Happy birthday to me!

I'm seventeen today!

Class of 06: "A senior's time as ruler rises and falls like the sun.  One day, juniors, the sun will set on our time here, and will rise with you as the new seniors.'

Class of 07: "And all of Siegel will be ours?"

Class of 06: "Everything the parking lot touches."

Class of 07: "What about that random lake along Siegel Road?"

Class of 06: "That's beyond our borders.  You must never go there."

Class of 07: "But I thought seniors could do whatever they want."

Class of 06: "There's more to being a senior than getting your way all the time."

Class of 07: "There's more??"

Class of 06: "Yes.  Everything at Siegel exists in a delicate balance.  As Seniors, you'll need to understand that balance and respect all the classes, from the crawling freshman to the leaping senior."

Class of 07: "But, don't we eat the freshmen?"

Class of 06: "Yes, juniors, but let us explain.  When we graduate, our bodies become the grass.  The freshmen eat the grass.  And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life."

It's a stretch.  But I like it. 
Goodbye, seniors.  I'll miss you. 
But I'm ready to take your place.

(Tuesday I turn seventeen, and don't you forget it!)

I would pick the nostril, since I don't really like ketchup.

You?

(TWO more chances to see West Side Story. 
Tonight and tomorrow night at 7.
You'll regret it if you don't go.  GO.)

I'm going to be seventeen in eight days.  That seems so impossible.  I swear I turned sixteen yesterday.  But at the same time, looking back over the past eleven months and twenty-two days, I cannot believe how much I have changed.  I had one major complaint with my sophomore year (Well, two.  But the second was just selfishness.), and that complaint was I felt stagnant.  I didn't grow at all, I focused on all the wrong things, I wallowed in mild self-pity but at the same time I enjoyed a sort of half-baked happy complacency that left no real room for inner growth.  Comfort was my goal.  Then summer hit, along with some major introspection.  I started out my junior year with my mouth closed and my eyes open.  And this year – I can't lie, it hasn't been nearly as fun as last year.  I haven't been as "happy."  Especially around September and October - I was in a major funk then.  But in retrospect, I see how I've been changing, and how I've been changed. 

For one thing, last year I allowed myself to be so vulnerable, but rashly and foolishly so.  This year I've come to appreciate vulnerability but I've also realized that allowing yourself to be hurt just for the sake of being hurt is as foolish as not letting yourself be hurt at all.  This year I've let myself question things I always considered obvious, only to find in the questioning reassurance of their truth.  I've come to a better understanding of my place with God.  Or no, not so much my place, because to be honest I don't think I'll ever have a total grasp of that.  But I've learned about God.  He gave us intellect for a reason, he wants us to learn about Him.  He's higher than man's understanding, but in striving to know Him I've found more of a sense of wonder.  People talk so much about God, and to God, but I rarely see people just take time and listen.  He's so much more extraordinary than I or anyone else can comprehend.  One thing I've really, really learned this year is I hate clichés, especially clichés about God.  

I really have grown this year.  Not in huge leaps and bounds…I don't know the secrets of life and I still can't solve a system of equations (no thanks to Mrs. Matuszewski).  But in little ways, I've grown.  Little significant ways.  Enough to where I don't regret my lack of shallow happiness.  Because there's no true satisfaction in that.

That's my reflection du'jour.

I hope you've grown too.

I expect a birthday present in eight days.

And I love you.

Christina

Tina Brandon and Brian Denecke
met for coffee in heaven last week.
He said, "I like mine black."
And she said, "Do you ever want to go back?"
He said, "No – we can be who we want to be."

Matthew Shepherd stopped by for desert.
And they asked Matthew, "Does it still hurt?"
He paused and spit over the rail.
It flew down to earth, just like hail.
He said, "No – we can be who we want to be."

Down on earth, he held her tight,
she held him tight, they held them tight.
It was morning; they'd cried all night.
He looked out the window at the hail.
And she asked him, "Have we failed?"
He said, "No – we can be who we want to be."
He said, "No – we can be who we want to be."

WEST SIDE STORY

Performed by the Siegel High School Chamber Choir
May 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 at 7:00 pm
May 7 at 3:00
$6 for students, $8 for adults.

It's going to be an amazing show.  It opens tomorrow so you'd better come out and see it!

So prom was basically amazing.  It was so cool to see all the senior girls so beutiful, and the senior boys looking so sharp...and the dancing was fun fun!  I'm so sore. 

