| I do this about once a year... |
[Oct. 2nd, 2009|10:49 am] |
I thought I should actually post on my life. I'd write a novel like steph and sam when they post, but I really get tired after about 2 paragraphs... but trust me my 2 paragraphs are always literary gold.
So, I'm down in Nashville TN working as a part of the Jesuit Volunteer program. What's that you ask? Shut up and stop interrupting with questions and I may just tell you. JV is a program where you volunteer for a year and focus on simple living and community and kind of live in an intentional community. I'm living with 5 girls and one other guy, so it reminds me of high school all over again. We live in East Nashville, which can best be described by the fact that each alcohol store has a pawn shop right next to it and when you go to buy beer it takes longer because you have to interact with the clerk through bullet proof glass. There was also a large drug bust down my street last week.
We are basically volunteers who get our housing and food paid for, but on top of that we only get 80 dollars a month to live on. they don't' want you using any extra money either, so that's about it. This limits the amount of great country shows I can go to, but does increase our awareness for places with cheap cover charges. Yep, last week we went to the WIld Horse saloon for 2 dollars and did about 2 hours of line dancing. That is pretty exhausting. Oh, on a side note: If you can't tell already I've kind of fallen for country music. Nashville is the home of T Swift, Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks, and any other number of country stars you can talk about. I now have a soft spot in my heart for Lady Antibellum too.
My work is at a place called Project Return. I work with ex felons who have jsut been released from prison and help them find food, housing, jobs, medication, and basically anything else they need. It can be unnerving... I work with anyone from people caught with an o of weed to people who have killed 3 people, and even sex offenders. I had a woman come in last week who broke down in tears in my office because she hadn't gotten over the fact taht she killed her husband while protecting her child in a domestic dispute. Although, on the bright side this is teaching me I still REALLLLY want to be a public defender or something, because despite what they did I want to help each and every one of them and feel bad for their current situation.
My boss is crazy... He's the biggest type A personality I've ever worked with. Also, he killed a guy and did time in prison. And he drummed for Kenny Rogers. And the Drifters. And he wrote and produced the super bowl shuffle! (SUsan, stand up.. .I know you jsut fainted)
Take care all |
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| Susan this is for you |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|12:40 pm] |
Well it's not an update, but a liveblog of Sotomayor's hearing. Yep I've gotten that nerdy! But I mean, you're abotu the only one who will appreciate this?
Sotomayor reaction blog:
Tuesday July 14, 2009. 1:37 PM
Session's final score. 6.5. I think that's close to as high as I can give either of the parties lead off hitters (if they're not using sports analogies, I will dammit!) They need to lay out issues, not do much more. I score him less than Leahy because he couldn't get past Soto's comments. Extra half point for bringing up something worthwhile about Ricci.
Tuesday July 14, 2009. 1:34 PM
Sessions finally goes into something I agree with: Her short to no response in the Ricci case. Perhaps a longer explanation would have led SCOTUS to uphold the decision. Although they would have overturned it if Soto wasn't up for SCOTUS pick.
Tuesday July 14, 2009. 1:29 PM
Sessions gives a complete summary of the Ricci case. It sounds like he got this directly off of Oyez.
Tuesday July 14, 2009. 1:26 PM
Sessions only talks about Soto's speeches. Is this really all they have? It's clear her responses will be canned. His one good comment so far was getting her not to stand by her using experiences to get the answer to a case" Soto admitted she used a "flourish that fell flat" when making those comments and was nto what she intended. I think we could have got this out of her 15 minutes ago. She's adding to the end of the comment about giving Latinos hope. Way to make people forget about the original statement and end with a heartfelt statement.
Tuesday July 14, 2009. 1:18 PM
Sotomayor answers that she recognizes her bias to make sure that she doesn't get biased. So meta!
Tuesday July 14, 2009. 1:18 PM
Two questioners down and no sports analogies yet. I'm disappointed.
Tuesday July 14, 2009. 1:18 PM
Sotomayor brings up Youtube to Sessions. Sessions is a little old to watch YouTube. We saw from Leahy's comments yesterday that he's thrilled with this new fangled technology such as "live via webcast!"
