Thursday, January 31, 2008

the interns are back, the interns are back!

yay!! all the DCE interns from this year are back!

for those of you who don't know what the heck i'm talking about, the DCE (Director of Christian Education) program sends out interns each year to work at a church throughout the world. then, mid-intern, around this time every year, the interns come back to campus & process their time at a church, hang out w/ the other DCE students, & talk about positives & negatives in within their ministry.

my friends ellie & ken (newlyweds!) were sent on his internship to new zealand, so they're back for a week & a half & it's SO exciting to see them since it's almost been a year! there are a bunch of others back from their internships as well & it's awesome to see them all again!! my weekend is not only filled w/ our new starbucks opening at the spectrum, but friends coming back to visit & the superbowl! quite the weekend.

so. . . i'm watching "ghostbusters" & i never realized how ancient the graphics are!! i mean, when i was growing up, this was the coolest new invention of graphics in movies. now, since everything's evolved so much, it's totally hilarious to watching all this "cool stuff". haha!

other highlights & lowlights of the week. . . first for the highlights:

1. alumni Shout tonight!

2. homecoming's tomorrow night (no, i'm not in high school). but, instead of going, a bunch of us are dressing up & going out for cocktails. yay! can't wait

3. new starbucks store at the spectrum (i work saturday night if you want to stop by!)

4. i get paid tomorrow!

5. it's my last day at the bookstore on saturday (YES!)

6. Super bowl Party!

7. Donut Star at 2:30am w/ Jesse & Kelly (Heck, yes!)


Lowlights:

1. stress gives people the weird physical ailments. . . acne, diarrhea, weight gain (you know who you are) weird!

2. the extended pain of rejection, even though i have no desire whatsoever to be w/ this person!

3. spiritual apathy


please pray for the above! blessings

<><

Sunday, January 27, 2008

the greatest week EVER!

i would just like to say that i am SO excited about this upcoming week!!! ya' know why? well, my friends. . . i will tell you! here's a list! ;)

1. my friends ken & ellie are coming to visit from new zealand & i haven't seen them since may!

2. it's the start of a new month

3. i only have to work on monday morning, wed. night (for a 2 hr. meeting) & maybe saturday afternoon/evening!

4. i get to sleep in! (excluding monday, of course)

5. fancy dinner w/ friends on friday night instead of lame homecoming lameness

yay! i'm so excited! but, there are the downfalls of class & homework. oh well, i only have about 60 school days until graduation! ah!

on a different note. . .

i had lunch w/ a friend of mine today & i discovered that it really gives me joy to bug other people. i mean, people that i don't really care too much for. anyways, i had this huge crush on this guy sophomore year of college for a semester or so until this other guy came along. anyways, since i no longer crushed on the former, i thought it was fun to push his buttons a bit. he was so easy, even though he had full confidence that he had control of his emotions & reactions all the while. well, i feel a little bad now b/c i really bugged him.

nothing else, i guess. blessings on your day!

<><

passion. . . take 2

saturday's passion was awesome. we had three different sessions throughout the day & worshiped again with chris tomlin, crowder, & matt redman. the worship was incredible, but i felt like the messages were just lacking. the speakers did a great job at empowering the university students that were there, but i felt a lot like my faith wasn't there because i wasn't feeling it, or because i had never had a "Jesus encounter". at first, this "encounter" sounded extremely cool, but now it discourages me & almost makes me question my faith. not very encouraging.

however, it was a great weekend! i had a great time being spiritually uplifted by the songs, fellowship, & the overall empowering message of helping others. i still love crowder! he's seriously my favorite performer & i loved seeing him again! overall, i had a great time!

OH! okay, so i totally ran into someone i went to high school with 7 years ago! i was walking around the convference on friday during registration & i recognized this guy, but i had absolutely NO idea where i knew him from. seriously, i spent 2 hours trying to figure it out. finally, after worship on friday night, i saw him again & i stopped him to see how i knew him. turns out, i didn't actually know him, but i had recognized him from high school. i guess i just recognized his face from walking the halls or something. well, he graduated three years before me & now he's working as a worship leader in palm springs. crazy, huh?! i was extremely impressed with myself that i had recognized a face after 7 years! great story, eh?

<><

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Passion. . . take 1

i went to the first part of the Passion conference last night. for all of you who don't know what Passion is, it's a huge worship experience just for college-aged people. all these people come together in the LA area & worship. david crowder played last night & he was incredible! chris tomlin also lead worship & everything was so amazing!

loui giglio had a great talk last night (he's the head passion-guy). he talked about having a "Jesus encounter". originally, i thought this idea was for those who either were new in their faith or didn't have faith yet. however, i felt like he based most of his message on the christians who were apathetic in their faith, those who've always known what it meant to be a follower of God, like me.

i want a Jesus encounter!!! i feel like i've been "forcing faith" lately & that the genuineness of Jesus overflowing out of me has drained. i want to be genuinely passionate about my faith again & passionate about overflowing with Jesus to others. but, the hard part is i don't know how to have a Jesus encounter! what does this mean? how do i have one? it's definitely NOT up to me, but i want to be so in love, passionately devoted, & blatantly obvious about who my Savior is. ya' know? i don't want to be apathetic about reading my Bible, i want to adore spending time with God.

i think loui definitely got me thinking about my spirituality & how i've been leading my life. pray that Jesus encounters with me this weekend in such an amazing way that i can't help but to
glow with the glory of God.

