the best laid plans...are about to happen

so, i leave for england tomorrow morning. flight leaves around noon and i pick natalie up at 6 a.m. we arrive in london early the morning of day after tomorrow. so by this time tomorrow, i will be somewhere above the ocean. i will update as much as i can whilst i am there. cheers!

the weekend

ok, i just found this (17 august 06) and realized it hadn't ever been posted. so if you happen to read through my archives on a regular basis, that's why it mysteriously appeared like a ghost-letter from the past. :)

last week's weekend was lived to the fullest. here is a skeletal overview of it.

friday i stayed over at natalie's house. she and i and a bunch of our friends went to these campgrounds and took several hours to light a decent fire. then we walked in the dark to the edge of the lake and followed this little peninsula into the middle of the lake. we laid down on our towels (i don't remember why we had towels) and watched the stars. it was a perfectly clear night and several shooting stars were spotted, as well as two satellites, four airplanes, and possibly a constellation of Bob Dylan. by the time we returned to our campfire, the coals were nice and glowing, but we ate our chocolate and marshmallows cold and raw because we were too lazy to cut marshmallow sticks for s'mores. :) it was a good evening and we didn't get back until 3 or so.

next morning, i drove a car full of people several hours to kansas city. we visited this nice italian restaurant at the Plaza and had some cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. we then proceeded to the wedding. which was...a normal wedding, i guess. short and to the point. after this i went to Worlds of Fun. believe it or not, i'd never been there before. we did all the big fun rides such as the Patriot, the new one, and it was great. one of the boys i was with got a little sick from one of the rides, and the stupid rent-a-cop thought he was drunk. (he must have been pretty NOT busy, too, because he felt the need to call two-thirds of the park staff over to see what a good cop he was for finding the real bad guy.) anyways, Grant got better and we ate at the Waffle house down the road. which was itself an experience, because the waitress called us Hon. i love it. it was nearing one a.m. by the time we got back to the hotel, and we were planning on driving back for church the next day. justin did a good job of keeping me more or less awake during the three hour ride. i got back to natalie's about 4 and slept until 10:25. church was at 11...and i made it in plenty of time!

that's my weekend. it was fun. i hope you liked reading this distilled version of it. i have nothing profound to say, either.

some news

i don't think i told you all that i cut my hair off. it was real long, now it's not. at all. it's above my shoulders. i miss the rest of it, a lot.

in other news, i'm officially moving into town at the beginning of september. i'll be living with two other girls from my church, in a really nice duplex which is mostly furnished (except for my room, obviously). my bedroom is in the basement, which is nice because i don't like the morning light to disturb my sleep. i'll have most of the basement to myself, more or less...there's a living room area, and a kind of rec/exercise area by it. i also get my own bathroom, which will be a First in my life! if i had to take a snapshot of every major life event, past, present and future, they might go something like this:

a) my DNA coming into existence
b) being born
c) learning to talk/walk
d) starting school
e) becoming a christian
f) getting my own bathroom
g) graduating college
h) getting married
i) having kids
j) dying

i have a big family, ok? we never even got our own time in the bathroom! WE HAD TO TAKE BATHS AT THE SAME TIME!!! (ok, not....really)

i'm currently in that semi-giddy state that i always thought would come right before moving in someplace. you know, i get to ask all these questions like "what colors will the bathroom towels be" and "should i get some new stuff for my walls" and "do i need a new bookshelf." you think i'm being sarcastic, but i'm not. i'm seriously excited about this. don't be surprised if i become Ms. Domestic in the months to come. i might not hang out with you because i'm so excited to have my own bathroom. toilet bowl cleaning is way more exciting when it's your OWN freaking toilet bowl!

why do you people not comment any more? is it because i'm not posting stuff that takes you ten hours to read? 'cause i can do that again too, if you want. :) i still have lots of thoughts. i don't keep a journal, you know.