Tuesday July 14, 2009. 1:18 PM
Sessions begins with the predictable "wise Latino comment"... but wait there's more! She's done it 6 times! It's clear Sotomayor will have a scripted answer to this. Yep. She says this answer with passion and looking up at Sessions... this is a first for her. Scripted! I've heard this answer before... I think it came from the white house responding to the same question.
Tuesday July 14, 2009. 1:18 PM
Leahy speaks in extremes. Let's look at her record of criminal cases... "so there was this pedophile case you ruled in" Did you have any difficulty reaching a conclusion in this case? Soto's answer... no sir. Here's to ending on a whimper with a closed ended questions.
Leahy's final score: 7. Did what he had to do and asked the softballs but his use of extremes really didn't accomplish what it needed to and instead drew focus on the question rather than the answer.
Tuesday July 14, 2009. 12:57 PM
Now Leahy mentions that one of the people calling Sotomayor a racist was the leader of the KKK. Republicans will be thrilled to follow that up... although I wouldn't put it past Hatch. Leahy is also starting out each comment with "you've been on the bench for 17 years"
Didn't think he could top the amount he said that yesterday, but hey why not try?
Tuesday July 14, 2009. 12:50 PM
Senators do a good job of testifying rather than asking a question. Leahy's first question is going on for over 5 minutes. Ah there's the question! A softball about her reaction to the Ricci over ruling. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 16th, 2008|11:07 pm] |
Meh, might as well?
1. Favorite Subject in School: poli sci, biznatches!
2. Least favorite subject in school: Definitely earth science
3. How many finals (tests, or written essays do you have) 2, 35 pages worth!
4. Favorite way to procrastinate poker
5. Favorite Study Food bakery run (they have donuts at 2 am!)
6. Favorite Study place Burling (the campus library).. I only go there during finals
7. Your finals feelings Tepid optimism
8. Favorite finals memory 3 am pancakes
9. First Thing you will do once finals are over: driiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!! (yep, this is what college boils down to...
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| Obligatory update |
[Dec. 2nd, 2008|02:21 am] |
Hmm, I figure I should update... Haven't done that in a hwile, and it would be an understatement to say that a lot has happened.
Turkey break was great. I went to Wisconsin, so I didn't get to see any of your spiffy faces, but I got to see my two neices... which, no offense to all y'all, is about a billion times better than any adult's face could be. My neice Maya is now old enough to talk, but can't pronounce her c;s so she always calls me "uncle tis!". My younger niece can finally walk and her favorite thing to do is play, does taht fit down the hole? There's a small hole she tries to stick things down... even things that are clearly too big, such as dolls or people. The hole leads down to the laundry room, so needless to say after I got done with laundry I fopund numerous toothpicks, noodles, and other small objects smattered throughout my laundry.
If you've read this far you also deserve to know: I has a girlfriend!!!! And yes... that many exclamation points are needed, because she's that cool. Her name is Ali, and she's a sophomore who's obsessed with ultimate and is pretty much the most social and friendly person I've ever met. We've never had any awkward pauses and she's pretty damn funny which is also a great plus. I guess I can't actually pin down why I like her... it's just a generally awesome feeling I get whenever I'm around her. Yeah, that's corny as heck, but you get to deal with it!
no clue what I'm doing next year yet... perhaps I'll become a hermit in my parents basement. My room's already there, so it wouldn't be that big of a shift to establish a permanent residence. I'm sure my parents would love it because then I could be established as a dependent for life. (That seems like it would make a great shirt)
Take care all, and let me know how you're doing!
PS. did you notice I actually spell check things these days? |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 5th, 2008|12:59 am] |
[x] drank in celebration
[] drank in morning
[x] sung the Star Spangled Banner 3-4 times
[x] Sung god bless AMerica twice
[x] sung We are the champions
[x] watched an AMAZING Obama speech
[x] Canvassed and door knocked
[x] randomly ended up watching the Wizard of Oz tonight
...I love Grinnell!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 18th, 2008|09:19 pm] |
Hey guys@ more to come later, but for now just wanted everyone to know I'm home! If you're in town, gimme a call!
-me |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 18th, 2008|08:20 pm] |
Hey all!
