well crap. it's graduation.

i turned in my senior thesis today, after blood, sweat, and tears. lots o' tears. man, what a ride... I can't really believe that it's done. I can't believe that my undergrad career is basically over.

tonight's my last shift in rosecrans. not gonna lie, i totally forgot about it, in my tunnel-vision thesis focus over the last few weeks (read: months). it's weird being back in this place and knowing that i'm not ever going to be coming back here again. unless i have a kid who decides to go to LMU and gets put in rosecrans. but... i'd've expected the school to tear down this old place before any child of mine would be old of enough to go here.

anyways. it's about all the crazy things i've been through during these past four years... they all started here. as much as i struggled with myself, with others, with who i was... how much i hated the fact that i couldn't escape, rosecrans will always feel like a sort of home. i can't really bring myself to explain the strange nostalgia i'm feeling right now, but i'm kinda thinking its somewhere along the lines of what people feel when they learn their parents are moving out of hte house they grew up in.

throughout all the pain and cryptic feelings and misjudgments and fear, rosecrans will always be ... home. i wouldn't be who i am today if it werent for all the shit that went down freshman year. so yeah, it's really strange being back here. but back here for the last time.

man i'm so sleep deprived i can't even string words together coherently. i feel like i'm drunk posting right nwo ^_^

they started building the stage for graduation today. drove passed it on the way into work and got real uncomfortable with the fact that i will be walking across that stage on saturday and be a college grad after that. i'm getting a little emotional now. haha this is killing me.

yeah, and not working for me. i meant to be able to get all deep and philosophical and shit, but i am WAY too tired for that right now.

 

off to hulu!

 

--Tiffany

my fellow interns/coworkers introduced me to this wondrous site called ETSY.COM which is like ebay but for professional hand craft goods makers.... sooo basically, you make something awesome, stick it on etsy and name your price. simple!! makes me extra excited for this coming school year when i'll have access to a lab where i CAN make jewelry... and possibly sell it!! anyways, thats cool and all, but this also caught my eye:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/78308146/rare-sea-glass-trio-of-cobalt-peridot?ref=cat1_gallery_37

the picture is awesome, but the description really caught my eye...

"This necklace is made from a lovely trio of 3 rare colors of Sea glass: Purple, Cobalt Blue and Citron Green.

The silver "figure eight" chain measures 18" The pieces of glass are about 1/2".

Purple is special because it is at least 100 years old. We know this because manganese was used in clear glass prior to 1915, but not after. Long term exposure to this glass would turn it purple. This piece is probably quite old because of its rich purple color, hence many years exposed to sun tumbling in the sea.

The much coveted cobalt is rare and was in production from the 1880's to 1950's. It was often used for medicinal jars or even for Vicks and Noxema when they were in glass jars.

Peridot was in peak production from 1950's to 1970's and was often used for soda bottles.

The glass hangs on a 16" sterling chain and the glass itself measures 5/8".

Sea Glass takes at least 40-60 years to form naturally tumbling in the ocean. Most glass found in the USA dates from the 1800's to the 1960's. Imagine the history of these lovely smooth pieces of glass found on the shores of NYC"

definitely did not know that about sea glass, and DEFINITELY have a piece of blue sea glass the size of my big toe and another piece of purple about half that size. AWESOME. its a little piece of history!

okay, done nerding out for the day ^_^

--Tifanie

GahhH why has it been nearly three months since I've been here last???? I'm quite obviously shirking my duties as voracious blogger extrodinaire *snort*. Anyways, holy shit it has been three months and WOW so much has happened!

Basically, regardless of my lack of blogging, I blame my boyfriend. Too bad for him but he is quite the diary/blog-keeping anti-person.

Anyways, sinc april, finished jay, kicked that class's ass, did decently in classes... Got an A in history where I thought getting a B+ would be a steal but I must have utterly destroyed the final, which is totally cool. Worked grad with the other orgs, went to disneyland with chelsea for the first and it was her first time since like 2000 (epically hilarious day, and soooo much fun), went to colorado to visit elise with robert, went to my brothers graduation from stanford grad school (uber congrats to him), went to the grove, the burbank ikea... Lots of LA wanderings in general! Definitely totally cool.

