mandey's world

that was the motto of my little brother's basketball team this past saturday.only 4 showed up while the other team had 10 players. two girls and two boys. and this was their first game too. they played their hearts out and when they actually figured out how to score, boy, it was a victory. the determination they had even when they were down? that took heart.

another early sunday morning. we celebrated the 25th anniversary of our church and the bishop came and said mass. during those 25 years, we changed locations, remodeled the church, and built a learning center and tons of other stuff. out of the 25 years, my family has been going there going on 18.so many memories that church holds for me...many good and a couple bad. i walk through the halls and i remember my first day of sunday school; my first communion;years of alter serving;very emotional teen years; confirmation...

so next week i begin my 20 minute drives to go to class. i have never taken a summer class in my life;never needed to with the public school system and never chose to. i don't know what to expect really. lots of reading-i know that. but what else?i really don't want to sit in LONG lectures...oh how i hope there is some sort of interaction in my class or at least a professor who has some sort of tone variation. i find that the summer months bring out the anxious and 'can't sit still child' in me. me last a month? ha..we'll see

big thanks to jeff for giving me a shot of reality. well for me that is. during high school, particularly senior year, the highlight of my day was getting onto cnn or the washington post, the new york times and christian science monitor along with half a dozen other news sites and just seeing what was going on in the world that day. And if by some chance i found something that supported one of the debate cases that i was working on, then AWESOME, if not, well let's just say that i was still alright. there were some pretty neat stories out there. but over the past year, i have been so out of touch and b/c of that, i am ashamed of myself. over the past year i have allowed myself to become a statistic...one of those people that has no clue what's going on in other parts of the world...dang...i remember making fun of those people while we were sitting on the bus or sitting in one of the cafeterias in between rounds or waiting for awards...but relief has come b/c i have seen my fault and i will attempt to fix it. last night was....awesome! the different talks i got to have with jeff. oh wow...it's been a while since i've done something like that. talking about beliefs and morals and supporting them as well as challenging some. it was so....empowering! although our conversation was cut short, the adrenaline flowing through me was...wow. and to think what started it all was two simple questions:

who is the secretary of state?
who is the secretary of defence?
and then just him throwing a few other questions out there that just totally bogged me b/c i had ideas of the answers but me being the me that HAS TO BE SURE that my answer is correct before saying it...stumped me. the whole idea of the misinformed voter..the misinformed citizen...the uninformed citizen is more like it! we talked of equality...marriage issues...and oh sex education. oh the fun...jeff had no idea that the documentary that he was watching was actually filmed in the town that i am physically in at this very moment. ha...fun times there. the film does show lubbock as a pretty conservative town..oh my gosh it sure does.and if any of you saw it, the 'night' scenes...particually at the beginning and the end...um...yea..those were NOT staged in the very least...i was never involved in any of those gatherings, but yea...just take my word, the directors didn't provoke or stage any of that stuff.

well on that note...later all.

ok...don't get too excited...this really isn't an 'update' update. i just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow night on PBS, The Education of Shelby Knox will be showing. for all you lubbock people, it's at 9pm and for all dallas, it's at 10. if you are anywhere else, you can easily check your local listings. i personally will be watching it and am looking forward to see how the documentary turned out. i am so happy for shelby who spent all of high school doing this documentary and is finally seeing it get out there! so if you're not doing anything, i highly reccomend that you see it. it will be reairing a few more times so check it out!

i truly admire kids. they are so young and innocent. they comprehend little of the 'real' world and what they do know is painted over in 'nice' colors so that they remain happy and optimistic of new beginnings and life. jumpy and bright eyed, they accept candy coated truths that are set before them. even when something upsetting happens, they may cry but the sadness is soon forgotten with a nice big bowl of icecream or a tickle war. why is it that when we grow up, we are unable to deal with the truths of reality and find that all problems can't be solved with a bowl of icecream? i see it as this, we are 'protected' from life so long that when it does hit us, it is terrifyingly unbearable. why did i just go into this 'spill'? well, while i was shopping with my little brother, he began asking me loads of questions like, what grade were you in 11 years ago? and how old were you when i was born. i began to contemplate tons of things...what was in those years? when did life slap me in the face? when i began to think of it and how i blatently didn't see some stuff that was right before my eyes so many years ago. how could i have NOT seen some of the stuff that went on during my childhood? innocence. that's the answer plain and simple. i accepted everything as normal and went on playing power ranger hide and seek and jumping on the trampoline in the rain. nothing seemed to matter. everything was sunshine and rainbows until life welcomed me in. these summer months, i see all the kids playing and running and i think...i want that! but you know, you can never go back...ok..i see that i have made this a little morbid..sorry. i didn't mean for it to. there are many joys that come with knowledge but with knowledge comes sadness...i know that's a quote but i am too lazy to go look it up to quote it word for word. so we'll call it a paraphrase.

