Currently Listening Continuum By John Mayer The Heart of Life see related

today is november 2nd.

and i leave for buenos aires in SIXTY DAYS. 

i'm going to live with a 70-ish year old women named norma and her son ricky and his wife yoly.  unbelievable. it's actually going to happen.

life is good. God is good.  i have no liberty to complain about anything ((and i can't really think of anything to complain about)). yay.

here's to pursuing dreams and studying abroad and having fun with the board of trustees and homecoming and roller skating. 

Currently Listening The College Dropout By Kanye West I'll Fly Away see related

it's midterms week and in the midst of studying for my three tests and a quiz, i decided to bite the bullet...

and buy my plane tickets.

that's right. i'm actually going.

on january 2nd at 5:55pm.

but i will come back.

on july 11th at 12:50pm.

heck yes.

details are finally coming. and i'm starting to get real excited.

Currently Listening Hot Fuss By The Killers All These Things That I've Done see related

official

it's monday morning, at a time that can still be classified as too early, and i'm finding myself happier than i normally am at this time on a monday.  why? allow me to share...

catalyst was sweet.  so much happened in such a short time.  the conference was awesome, the quality time with the 22 others was wonderful.  it was great to get away, go to something not geared towards college students, see a new city, get to know people better, laugh a lot, not worry about school, i could go on...vacation is the best thing in the world. let's take them more often.

fall break starts friday.  i'm excited to go home to see the whole arens side of the fam.  dad, mom, kate, jo, danny, nana, and aunt linda! woooo!

i heard this conversation this morning,
"well, at least the sun is shining."
"yeah, it's not supposed to rain until wednesday!"
how's that for hope?

free tacos last night.  yep, free.  one dollar slushies? even better.

i checked my mail this morning and found a nice little note from the study abroad office telling me that i'm officially going to argentina in january!!!!!!   it's finally official.  i can bank on it, i can [for real] start getting excited about it.  six and a half stinknig months. so excited.  here i come!

raising my cup of coffee on this better-than-normal monday morning to life. cheers.

Currently Listening Illinois By Sufjan Stevens Chicago see related

today is october 2nd.  what.the.crap. where does time go?

- i spent three-ish hours outside in the sun doing homework yesterday. it was october first.  leaves are starting to change.  everyone wants to be outside.  fall clothes are the best.  days are perfect and nights are cool.  this is why i love fall more than any other season.

- after nineteen years, i learned that the word lightning doesn't have an 'e' in it.  i always thought that it was spelled "lightening." oh contraire.  i was reading this weather book for my geography class and lo and behold, lightning.  unbelievable. it's going to take me forever to change that habit.  all these years...i was so wrong.

- midterms are next week. i can't believe how fast this has gone so far...

- wednesday morning some of us are packing up and going to...ATLANTA.  catalyst and four days of sweet vacation. yes please.

- yesterday was the season finale of cubs baseball.  ending their season 66-96 which is not impressive at ALL...but i'll still hope for 2008 because it'll be 100 years since the last time we won the world series.  and just because i like him, here's a picture...

- i'm getting on a plane for argentina in three stinking months.  and i'm way scared and way excited beyond belief.

- i love the girls on my hall. a lot.

- this sufjan cd is sweet.  i really like him.  and on this album, there's a song about casimir pulaski day...and  i'm pretty sure most people don't know who he [pulaski] is because he's real big in chicago. we used to get off school for casimir pulaski day.  love it.

- i'm learning to take things one day at a time.  perspective changes everything.  life has been really good.  it's been so much fun, i have no complaints.  i am just one lucky girl to be a part of this all.  because it's just so much bigger than we can imagine.

Currently Listening Chasing Mississippi By Dave Barnes Butterflies see related

this is unbelievable.  and why everyone in the world should read national geographic daily. check this out:

Photo in the News: Python Eats Pregnant Sheep

September 15, 2006—A fresh lamb dinner might sound like a manageable meal for an 18-foot-long (5.5-meter-long) python. But maybe the hungry snake should have waited for the lamb to be born.

Last week firefighters in the Malaysian village of Kampung Jabor were called in to remove the bloated snake (pictured) from a roadway. The reptile had swallowed an entire pregnant sheep and was too full to slither away and digest its supersize meal.

But the stress of being captured likely triggered the python to purge—it eventually regurgitated the dead ewe.

Pythons are constrictors, meaning they rely on strength, not venom, to kill their prey. About once a week the large snakes ambush a likely meal, grab hold with backward-curving teeth, and wrap around the victim, suffocating it to death. Pythons then open their hinged jaws wide to swallow their prey whole.

Sometimes, though, it seems like the voracious reptiles don't think before they snack. This particular snake isn't the first python to get a tough lesson in the dangers of swallowing oversize prey.

In July a pet Burmese python in Idaho required life-saving surgery to remove a queen-size electric blanket from its digestive tract (see photo). And last October a python in the Florida Everglades apparently busted a gut when it tried to make a meal of a 6-foot-long (2-meter-long) American alligator (see photo).