And ALSO I'm going to china at the end of the month! My dad's going to do business stuff and my mom kinda mentioned maybe I could go and... Well, one thing after another and the ball's rolling on me going to china with my parents! I'm so excited, considering its been ten years, and this time I'm going to be able to remember the trip and stuff. So my parents also let me get rosetta stone so I could learn mandarin and try to be badass in northern china! Yayyy haha

Also, I've got a norcal penpal in renee, and that's gonna continue when school starts and she goes off to singapore for internship or whatever. Oh wait, no, she's going after winter, but she'll be up in san fran so were penpaling/photosending stuff to each other every week. Totally fun! I do miss home a lot, so this is a ton of fun :)

This past weekend was the 4th, so happy birthday America! I went and saw transformers *cough*twice*cough*. It was just surprisingly good! I couldn't help myself... One of thos movies where everything explodes and it was just so much fun that I made robert go see it with me... Hehe by no means was it the best movie ever but I thought it had a good enough story that despite the semi-predictability and the weird angles and the even weirder, pretty terrible acting, I still really enjoyed watching it. Even the second time around haha. And it was kinda fun to see chicago in faux-explosions and watch michael bay's extras act like how people never would if such an event ever happened. Oh and if I ever really like the transformers series, its cause it gives me a catalyst to go listen to all my linkin park music :D and they also always have a goo goo dolls song. OH! Which reminds me... I'm seeing the ggds, michelle branch, and parachute at the end of summer!!!! Ahhh so pumped for that bit of epicness with which to wrap up an epic summer.

So that was saturday and sunday and for dinner, robert and I made steaks and veggies for an awesome dinner. And then on monday, we went up to his family's beach house to hang out with his family and then came back to LMU to watch fireworks on his townhouse-for-the-summer's roof, which was totally wicked :). There were fireworks from everywhich way and we could hearing the booming going off for at least a good hour. So hilarious and SO much fun.

All right, gotta wait for my render to finish (haha right, I forgot to mention I got an internship at a small studio in santa monica called threshold so I'm doing this as I wait for my computer to free up). Ttyl! Hopefully ill write a little sooner next time.

--Tifanie

errrr... the last time i was here? thanksgiving of last semester. WHOOPS. needless to say, ive almost completely relinquished my love for my online diary, but then, if i DID say that, i wouldnt be here. wow. two sentences and i feel better already! what a crazy two/three months its been!

lessee: the end of november was quite eventful. i stayed up til 5am the night of the 30th/morning of the 1st, with said boy i had been mooning over for like weeks and weeks or whatever, so the night ended well, and ive been spending every 1st with him ^_^. its nice, not questioning things anymore, and finally feeling like im in a relationship that doesNT include "fixing" something. though, admittedly, we both have our faults. but here, now, its more like light fun and... well, easy =). i guess im just lucky. a magis... who woulda thought? so thats the big news. maybe just a list of what else has been going on, because, well, to be perfectly honest, i dont have time for this! stupid jay-boards trying to take over my life.

so: december: finals was the week of the 13th to the 17th. went to dland on the 13th, had my theater final on the 15th, which i totally aced, btw, and pulled an all nighter to put my deviantart profile up for my figure drawing class and hung out with a getting-less-tipsy elise and a soon-to-be-transferring sketch. then, by 6 am on the 16th, i was on a plane to st. paul to visit emmy! (yes, in hte freezing cold. epic hilarious) there was literally a day where i got >excited< that it was going to be 18 degrees... yup, thats when you know you've hit cold hahaha. had a wonderful time with her; watched the st. paul downtown parade, went ice skating, saw 39 steps at the famous guthrie theater, had wonderful hot chocolate, celebrated the pagan solistice (jumped over a fire!!), read way too many books, and did my christmas shopping at the enormous mall of america (it's really just a big circle. with an amusement park in the middle.) came back to san jose (via denver and LA) on the 20th. celebrated xmas with the fam; one with the extended family, where i met my cousin's little two year old for hte first time. smart little kid that one. and one with just me, mom, dad, and bro. went to the pixar exhibit at the oakland museum, which was amazing!... and then celebrated the new year at parent's friends place to get an early start on ...

january! (and february now, i guess): drove back to LMU on the first for cuernavaca AB. it felt so long this time, probably because no one was anywhere near me. and i was trying so hard to get here early to get back to ... my boy ^_^. unpacked for a bit, showered, came to LMU and im pretty sure i spent a good 7 to 8 hours just hanging out with him after. it was really nice.... left REALLY late to get like three hours of sleep or something; came back to LMU at 9 to get packed up and going to cuernavaca, had an amazing, life-changing, view-altering, eye-opening trip that probably should and shouldnt get its own post (but overall probably wont becuase im way too busy, and somethings are basically sworn to internet secrecy...) came back on the 9th and started school way too early on the 10th. i'm currently taking history of the american west, the vocal experience, character animation, and intermediate storyboarding; storyboarding being my most rigorous class (and part of the reason i havent been on here for a while). since i got back its been a lot of nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic and i barely have fun (aka sleep), but DAMN when jay lets up for a week, i go bat-shit crazy with the fun i have.