today i babysat my cousin's adorable daughter. she is so cute but don't let her cherubic features fool you. she is so demanding. and right now she's testing limits so you know it was loads of fun watching her especially since she couldn't set foot in the hallway b/c we are finishing up the tile in my room:). yea..my dad got the energy to tile my room this week but didn't grout it before leaving so once my mom gets sick of seeing my boxes in the living room, we will venture into the world of grouting;) ha. well sorry to make this long...i really must get back to other things that i must do. until next time....

something really ticked me off earlier. i was mowing the lawn and this truck comes up. i think well maybe they need directions or something. NO. they thought 'well, hey, here's a girl and she's mowing the lawn. no female in their right mind would mow the lawn.' it really ticked me off. i thanked them for their offer but said that it was my chore and ignored them. i wanted to pull the guy who was smirking and punch him so hard. why can't a girl mow a lawn? seriously! i've been doing it since i was 10. of course sometimes i get nausiated or begin to freeze in the heat, but i just get a glass of water and continue on my way. i can do just about everything a guy can do. when my brothers got jobs and then off to college, all of the outside chores shifted onto me. i can mow, i can weed, throw out the trash, trim trees and that's just yard work stuff. so to all of the barbarians out there, i'm sorry but you have it ALL wrong!

~~rant done~~
well my dad leaves friday for 2 whole weeks. so that means that thursday will be impromptu father's day for us. still don't know what i'm gonna get him. everything's so materialistic now a days. i remember giving my dad a horrible tie one year and you know what? he wore it for me that one day. gosh gotta give props to him for that. sunday will mostly be spent at home and then going over to my grandparent's house for a bit. always fun times there you know!? lol..riggghhhtt..can hear yet another reason why i should go to law school..always fun..well hope you guys have a great week and until next time...

ok, well, i am sitting in darcy's room and thought, hey, i should update b/c by the time i get to lubbock, i will not even remember what to update about. this trip has been so great! my mom dropped me off at the airport and i sat for an hour next to the gate with my notebook open and not really doing anything just listening to barlow girl. so i'm sitting there and i see so many people doing there own thing; caught up in their own lives. i would sit there and try to think what they were doing there, where they were going type thing. people watching if you want to call it that. SOO so interesting. just how everyone has their own little world that they live in and somehow at some point, you intertwine with one another. like the people that i saw sitting at that terminal or the lady that sat next to me on the plane. for that brief moment, our paths crossed and whether we made a difference to the other doesn't really seem apparent. well we did get to 'hog' a middle seat so we both had room for our stuff but did that really make a difference? possibly. our trip was smooth and we were both happy and even shared the middle tray for our drinks. i don't know...that was just a little tidbit from me. just thought i'd share that. *note* one of the greatest feelings in the world is when you're walking out of the terminal with your bags and you sight people that you know. i saw jen/marykate/kelly and my whole face brightened and i started walking faster!

so i met 5 of my fig students and boy are they QUIET! they are sweet though. and YES, i met my coordinators too! it was fun; we talked and shared our ideas for everything. i can't wait to work with my all female group. you just know that we're gonna find some theme for our group that goes with it;). fun times with pc's and hanging out and slipping in and out of interest sessions and then lunch together. fun times as always in the excel office and a 'teambuilder' that gave everyone a workout.

summing up this trip:awesome! great friends, unforgetable memories and LOTS of hugs! tomorrow i get back on the plane and back to lubbock until august but while i'm there, there will be things to do. summer school, baby shower, and of course sitting a few hours in the hospital waiting for my nephew to come into this world! i guess i will let yal go....later all! and no, there's no quotes to end the post...i think the 'thoughts' at the beginning of the post are enough;)

ok, well life in little ole' lubbock, texas is soooo boring! i have done little besides cleaning and babysitting. seen any old lubbock friends? HA. oh wells. but saturday was fun. i did my usual chores, then decided that it was about time that i tackle the garage. my parents had gone out and my little bro was playing nintendo as usual. i cleaned that place up all by myself! and i must say that it looks great! only one problem that arose when my parents got home: we now have 2 cars! big yay except for the fact i now had to have things stored to fit 2 cars instead of one. i guess that project can be attempted next week;) then saturday night, i went and saw the sisterhood of the traveling pants with sarah. that was such a good movie! we had daybreak coffee before and walked around the mall. it was good just hanging out with her. usually we only get to be around each other when my bro's there and sadly he's a conversation dominator so saturday was really nice. got to spend some time with my future sis-in-law.

well, here, everyone's been waiting for this one....news of the week: i am going to arlington! can't wait to get there and see everyone, spend some time in the office and just have some fun...of course i have that thing called work but other than that? fun fun...ok, well, if i really want my mom to give me a ride to the airport tomorrow then i better get my chores done and get my stuff packed...laters