10 Years Seems Like A Long Time

10 years seems like a long time, it really does. But in truth, 10 years goes by faster than you can even imagine.


Today, we all know, is the 10th anniversary of when a group of terrorists thought that it was okay to hit some of the most important buildings in our country and kill thousands of people.


It was not okay.


In the past 10 years, we have been fighting against those terrorists that were associated with those who did the horrible deed.


But see, the thing is, I was 10 years old when the attacks happened. I didn't know what was going on. I was 10, I had never heard of the word terrorist. I couldn't even fathom the thought of thousands of people  dying in that sort of fashion.


But I do remember crying when I saw it on TV that afternoon when I got home. I remember knowing this was a huge thing because it was broadcasting on every television station. I also knew it was huge because my mother was home when I got home.


At that time, she never came home early.


10 years seems like a long time. But yet, it feels as if all this happened yesterday. A lot can change in 10 years. I finished elementary, middle and high school and I'm almost done with college. 


But I will always remember the actions of such a small few that changed my life forever. I know our nation will never forget.


Ten years ago we lost mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons, aunts, uncles and cousins. Ten years ago we lost heroes. Ten years ago we lost thousands of family members from around the world.


WE WILL NEVER FORGET!


I feel it best to share these lyrics today
:

"Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)"

Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?
Were you in the yard with your wife and children
Or working on some stage in L.A.?
Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smoke
Risin' against that blue sky?
Did you shout out in anger, in fear for your neighbor
Or did you just sit down and cry?

Did you weep for the children who lost their dear loved ones
And pray for the ones who don't know?
Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble
And sob for the ones left below?
Did you burst out in pride for the red, white and blue
And the heroes who died just doin' what they do?
Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer
And look at yourself and what really matters?

[Chorus:]
I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell
you the difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us
And the greatest is love

Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?
Were you teaching a class full of innocent children
Or driving down some cold interstate?
Did you feel guilty 'cause you're a survivor
In a crowded room did you feel alone?
Did you call up your mother and tell her you loved her?
Did you dust off that Bible at home?

Did you open your eyes, hope it never happened
Close your eyes and not go to sleep?
Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages
Or speak to some stranger on the street?
Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow
Or go out and buy you a gun?
Did you turn off that violent old movie you're watchin'
And turn on "I Love Lucy" reruns?

Did you go to a church and hold hands with some strangers
Did you stand in line and give your own blood?
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family
Thank God you had somebody to love?

[Repeat Chorus 2x]
And the greatest is love.
And the greatest is love.

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day? 

I'm Back on the Blogosphere

So, it's been...what? 6 months since I last posted something on here. And what a set of 6 months it has been. So I will be writing one of those long ass posts where I tell you what has happened in my life.



The end of February brought my spring break. I drove half way across the state to spend a few days with my cousin Molly. And I got my first tattoo!

It says, "Only when you are no longer afraid, do you begin to live!"

Then as April 1st dawned, I drove almost across the OTHER half of the state to spend some time with my best friend Katrina! We went and saw Lady Gaga when she came to Grand Rapids. It was literally one of the best concerts I've ever been to!

Katrina and I at Gaga!

The next day, Katrina and I drove over the last part of the state to see our friend Hoffa in Muskegon. While there, we walked through knee deep snow to go to the beach. It was beautiful!

In April, I became a certified Medical First Responder. I can save your life legitly no matter what kind of situation you end up getting yourself into! I also finished out the semester. I dropped Cognitive and ended up 4.0ing all my other classes. First 4.0 semester EVER in college for me!

In May, I worked a lot at camp. I was working a lot of group events. I also moved out of my apartment and into Katrina's house. I got to spend a lot of time with friends and get some well needed sleep as well. 

This is me after a long day at camp. It was cold and rainy....and I wasn't a fan.

In June, Katrina's youngest sister graduated from high school then summer camp began at The Fowler Center with all new staff. I met some rather awesome people.

Colleenie gradmatated!

July came long and tiring. I was at camp the whole time basically but even with the long hours, the hot weather, the sickness and injuries, I had a lot of fun this month. On the 16th, me and about 17 other people went to see Harry Potter in IMAX. It was amazing and an experience I will NEVER forget. I cried like a baby and my childhood ended. I also had some excursions to the lake and to Frankenmuth with some of my fellow counselors from TFC. I'm sure I will write a post soon with more details about my summer...SO MANY memories!