so far this year (mind you, one week spent in cuernavaca out of a so-far 7):

met tyler hilton
went to disneyland four times
went to charity ball
done service three time a week
havent missed mass
went to the premiere of waiting for forever (cute movie, btw)
went to the premiere of i am number four (awesome movie, btw)
met diana agron, harry shum jr., and chord overstreet. and the guy who plays karofsky whose name i dont remember (okay, fair enough, that was at hte #4 premiere)

still... a pretty full year, and its only the second week of february. jay might try to bring me down with his basically-animated boards of ridiculousness, but i will not give in. i'll work my ass off and still have a life outside of animation... that's how its always been for me. anyways... i have nothing else to say. its nice to get this all out. i had pictures, but they didnt upload properly because LMU's internet connection is sucking itself, so... oh well. facebook'll have 'em.

i'm out!

--Tifanie

uh oh. i think it says something that im back this soon! but... i guess its good, kinda. maybe life is starting balance itself out again, which is a much welcome shift from chaos.

this weekend... has just been ridiculous. friday, went to get harry potter costume stuff with elise. and thus ended up spending like three hours at fox hills mall looking for the >perfect< sweater and skirt to wear on thursday for the premiere! it was basically hell. >.< haha oh! and i got my ears pierced again. got a set of nice dark red "rubies" from claire's to be my second earring studs, which is way awesome. i still can't believe i did it. ive let a ton of people know about it, but it was a kinda split second decision to get it done on friday and then bam, it was done. weirdest thing ever. haha we meant to go to the basketball game, but that didnt happen. so i headed back to my apartment after dropping her off to put our stuff away and i took a nap until 10. then i got her and we went to andrew's beta party at his house. let's just say its been a long, LONG time since i've been to a house party, but thankfully there were a few guys i knew htere (cuz it was a beta party), so i got to mess with a few of them. pulled out a red cup and drank water all night long. it was pretty funny. (somewhere, probably from watching girls all over andrew/vice versa, realized i was totally okay with not liking him/him not liking me... even if my *ahem* other thing didn't pan out) left around 12:30, dropped elise off and got back to my apartment at 1, watched some how to train your dragon and then went to sleep to wake up at 6:55 so i could go to BSC ... so upsetting that magis wasn't going, but they were on their spirituality retreat, so that kinda sucked going alone.

especially sucked because saturday was also sr. peg day of service, which meant that the gryphons were doing a thing at a school in like south LA, so i had to leave BSC early to get down to where we were... and where it should have taken like half an hour max, it took an hour and i was ready to rip something up. but it was fun to do service with the other gryphons and i love them all to death and beyond. came back, went to the sr. peg's statue dedication thing (such an awesome sculpture!) and then headed up to UCLA to hang out with tiffy, maddy and PHIL! (who was visiting for the weekend). very fun. we went to santa monica and had dinner at trastevere and then went back to westwood for some delicious diddy reise. met tiffy's hampster "piggy". ohmygod, cutest, tiniest thing ever, with like razor sharp teeny, definitely completely unable to penetrate any skin teeth. oh man, i wish i had been able to see him sleep, because itd kinda be the cutest thing ever. but yea. adorable, huge eyes, tiny body. kinda like he was supposed to be an anime chibi or something. haha. came back and did some animation work, but ugh, not enough. left around 3, when i started getting delirious (i guess that's a bad sign right) and promptly went to sleep when i got home.

woke up super early because i thought my friend had to be driven to a doctor's appointment this morning, not tomorrow morning, so i was up and running at 9:20 AM, which was ... basically the first time since the beginning of school. found out she didnt need the ride, so i went back inside, took a shower, and proceeded to play the guitar for two hours (learned enchanted by taylor swift! and theres a reason for that, but thats coming momentarily). watched the tail end of how to train your dragon and hten up and went to school to try to do make my model's eyelids actually look like... eyelids... eff. that effor failed kinda miserably, which was unfortunate, but it looks ... okay right now. at the very least passable. went to meeting, which was wierd, wierd, wierd as heck without megan (she was sick). went back to the lab for a little bit and then headed off to church.