Dinner with Hunter, Kris, and Bean was an adventure, as you might imagine.  We discussed such things as Arthurian Legend and Protocal, selling out each other's seats to immigrants, the numbers and countries imprinted on our silverware, and how to poison our waiter with his tip ("take the glowing dollar bill!  It won't hurt you!").

Party After Prom was pretty sweet too.  The decorations were excellent - it reminded me so much of when I lived in Vegas!!  Gambling's not really my thing, but Chloe's mom basically gave me free chips, which was super cool!  I'm not much of a night owl, though, and by about 3:30 am I had reached the state of being known as the Living Dead.  But we stuck around until five, and Bean won a microwave and Hunter won the Holy Grail of Siegel, so it was worth it.

Overall...a great night.  Hunter was very sweet.  My friends were very beautiful.  Everything was lovely.

 : )

Christina

West Side Story currently owns my soul.

But it's cool.

I didn't need a life anyway.

"That makes you a Puerto Rican tomato -
cha cha cha senorita!"

they sure are good at making me feel unimportant.

well, maybe they're right.

1. On your current playlist, put it on shuffle and pick the first thirty songs that come up, no matter how embarrassing.
2. Write down the first one or two lines from each song.
3. Have your friends comment and see if they know any of the songs - no cheating!  No Google!
4. When someone guesses correctly, bold the line and add at the end of the name of the song.  Bold and indent when the artist has also been guessed and write it at the end of the line also.

"This is the first day of my life / I swear I was born right in the doorway" -First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes

"In life, one has to face a huge assortment of nauseating fads and good advice" - My Strongest Suit from AIDA

"I think it might just be alright / to leave what matters out of sight"

"Aidan you're young / but Aidan you're growing fast"

"He was born in the summer of his twenty-seventh year / coming home to a place he'd never been before"

"Tell me what's wrong, tell me what's right, tell me how you want me to do it tonight"

"Ergo, oceanus, martitimus / ergo, oppicare matutinus"

"Riding on the City of New Orleans / Illinois Central, Monday morning rail"

"Do you hear the people sing, singing the songs of angry men?" -Do You Hear Tthe People Sing from Les Miserables

"Don't try to reach me, I'm already dead / pain when it grips me for things that I've done"

"Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes" -Seasons of Love from Rent

"Was it the pull of the moon, now baby / that led you to my door?"

"When the moon is in the seventh house / and Jupiter aligns with Mars"

"Staring out into that vacuum again / from the back porch of mind"

"Help!  I need somebody.  Help!  Not just anybody.  Help!  You know I need somebody." -Help by the Beatles

"I'm sitting in the railway station, got a ticket for my destination / on a tour of one-night stands, my suitcase and guitar in hand"

"Cryptic words meander, now there is a song beneath the song / one day you'll learn, you'll soon discern its true meaning"

"She's got a way about her / I don't know what it is, but I know that I can't live without her" -She's Got a Way by Billy Joel

"He said to her 'I'd like a cheeseburger / and I might like a milkshake as well'" -His Cheeseburger from Veggietales

"Midnight, not a sound from the pavement / has the moon lost her memory, she is smiling alone"

"The road is long, with many a winding tongue / that leads us to who knows where, who knows where"

"I'll look around until I've found / someone who laughs like you"

"Blame it on what you've been through / blame it on what you're in to" -Ammunition by Switchfoot

"Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood / hop a flight to Miami Beach or Hollywood"

"I've paid my dues time after time / I've done my sentence, but committed no crime" -We are the Champions by Queen

"And the coal trucks come running with their bellies full of coal / and their big wheels a'humming down this road that lies open" 

"When I am down, and oh, my soul so weary / when troubles come and my heart burdened be" -You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban

"I hear the drizzle of the rain / like a memory it falls"

"Sweet dreams are made of this, who am I to disagree? / I travel the world and the seven seas / everybody's looking for something" -Sweet Dreams by Eurithmics

"Last week I had the strangest dream / where everything was exactly as it seemed" -Sleeping In by The Postal Service

: )

Christina

I got a 33 on the ACT!! 

It's really ironic, too, because English is my best section and science has always been my worst, but this time I went down a point in English but got a freaking 36 on the science section ---- how?!?!  I don't know.  But I raised my sceince score nine points, and I didn't even study.

I'm hoping this will be enough to warrant a new cell phone...my green-screen, no text messgae, no camera, no ringtone phone with teeth marks in it is getting pretty old....

Yeah - excitement.

have been pretty eventful.