One of the campers and I with some bubble shenangians!

Frankenmuth mirror maze!

Guida and I on 4th of July at camp.

Another camper and I at Barn and Garden, the program area I ran this summer.

Trina and Dave, crazy shenanigans at Tim Hortons (that got us kicked out!)

August came more heat and exhaustion. The camp wasn't what I wanted it to be so at the end of the first week of August, I quit. It was a hard decision on my part because I basically LOVED  camp like everything, it just wasn't my thing anymore. I was one of 5 people that quit that week. One of the other quitters paid me to drive her home, so I was OFF to Chicago for a couple nights where I met her Mexican family, had some amazing food and spent a day hopping on and off the bus/train around the city. I was awesome. After that I was off to spend some time with a couple of the other quitters from camp, Dave and Helen. I helped them fix up their new apartment. 

One of my French books for this semester!

Moving in...why do I have so many books!

Molly and I went on a "Le Epic Day of Shopping" Labor Day. It was awesome. We stopped at Steak and Shake for Lunch...let's just say the shakes are amazing.

CHICAGO at night...from the Hancock Building!

Chrissy and I at The Bean!! So freaking awesome!

Me on Navy Pier. Chrissy and I stopped at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville while there for a margarita and burger!

And I got a NEW job literally just after quitting the old one. I'm actually at it right now. I work at the front desk of the building that I live in, which is AWESOME. It's easy, fun and well, secure. I will have a job here for the school year which makes me feel so much better about quitting camp! At the end of August, I moved BACK into my apartment, except on a different floor, and started school this week. I have some awesome classes, getting to know more people, catching up with old friends and life is awesome. 

Sorry Guys...

So I know it has been what seems like forever since I have written something on here...but this past week and a half has been one interesting time.


For one, I never got last week's week in mail done. I'm sorry....I know. I am horrible at remembering things and when you tend to live life in the moment (which I do quite often) then some things just get pushed to the side.


Over last weekend, I was working at my camp that I work at sometimes. I was a 2 on 1 which means there were 2 campers that were my whole responsibility which I like a lot because I don't have to worry about a whole cabin and all. But I'm not used to being a 2 on 1 so I was always watching everyone anyway. 


Other than an incident with the camp llama (which really is a hilarious story that I have told SO many times...all is well now) it was an uneventful weekend. I love weekends at camp because, yes, it is hard work, but I have so much fun. And sometimes it's so nice to get away from the city (even though I'm pretty sure I'm SUCH a city girl now!)


Then Monday night I was officially recertified in CPR and my friend Luna had her gull bladder (aka named Charlie) taken out (aka KILLED) and I was so happy for her.


Tuesday I was SICK OUT OF MY MIND. I got out of my Cognitive midterm, and lost my whole stomach into the toilet (sorry for the visual) and spent the next 24-36ish hours living off of gatorade and pepto bismol. I slept a lot, sometimes in the bathroom to ensure a mess free experience, but I was sick.


I finally woke up this morning and was HUNGRY! Like my stomach was like "FEED ME!" So I did. And I can't wait to go home and eat some more. I did eat a little yesterday and it stayed down, but it was nothing near my normal eating habits. Quite interesting.


And I failed my Cognitive Psychology midterm...but I don't care...BWAHAHAHAHA!!!


Yeah...I'm in one of those crazy "moods" again!

Week in Mail: Week #2 1/31-2/5

In

This week was a pretty lonely mail week here...mail wasn't delivered for a couple days because of the snow storm...

This is the State/city park card I got from a swap I did.

This is the card that I got from my friend NikoGoddess for the Me & a Friend Postcard swap.

Out
I sent out a lot more mail though.

My Harry Potter ATC for a swap I did

I did a "Pay it Forward 2011" on Facebook. This is the homemade things I sent my friend John. Include a magazine envelope, 2 postcards and an ATC.

The Pay It Forward I sent to Luna. 2 postcards and an ATC

The card I sent Katrina, just to brighten her day!