and here's where i have to back up.

so.... ive been going to BSC with the magis men lately. or at least trying to make it a "lately" thing. and one week; i think it was the week that the belles went with magis, where i was the only non-belle lady and it was really uncomfortable and i ended up going with to BSC with this one (kinda cute, but i thought for a second was [would-be-unfortunately] gay) guy and it was cool and whatever. well, i did caught a ride with him again, last weekend, and we were with another magis guy and a freshman who was doing an article on the guy who ran the food pantry at BSC (in honor of magis's homeless awareness week, i think). and we got to talking about harry potter for half the trip there and basically the whole trip back. it was so nice to geek out with him about hp and i told him how i was going to whimsic alley with elise after i got back to school. so i got back to school, whimsic alley-ed it up and had a ball.

so, fastforward to tuesday, its the night all the orgs tried to get their members to come out for a reflection and hopefully to sleep outside to promote the event (omfg, coldest night of my life. and i dont get cold. it was kinda scary). and so i came out and he was there (found out he was the one who put together the majority/the whole event, which [after putting together baby breakfast/being in the middle of planning sr. peg's thanks for the giving] sounds like a logistical nightmare) and we got to chatting and i showed him the earrings that i got at whimsic alley and he told me about harry potter world in orlando and then i got his sleeping bag cuz he wasnt sleeping out that night.

so, on the tiff checklist of things a guy should be to be remotely eligible for interest? by that time, i'd figured out that i'd kinda covered hte physical (at the very least i thought he was cute, if a little short haha), but he was passionate about his cause, in a great service org (thus dedicated to social awareness and serving others), totally in love with the harry potter franchise (its kinda beautiful), and a rather fun guy to talk to at the very least. check, check, and check! it was a little confusing, cuz i still thought i liked andrew, but... i was thinkin about it and it was like .... andrew is the semi-innocent frat boy, with a decent number of qualities that, from the get-go i realized i didnt like, which, DUH, no matter how hot you are, if you dont meet my standards, why am i even thinking about it?? but this other guy ... i mean, i havent thought about it a lot, but, i have no qualms with right now. well one, but its not a deal breaker, like the ones that i found out about with andrew were.

anyways. somewhere between talking about harry potter world and getting his sleeping bag, i realized, ohmygod... do i actually kinda... like this guy? cuz i knew i thought he was cute, but... wow. WOW. and i think he kinda maybe likes me?! O_O wtf is going on. cue slight mental crisis. let's just say i went to sleep that night happy, but rather confused. especially because now i feel like im in the middle of two guys. WTF! haha

saw him momentarily on thursday; it seemed like he was genuinely happy to see me when i ran by on my way to the gym to check out their little "maze of homelessness". very cool stuff. so i told him to visit me at work (12-4) and he said he might. he never showed up. i was mildly bummed. but i did tell chelsea and she was talking about how she could see it working out and all this positive stuff, so i still was confused and so forth, esp. because of andrew. ugh boys, huh?

so i helped hte magis guys clean up on friday morning, slash tried to get a read on him, and came to the conclusion that maybe i was reading into it all. which sucked but... i was like, oh well, he'd still be a cool guy to befriend. beta party turned me off to frat boys almost completely. so i was like, okay, well, ive got my one thing left, and... im probably thinking way too much into it. i can't get my hopes up: hope for the best, plan for the worst. im totally okay with NO BOYS. kidna. but i was so scared all that time, especially with the idea that ... well, fear is motivating, but hope is paralyzing. which emotion was i feeling, and about which guy. WHY!? it was like a decision between the guy i knew would hurt me and the guy that i knew would help me. but the way im feeling... is the helper the one i want to get tangled with when i know he's such a great guy... do i want to completely mess him up the way ive been fucked over? ugh, oh doubts and confusions and lacks of self-confidence. BELIEVE! it was nutjobby. AND the magis guys went on their spirituality retreat this past weekend so i couldnt even hang out a little on the way to BSC or anything, but all that time, i was thinking about the boy and zoning out (partly from tiredness, but STILL).

i did some fb stalking after he friended me, found out he was catholic, which is totally cracking me up because all those boys from LMU before... i mean, you'd think at a JESUIT university there'd be a ton of guys who were religious, but not one of hte guys ive liked before are practicing catholics, which was rather annoying. so today (sunday) rolls around and im thinking about the eight o'clock and hoping he's a practicing catholic but really trying really hard to just not get my hopes up at all and really just not trying to think about him. get to mass like five minutes before it starts and... well, no one's there, as in college, but i was like... okay. okay. i wasnt hoping, so im okay now. yeah, okay, my heart sunk just a bit. casey came over to sit by me and i went over to enter jake's name in the all soul's book, turned around to see a few magis guys walking in and who walks down the aisle. im pretty sure that if it had been super noisy and crowded i woulda just busted up laughin straight up, but i just chuckled a bit and ... wanted to lose my mind. unfortunately, he sat with the other guys and (not so unfortunately, but kind of distractingly) i had to stare at hte back of his head all mass long.