i'm doomed

in my constant perusal of travel sites, i find lots of interesting places to go. you know, cool little restaurants or cheap hostels. today, though, i have found one place which i'd like to stay for at least a month, preferably two or three. it's a little bigger, and it'd be hard to miss. it's called Iceland.

i hope you don't picture iceland as a giant barren glacier, because it's not. it's the land of fire and ice. FIRE AND ICE, people! volcanoes, mountains, northern lights, whales, green cliffs...just peruse yourself a few of these pictures and THEN tell me you'd rather spend a semester in london.

i thought the history, zeal and beauty of Scotland made it the coolest place i'd ever want to go. then i discovered the complexity and uniqueness of russia. now i am trying to figure out how i can take a month off of work next summer to be in rugged, intense, brilliant iceland.

in other news, i leave for england in two weeks and one day, exactly! (although, after looking at the pictures of iceland, the lands of anglo-saxony in general look a little boring and stuffy.) however, something tells me i will love the southern coast of ireland, and now that we're thinking of scrapping our little Paris outing (due to time constraints), maybe we'll have time to head up to the northern end of scotland, or take a ferry ride to the Isle of Man. it's like the slogan for missouri or some other lame state. "possibilities: endless!"

flowers

just a few thoughts...

*******

anyone who knows me knows that i like flowers. a lot. i can't explain why i like them, because for except for use in bribery, they are completely useless. my (dominant) utilitarian side balks at the thought of spending money on something that is expensive, useless, and which will die in four days or less.

nevertheless, flowers usually get me thinking. why do i like them? it's simply because of their beauty. when i stare at a flower i realize: God made that flower just the way He wanted it. its purpose and highest calling is, simply and magnificently, to be beautiful.

with its poetic symmetry, perfumed stamens, and delicate boldness, a flower shouts to us that our God is truly beautiful; that he loves us enough to give us these millions of tiny tokens of his love; and that there is so much more to life than the practical. beauty is not primarily to be used. it is to be enjoyed, marveled at, appreciated, and loved. it points to something greater. the mystical qualities of beauty are a lot like those of music, but physical beauty is for our eyes instead of our ears. it is spiritual, and can't be accurately measured, completely described or fully understood. so despite a flower's seeming insignificance, it has been given the task of proclaiming the character and love of God, which is revealed through his creation (Romans 1:12).

God alone creates beauty. yes, we mortals can reproduce it through our canvas and clay and words on a page. but when you really consider it, all our attempts at creating beauty -- painting a sunset, for example -- only end up copying something that is already there. "Even King Solomon, in all his splendor, was not clothed like the lilies in the field."

so next time you drive by a ditch full of wild daisies or (if you're lucky) someone hands you a bouquet, you might stop and consider how each one is a gift from God...maybe useless; maybe not.

hehe

i want you to tell me all the things that are wrong with this conversation. i can count at least 1,553.

scenario: last night i'm laying in bed, almost asleep. my brother was still up. i heard my name floating through the hallways. it's jim. for the record, jim is 18 years old. 18.

jim: nikki! nikki!

me: *wondering what the emergency is, as jim wouldn't wake me up for anything less. right?*

jim (still through the door): are you awake?

me: i guess....yeah.

jim: how do you spell ...(inaudible)...?

me: suspicious?

jim: no, ...(inaudible)...

me: conspicuous?

jim: no! *opens door*

me: wha...?

jim, loudly: HOW DO YOU SPELL VICIOUS?

me, after a few seconds of silence: you did not just wake me up to ask me this.

jim: well, how else would i find out?

me: *groaning* v-i-c-i-o-u-s. [i can't believe i actually told him.]

jim: *writes it down* oh, ok. i just couldn't remember, was it v-i-s-h, or v-i-s-c-h, or...

me: or you could just look it up on the computer, or in a dictionary.

jim: but we don't have Microsoft Word on this computer.

me: *groaning louder* why not try the internet.

jim: oh, they have that on there?