I’ve really been slacking with updates lately. So I figured I should at least write something, no matter how short it turns out to be..

Anyway, I’m back at UF now!! Last Saturday, moved back on campus. I’m really glad I’m still living on campus since I don’t have a car, but it’s also kind of weird since a lot of people are living off-campus now. Thankfully Dream and Andrew and other people still live on campus, so I’m not totally alone. And it’s awesome living with Rob in Graham Hall. We named our room “The Bunker” since we live on the ground floor…seriously, the view out of our window is a cement wall. Still, the room is really nice, especially now that I’m unpacked and posters are on the wall.

On Sunday, went back to Creekside for the first time in a while…so fun seeing everyone again!! Monday I went down to Criser Hall and picked up work permit and then went into Weil(Engineering Hall) to meet my employer(who’s Andrew’s uncle). My job is pretty sweet because I work with the ISE department, in which I’m majoring. So I get experience in the department, get to network, AND get paid. Only minimum wage for now, doing office work, etc, but I’m happy with it.

Monday night, went to a party at Sweeney’s place – their apartment was awesomely decorated. You could definitely tell it was a girl’s place! It was great seeing more people that I hadn’t seen for all summer, like Javier and Sonia and Julie.. Tuesday morning, woke up EARLY to go tubing with Rob, Liz, Steven, Katie and Katie’s roommate Lindsey. The water was cold and the sun was hot and we had an awesome time floating lazily down the river, talking and then eating sweet picnic food afterwards.

Wednesday, had classes for the first time. Most of my classes seem pretty hard, but I’ll just have to deal. My Matrices class has a teacher that can barely speak English and my Statics class is physics-based, so I know that class will be no fun. Engineering Economy is the only class that seems kind of fun. Today had my programming class, which looks deathly hard, but at the same time, kind of fun. Will be interesting to see how that goes.

Then tonight, went out to dinner at this Vietnamese place with the gang – last night Craig and Dustin were in town. And now I’m just finishing writing this while “High School Musical” is playing on the TV…

Hope you all enjoyed the update – have a great night!

This past weekend was probably my best all summer – I went up to Gainesville for Brandon and Diana’s wedding and had a lot of fun hanging out with people I haven’t seen since May. It started out on Friday afternoon driving up Gainesville through some horrendous rainstorms. For part of the way, could barely see 10 feet ahead of the car! Finally made it to the Lebos’ house, where Rob was already waiting. I learned how to play Axis and Allies, an extremely awesome war game. It’s sort of like Risk, except it’s set in WWII and it’s ten times as complicated.

After a round of that, it was getting late, so me and Rob went to his Uncle Charlie’s house. That’s where we stayed the couple of nights we were there. His uncle and aunt were pretty awesome, giving us all the donuts and food we could eat. The first morning, they got us 2 dozen donuts. Needless to say, we didn’t eat them all right away.

Saturday, Rob and I played raquetball with Charlie – it was my first time playing and it was loads of fun. Trust me, it’s extremely therapeutic to smack a rubber ball all over the place. After five games of that, we went back to the house and me and Rob played a bunch of Lego Star Wars, the video game. That game was so much fun – when the characters die, they fall apart into Lego pieces. 😀 And in one room(on Kamino), when we lit up all the floor tiles, it turned into a dance floor and the Kamino people started dancing to this funky Star Wars music. Most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen.

Later that afternoon, me and Rob went over the Lebos’ house again and we played some frisbee golf(my first time at that, too!) and it was awesome! Even if I didn’t ever make par, I still enjoyed it a lot. I wouldn’t mind getting better though.

After dinner at the Lebos’, we got dressed for the wedding and drove over there, picking up Liz on the way. The wedding was at the chapel on Lake Alice – awesome view of the lake out of the back of the chapel. The wedding went beautifully – Brandon was smiling so much and Diana looked gorgeous. Don’t brides always? It made me so happy – I think weddings are one of the most happy events to go to. Afterwards, we went to the Hilton for the reception. I wasn’t expecting a fancy sit-down reception, but that’s what we got! They had some exquisitely good food(like this GIANT roast beef)…too bad I’d already eaten. Anyways, there was that food, and music, and dancing…just a wonderful time. It was great to see Brandon and Di sitting together looking ever so happy! I also loved seeing all the Creekside people I hadn’t seen in so long.

Wow, this entry is so long already and I’m not even done yet! Well anyways, after Brandon and Di left(around 12), me, Rob, and Liz also left. There were some suspicious people hanging around Liz’s apartment, so we made sure to escort her up…the next day, she found a bunch of beer cans and the like scattered on her car.. But anyways, after that, me and Rob went back to his uncle and aunt’s place and we were going to just go to bed…until we decided we wouldn’t mind some more Lego Star Wars. After playing that for another couple hours, we finally got to sleep around 2:30. It was worth it though!

The next day was church, which was really sweet. Seeing people again, hearing James Walden speak…it was too long since I’d been there. After church, me, Rob, Liz, and Steven went to Nero’s for pizza with Rob and Liz’s aunt and uncle – good times there, talking and eating. Finally, Rob drove me back to Tampa. He stayed at my house for a little while so we could watch the end of the World Cup Finals…woooooo, Italy!!!! My parents had made a spaghetti dinner with salad and garlic bread, so of course, he stayed for that too! Eventually though, he left to go back to Tally.

All in all, a great weekend…a nice midpoint to summer, hanging with people I’ve missed too much(yeah, that includes you, Liz and Steven) and just having an all-around good time.

And I apologize for such a looong entry, but I thought my faithful readers deserved it since I barely ever update anyway.

Hope everyone’s having a great summer!!