>oh! and i finally got around to seeing matt today. he was that missing piece. ive felt like im falling apart for so long, but he just gave me an enormous, lengthy bear hug and... it kinda... like fixed everything. i feel kinda like glued back to better. at least a little. or a little more than a little. i missed him so much; i miss track so, so much<

but after mass, got to talking to him a bit. and now i have a coffee... thing for tuesday morning before work. oh lord.

it's like epically funny because i had a joke with zach last year, especially funnier to me after keyon and emmy figured their shit out, that stereotyped the magis men and the crimson guys. in my opinion: crimsons are the guys you date, but magis are the ones you marry. and now ive basically dug myself a giant effing hole.

i think God must be up there laughing his head off at how absolutely insane his creations are. its a total huge coincidence, but absolutely hilarious to me... i had a crush the size of texas on mr. bartender and found out later that he quite nicely fulfilled "catholic" need on my checklist, and now, this guy, who's, from what i gleaned from our post-mass conversation, a consistently practicing catholic. and he sings in mass. good god, how many times have i told myself that, especially because i hate it when people dont sing in mass. i always knew id want to end up with a singer -or at least a mass participater- and whoops! dropped on my lap. God's having a motherfucking ball up there right now. i love it.

and he's a romantic. truly, deeply... like. window to the soul kinda guy. it might just break my heart if he's got someone else on the brain.

"please don't be in love with someone else/ please don't have somebody waiting on you..." -- thank you T.Swift.

i've got my life to figure out right about now. yes please thank you.

--Tifanie

*sigh* 20 days since I posted last. have thought about new zealand every day since. maybe/probably because i put up my flag as the first thing i see when i wake up. yay for my happy corner of color. i've got a new way of painting in photoshop, via character design, which is exciting. successfully propelling in 3D. made a sofa, a sofa chair, half an alarm clock, half a kitchen table, and a bundle of dynamite for the senior theses. went to dland last weekend. angrily berated the unravel art project for the purpose of being or whatever. blogged for that blog, which, by the way, felt extremely traitorous and WAY less... impersonal, or whatever makes me feel comfortable at this blog. got paid, bought cm season 5, how to train your dragon, and beauty and the beast diamond edition. it was beautiful. saw megamind. saw the rest of the track team. that made me way happy. *sigh* so busyyy

new way of painting in photoshop, which im contemplating using for the snapshot of wellington that i made, which ive unofficially named "the night i fell in love", DEFINITE double entendre. but not in the sexual way. well, maybe a little. but not really. im still considering doing the physical, charcoal versiont hat i want to. i dunno. i may do like twenty versions of it. which would be siiick. and came up with a new idea to base from auckland. oh im so excited...

extra excited because im visiting renee this weekend. its been so long since ive seen her.... GAH the weekend cannot come soon enough! glad to get this week DONE (asap)!

mmm and had an awesome dream last night. one of those falling ones. i woke up a little scared, after realizing/remembering that old myth that if you die in your dreams, you die in real life. in my dream, i was skydiving again, falling, so, so wonderfully fast. it was probably one of the fastest dreams ive ever had, lasted probably anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. it was amazing, it really was, and i remember seeing people from new zealand skydiving too, which was totally cool. only problem: i ... didn't release my chute. that or it failed, so i hit the ground. on my left side. my left eye hurt really bad when i woke up, but i think it's probably because i was dipping my head into my pillow, but in my dream, i was so happy. i just popped up and said i was fine and... it was amazing... oh nz i miss you... =(