The Pay It Forward I sent to my friend Jamisa. A magazine envelope, 2 postcards and a mini-zine

Postcard I sent out to Erin for pay it forward.

Penpal letter I sent out to my friend Sara in New Jersey.

I also sent out 3 homemade postcards for a swap and a pen-pal letter to my friend Lynn in California.

what A CRAZY Night!

So...for all of you to know, I will have my mail post up later today. I have all the pics, I just didn't get it written out.


SO...last night was such a crazy night.


I have my first responder's class. In that class, we were working on patient assessments which includes checking someone ever from head to toe to try to figure out what could be wrong if you are in an emergency situation. So he told us to partner up for the class. So I was looking around and really hot guy (which is what I will call him for the purpose of this blog) was like, "you wanna be my partner?"


Well...I had to hide my excitement. So we practiced our patient assessments. All I'll say is that really hot guy has some really nice muscles.


Anyway...so we get back into class and we start talking about airways. We were talking about different ways to deliver oxygen to different patients if needed. You know, the tubes in the nose, etc. And he gets to the "rebreather" which if you are not in the medical field, it's the one that goes over the face and has the bag that the paramedic squeezes that helps you breathe.


He pops a new one of out a bag, hooks of the oxygen and asks if someone wants to try it out. We didn't think he was serious for one. But he kept looking around and I was like, why not? So up I walk to the front of the class and he explains that he is going to put this over my face and tell me when to take a breath and he is going to assist me in breathing.


It took 5 breaths...and I was extremely relaxed. The prof took the mask off my face and asked how I felt. All I could say in a dreamy voice was "pretty good." The class laughed. He said that after about 3 breaths, he felt me relax and said that if he kept going, I might have fallen asleep and woken up after the class was over.


Yes...I got high from oxygen last night. GOOOOOOOOD times...


So my night wasn't over yet. I look at my phone and Abijah had called me. Her and Tanisha were supposed to go see a concert last night and I expected them to be gone by the time that I got out of class. So I call her back and she asks, "Is Tanisha with you?" I said, "No." "Well I've been waiting for her down here for a half hour and she won't answer my phone calls or texts."


I felt that there was something wrong.


So I try calling her. No answer. So I call my RA Stephon and ask him to knock on the door. So he knocked several time. No answer.


So I start to freak out. What if something had happened? What if she was hurt? So here I was, high on oxygen, and my adrenaline starts rushing like crazy. I start booking it out of the White building and take the 15 minute run in like 5 minutes, rush into the building and get on the elevator...which of course a ton of other people got on and I had to stop on almost all the floors. I burst into the room and notice that it's really quiet. Her stuff is there, her coat on the couch, her purse on the floor. I walk into her room and take a quick look. Then i went and checked all the rooms in the apartment. No one was there. So I start yelling her name. After the 5th time of yelling I hear a small, "yeah..."


She was asleep. But I thought she was in trouble so I was ready to save her if I had to. She didn't realize how late it was, but got ready and left for the concert which was near by anyway.


For the rest of the night I relaxed and was EXHAUSTED by the time that 11 came around. It was probably because I came down from the oxygen, the adrenaline was done and I had run like a mad woman.


But everything was fine. And I slept like a baby last night.

Snowpocalypse 2011

So Michigan survived this storm that we had gotten so much news coverage over.


By last Thursday, I knew "it" was coming. By Monday, the whole state was freaking out about the largeness of the storm. By Monday night, we were calling the storm "Snowicane," "Snowpocalypse" and even "Snowmageddon." Food was flying off of store shelves as people thought they would be buried for weeks.

Here is yesterday at noonish...it was still snowing up a storm!

Overnight, the Flint are received almost 14 inches of snow. 

So I was OFF of school for the last 2 days.  We were basically buried. No mail was delivered and hardly any cars fared the roads. We didn't leave yesterday at all. It was quite wonderful. I spent most of yesterday in my pajamas!

And what did I spend most of my time doing...sleeping!

Sleep has been wonderful.

Here are so more pics from friends:

My aunt Rosalie took this pic on her farm today. 

This is my friend Terri's car, I wonder if she could get out?

This is my friend Alisha's car. eee gads!

My friend Emily and her dorm friends built this huge igloo yesterday at Eastern Michigan University. Great way to spend their time, thats for sure!

