You Are a Dash

Your life is fast paced and varied. You are realistic, down to earth, and very honest. You're often busy doing something interesting, and what you do changes quickly. You have many facets to your personality, and you connect them together well. You have a ton of interests. While some of them are a bit offbeat, they all tie together well. You friends rely on you to bring novelty and excitement to their lives. (And while you're the most interesting person they know, they can't help feeling like they don't know you well.) You excel in: Anything to do with money You get along best with: the Exclamation Point

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Well... OK then...

65 words

Speed test

Happy Easter to our beloved family and friends.
Artwork by Greg Olsen

It's good to have a little perspective

"Life is not just a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: WOW.... WHAT A RIDE !!!"

I think I've always taken the easy route in life. I've always wanted to remain safe and secure, not taking any risk or making any waves. I decided a while ago... that isn't how I'm going to live anymore. I want to make a difference. I admired the young adults in my capstone class this term. Most of them are fresh out of high school and want to make the world a better place. I think so many people only look out for themselves and only care about who is immediately surrounding them. So many look only to make a good impression on other people and say what we think they want us to say. Someone I know once told me that they don't want to make a difference in the world, only to take care of themself and their family. I think that is a very selfish attitude. I think if people look around and take care of one another and those in need, we'd all be much better off. I'm trying to find meaning and purpose in my life. I don't think that can happen unless I start making some bold decisions. I see bad and distressing things going on in the world and it is easy to think, I'm just one small person, how can I make a difference. If you make a difference to just one other person, you made a difference to the world. I keep thinking Easter is this weekend, a time of renewal and hope.... I think I will reserve this time for thinking about what I have accomplished so far and what I want to accomplish in the next year. Maybe I need to be like the students in my class and look for a deeper meaning in life... perhaps that means taking the road less traveled...

poetry class

I finished my last paper for my poetry class and my last poem. I loved this class and now hope to continue writing, writing, and writing.

Ars Poetica

Choosing words to express feeling
rhyming words or use of form
cluttering the head with rules of meter
worry for fear it is wrong

Allowing words to flow on paper
even if they don’t make sense
gives the poet something to mold
something to create and shape

Critique and comments are most helpful
when they are used to polish
words that already are on paper
that need a fresh approach

Manipulation of words form poetry
maybe beautiful or not
rewriting a poem can cause magic
when the words say what you want
By Angela

Sick

I am so sick, I missed most of my classes this week. I can't seem to be able to do anything but sleep. Thank goodness it is "slush/slack" week (the week before finals week). We didn't do much of anything this week but tell everyone good bye, exchange numbers with other students, and fill out evaluations on the professor. I think my favorite class was my Poetry class.

My least favorite was Psychology. I would have liked that class, but I disliked the professor too much... everyone outside of class that I talked to couldn't stand him either. My capstone class was awesome, but actually going to the inner city schools was difficult, depressing, and painful. All the things that we discussed NOT to do with refugee children was happening in the school I was tutoring in. It made me upset and when/if I have children, I know I'm definately putting them in a private school. Teachers shouldn't be labeling children and calling them mean and nasty, nor yelling at them, or causing them to have bad self esteem, and they SHOULD be more than willing to work with tutors so the children can get the extra help they need....

OK so on to HAPPIER thoughts, I dragged myself out of bed and went outside to see what more I could find that was blooming in my yard... I found little purple flowers blooming around my waterfall/pool...

The Quince starting to bloom in my backyard....
A close up of the flowers, they look orangey, but it's my camera... they're really bright pink.
and my white clematis is blooming as well.
These things make me feel better. I love spring and I'm looking forward to Easter, Spring break, General Conference, my last semester because I'm taking more art classes, and then SUMMER and a degree!!!

Acupuncture was weird yesterday. I bled from every point after Jen took all the needles out. She said that was good... and it felt good too. I felt this warmth and rushing of blood coursing throughout my body. Now I have to brew herbal tea to drink and it smells and tastes disgusting. I pulled barks, leaves, and other nature-y things out of the bag Jen gave me and put them in my teapot to simmer for 45 minutes. Jen says the tea is a cleansing, healing formula, she mixes it herself and customizes the formula to each patient she has. BOTTOMS UP!!!

Personality test

You Are Cayenne Pepper

You are very over the top and a bit overwhelming. You have a fiery personality, and you can give anyone a good jolt. You can easily take things up a couple notches, no matter what crowd you're running with.

What Spice Are You?

Acupuncture

I've had three treatments of acupuncture now. I wished I'd have done this a lot sooner. I'd always wanted to, but didn't ever take the time to research more about it. At one point I called a place last year that I wanted to go to, but I could never get anyone on the phone and nobody ever returned my call. Hmmm...... I was complaining to James about how much I hurt several weeks ago and said I was at the point of just screaming and/or crying all the time because the pain is so intense. It causes me to not sleep at night and most of the days I walk around like a zombie because I never have enough sleep (2-3 hrs usually) and then I spend the days trying to keep awake during classes, homework, and my studies. Well James called this place again for me. Of course, when he calls, they respond right away and make me an appointment. I have been seeing Jen. She is amazing. I don't like her so much when she is sticking needles into the painful parts... wrists, between the fingers, palm, hand, forearm, arm, and feet, but I like her very much when I go home later that evening and am able to go to bed without pain. Today I had over 20 needles in just the right hand. I love you Jen, except today when you stuck a needle in my arm and turned it all black and blue, that hurt and it is still sore, but I'm sure I'll love you again tomorrow when I lay down to sleep and I wake up refreshed in the morning.