called otter's and it's a chicken tenders restaurant... and it makes my heart smile... the only thing that i could imagine that would make it better to me was if they had coke products instead of pepsi...

while i was there, i called my brother (because i was all by myself)... and it was so great to talk to him... and it made me get a little homesick for my friends... so i started trying to figure out a weekend to go to the big j-town for a visit... thanks to the technology of the internet (thanks, al), i am able to communicate with my dear friends who live hours away - those who don't return phone calls... (i'm not bitter... i'm just saying...)

so memorial day weekend will find me in the big j-town... and possibly some days before that... but i will need a place to stay... any offers? let me know...

and i'm not sure why - but tonight's movie is napoleon dynamite... oh that's right... because it's hilarious... and the opening song makes me think of my friends... who i love... here's a nugget of friend-love lyrics...

and we don't notice any time pass
we don't notice anything
we sit side by side in every class
teacher thinks that i sound funny
but she likes the way you sing

tonight i'll dream while i'm in bed
when silly thoughts go through my head
about the bugs and alphabet
and when i wake tomorrow i'll bet
that you and i will walk together again
cause i can tell that we
are going to be friends

big changes in my life...

it seems my life will never settle down... but if it did, it would probably take the fun out of it... so... here's the newest update...

i quit my job... i was still "temp status" and the longer i was there, the more i realized that it wasn't the place where i needed to be... since they weren't "married" to me yet, and i wasn't "married" to them, either, i knew it could be a clean break... so, i gve notice and finished out the day... that was thursday...

i made some phone calls and had a meeting with the church that i had interviewed with before... and they have offered me a job which i will start june 1. i wasn't ready for it then, but it's perfect timing (and the perfect job) now... it would take a long time for me to describe in words... if you saw my face or heard me talk about it, it would be obvious to you...

so things are good... and i'm hoping the temp agency will be able to find me some work between now and june 1...

so they're good changes... but that's what is going on... i'll give more updates about the job later on...