What A Day!

So yesterday was an interesting day for me.


I don't know if it was the mood I woke up in, but everything just was interesting to me. For one, I woke up just after 11. I had GREAT sleep and the sun was shining through my window and I smiled.


I went downstairs and signed my new lease for next year. So I know where I will be living for the next year and a half, that makes me happy. Even though I am moving into a friends house for the summer, I'll be glad to be there because of spending a lot of time at camp. I'll be moving off the 11th floor :( and into a room with a study on the 5th floor. Even though it is lower, It will be nice to have more room.


Then I went over and got some lunch. One of my friends had given me a coupon for Subway which gave me a $5 Chicken, Bacon, Ranch...aka my FAVORITE sub EVER! So I was happy. So I had my yummy sub and some cookies from the pizza place next to Subway (they make amazing cookies that are warm, and gooey and amazing!)


After that, I went BACK to my room because I forgot a folder and then ended up talking downstairs with Keisha that works at the front desk during the day. She really is a cool person. Then, looking at my iPod, I was almost late for band and went on a across campus dash to French Hall.


In band, we played this new piece that...well...was so confusing. So here I am, with the solo clarinet part and I'm freaking out because I have all these parts that aren't in anyone elses part...and I was like AHHHH!!! It was a tad overwhelming. Really, the piece is interesting and really cool sounding, but at the same time, it was really hard!


So getting out of band, I have to walk across the river to the white building. A long walk really. So I was listening to a new CD I downloaded after seeing Linkin Park in concert. I am in LOVE with the band Pendulum and on the CD, there is 2 songs that really meld into one called "The Island (Dawn)" and "The Island (Dusk)." So as I was walking in the cold, windy weather, I was choreographing a video in my head. If I could actually make it come true, it would be really cool.

This is the river I had to cross and the building in the far right behind the tree is the white building.

All day dreaming aside, I didn't realize I was actually in the White building until I began to warm up. Heading up to the computer lab, I ended up sitting behind someone who had the school computer and their own laptop on at the same time. On the school computer was homework, on his computer was WoW. Yup, he was playing World of Warcraft and ignoring homework...wonder who's gonna fail?


After hanging out with my friend Kevin, I was off to my First Responder's class. So everything was going fine until we got the autopsy video.


I have never been that squeamish, and you would think having a medical class where you'll be dealing with many injuries in the field, you need to NOT be squeamish. So here is this dead body, lying there on this old video (it was a VHS tape...that old) and nothing was "opened." A little blood could be seen through the slices in the chest. Everything was going well until the woman on the video said, "And lets look into the chest cavity." She suddenly opened the chest, opened it much like a book and there was the heart and lungs, just lying there. 


This is when the woman in front of me, who isn't a small person, passed right out backwards and pushed the table into me and me back into the table behind me. In essence, I was stuck momentarily. The professor rushed back in and well, she was fine, just not feeling good because of the video. The nice thing about having a paramedic as a professor, well he was able to check both of us out and find that we were all right. I have a small bruise on my abdomen today...ouch! Needless to say, she dropped the class last night.


So I'm walking home. And it's cold. But I was listening to some more Pendulum and it was all right. Some people think I'm crazy but I enjoy walking home at night, by myself. If God wills that I am to be killed, I don't care. I was supposed to die YEARS ago.


So I get home and the elevator was freaking out. I just wanted to go up to the 11th floor, but no, the door wouldn't close for like 10 minutes THEN went down to the basement (which it isn't supposed to go to). So we're sitting in the elevator in the basement...good times. 


It finally went up and I was home Scott free.


Sadly...last night a good family friend passed away. Tom Daley was a wonderful person and knew me when I was engaged very well. He was best friends with my fiancee. He was in a farming accident on Sunday and had some major brain damage. Last night, he saved many lives as his organs were still intact and were donated to families all over the country.


Now to prepare for "SNOWPOCALYPSE 2011..." I'm calling it "Snowurricane 2011." Either way we are expecting anywhere between 8 and 15 inches of snow tonight. My school is closed as of 4 tonight and all day tomorrow and has been since this morning...it hasn't even started to snow.


But I should get off...I'm supposed to be learning about the lymphatic system in my Health Psychology class right now =/