Tonight I’m catching a plane bound for the land of the long white cloud, New Zealand. Of course I’ve been excited since I booked my ticket back in April, but I’m happy to say I’m finally excited. The kind of excited that causes wide, toothy smiles at the most inappropriate times. The kind of excited that makes you feel like you’re eleven years old again and just consumed
It’s a notable trip for several reasons, two of which I feel were worth pointing out. First, there are no plans. If you know me at all, this probably comes as a small surprise. Or a big surprise. I like to have plans, lists, and backup plans. Last time I traveled abroad through the South Pacific with my dad and brother I had lists upon lists of things to do, places we had to see, where we were going to stay and when…you get the idea. This time around? I’m done, burnt out on planning and organizing. I’ve spent the better part of the last 5.5 years busting my tail to finish college and I. Am. Done. The last thing I want to do is narrow down my trip to a couple of lists with more items to be crossed off. The only thing I know about this trip is that we’re getting picked up by my family in Auckland (thanks guys!!) and we have a place to crash for a couple nights. No specifics other than we’re going to wander around New Zealand and have a fabulous time. It’s a freeing feeling really, not having all the plans. Not that plans and lists aren’t good things — they are in moderation, and I know I’ll be back to them soon enough – I’m just glad to have given them up for this brief time. This is a real, one-of-a-kind, spontaneous vacation. Actually, it’s more of an adventure.
Finally, this trip is one more example of growing up. I haven’t had cause to travel much in my short life, but any and all traveling I’ve done up to this point has been done in the company of at least one other blood relative. This trip is just me and a friend. We both just graduate from Biola and we are almost ready to take on the world. It’s just that first we’re going to take on New Zealand.
Yesterday I saw a friend who told me she my name on “the list.” Naturally, my response was, “uh, what list?”
Turns out there is a magical list that the registrars office posts on a wall for everyone to go and see if they’ve been cleared for graduation. I had no idea. Today I went in search of this magical list and succeeded in finding it. Sure enough, there I saw my name at position number 3 (based on alphabetics)…but with 3 asteriks next to it. At first I was a little concerned that the asteriks meant there was some kind of qualification to my being on the list, you know a “well, as long as she does X, Y and Z she can graduate.” This too, was an incorrect assumption. As it turns out, I’m set to graduate summa cum laude, the fancy pants way of saying I got really good grades. Of course, that is contingent on me not doing something really stupid in the next 4 weeks and 3 days (!!) to murder my GPA. I’m not planning on that…but then who really plans to murder their GPA? So…um…yay?
Anyway.
I blew off doing tons of radio work today and took my homework off to the beach with a couple friends. I don’t know why, but the ocean has the ability to soothe and quiet the soul. Even though I was studying for an important test next week, it didn’t feel stressful. All the questions, concerns and frustrations that are currently holding a dance party in my brain melted away into the sound of the pounding waves. Don’t get me wrong, I think my party attendees are just out on a supply run, I know they’ll be back rested and ready to boogie when I wake up tomorrow. But right now, my mind is enjoying the peace and quiet.
On a more amusing note, I saw a couple dudes and a chick strolling down the beach…smoking a joint. And I got an unintentionally large lungful of weed when they walked in front of me. Then a completely different dude tried to hit on one of my friends…his attempt failed, probably because as he walked away my other friend and I could no longer refrain from a little laughter at the completely obnoxious way he went about it.
So. Last night was the big Biola Radio Battle of the Bands concert. The turn out wasn’t as big as I would have liked, but I’m going to blame that on the threat of rain (which was never fully realized) that forced a last minute venue change.
The sound setup was super, all three bands rocked it, and we did a live broadcast of the whole thing.
I’m relieved that A) the event is over and I no longer have to keep up on yet another list of little to-do items, B) no more wondering if this will be/is a worthwhile endeavor. The only thing left to do for this event is send follow up thank you’s, finish off prize details, and get the audio/photos/video online. Not too bad.
Now for those other big projects with fat, empty check boxes…
Not for any special reason, simply because I know some pretty awesome people. And I happen to being to a school that, despite its faults, is also pretty awesome. One thing that I’ve appreciated about my time at Biola is the little reminders that this is where God wants me. It’s not every day or even every month. Sometimes it’s an event I attend, or like today, just a passing conversation. It’s a good feeling of confidence to know that you are in exactly the place that you’re supposed to be and generally doing the things you’re supposed to be doing.