--Tifanie

 lol its been (yet again), a long time since ive been here... so since last time... ive worked a lot. liked a guy. like another. stopped liking guys. went to gryphon retreat. worked a lot. fell behind (kinda) on school work. hung out with liz ^_^. hung out with zach (turns out he was going to yoga on mondays... im still out on the fence on how i feel about him). got my internship back. failed at life a little. did nothing. encouraged becky and elise to get dland season passes. went to dland (SAW FIREWORKS. thank god). got a drunk(ish) call from megan schneider. contemplated the sisterhood (no, seriously). wow that looks a little strange in actual writing... but i have figured out that i might not want to go to new orleans for post grad anymore. post grad for sure, but im leaning towards somewhere cold, and somewhere where i can do work with the homeless. still also on the fence with how i feel with track, other than knowing i miss it like hell. came clean about feeling like an outsider in gryphons (at least in eboard). also disclosed a lack of interest in re-running for eboard, even though i really have enjoyed it... wow a lot has gone on, and its only been two weeks O_O eep!

not in any particular order, too. but hey! i finally made it back here.

god, its strange that its week 5 already... fall break is only in 2 weeks but i dont feel stressed yet (aka i dont feel like i need it yet) but at the same time i feel like ive been needing it for five weeks already. a little weird, partially because new zealand was back-to-back with the school year, but post-essays, life has really calmed down and ... well, im feeling the loss of track a lot more. i think im getting worse at hiding it though, which, technically i guess is a good thing. that was definitely one of my retreat goals... be more true to other people. i, personally, always know exactly what im feeling.... but i never tell anyone else. that, i think, hurts me more than anything else because, especially with track gone i feel like ive lost a huge part of my life, and ive lost... my friends. hows that for a pathetic lack of self esteem right?

i havent felt this alone in a while, that much is true

*sigh* focus on other things! ive got other shit to do!!

quick highlight of disneyland: me, elise, and becky went. glad we all did, because im totally gonna miss elise if she gets to graduate early (kudos to her for that). and becky, haha after gryphon games last year i totally thought she thought i was a total wierdo for mistaking her for erika and continuing a conversation i was having with erika with her... yea, awkward situation haha. but we all had a really great time and it was great and hilarious and totally awesome bonding time. will have to do it again soon. BUT we all decided to take letter photos, so becky was good because, obviously, her full name is "Rebecca" so california has an "R" but no "E" or "T"... so we got creative! haha becky was both the bottom line for elise's "E" and the top line for my "T". it was epic, because i had to do a hand shand, she lay down on the floor, and i put the pic in the computer and flipped it:

self-esteem booster #1: HAND STAND BIOTCHES!! haha ^_^. it was pretty ridiculous and fun.

*sigh* okay, i really gotta do the homework i had planned to do. its for shane's class, which is pretty much awesome, so i gotta do my hardest so i can get to do some legit character designing in the business! ^_^

--Tifanie

P.S. oh yea! and, apparently, i have a thing for drummers. its not really in my set "type" that all the nz girls know, but... a lot of guys ive liked have ended up being or doing drumming at some point in their life... rather unexpected. haha

sooo i probly should be doing my paper right now, but im going to use the excuse that doing the paper makes me miss new zealand way too much, so im gonna procrastinate a little more so under the (probably false) impression that i'll be feeling a lot less emotional tomorrow and will therefore do my paper much quicker and better. =D thats all logical eh? that and im exhausted. im not sure why, but i think it has something to do with the fact that i fell asleep around 2 last night, after forgetting to text drunk joe back, woke up at 5 a.m., realized my mistake and promptly fell back asleep only to be woken up 4 hours later. which sucked. haha. oh that reminds me i need to reset my alarm another fifteen minutes so ill be progressively used to waking up earlier every day so that by next monday, ill be ready for early mornings. BLEGH.

anyways, on a happier note, i got the asian-pacific studies paper done and an idea web + outline done for hte theology paper. its LITERALLY just a matter of putting all my ideas down so that everything is actually on paper and turning it all in. and i got hte image that i wanted down (for hte most part) in my sketchbook. but i still have a sneaking suspicion that im gonna be chronically single for forever. but thats a subject for an in-passing conversation ^_^ haha

thankfully, i had the best end of summer ever. after new zealand, went to san fran with the LITs. that's self-explanatory; i just hang out with them all too much haha. got to go the owl city/john mayer concert with tiffy, phil, maddy, and jenn, which was quite fun. i still think john mayer is a douche, but he is quite a show man, so the concert itself was pretty good and enjoyable. hung out with LITs some more, watched dr. horrible and inglorious basterds, both pieces of amazing cinematic history (LOL). drove down to LA, unpacked my life... some htings somehow disappeared in transit, whether it be from LA to san jo in the beginning of hte summer, or vice versa since then... that's highly annoying, but i guess i'll deal. then went to the green river ordinance/switchfoot/goo goo dolls concert the day before school started...

GRO was decent; very high-schooly, garage band. theyre a band in growth; im sure theyll be epically good someday soon. the switchfoot part was probably one of the most moving concerts ive seen. the lead singer was way into it and way into being PART of the crowd, so he was jumpign off hte stage a lot to run around in the crowd. got some pretty cool pics and listening to the live version of dare you to move was kinda one of the most moving experiences ever. lol. GGD didnt come on for a while, so i went down to the merchandise section to check out some stuff. got a shirt and the newest switchfoot cd and ran back to my seat freaking out when the lights went down and the opening chords of the GGDs section of the concert came on.

it was pretty epically funny. as i explained it to keyon (who i took/went with), i totally didn't realize how much it meant to me to see them live til they were on stage and playing. backstory: back in high school, sean was the one who made me realize the absolute awesome that is the goo goo dolls. i was aware of them and liked iris, but other than that, not much... they were just cool to listen to. and then i got all their cds from sean and ... i dunno, i fell in love. so, especially because iris was both of our favorite songs, we KNEW we had to go to a goo goo dolls concert, just to see that song live. so... ive wanted to see this concert for just about five years running, and when i heard about it, i was in line right away to buy tickets. back to now: they come on and ive never had serious fangirl tremors or anything like that (even with, say daniel radcliffe or something), but i guess all at once the fact that i was watching my literally favorite band in action and how awesome they were and johnny rzeznik was RIGHT THERE... it was almost too much for me to handle. i was all weak and fainty and hyperventilating; i totally didnt realize how much seeing these guys meant to me, but i know for SURE that if they are in the area im in, im definitely seeing them again. one of hte sickest concerts ever... a full hour and a half of music. nonstop, almost too. there were probably like half-minute intervals between each song, where someone would switch guitars or something... but think about it. an hour and a half of songs that almost everyone knew, with a few new ones sprinkled in... to have that many songs that reach out and touch so many people in an audience, that takes some serious talent.

*sigh* and their new cd has just come out and im listening to it right now and its kind of beautiful.

all in all, basically the best end of summer ever. haha best end of summer to the best summer ever. i really dont know how i'll ever be able to beat this one, but im sure this coming summer will somehow find a way... ^_^

here's to hoping!

--Tifanie

well... back in the states... and have been for two days. its a little weird. its thursday, but it most definitely feels like friday, but other than that i think ive got the time down correctly, so it actually is 1:45 in the afternoon in my head... just a day ahead. fail.

rather uneventful flight back. it was nice because of some seat switcheroos so i got a window seat instead of a middle seat. at one point i just got so tired of 1. waiting for some food and 2. my tv not working that i just put my face against the window and passed out. it was quite a beautiful nap. i dont even know how long it was far, just that i was sleeping pretty peacefully in what turned out to be a rather uncomfortable position. haha but it felt comfortable!

had a three hour layover at LAX. did a little reading. when i got bored, i thought about going into one of hte sports bars and hitting on guys, then realized that i dont have that luxury anymore. it made me feel like a baby again. it kinda sucked. haha. slept on the plane to san jose. met up with my parents. went home, showed them my skydiving dvd and took a shower. stayed up watching a bear documentary and a bat documentary after that and proceeded to not be tired enough to go to bed so i stayed on facebook and reread my tweets from the last few months. and fb chatted with paul --- i mean, kiwi boy, as renee likes to call him. oh dear lord.

san fran trip with the LITs yesterday. i think we've come to the decision that we don't hang out because we're LITs ... we're NOT anymore (how's THAT for a mindfuck? but thats how time flows, isnt it). we've kind of wheedled it down to a core group of people who are just friends. it just so happened that we were all LITs together, which is what got us to be friends. i can totally see why, now, the adult staff saw my first year as a year of true cohesion.... i think it really shows in that the majority of the group that sticks together now didn't know each other but we still want to hang out and see each other and what not. its kinda cool

it was an epic trip yesterday. hung out at the train station, played 20 questions, went to the pier, walked around at&t park, went to ghiradelli's, went to union square, and were obnoxiously loud. and it was good. ^_^

anyways. ive got literally 1000+ pictures to put up on facebook, so ive gotta bounce and do all my formatting. peace xanga!

--Tifanie

hi. my name is tiff and i got electrocuted by an ostrich today. how was your day?

real time: 8:45 P.M. Saturday, August 14, 2010 (Rotorua, NZ)

haha, but seriously, i did.

anyways, since yesterday, got on a bus ride to rotorua, new zealand, three hours south of auckland. haha we went past hamilton. actually we missed it because we went to matamata, which is where they filmed the hobbiton part of lord of the rings. does that kinda say something about me, considering me and shane were the ones pushing for that? between being a nerd and being a >real< girl, i choose being a nerd. oh, and apparently, that's something you're supposed to keep to yourself. who woulda though?! haha

matamata WAS pretty cool, but im really glad i got my lotr ring at weta because it was a good $30 more expensive. but did buy a lotr beer for my brother, called "sobeRing" which isnt REALLY alcholic cuz its got like 1% alcohol, but whatever.

so, now in rotorua, which, not gonna lie, smells like ass, due to all the sulfur. other than that, its a cute little town, very maori-culturally based, which is way awesome. theres a school for wood-carving and weaving here that is not only for the trades but also to teach maori people about their culture and traditions, keeping the maori people alive in new zealand which is such a good idea... especially coming for the pov that im almost totally cut off from my own chinese culture, but thats not the point of htis ^_^

anyways, the cultural experience was just these past five hours or whatever, but we did do other things today.

early start, we went to the agrodome, which is this like farming show just outside of rotorua. saw all kinds of sheep. got lots of pictures and fed/grabbed a baby sheep, and have lots of fancy pictures and they crack me up so much. then went on this tractor-pulled tour, where we were allowed to get out and feed the animals, which most people didnt want to do because it was raining a significant amoutn of time. but i know me, and i know i dont care/love the rain, so i jumped out to feed the ostriches, whcih was actually kinda scary because they definitely hardcore peck. i was a little scared for my fingers while i held the feed.

and while im out there, in my sopping wet flipflops and rain making water drip all over the place, one ostrich is pecking quite happily at my hands and another one sticks its head in and my brain literally goes blank, my heart skips a beat and i gasp. and then i hear a crack.

now back up: about five minutes prior, i was sitting next to shane-ish and we were looking at the dreary-looking country side (it was all cloudy and misty and rainy) and he was laughing at the electic fence, saying how he thought it was only something people put in cartoons to be funny, but there it was, and i was saying how it was probably pretty easy to make it (line the fence up with only metal wire and stick a live wire somewhere at one end and if something hits it, the thing completes the circuit and gets a shock) and how it seemed pretty dangerous.

fastforward: i stepped back, a little dizzy and slowly came to realize: holy crap, i just got a major shock through my system. the driver guy, who was giving out the feed came over and i was trembling a little, giggly a little and he was like "you got a little shock, eh?" and poked fun at me a little.

it was the wierdest feeling in the world, and no lie, i swear to god that my brain short-circuited for a second because i remember seeing the first ostrich and the second one getting closer, and feeling the first one in my hand, and then i cant really remember how all the feed got out of my hand. i kind of wonder if i dropped it all...

i realized later that the crack that i heard was the circuit completing, from the second ostrich, who i think was hte one who hit the fence, grabbing at my hand, and then sending the electricity throughout my body. it was pretty significant shock too, it was like ten times worse than getting a shock from an outlet and little static shocks dont even compare, and i literally felt it all the way down my body, even down to my legs. my arms felt all light and tingly and my elbow joints felt really disjointed and my heart was racing and man, i was so dazed. haha

i got back on the tractor thing after that and laughed a little and didnt realize til later how lucky i was that the shock was minimal because my toes were definitely either in or surrounded by water from the sopping wet ground. it was funny; i was thinking about how itd be funny that i got through skydiving and night canyoning and what not and get killed because of electrocution on a freaking new zealand farm. of all things, of course. it was just a little bit of... happiness that i didn't get electrocuted and just drop then and there, from fainting or dying or whatever. haha

yea, other than that, nothing that interesting, at least on the farm. we did go zorbing right after that. in essence: jumping into a giant hampster ball and getting rolled down a hill while sliding around in the water-filled ball. EPIC. pretty funny stuff and absolutely hilarious and giggle-inducing. ^_^

other than that, just like any other day. fed a sheep, got electrocuted via ostrich, and rolled down a hill like a human hampster. how're the states treating everyone? haha

despite all the awesome, im still way looking forward to going home. i think ive been away from home far too long this summer... this year, general. over the course of a full year, im literally spending about a month and a half at home, at hte place i miss and love. its kind of sad, i guess, but thats what growing up's all about huh?

either way, i want to live in new zealand and work for weta someday. hopefully soon. it'd be so crazy to come back here ^_^

--Tifanie