<><

p.s. i have to tell you about this guy i ran into from high school. . . weird!

Friday, January 25, 2008

this is what it feels like to be me. . .

lately, i've been feeling like i have no friends. now, i know i have friends, but not very close ones. ya' know?
i used to have two or three friends who i was really close with. now that i'm almost done with college, i feel like my only close friends are kelly (my roommate) and my mom. but, i can't decide if this is good or bad.
good: i'll be leaving & having less close friends means the less heartache & goodbye-grief i have to deal with.
bad: i need to talk to someone & there are only a limited number of people i trust.

i've also been feeling like the odd duck out. for example:

you know when you accidentally walk in on a group talking & obviously having a great conversation or people hanging out & having a good time & you weren't invited? they're reaction is "oh, well of course you can join in" while thinking in their minds "why is she here? we were having such a good time without her". this is EXACTLY how i've been feeling lately. maybe it's my own twisted sinful thinking, but it still feels like i'm unwelcome a lot of the time.

i always thought that being in college would mean ridding myself of high school drama-ness.

i'm wrong. i still feel left out (most of the time). i still have bad self esteem sometimes. i still worry about how i look & dumb things that come out of my mouth. now, the only difference is that i'm older & i know how to react when i say or do something embarrassing.

interesting, huh?

well, that's what it's like to be me.

<><

Sunday, January 20, 2008

oprah

people keep stopping me for being on oprah. apparently, there was another airing of my episode. it's still so weird to be stopped at school or at the mall. crazy! i feel kinda like a celebrity.

can't help but love it!

the dangers of driving at night

i'm home again for the weekend. it feels good to be home. free laundry, free food, good company. . . you can't go wrong.

so, i decided to drive out here a few days ago for the long weekend (classes were canceled at the last minute b/c CUI decided to be politically correct for a change & honor MLK Day). i was originally going to drive out super early saturday morning, but as i was packing up my car at 8pm on friday night, i decided to forgo said plan & leave that night instead. BAD IDEA! we've already discussed the perils of my near-death accidents and/or bad decisions. this was is definitely on the list.

it started out great. i drove through riverside and hemet just fine, but once 11pm hit, i just couldn't seem to focus. i'm pretty sure i dozed off for a few seconds at the wheel. i ended up stopping about half a dozen times to wake myself up. i finally got home around 2:30am (AZ time) & went straight to bed.

lesson learned: kelsey should NOT my no means drive at night without adult supervision!!!

this week is my interview for internship! i'm so excited to finally have my interview, but i'm a bit nervous about being grilled on church doctrine & verbally expressing my ideal church or job description. i'll let ya'll know how it goes. prayers would be awesome, though!

here are the news briefs of the week:

i got my hair cut. just a trim, but it still feels weird when i run my fingers through.

vote for obama. he rocks!

jesse & bethany are ringing in their new engagement with a fun-filled (somewhat of an excuse to get together for a beer) party at bj's monday night. yay for engagement parties!

happy birthday, alyssa! my sister's another year older: 19! i feel so old.

i am really enjoying the new mac commercials. they still make me laugh.

school is great! it's my last semester & i really like my hebrews class. dr. mueller rocks my face off!

i hope san diego makes it to the super bowl.

weight watchers lasagna is super nasty. oh, and i've lost my first 10 lbs so far!

that's it.

<><

Monday, January 7, 2008

bored and interviews

i'm bored. it's not even a statement anymore, it's more of a being. boredness. . . just sitting here. . . doing nothing. . . BORED

that being said, i had a mock DCE interview tonight with my mentor, michelle. it went really well! i feel very confident about my interview in a few weeks. i just can't believe it's already time for my to start thinking about my internship and what kind of congregation and job description i want to have for my internship. crazy!

the rest of the week is pretty low-key. i'm working all week at the bookstore, including saturday (ugh!) and starbucks on sunday (ugh!) kelly's coming out tomorrow and we're hopefully going to hang out or do something fun.

<><

Friday, January 4, 2008

nothing new, really

nothing new's been going on. i'm back in CA and working at the bookstore on campus and at starbucks. i'm really excited because my store is opening up soon and i'll be there in a few weeks! it's all very cool.

school starts a week from monday. i can't believe it's already my last semester ever of college. sad :(

that's it. . . i'm bored sometimes living by myself. but it's been a good thing for me to experience.

okay, blessings on your day!

<><

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

back in the OC

well, i'm back at school. i started training at starbucks yesterday and i really like it so far. it's good to be back, but i'm going to be bored out of my mind for the next two weeks. ick!

<><