I think I’ll miss that feeling a lot in a few weeks, after graduation.
Time for a recommendation kids! A couple weeks ago I thought I’d celebrate my birthday by purchasing some fancy, expensive soda. Lame idea? Perhaps.
I looked at the Jones brand, but they were only being sold at the supermarket by the bottle — I wanted a whole six pack. I hemmed and hawed over whether I was going to buy root beer or an orange soda I don’t even remember the name of now. I went with the root beer, which was absolutely the right move.
I bought Thomas Kemper and now I’m suggesting you do too. Naturally caffeine free and then there’s the reason I purchased it in the first place: it’s made with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Why aren’t all the soda companies using cane sugar?? It’s got a seriously delicious flavor. And I am a big fan of delicious flavor.
I may never buy another six pack of regular soda again.
After two failed hours on the phone with AT&T tech support last night, to say I was not looking forward to calling AGAIN tonight is a large understatement. Then by some happy chance, I was routed from customer support in India to the very American Vince. In fact, my roommates and I think he must have been from Southern California. He kept saying “beautious” and “rock on.” He made a joke about the Staples easy button and was just all around entertaining.
Vince, wherever you are, thanks for making me laugh at your outrageousness. And thanks especially for getting me back on the internet at home. I hope your supervisors send me that quality survey like you said they would, I want to give you full points dude.
Why can’t all tech support people be that fun and competent?
I sat next to the phone and waited. I checked my email, then got all caught up on the happenings at Facebook and Twitter. Hmm, what next? Oh yes! Review that essay question for the exam tomorrow…
Twenty minutes later, the essay has been broken down into the minimum pages necessary to pass. It’s also outlined with some keywords and paragraph topics that will hopefully earn me 4 hand written pages of persuasion that is at least “good enough to pass” the writing competency exam in the morning.
Then I sit and stare at the phone for a while. In fact, I stared so long I dozed off in the red office chair. RRRING! I fairly jumped out of my chair in a combination of surprise and excitement. Yes, he finally called!
I used the first ring to wake up and settle my nerves. The second ring gave me time flip open my notebook and glance at the talking points I wrote down earlier. Right, all set.
“This is Melodie.”
Silence.
“Hello?” Continued silence triggers a little bit of panic. Did I answer the phone wrong? Maybe I sounded angry? Unprofessional?
“Hello!” A chirpy woman’s voice sounded in my ear. Ok, wasn’t expecting a her to call back…”do you need someone to clean your carpets?” The recorded woman was still talking as I hung up the receiver, disappointed. It had been over an hour since I left him a message, I had hoped he would have called by now.
Thirty minutes later the incidence clicked with this thought in my head: If I were the kind of girl who had done such things in high school, is this what it would have felt like to sit by the phone and wait for a boy to call?
These are the things I start to wonder about when left in a room to myself with not much to do. Being slightly sleep deprived probably helps this kind of thought process along.
For the record, the phone call I am still waiting for is a quick interview for a potential news story. Almost two hours have gone by. I’m starting to think he’s not going to call me back. I think I’ve been stood up.
The following are side effects of not having any internet access inside your home:
9 days of arriving on campus by 8 am at the absolute latest.
9 days of arriving home after 9 pm.
9 days of lugging around my laptop, powercord and other necessary computing items — in addition to notes, books and food.
722 unread items in Google Reader.
30+ hours of TV waiting to be watched in my Hulu queue.
On the plus side, my body has now reached the point where averaging 6 hours of sleep every night no longer makes me want to curl up in a corner and take a nap every afternoon. Is that a plus? Hmm.
It’s a sad morning when you arrive online to discover that the legendary Paul Harvey has passed away at age 90. It’s not that I ever listened to his broadcasts religiously — I didn’t — but it’s the quality of the ones I heard that I remember. When Paul Harvey came on the radio you didn’t flip the dial to something else, you stayed to listen. He was entertaining and informative, but importantly he was real. He was the kind of person you wanted to sit down to coffee with, just so you could listen to him tell stories. Or at least that’s how I felt.
He wrote his own copy and insisted that he would not endorse a product that he did not believe in. He invented words that found their way into the vernacular, including “guesstimate,” “Reaganomics,” “bumpersnickers” and “skyjacker.”
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. — Theodore Roosevelt
