Sunday, April 29, 2007

May

In case you hadn't noticed (in which case you may want to read more carefully) I push myself a little. And sometimes I mean a lot. And sometimes I mean hard. Because this pushing seems to wrap itself around the scholastic year, I find myself quite tired and um, well you see, worn the heck out come the end of April. So I generally reserve the month of May to recoup. If you've ever lived with me in the summers you will agree that this is true.

All of that is to say, I'm sorry if I don't show up at anything you plan. If it is your wedding and it is in Ontario, I'll be there. Otherwise, don't get your hopes up. And I'm sorry if I don't call you until June. But I promise I love you. Kiss.

Revisit

In case you hadn't been keeping up with these guys, now would be a good time to hop back in. They need your prayers.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Update v3

Buxtehude concert - done
Papers - done
Exams - done
Presenations - done
Classes - done
Getting another car - not done (but should have one in about a week)
Having a job - not done (but the application is pending)
Having another house - not done (but we're applying for one of the apartments we saw this week)
CITB - done
Voice recital - done
MS Walk - done
Me - done.

Nodding Head In Affirmation

Always.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Farewell Tour? Nooooo!

Nana, no! Come back, never leave!

A Sentimental Journey

Well, its that time again. The school year is ending/ended. Things get wrapped up, transitions are made. This is the 6th year I've gone through this process, so you'd think it would get easier. You would think it would get easier to watch yet another class of your friends graduate (ahead of you), to have your social life take a big hit, to make this transition. But it really doesn't get easier. Every graduating class brings with it another group of people who have loved me, another group of people that I have leaned on to get by. My "five minute radius" hates this time of year. Having friends within that radius doesn't really happen in the summer. And with graduating, it just doesn't return to 'normal'.

Do not get me wrong. I am very happy for my graduating friends. They have worked so hard to get to this point and I am excited to see where God will take them. I also get excited when God keeps them around here and I get to see them often. Yes I do get excited.

Oh that time again. That time when first years have to learn the painful lesson that you cannot actually stay in touch with allllllll the people they met this year, while they are apart for the summer. They will start to refine and pare and begin to see who the real friends are - who will really take a road trip out to see them, or who will really email them often, call or ack...send snail mail?!? They will also come back in the fall and pick up with people they haven't spoken a word to all summer and it will be like they were never apart. That will give them hope. It gives me hope. It shows me that after four (or more or sometimes much less) years of crafting a friendship that distance and life events do not have to come in the way of friendship. That it really, really is possible to pick up the phone and have it just a comfortable as the days when you ran over to their dorm and declared a study break, or celebrated off-campus living with a fine drink, or stayed up ridiculously late working on papers at Tim Hortons, or going for walkies. And first years too will come to know this.

The transition will be made. God will scatter his people like seeds in the wind. I am one of those seeds and one day the wind will pick me. In the meantime I stay planted and see what will continue to grow.

Tired

I was sitting at a concert tonight trying to figure out why I was so, excessively tired and why my back was tensing up so much. Then I remembered that I had written 3 papers, 4 exams and done the last CITB service all in 8 days.

Oh, and my back, in case you read my blog...I promise to be nice to you for the rest of the week and lay and ice and heat and stretch and try and limit sitting. And I apologize for the past couple of weeks. I've been really mean to you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Obvi


More Fun Quizzes at QuizPox.com

Done and Not Done: Revised Edition

Buxtehude concert - done
Papers - not done (one left)
Exams - not done (one left)
Presenations - done
Classes - done
Getting another car - not done
Having a job - not done (but the application is going in)
Having another house - not done (but Nat will be looking hard for us today)
CITB - done
Voice recital - done
MS Walk - done
Me - done.

(I'm getting there. Two more days of pure survival and then I think about actually living)

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Tally

For the study group...

There were 2 on the examination itself, so I used 2 in my responses. Could have used more of them, but didn't want to get frivolous. Though, the second one was in caps. Yesss.

A Little Update

Ok, this is for almost everybody since I've been so busy to talk to anyone about anything.

I have one exam and one paper to write. They will both be done on Tuesday. Then I will be done the semester. That is exciting.

On the 30th I start a summer course in Philosophy - Philosophy, Film and Meaning. It sounds pretty cool. Lots of movie watching and lots of weeks of assignments.

I don't have a job as of yet, but I'm applying for the summer position with Re-Create. I have a strong feeling that is where I'm supposed to be.

My car is um, a death trap. The breaks are down to like 10%, the gas tank leaks if I put it over a quarter tank and the clutch is going. So I'm in the market for a Honda or Toyota, standard, 5000$ or less.

My landlords have graciously let me live here until part way through August. I don't think they understand how much stress, turmoil and death they saved me from by agreeing to do that. I really don't know what I would have done if I had to move now (aaah the stress i already have aaah) and then move again at the end of the summer. Now, I am going to be living with the lovely Natalie Armstrong. We're currently looking for a place to move into in August, possibly just us, possibly with a few of her former roommates, it all depends on the place and such.

The DSB (Dear Secret Boyfriend) still hasn't revealed himself. I'm still waiting and will continue to give him ways that he can oust himself from secrecy and become my real boyfriend.

I think that might be it. Maybe I'll give you a health run down soon too.

Peace.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Not the Life of Pi But the LIfe of Tea

I made tea before I left the house this morning. Peppermint tea. Yum. I tried to leave the house without the tea and had to go back in and get it. Then I put it on the roof of my car while I put my things in the car. As I was backing out the driveway I wondered what the strange rumbling noise was. It was my tea sliding along the roof of my car. So I stopped the car and got my tea off the roof. I arrived at the school with the thought in my head, "Don't forget the tea Stewart, don't forget the tea (very similar to don't take your guns to town Billy, don't take your guns to town)." I got out of my car and wandered into the school in search of a breakfast platter. While eating the breakfast platter I thought that tea might accompany it nicely. Then I remembered the tea that was sitting in my car. After finishing my breakfast I went out to my car and got the tea. I am now enjoying it in the cafeteria, in the sun, studying and writing. Its still hot. I like tea.

Vitamin D

Dear Outside,

I promise I'll come see you. Maybe Wednesday?

Affectionately yours,

Laura

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Tonight

Tonight will be my 12th Midnight (10:30) Breakfast. Or as someone might say, Midnight Breastfest. I am able to achieve this number by having gone to both the MBs during the year I was at Mohawk/working. So, being that I will still be a student at RUC next year I will be able to get that number up to 14! That my friends is a lot of Danishes and apple juice.

Reflections on MBs past:
  • I love bacon. In my first year I ate a lot of it at the MB in my first semester. I also took a lot home. Those of age will remember that the food plan used to limit dorms to one meat per week or the "Meat of the Week". Therefore my bacon quotient was quite low. So between my boyfriend Dan and a number of friends, we went back for enough seconds of bacon to keep me eating it for days!
  • Sausages or bacon - the debate! For a while there seemed to be some sort of alternating system - One semester bacon, the next breakfast sausages. Not a good system. Breakfast sausages are gross. Thankfully in the past year that system has been abolished and bacon has remained supreme. I pray that it stays that way.
  • The omelet. The year the school got Williams it tried to 'class up' itself a bit at the same time. That year at one of the MBs instead of the usual scrambled eggs there was a beautiful broccoli mushroom omelet. I personally loved it. But there are many Dutch boys whose Mothers don't do that sort of thing and therefore feel that vegetables have no place next to their bacon. The omelet has never returned.
  • The Danes are crying. The first few years of my MB attendance we had real Danishes - like the 4-5inch in diameter pastries with the fake fruit filling in the middle, yeah, that is the shiz. Now-a-days we get these strange narrow and then cut in half so it looks like there are more of them tiny tasteless pastries. Sadness. I long for the days of real Danishes and not whatever happened to be on sale at Bulk Frozen Breakfast Baking R Us.
  • Ew, don 't do that. There is always a food fight or 17. They are all dumb and aside from being a diversion from so many Christian touching games, the only other thing they accomplish is making more work for the people who are already going to be there late cleaning up. No good. Don't do it.
Bring on the bacon, bring on the noise, bring on the funk!

You Might Be A Farmer's Daughter If...

I went to bed last night in my pajamas that consisted of cow spotted flannel boxer shorts and a sweatshirt. In the middle of the night I woke up really cold - especially my feet. So in a sleepy stupor I reached to my dresser and pulled out the thickest pair of socks I could feel. This morning when I got up I had to laugh - the socks are also cow spotted with pink toes and bottoms, complete with little milk bottle shaped plastic for grip.

Deranged cow?

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Survival of the Fittest? Looks Like I Have to Work Out.

Remember the survival shot? Well, because of so much swelling and raised bump and red and lasting for a bit I don't count as having exactly survived. So I got knocked down one level for this week and then I have another go at surviving next week. Go team!

Johnny "the Hawk" Stewart



Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Battle

Laura walks up to the academic building that she has left a mere 8 hours and 2o minutes ago.

RUC: (in a sarcastic tone) Good morning Laura
Laura: (in a finger stuck up her nose tone) Good morning RUC
RUC: (in an antagonistic tone) Back for more, eh?
Laura: you bet your sweet bippy I am! You bring it on! Bring on two exams, and a CITB rehearsal, fifteen hours and forty minutes at the school doesn't bother me.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Man!

John has a mohawk (the haircut - he did not just acquire a person of first nations heritage). It looks great (or at least the view I saw via the webcam was great) and perhaps I'm really jealous.

Pictures (of John) to follow (when he sends them to me).

Voce**

So I forgot about my voice recital on that list a few posts ago. I'm singing one song some time after **12:15pm in the aud on Monday. You can stick your head in if you want.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Walk

The MS Walk is done. Thanks to the help of Dan Postma, Gayla Postma, Fred & Kathryn Vedder, Bruce and Bev Stewart, Herma Turner, Katherine Burns, and Jane Koopman $355 was raised on my end. As a team, The Pit Crew raised somewhere between $1000-$1500. The Hamilton walk itself raised somewhere over $228,000. That's pretty awesome.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Done and Not Done

Buxtehude concert - done
Papers - not done
Presenations - done
Classes - done
Getting another car - not done
Having a job - not done
Having another house - not done
CITB - not done
MS Walk - about to be done
Me - done.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Milestone/Cheating Death

Yesterday's allergy shots (honey bee and wasp) were the equivalent of a sting. I am still alive. I am swollen, but I am alive. This is a good thing. It took almost a year, but it has happened. So from here we do some maintenance and make sure I keep avoiding death. Yeah!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

I think so. Yes.

Everyone should sing with a baroque orchestra before they die. Everyone.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

I'm not going to lie,

9.5 hours straight in a study room on Easter Monday is gross. I think I'm going to drop out of school and move to Spain. Bye.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Sometimes...

...its Mewl's birthday and I love her.

MS Walk

I'm doing the MS Walk again this year with my good friends from the Pita Pit.

You should probably sponsor me so we can help make MS not suck so overtly.

Sponsoring online can/will happen here. Or you can flag me down in person. Either or.

Do it. I am!

Friday, April 06, 2007

DSB

DSB,

If you have your own place and you wanted to hide candy all over it some time this weekend and then call me up and have me hunt for the candy I'd be ok with that.

Sometimes

I think I need an underwater hatch.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Happy Birthday to the Notorious B.E.V

Today is my Mom's birthday. Not even an April Fool's joke - just look at past April firsts and you'll see...

This is a picture of my Mom.


I chose this picture because I think it shows how she is one of the trees that I as an apple do not fall far from. We're both a little zany.

My Mom is great. She is an artist. She is a respectable artist - I think that because she is always growing as an artist. Some would find their skill and only work on that. But my Mom sees where her weaknesses and takes them on head first. Its really inspiring.

My Mom can also cook like a fox. Anyone who was at my 25th can attest to that. So it is safe to say that she has contributed greatly to my love of food. She has taught me almost everything I know about the preparation of it and given both my brother and I the confidence in the kitchen to succeed and experiment.

So let us raise our glasses (or our bottles of Sambuca - cause thats what she would do) and toast my Mom. To Mom! You're a stand up babe and I love you to bits!