M&M's, Princes, and Apples to Apples

     The dynamic Allison and Sarah Duo hit the town once again last night, this time with a very different mission. Originally the plan was for Melanie and Brian to join us for the 7:50pm showing of Prince of Persia, but they were detained at a previous engagement. Allie and I had no choice but to carry on without them.

     Smuggling in m&m's and snickers bars, we found our seat in the not nearly full enough theater. Prince of Persia had been Melanie's choice and Allie and I were not exactly sure how we felt about it.

     I knew it was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer who I absolutely love, so I had high hopes for the new release. If you're not familiar with Jerry Bruckheimer's work go slap yourself... and then watch National Treasure 1 & 2, Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2, 3, soon to be 4, Pearl Harbor, or Remember the Titans. Just to name a few of his movies, not even including any of his t.v. shows. Anyways, my opinion of the movie can be summed up in one fairly concise sentence: OMG GO SEE THIS MOVIE. The previews did not do this film justice, and I fear it will do poorly in the box office because of it. The previews promise an incredible amount of CG animation and appears overpowering, but there is a lot more to the story intermixed with the animation additions. I fully enjoyed it, will probably see it again, and will definitely be purchasing it. My apologizes to anyone who goes to see this and is less than thrilled, but everyone has their own movie preferences. Just ignore the previews and give it a chance.

     After regaining our composure from the surprisingly fantastic movie, Allie and I decided to give Julie a call, knowing she would be out of her church college group by then. Julie has invited us several times to meet her church and CRU friends so we took this opportunity to put some faces to the names she has told us about. By the time Allie and I arrived at In-N-Out [with the help of Maggie, Allie's GPS] the group had decided they wanted to move locations. Being the good friends that we are, we got back into the car and followed them to Calvary Chapel Santa Ana.

     There we played Apples to Apples and Allie kicked butt. Though my red "cheap motel" and "eyes" cards earned my only green cards of the game [which I was quite proud of], it was fun getting to know some of the people Julie hangs out with. Allie and I ended up staying an extra round after Julie left, which was a tad awkward but I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to use my Cheap Motel card. It came, and I conquered.

Urban Dictionary's definition of a blog...

"Blog: noun; to spew uncontrollably from ones brain; involuntary and unstoppable release of thoughts onto electronic media."

"Short for weblog. A meandering, blatantly uninteresting online diary that gives the author the illusion that people are interested in their stupid, pathetic life. Consists of such riveting entries as "homework sucks" and "I slept until noon today."

Utterly brilliant! Love it!!

so I woke up at about noon today...

Don't Call Us Heroes

Yesterday Allie and I decided to go on a rescue mission for our dear friends in need.

Mission: Ventilation of Frustration
Subject: Melanie the Marvelous
Supplies: cantaloupe, watermelon, coconut, hammer, 2 trash bags

Surprising Mel belle at her house, we proceeded to release bottled up emotions by smashing said fruit with said hammer. Though a psychologist would most likely deem our methods strange and a tad morbid, we found it entirely satisfying. From this experience we learned a couple of things: 1.) smashing fruit is a completely enjoyable experience 2.) we would be horrible at stashing a body 3.) coconuts make the best cracking sound but taste wretched.

we then proceeded to...

Mission: Sneaky Sustenance
Subject: Becca the Beautiful
Supplies: three In-N-Out #1's, two vanilla shakes and one ice tea

Becca was "grounded" for the first time in her life [at the age of 20] so we came to her at work, armed with food and hugs. We learned: 1.) In-N-Out fixes everything 2.) you can run away from home with two armfuls of Jimmy Dean's breakfast biscuits and a microwave 3.) there are no "k"s in the word marshmallow

Upon leaving Biola University, Allie and I took the scenic route to Anaheim, Tustin, and then finally home where we were joined by Julie. We partied like it was 2010, eating popcorn and whales while watching Iron Man, baked and decorated red velvet cupcakes, and talked about majors, no kill animal shelters, and hamsters until 4am.

It was a hard days work, but when our friends are in need, we deliver.

time goes on, but some things never change

Yesterday I stumbled across an online journal that I started in 2005. Following my typical written expression pattern of writing somewhere new to only loose interest soon after, I only made 7 entries in the journal.

One particular entry titled "100 Things I Want To Do" caught my eye, first being that there were only 25 things on the list and the second how so many things about me have stayed the same.

I'll share some of my favorites here:


2# work so hard that i feel i can eat a whole box of See's chocolates without gaining weight
[Don't know why that would have been appealing to my 15 year old self, but hey, we all have dreams...]
3# have a midnight conversation
[helloooo college]
4# adopt a child
[still want to!]
6# fight for a cure/organization i believe in
[Invisible Children The Rescue...check!]
12# own a ferret
[illegal in California *sniff*]
17# Drive a golf cart
[Falls Creek 2009, booyaaa]
19# take many trips to Mississippi and help rebuild people's homes
[2006, 2007, 2008...check!]
20# Be a teen girl counselor
[does a Freshman R.A. count?]
23# go to a ball
[thanks Disney]

I guess some things never change.

What's in a name...

Balloons.

Essential to a party.
Possessing the ability to brighten someones day.
Sometimes up, sometimes down.
An uncomplicated, peaceful moment.
Bouncing in the air, refusing to stay on the ground.
Optimistic, no matter the weather.

I see my life as a balloon, or more so, what I strive to be in life. A balloon is so simple and yet can convey so many different emotions. They have always made me happy, they have always made me "high", and they will forever be a strong metaphor in my life. I used the image of a balloon in my high school graduation speech and choose it now as my blog name.

As I write about my simple inflated latex of a life, my hope is that I can better allow God to hold onto my string, by reflecting on how He leads me out of the trees each and every day.