I really wanted to write a New Year’s update, but I was way too lazy…and then kept forgetting it. So this is my “New Year’s” update…twenty-nine days late. But yeah, 2005 was an amazing year…so many things happened to make it a year that will not be forgotten. I remember when I was a little kid, and I calculated the year I would graduate high school. When I figured out it was going to be 2005, I thought, “Wow, that is a really LONG time from now.” And now it’s been and past. Graduated from high school. Came to UF for college…sorta scary, thinking I’m in college now. Remember when you were little, thinking how big college kids were? Yeah, I’m one of them now. Pretty cool, huh?

And now I can’t think of anything else to say about 2005…since I’ve been in 2006 for so long, I’ve lost the ’05 vibe. Just know this – it was a year of awesomeness. 2006 is looking like it will be another awesome year, as I turn 19(that awkward year after you’re 18 but before you turn 20…y’know?).

Actually, a lot of cool stuff has already happened in 2006…started school on the ninth with bunches of cool classes(minus most of them). I’m taking differential equations, technical writing, physics 2, finance, and microeconomics this semester. Since it’s still in the first few weeks right now, haven’t been too terribly busy, so had time to just hang with people. We’re starting flag football in a few weeks, so that’s gonna rock hardcore – I’ve never played competitive football before, so can’t wait! Because of that, been practicing a lot lately, so probably played the most football I’ve ever played in one month this past January. And that’s a good thing. Watched a bunch of movies I haven’t seen before, including Moulin Rouge(interesting movie – enjoyable for the most part), Fight Club(very different kind of movie – wasn’t quite my type), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind(another interesting movie – I enjoyed it). I’m trying to remember if I saw any other movies – Chris, remind me.

I finally read Dune(figured I needed to read it, so ordered it on Amazon). It’s supposed to be “the” science fiction book. I definitely enjoyed it. Took me a few days to read, but it was worth it. I actually didn’t see it as much of a sci-fi book, though. It was more philosophical than anything. Not sure if that’s even the right description. Anyway, even though I liked it, still doesn’t top other books by Orson Scott Card or Isaac Asimov. Ok, getting off that book tangent…

Been enjoying Creekside life a lot lately – sweet time tonight listening to bands and drinking coffee at their “Creekside Cafe” thing. And I actually didn’t drink that much coffee but still I feel very awake right now. Mostly, I ate fudge and creampuffs and some really really awesome berry pie. Besides that, didn’t eat all day until afterwards, when me, Rob, Liz, and Steven went to Checkers. It was good times eating and talking about random stuff until we realized how cold it was. Before I went to that tonight, played football most of the afternoon. Had our first offical team practice, so it was pretty sweet.

Hm, Dream needs to go to bed, so gonna post this now. I was going to write a poem, but I might post that separately later.

And thanks for reading that everybody- yes, I know I write too much.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

How good it is to remember…

Merry Christmas, one and all!

I was gonna do a “end of the year survey” but got bored with it…so no survey for you.

Anyways, it’s so awesome to be home. No worries about classes, no work for school…just no stress in general, which is always a wonderful thing. I got my grades and GPA a few days ago, which was a little disappointing(for me), but eh. In case you want to see:

Physics: B
Physics Lab: B+
Chemistry: A
Chemistry Lab: B+
Calculus III: B+
International Relations: A
Intro to Engineering: A
My GPA is 3.62 right now, which is a lot lower than I’d like.
I feel ok about school, though, mainly because now I’m used to the routine and know how I need to study for next semester. Next semester will be crazily filled with studying, but hey..that’s what I’m going to college for, so that’s what I’ll do.

Off the topic of school, has been a pretty awesome week so far. Last week was just full of being lazy and enjoying home life once again…wow, I missed my mom’s cooking. Sunday, a bunch of people from my church went Christmas-caroling through a couple of different nursing homes…it was so joyous, singing to all these people…especially when they smiled and sang along. I do love Christmas songs. If I had my way, they’d be sung all year round.

Christmas is only three days away! I can’t wait for it…always such a happy time of year. Actually this whole season is so much fun. In a few minutes, I’m going to do some work(i.e. leave-raking) for a neighbor, and tomorrow and Saturday will be working at Wright’s Gourmet..even though I won’t get to relax, at least I’ll be getting paid. Anyways, need to eat and then run to work…

Yummy macaroni and cheese…I love my dad for making me some!! 🙂

Today was a pretty awesome day. Got to sleep in late, and then hung out with Rob(from my bible study group) for a while…we tossed the football around for a while, then went trekking through a bunch of trails by Lake Alice. I love hiking so much – me and Rob were talking about hiking part of the Appalachian trail in a few years, which will rock hardcore.

Got back to my dorm for some studying for my final exam. It shouldn’t be that hard, but studying always helps! Tomorrow, gonna take the exam at 7:30, then head back to Tampa around 10:30 or so. No thinking about school for a while…bliss.

Now, back to studying.

Physics exam was intense. Intensely hard, that is. As soon as I looked at the test, I felt my mind erasing itself…definitely not a good feeling. Oh well. At least I only have one more exam, and then I’m free.

I think I shall go to the Union bookstore and console myself with a good book.

Well, 2 exams down, two to go. I’m so happy calculus and chem are finally done…such a relief to see the books sitting on my dresser and know I don’t have to worry about reading them anymore. I aced the final calc exam, giving me a B+ for the class. And this morning, only missed 3 questions on the chem final, so got an A for the class! God is good. I’m most worried about physics though…I can only miss 1 or 2 questions to get an A..so I’m going to be studying like crazy.

Can’t wait ’til finals are all over so I can go home and really get into the Christmas spirit…this Wednesday, I’ll be back in Tampa!

Chocolate and strawberries…nothing’s better than that.

There’s got to be fondue in heaven.

And the moon is simply beautiful tonight.