First, I got into Governor's School for the Humanities!  This picture is icky but it's my acceptance letter.  I'm reeeeeeeeally excited.

Then Chamber Choir went to New York...it was amazing, we saw Spamalot and Chicago and had justs gobs and gobs of fun, all of which can be seen in the wonderful photos in my photobox.

Then...I got asked to prom, which was pretty cool, by none other than Hunter Barry.  I proceeded to purchase a dress, which is enormous and bright pink.  I'm looking forward to it.

Then came our mission trip to Mexico which was amazing...the best youth trip I've been on...there are a lot of good pictures from that in my photobox, too - all of which, he would want me to tell you, were taken by Ben Moser : )

Now all that's left in my life (besides nasty little nusances like term papers) is West Side Story...rehearsals are nearly every day, and we're getting pretty close to showtime!  Less than three weeks.  It's exciting.

So that was my forty days of lent.

..Christina

Happy Easter!

Why seek ye the living among the dead?
He is not here, but is risen:
remember he He spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
Saying, the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men
and be crucified,
and the third day rise again.

Phusebox and xanga = gone for lent.

Hopefully this break will help me sort some stuff out.  And focus more - focus on God and my friendships and my academics and my family and the things and people I really care about.


"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake."  -Victor Hugo


I love you,
Christina

Pretty good Model UN weekend….cracker barrel, forgetting room keys, yielding to a possible series of questions, unlimited speaker's time, being Cuba and not caring about anyone else, crushing Belarus's spirit, not talking, Czech Republic, he/she/it with green hair, Greece and Daniel, as many caucuses as possible, Tanzania's wild hair, Lana's sort-of party, glass elevators, insane curfews, me never getting my food at Chili's, walking in heels, Sam from Chattanooga, Lauren and USA, getting my fortune read (there was a sailboat in my future), martini glasses with cherry 7UP, voting yes on sex slave trafficking, a framed picture of Fidel Castro, offending the Cuban twins with the picture, red streamers, censored notes, horehound peppermint sticks, red dresses with fishnet, pizza at 3 am, Molly's backside, Daniel's Olympic commentary, absolutely no good looking guys in Environment, being in a lot of pictures…

"So the best way to solve the problem of groundwater would be to implement vegetarianism."
"Delegate, are you a vegetarian yourself?"
"Is this relevant?"
"Yes, yes it is."
"I don't eat beef, but I eat poultry."
"So, delegate, are you a part of the problem??"
"I guess you could say that."
"Thank you, that's all."

.Christina

...my life is a freaking turn signal.

So Midstate Choir was super.  Rehearsals were dreadfully long, but we (Carlton, Sophie, Marie and I) found ways to amuse ourselves, most of which involved annoying everyone around us.  We played on the playground for a while, and then had tons of fun when all of the girls had to change into concert wear on a dark bus in about three minutes - and ten minutes after some of us were supposed to be on stage.  But the the Women's Chorus didn't suck as much as expected, and then we told scary stories on the way home, so it was all together a good day.

I'm really worried about (and disappointed in) some people.  Somethings are just awful to witness, especially when you can't do anything about what's happening.

It's times like these that make me say...

O tempora, O mores!

You know what I mean??

A bunch of other people have been doing this Johari Window thing, so I did too - click on the link and do what it says, it only takes a minuteand I'm curious to see what you say...

http://kevan.org/johari?name=ChristinaW

then if you want to do my bad traits go to this link...

http://kevan.org/nohari?name=ChristinaW

So, I missed the cutoff to meet my husband before my mom did.

My mom was very pretty and popular in high school.  Valentine's of her junior year, she gave my dad (who was a sophomore, and a nerd to the max) a valentine and told him she loved him, all as a cruel joke.  That's what kind of girl my mom was.  A heartbreaker.

He thought she was serious, and being the studious, nerdy guy he was, said, "Sorry, I'm not dating girls right now."

She thought that was funny.

Well, one thing led to another, and....they dated for five years and got married.

Not very romantic, but there you are.  And sadly, history has not repeated itself. 

Still, I ate a lot of chocolate today.  So that's a good thing.

Happy Valentine's day???

So we went bowling...it was fun.

Lindsay was happy because she won.

Jesse was sad because he lost.

I was in the middle with a 75.  We had bumpers, too.

Note my excellent bowling technique.

Yep.  Thaaaaaat's all, folks.

If you want to be a coconut,
you might as well hear it!
You can't be a fruit of the Spirit.