Summer!

Well, it looks like I’m finally getting into the swing of things. I got a job as a lifeguard at the city pools here in Murfreesboro and I’ve been working there for almost a week now. It’s such a fun job.  Yesterday, there was a swim meet going on, we had a tornado break, and one of the guards was having a potluck with his water aerobics class and we got to eat some of the food. That kind of stuff is exactly why I love guarding. The people are always fun too, and being near a pool to swim laps during my breaks isn’t too bad either.

I also finally bought myself a laptop. It’s a pretty slick machine with a dual core 64 bit proessor and a 15.6 inch 16:9 screen. It rocks at graphics work and movies. The keyboard is taking some getting used though – but that’s mostly because I’m a terrible typer. When I type the way I’m used to, it nds up loong like ths… yeah.

I’ve also started working on a web/marketing project and maybe found a swim team to spend some time with for the summer. I’m pretty excited. All I need now is to get some subs for the week of cornerstone. I half of the days taken care of already, but that isn’t going to help unless I get the rest of the week off too. I can’t just pull a sick day or use some vacation time.

Now it’s time to go start dinner and get ready to go see about coaching swim practice and hopefully not fall asleep in the process. Wish me luck!

Thoughts on School

I finally did it… I graduated! I’m done with school until college starts. It’s kinda different not having schoolwork to do all the time. I’ve always been homeschooled, and it seems like I’ve always been either trying to catch up on or get ahead in something. Most of my summers had at least a half load of schoolwork that I was supposed to be doing. It’s been a long few years, especially the last 4. High school has been pretty intense.

Being homeschooled through high school makes some people look at you kinda funny. It’s almost like they’re thinking “you can do that?” Other times they come right out and ask you some of the oddest questions: “what do you do for sports?” “where do you get your diploma?” “how do you make any friends?” and others like that. The answers are pretty easy, although most people look at me in disbelief when I say “friends? I’ve got the most amazing friends ever! Graduation? of course, and there’s going to be a hundred students there. And no, we didn’t have prom in my garage.” It’s been so much fun

Looking back on it though, I learned some very important lessons during the last 12 years. Here’s a list of some that come to mind as the most useful:

1. Don’t forget about biology
2. When you’re studying, classical music can be just as distracting as anything else
3. Mom’s rules always triumph
4. When in doubt, don’t cite wikipedia
5. For most people, geometry is nothing more than a method for proving the obvious
6. Don’t write papers on obscure subjects
7. Facebook is an amazing place
8. “Gmail ate my homework” doesn’t work
9. Last.fm will play the most random songs when you’re trying to study
10. Taking physics, chemistry, algebra, biology, and geometry is not the most brilliant way to spend your senior year
11. Your life explodes in the second semester of your senior year
12. Graduation is one of the oddest things you will ever go through
13. Learning almost never happens on schedule
14. Don’t bother putting your name in your graduation cap, it’ll get lost anyway
15. Going to the mall doesn’t usually count as a study session
16. Friends are an absolute must
17. You’ll never have the time, so you may as well do it now
18. Taking a break when you still have work to do (procrastinating) isn’t as fun as actually being done
19. You can’t sing along to a song and read at the same time
20. Colleges should give you a degree or a scholarship for just figuring out how to apply

Anyway, I’m pretty excited about this new chapter in my life that’s going to be starting. But that’s a subject for a whole other post.

College Classes and a Dead Camera

It’s getting more real. Seriously, college is coming. Last week, I went to the college for what they call “customs.” It’s like a cross between orientation  and registration and some other stuff. We were divided into groups by our major and got to meet the deans and advisers of our departments some of the current students and on the second day we went and had our student IDs made up, met the student organizations, and registered for classes. I was also able to take care of some other stuff like dropping off my final transcript and looking at the dorms I’m going to be staying in. But now I’m all done with that stuff, I’m an official student of Middle Tennessee State University!

Unfortunately though, my camera died while I was there. I went to take a picture with it and noticed that the screen had a lovely line through it and it was all white with black splotches. Not good. Thankfully its still in warrenty though (barely – it expires on the 3rd of June),  so I’m sending back to get hopefully it fixed. I’m so bored without that thing. And graduation is in 2 days, so there won’t be many pictures. Maybe I’ll steal Rachel’s camera and use it during the grad party.

Indian Chicken

This is one of my favorite recipes. It takes a while to make, but it’s fairly easy. The hardest part is waiting for it to cook while the smell of curry is everywhere. The original recipe came from a cookbook called More with Less, but my mom and I have tweaked it a bit through trial and error. The version here is good feeding lots of people.

I’ve made this chicken for a church potluck, and I got several people asking me for the recipe, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to publish it. Now I just need to come up with my own special curry blend to make sure I keep my advantage.

Soundtrack

Over the past few weeks, it’s like the music that plays around me is always just what I need to hear, or at least applies to what’s going on. Sometimes it’s convicting and sometimes it’s freaky. Sometimes it just makes me laugh and think “wow, that was so appropriate” or “those are my thoughts exactly.”

It’s always in random places. A cellphone ringtone, the theme for a tv show, something on the radio that they haven’t played in ages, some song that I forgot I had in iTunes or my on iPod coming up on shuffle, last.fm playing a song I’ve never heard before. Random places. It’s spooky sometimes. Like someone is playing a soundtrack to my life. Sometimes it’s amazing. Maybe God is telling me something.

Maybe He’s playing a soundtrack for my life.

Here are some of the songs that seem to be a part of my soundtrack: