A Few Mostly-Disheartening Facts About My Weekend (and the bipolarity that has been haunting me all day).

1. I REALLYREALLYREALLY want to go to Chicago on Monday with some fabulous friends of mine to meet John Green. This is like one of those massive not-going-to-come-again-anytime-soon opportunities.
2. I have to review sixteen freshman English papers and turn them into the professor I'm a TA for on or before Monday.  As of right this minute, I have three of them half-done.  It's surprisingly terrifying, writing on other people's non-honors essays in an official capacity, even in orchid colored pencil.
3. I probably won't have time to work on them tomorrow, because of the AutumnFest at church.  (I'm dressing up as a mime.  My costume is rather last-minute-makeshift, but it's going to be über, I hope.)
4. I probably won't have time to work on them on Sunday, because I have church, and Economist homework about democracy in the Middle East, and Dwell.
5. I have no money.  I spent my last 58¢ on a donut at Wal-Mart on Wednesday.
6. (Other complications exist which pertain to us as a group whole, like not having a car so we can drive to Michigan City to catch a train to Chicago.)
7. I D'KNOW IF I CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN.  *many headdesks of sadness and frustration*
8. I am going to be super diligent and sage about reviewing these ejkadhfkhagfjdhgka papers.  
9. Prayer is good.  I'll try that, too.

I'm going to a wedding for two awesome church folks this evening.  It'll be pretty sweet.  I bought them a crème brûlée torch as a wedding present, about which I'm sort of excited.  How often do you have the opportunity to buy someone a crème brûlée torch?  They also had a mortar and pestle on their gift registry, but someone had already purchased that.  Rare that you get the chance to buy someone one of those, either.
I LOVE WEDDINGS.  Aaah!

This song needs to be in a movie. 

Break out the party horns! Kiersten finally got around to writing something!

All right.  I have been very remiss in blogging—on writing, journaling, vlogging, talking to people, period.  Mostly.  So I am here to remedy a little of that.  Hopefully in a relatively succinct and pithy fashion.

1. Ignition!  I want to blog about this eventually.  i just can't write a good post about this.  I'm sorry.
In a nutshell, lacking spit and polish and articulacy:
Friday night/most of Saturday = general feelings of I've-been-here-I've-done-this-what-am-I-going-to-get-out-of-this-but-emotional-high?  Kind of depressing.  Great conference, but I felt kind of on the outside, like I juts didn't have any really good reason to be there.
Saturday night = really good message.  God also kind of pointed out my "daddy issue" with Him.  I cried a little bit.  My hands did this weird shaky thing.  Chrissy and Emily and a couple of other blurry faces came and prayed for me, and I love them lots and lots and lots.  I might have made friends with Erica, which is pretty cool.  She's sweet.  And I love God.  A lot. And He's letting me know that He;s not passive about me.  He does care when I miss spending time with Him.  He really, really does.  And He cares whether I care.  Simple, right?  I feel like I should feel stupid for not realizing that before, but it was always one of those things that went in one ear and out the other, you know?  I never really felt like God loved me so much that he wanted to spend time with me every day.  I think I might have had a breakthrough there. *insert interjection for emphasis here* I hope so.  And having people pray for me was incredible—because, not by any fault of anyone else's, sometimes I forget that my friends love me too.  
I think spending my weekend on a youth retreat was worth it.

2. School.  Mostly, I like college.  I spend an astronomically smaller percentage of my time now being miserable than I did in high school.  But the last month has been insane.  It's spring break this week; I'm gad to have a breather.  I feel like such a wimp, taking 12 credit hours (which is full-time, but less than the average for an honors student.)  (I am so sick of hearing "honors" anything.)  and still feeling behind all the time.  But I am hanging on.  I really need to come up with a topic for my minimum-ten-page humanities paper about an aspect of life in a major urban city.  And I need to take this gargantuan International relations exa—worth 20% of my grade— which my professor has postponed for three weeks already and which will be five weeks late if we finally take it after spring break.  (Tuesday, March 8th—I get to take three exams on my nineteenth birthday.  Yahoo.)  I've  never wanted to be done with any exam so much.  I also need to study my part as Alice the Intern for a "team simulation" so I can…do…something that is a necessary part of my grade.  My, my.

3. I want a vintage chocolate pot.  I've always thought they were cool, and today I got to hold one in an antique market and it was GORGEOUS.  Unfortunately, the cheapest one I've seen thus far—doing a little hunting on the Internet—is about $95, and the most expensive was upwards of $4000 (though that one, admittedly, was somewhere around five hundred years old.  I didn't even know they had chocolate pots back then).  So—we shall see.  I want one.  A lot.  But I certainly cannot afford one myself, unemployed collegiate that I am.

4. Spring break…what am I ever going to do with myself for a whole week with no school?  WRITE. Hang out with some of my amazing friends, both the Kalamazoo residents and those visiting from elsewhere.  Try to get together enough of a D&D campaign to run an opening adventure.  Get tight with God, because I want so much to be in love with Him and I don't think I am.

So…life.  Crazy.  Right now i need some sleep.  Hopefully we (I'm not sure precisely who comprises that 'we" yet) making a trip to the Kalamazoo Art Institute after church tomorrow—should be fun!  Hopefully I'll also make it to C&C (remonikered Dwell) tomorrow night!  (For the first time in a month, dang.)  Sometimes I want my life to slow down and sometimes I want it to throw me for an insane loop, and right now I can't even tell the difference.  I just need to get some sleep.  I think.  I sort of want to cry for no reason, because crying, even when I'm not really upset, always seems to clear my head.  An oddity of Kiersten or a normalcy of my species?

Guten nacht.

The American Dream…version Two-Point-Kiersten.

Something to add to the Ultimate Accomplishments of Awesome Life Bucket List:

I am going to build a tower.  And it's going to be freaking amazing.

Dad and I schemed it all out.  Obsidian, with some metalwork on the outside and a fiberglass core (which Dad says will be on the cheaper side, and more stable & versatile than plain stone) with a dungeon, roof access, a spiral staircase, a dumbwaiter (in case I can't find the heart to put in an elevator, hahaha), an entire floor devoted to a library (complete with one of those sliding ladder-thingies), and a chandelier which runs continuously through every floor.  And a wrought-iron fence in some really sweet design, and a great scenic view.  And maybe a couple of spires.

WOULD THIS NOT BE AMONG THE MOST  ÜBER FANTASTIC THINGS EVER? (In every sense of the word?)

So now—to add to one of the items on my 2011 Accomplishments of Awesome list—I have to learn to draw well so I can design all of this for a good architect someday.
And finish at least one novel (referred, item #1 on the 2011 UAoAL), and maybe live off ramen for a while (this is not on the UAoAL) once I get an $80,000-salaried editing job after college, so I can make enough money to do this.  (Imagine what kind of mortgage I'd have to take out if I actually wanted to furnish the place, too. *sarcasm*)
And marry somebody whose American dream is not a white picket fence (e.g., nerdfighter).

(Note & explanation of title:  in my honors humanities class today, we discussed the American dream, and when I was telling him about it on the way home tonight, Dad posed the question of "What if…" to me—what would my "American dream" be?  And this is what came out.  Apparently we're both a tad bit on the eccentric side?)

A few disparate oddities...

I am in Panera on Gull Road, waiting for the bus, so I can go to school and give a presentation for my final class of the semester.  I desperately wish I could sit down and take a two-hour exam instead of standing up and talking for fifteen minutes; however...no such luck.  I'm starting to stress out and thusly feel rather ill.  Something has gone wrong every time I've had to do one of these things, and this professor is really stringent.  I brought it up at C&C yesterday, though, and everyone prayed, quite fervently.  Aaron M. even threw in a bit of prophetic awesomeness.  and this super nice, very extroverted girl named Kimmee (only other one there my age, actually) hugged me about eight times and gave me her phone number with strict instructions to text her and tell her how it went.  It was amazing; Jesus rocks.  I've been praying like mad.

They had no asiago cheese bagels today—alas and alack.  And I had to wait eight minutes for my caramel latte, so my bagel got cold and didn't melt the butter.  I should have splurged on some cream cheese.  In other weirdness, I am almost positive I stood in line behind Sam Patrie and Lonnie Saunders about an hour and a half ago; however, since I have only met either of them in person twice, and it's been seven months since I saw Lonnie and three years since I saw Sam, I'm not positive.  I'll have to Facebook Sam and ask, because my curiosity is quite piqued.  (I'm not brave enough to stand up and walk the twenty-five feet to where they're sitting and ask who they are. Haha.  And...now they've just gotten up and left.  Ah well.  Yay for the handiness of social networking; otherwise I'd never know.)

On to more carefree things—such as (hopefully!) ice skating on Thursday when Hannah is back in Kalamazoo!  And the Frentheways are coming; the Frentheways are coming!  Yay!  Now that it's starting to sink that that school is [almost, five and a half hours from now] done, I'm starting to get all aflutter for Christmas.  I haven't even thought about the fact that it's in five days.  I rather need to think about shopping.  I also need to stock up on library books; I've only got ONE out right now (The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins; unfortunately it took too long to get really interesting, and now I won't get to finish it) and it's due back today, so I won't have any books to sustain the introverted part of my life over my three weeks' break.  I wonder if I can check out books from the KVCC library even though it's the end of the semester?

Aah, no more time to write now...

Kiersten's Not-Quite-Ultimate-Because-I-Think-I-Left-Something-Out-By-Mistake YouTube Accomplishments of Awesome List for Christmas Break 2010:

1. Marathon the Vlogbrothers videos
2. Watch the Charlie videos that I missed
3. Look up all the musicians that Hannah and Emily post on each others' Walls
4. Watch the rest of Alex Day's (appropriate) videos
5. Finish A Very Potter Sequel
6. Try to find out where my posted MovieMaker project disappeared to

I think Emily's a trendsetter.

Kiersten's Ultimate Accomplishments of Awesome List for 2011:

1. Finish (writing) at least one novel.
2. Witness to somebody.
3. Come up with a system to start memorizing Bible verses. 
4. Read the Bible regularly.
5. Befriend S_____ more successfully than I did in 2010.
6. Put music to some of my poetry.  
7.  Actually give birthday gifts to non-family people.   
8. Finish learning the basics of playing guitar. 
9. Read at least three more of C. S. Lewis' books. 
10. Learn to practice good time management at least 70% of the time, including bedtimes and homework  
11. Grow my hair back (out).   
12. Exercise regularly.
13. Finish Anna Karenina.
14. Acquire a sonic screwdriver.
15. Acquire a Hadhafang replica if I don't get one for Christmas (and if I can find one at a reasonable price).
16. Start being consistent about intercessory prayer.
17. Grow closer to my family.
18. [Possibly] investigate learning to play the violin.
19. Memorize my phone number.
20. Start overcoming my phone fears.
21. Figure out what I'm going to do if anyone I like asks me out (e.g., figure out where I stand on dating, for me personally, at this point in my life).
22. Learn how to ride a bike.
23. Acquire a bamboo plant.
24. Come up with meaningful things to blog about.
25. Sleep.
26. Reread The Lord of the Rings (again) in a month or less.
27. Reread the Silmarillion.
28. Have consistent pen pals (e.g., be consistent about writing letters back to people who've written letters to me).
29. Draw (not just doodling) more than once or twice a month.
30. Mange to read something by Charles Dickens.
31. Finish Romeo and Juliet.
32. Read Hamlet and Macbeth.
33. Watch Disney's Snow White.
34. Get to know some of the people at C & C.
35. Get in the habit of tithing (at least, once I have any income).
36. Read The Phantom Tollbooth.
37. Do something genuinely crazy (but not illegal, utterly pointless, or life-threatening).
38. Take my driver's test, pass it, and get my license.
39. Buy shoes that fit.
40. Be bold.
41. Buy new flavors of tea.
42. Name my laptop.
43. Name the dancing monkey on my laptop.
44. Name my teapot.
45. Acquire some pragmatism to balance out my excessive idealism.
46. Practice writing concisely so I can do so when necessary.
47. Overcome my fear of overhead showers.
48. Get my Technician and Demolitionist awards on Star Wars Battlefront II.
49. Write out a thorough and intelligent explanation of why I dislike Twilight.
50. Consider what I'm going to do after graduating KVCC.
51. Fast something (besides books, because I've already done that, and food, because that's probably impossible for a college student) for a month.
52. See Glowfriends in concert, if possible.
53. Attend at least one epically awesome rock concert with friends.
54. Get drunk in the Holy Spirit more than once.
55. Learn six new long words and use them in regular conversation.
56. Brush up on my French.
57. Develop an appreciation for one genre of music I currently dislike.
58. Organize my room and keep it at least relatively clean.
59. Write about the random stuff I research on a whim.
60. Read The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien.
61. Develop an appreciation for more spicy food.
62. Do laundry more regularly.
63. Finish reading A Room With a View.
64. Spread the word "uber" beyond my church family.
65. Acquire at least three more awesome hats.
66. Write letters to at least eight people telling them what I appreciate about them.
67. Refine my Jamaican accent.
68. Speak in a foreign accent for at least one full day every month.
69. Help spread accomplishment in the important life skill of Giving Good Hugs.
70. Find someone to have deep and pointless theoretical conversations with.
71. Acquire at least two sundresses.
72. Create and DM (run) one Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
73. Learn to juggle.

Star-crossed freight trains, E. coli, hummingbirds, and a lame duck who may have stepped on a land mine.

How not to use figurative language:

• "John and Mary had never met.  They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met."
• "The politician was gone but unnoticed, the the period after the 'Dr.' on a Dr Pepper can."
• "The shot rang out, as shots are wont to do."
• "Long separated by cruel fate, the two star-crossed lovers raced across the field, like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at a speed of 55 mph and the other having left Topeka at 4:19 p.m. traveling at a speed of 35 mph."
• "He was as tall as a six-foot three-inch tree."
• "He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like  a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high school about the danger of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it."
• "His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling-Free."
• "McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup."
• "The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil.  Unlike Phil, however, this plan might actually work."
• "The little boat drifted gently across the pond, just the way a bowling ball wouldn't."
• "It was very confusing, just like when you're out of state and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 instead of 7:30."
• "It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing children around with power tools."
• "The young fighter looked very hungry, the sort of look you get after not eating for a while."
• "He was as lame as a duck.  And not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something."
• "He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River."
• "He was deeply in love.  Whenever she spoke, he fancied that he could hear bells, just like a garbage truck backing up."
• "He grew on her like he was a colony of E. coli and she was room-temperature Canadian beef."

...This is what we spent the majority of my English class studying this afternoon.  Real creative ridiculosity from real college students.  Don't try this at home, kids.

Also, the fire alarm went off today.  Not the most fun of adventures.  I also witnessed the magic of an erasable pen, which was a fun adventure.

I survived making lots of scary phone calls over the weekend!

official tally:  

two phone calls to my aunt Lise, so I could interview her about her career.

three phone calls to Terry, group mate #1. 

four phone calls to Jairen, group mate #3.

one phone call to the Richland Community Library, who had no ideas for potential interviewees.

I think my fear of bad grades is more influential than my fear of talking to people on the phone.  Combining both equals a lot of stress.  But it all went well  (err, mostly)!

That research project that I had to start over four days before the due date? I got my grade last night—100%!!  Simultaneously ecstatic and slightly disappointed.  By no means was that project my best work, so I'm actually slightly disappointed I didn't get a lower grade.  But I didn't get a terrible grade, so I'm also rather elated!  He put lots of nice comments on my paper, as well as pointed out some thought-provoking points he didn't agree with.  Interestingness.  YAY!

Amanda Lindauer gave me Jesus' Culture's new CD yesterday.  It's pretty darn awesome.  I hope my week is as awesome as this album.

I realized this morning that i forgot to put any of The Weepies' albums on my Christmas list.  Darn.  I wonder how I missed them when I was going over my List of Music I'd Really Like To Own Sometime Soon to make my Christmas wishlist.  Ach.  (This is what I can use my New Day Today Podcast iTunes gift card on!)

Alrighty.  Well, I must depart.  School calls.  Two weeks left! [ Plus an extra Monday.  :P ]

Today had a number of highlights, which I am going to just sort of ramble through.

1. Seeing Hannah Duke at church!  Yay!  She's been in the (seemingly) faraway land of Ann Arbor for two-plus months and I missed her the last time visited (because of a very badly behaved paper I was trying to write last-minute).  But I saw her this morning!  And she was happy and huggable and I gave her some Madagascar vanilla rooibos tea.  (Which I hope she enjoys.)

2. (Thanks to the awesome Oman family who gave me a ride and a ticket) I made it up to Ferris to see the closing show of Hairspray, in which Lindsay and Jordan Cyr were fantastic.  (Jordan as Edna Turnblad was absolutely hysterical.)  And sitting with the entire Cyr clan (minus Dan) and the entire Tafil clan and the majority of the Lindauer clan...was an experience.  It was so great.  We all laughed so hard (to the extent that we were getting some very odd looks, and even laughs, from fellow audience members).  At one point everyone was quiet while the stagehands were changing sets—it was right after Jordan danced in a bright pink dress—and Noah (who I believe is 8 or so) turned around and whispered, "That was REALLY WEIRD."  And most of the audience cracked up.  It was definitely an experience.  Even if it was really last-minute, I am glad I decided to go!

3.  I'd had a headache all day (and no ibuprofen), and God healed it at C&C.  And I met this guy whose youth group I'd visited once about 15 months ago, and he recognized me even though I was wearing contacts, my hair was almost a foot shorter, and a different color, and he'd never seen me with a hat on before.  I thought that was impressive.  And Chloe called me "YOU SPARKLING CHILD OF THE LORD!" which was just pretty epic.

So—that's pretty much it for today, because it's after eleven and I'm tired and hyper and have some humanities homework to finish up before I go to bed.  So this post will be very unedited and I'll probably read it back tomorrow and moan over its lack of spit and polish.  However...goodnight.

Paper faces on parade!

Today...(or, rather yesterday, since I probably won't get this post up before midnight) we finally enacted the "impromptu" (Improv Kalamazoo...shh) 

Masquerade For the Modern Man and Woman.

Destination:  Westnedge Panera Bread & the Crossroads Mall.  

Mission:  Be nonchalantly amazing.  

Garb of choice:  Formal floor-length gowns & masquerade masks.  (I also nabbed a fringy scarf-shawl accessory and some flipping sweet black ruffled elbow-length gloves {which i have been dying to own for literally years.  This was the perfect excuse}.  Thank you thrift stores!)  I wanted to homemake my mask, which EVERYONE else did, but I didn't have time.  However, I'm quite happy with the one I found.  Feathers abounded.

Attendees:  6 lovely ladies (unfortunately a lot of people wound up unable to come.  It was likely too short notice for the busy collegiates and their jobs.  Mmph).  And...our undercover camerapeople were in a car accident (!) en route, which we didn't discover until afterwards.  (From firsthand Facebook reports, everyone seems mostly fine.)  Also, two of Emily's HPA friends showed up last-minute, dressed, respectively, 1.in a (homemade! Amazing!) Elizabeth Swann style gown, and 2. as The Phantom of the Opera.  'Twas veritably pretty cool, but I didn't get the chance to actually talk to them.

Stop numero uno:  Panera Bread.  

This was all right.  We didn't get too much attention here.  (Unfortunately, we picked the same weekend to do this as Portage Northern's homecoming, so everyone who did stop us was either like, "Dance tonight?  *wink, wink*" or "Oh, you're the homecoming court for Portage Northern!"  We responded with as much proper impromptuness as possible— "No, sorry.  we're just out looking for our princes.  Getting a bite to eat before going to the ball."  (This garnered both some skeptical/wary glances and some laughs and good luck wishes.)  A few employees did tell us we looked lovely, and two little girls passing by the window on the way in just pressed up against it and gaped in awe.  (So adorable.)  However, after our Unofficial Board Meeting In Which we Attempted To Brainstorm For Future Improv Plans But Instead Succeeded Mainly In Merely Reiterating Ideas Which Had Already Been Posted On Our Facebook Site, we decided to relocate to Crossroads Mall.

Stop number two: 

...was much more entertaining.  We split up into three groups and wandered, penniless princesses all, through the verse.  We got a lot more strange looks (you could literally see people whispering, "what the heck?") and queries about our dance of origin. By this time we had managed to relate our story with less stuttering and "Isn't-it-obvious-I'm-making-this-up-on-the-spot?" deer-in-the-headlights look, and it was actually quite fun.  Beth told one lady, "Oh, we're on a mission from King Robert to seek out our true loves! (Slow going.)"  She thought we were hilarious.  The clerk in a CD store we stopped in was even more nonchalant than we were.  (It was the same dude who sold me and Mom the new Daughtry album and the new Skilelt album last year!  Random observation.)  He was just like, "Oh, by the way, we have a whole 'nother box of stuff on sale in the back if you want to look."

We found this awesome store (the name of which I don't remember, sadly, but i'd know it if I saw it) that sold katanas and potted bamboo plants and kimonos and glass dragon statuettes and Oriental tea sets and other much awesomeness that I will go back to investigate if I ever make it back to that mall with money in hand (I had approximately 36¢ on me, all in pennies).  The katanas are unfortunately quite expensive, but who wouldn't want a bamboo plant??  Especially a curlicued one?  In a really awesome vase?  For under $10?  

I had safety-pinned part of the slit in the back of my dress, and it came apart in jcPenney's.  A slighty-older-lady employee ran us down to tell me (with great worry and furtiveness) that I would "be in a lot of hurt in a few minutes" if I didn't fix it.  Haha.  It was kind of embarrassing.  Especially when Beth whispered (loudly), "Quick!  Let's all gather round Kiersten while Cassie fixes it so nobody sees."  Haha...

But—overall—the night was quite a fabulous time, and will definitely have to go in our "Official Big Book" of stuff to do (again, later, when everyone isn't at homecoming!).  If I get a copy of any pictures, I will (try to) add them to this post.

I was originally going to stock up on my sadly neglected French and pretend not to know how to speak English, but i thought that might be going a little overboard, especially as our night was already a little frazzled due to our shrunken group of people and some lack of preorganization. Je ne le regrette pas.

Meditation on a fictional dystopia, and Cruella de Vil in punk.

Writing today.  I looked at a random panel in a Marvel graphic novel yesterday and it has inspired thirteen pages (thus far) of manic dystopia and forbidden love.  —Haha.—  My two main protagonists are either newlyweds or courting, in a society outlawing male/female interpersonal relationships.  So far it's making for some interesting dynamics.  The family in power doesn't allow the solidification of family units, but operates under forced breeding to control genetics and eliminate different ethnicities.  My dad had some good thoughts to add to my mental stew.  I'm a very detail-oriented person, and am not always that good at looking at the big picture.  Worldbuilding isn't usually my strength in writing, except where specific aspects of a culture directly influence my character interactions.  It's nice to get some wider thoughts.  (So if anyone else wants to proffer ideas—go for it, please!:)  I love it when my brain spins these elaborate premises out of one tiny, completely unrelated thing.  Unfortunately it doesn't happen as often as would be helpful.

I bought Children 18:3's new album yesterday.  (Christian punk band.  They are insane in the most awesome way conceivable.)  Christian, homeschooled siblings who write crazy fast songs.  I love that they write on a wide variety of themes—from Biblical topics (and not always the "obvious" ones, either), to the value of performance vs.the unconditional love of family, to budding boy/girl relationships, to the danger of stereotyping others, to suicide, to uncertainty about the future, to (I think) abortion, to—and this is my favorite—Cruella de Vil.  They just wrote this random song about Cruella de Vil! <—[YouTube link, there.]  One of the lines refers to "the smell of fear and two-toned hair."  How do you not love that?!  Honestly, I thought they were obnoxious when I first heard their debut album about two years ago (and the lead singer looks freaky scary on the jacket cover), but they were so unusual they intrigued me to the point where I listened to them anyway; and now I've actually come to really love their music, and respect them a lot as artists.  I would pay in a heartbeat to see them in concert.

Can You Ear Me Now?

First off, I apologize for the pun.  Normally i hate puns, but it's hard to resist using one when I come up with it myself.

I'm entertaining the unfortunate possibility that I may have an ear infection.  My left ear is slightly swollen, has ached since yesterday afternoon, and really hurts when touched or lightly pulled.  It kept me awake until almost four in the morning last night (unfortunately, not the type of insomnia that cures writer's block, and it also sucks because I've been yawning a lot, which just makes my ear hurt more).  I also seem to have gone temporarily and partially deaf in that ear.  I looked up "ear infection" on Wikipedia and have come to the conclusion that it's probably otitis externa (inflammation of the outer ear). (Middle-ear infections are what little kids usually get, and are usually preceded by a cold or caused by allergies.)  The article said it's an inflammation of the skin (hence why it hurts to the touch), usually comes on rapidly and worsens rapidly (true in my case), and the description matches the symptoms I've been having.  It said it's often brought on by people trying to clean out their own ears (which I do, a lot.) (Sorry if this is TMI.).  It sucks.  So I'm just taking ibuprofen and praying.  Ick.

In other (more cheery) news, however, I go to Beechpoint this weekend for a youth retreat!  Yay!  Unfortunately, this will probably be my last official youth-group event.  Sad.  Although even that has its upside, in that I'll get to start going to the College & Career life group once I get my driver's license (which has to be in the next two and a half weeks).  Beechpoint retreat = lots of singing, pizza, games (HUMAN FOOSBALL for the win!), and über-awesome God-time.  I'm excited!  'Tis going to be fantabulous.

Helping my youngest brother Dave make French toast for lunch.  I'm trying to show him how to whisk eggs and he's upset because he got eggshells in the batter.  He's so adorable.  :)  And his cooking is actually quite toothsome.

Anyhow, I must now depart.  Have to leave in 41 minutes and haven't actually packed yet...oops.   I probably won't get another chance to write until Monday, since I will be gone through Saturday night and the zombie I will be on Sunday probably won't have the necessary brain function to do so.