I figured it’s about time for an other update… a month down the line. I apologize for how long it took to send this out, but I’ve been pretty busy, and combine that with the trouble finding an internet connection that survives for more than 30 minutes, and you get a long time without an email. SO since I emailed you last:
We went on northern tour, which essentially consisted of us going to Anurandpurah, Sigirya, Dambulla, and Polonarua (spelling questionable on all) on an 8 day trip at a death march pace. We’d wake up around 6:30 in the morning and go until about 7 at night. We had a couple of hours of rest in between… but that time was usually filled with swimming in reservoirs, eating great food, and failed attempts to talk to people.
The theme of this tour was, “let’s see how much Chris can be dwarfed” We were able to see some pretty impressive monuments. Sri Lanka is famous for their stone statues of Buddhas carved into walls that usually are 30 or 40 feet high. There were also stupas which were at one point some of the biggest structures in the world. One brick stupa we went to used to be the 3rd largest structure in the world only after the 1st and 2nd pyramids of Giza.
My best story of the northern tour doesn’t come from the monuments, but from the hotel. During one long day I was resting and my friend left the top half of the room door open. When he left, a monkey jumped through the door and looked at me briefly, then scurried quickly up a chair, onto the top of the TV to the minibar, then stole a bag of nuts, then sprinted out again. He clearly had done this before, and knew exactly where the nuts were. It was a pretty funny progression in my head of “whoa, cool, a monkey in the room! To, “oh crud… how the heck do I get this monkey out of my room” to “that’s awesome! He stole a bag of nuts!” and then finally to… dang… I’m out 400 rupees!
The next weekend the ISLE group had a free weekend so we went up to tea country to Nurelia. This is close to where a lot of American cloths factories are, so there were many vendors hocking cheap clothes. I ended up coming away with a nice polartech for about 12 dollars. The next day we went on a tour of a tea plantation, and had some very good tea. It’s official, I am addicted to tea. The other day I didn’t have my afternoon tea, and developed a headache an hour later. I drank some tea, and the headache was gone soon after. I don’t think I’ll be able to find tea as strong or as fresh in America, so I think I’m setting myself up for disappointment when I come home.
Last weekend, we went to Nilambe meditation center, a retreat place where people go to meditate (as the name indicates). It’s a nice spot as far as the view goes… on the side of a mountain with good places to see both sunrise and sunset, and I meditated, which was a nice relaxation… for the first hour. We spent the night, and in total the people have about 6 hours of meditation… I can only take so much sitting in silence, doing absolutely nothing. Many of the group members shared the same feeling… especially when they had us wake up at 4:45 for yet another meditation session.
Everything is going well here, and I’m still enjoying it a lot. Our regular class schedule just started last week, so I’ve begun my politics course. It’s really interesting, because I’ve never studied much about politics in a 3rd world country. It’s much different… I never thought I’d actually look forward to getting back to the comforts of the American government system. The government here works entirely based on cronyism (even more than the US) and the heads of parties have all of the power, and the members of parliament are forced to vote how the party says, or else they won’t be allowed to run in the next election. I’m setting myself up for a huge digression into the politics of Sri Lanka… but I’m already over my page limit here.
This weekend we go on a trip to the south to Kataragamma and Galle, then swing up back through Colombo on Sunday for dinner. We leave at about 545 Friday morning and get back Sunday night around 9. I’m more concerned about the getting back at 9… that’s seriously infringing on my normal bedtime here (930 or 10 usually)
Take care all, and I’ll try to send another one in a shorter period of time, |
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| woot. |
[Feb. 13th, 2008|01:45 pm] |
Hey all!
This has been the best week and a half of my life! And there’s still plenty to come! Everywhere we go in Sri Lanka, there’s a new view and some more incredible people. They’re all so friendly, even if they call us “sudus” (white people) behind our back. They hardly ever see Americans so they people will run out to their front porch and wave wildly, or smile largely at us… when we say some Sinhala, they’re so thrilled that we can speak some Sinhala that their faces light up and they start talking really excitedly to us (at which point we have to inform tthem that we don’t understand much, but we are learning). After that, they will try to teach us words.
The best example of this was when we visited a school yesterday. The system is set up like the British system,. So we were led around by the head prefict. All the children would stop what they were doing and press their faces against the glass and get really excited… I’m sure the teachers were thrilled.
My host family is amazing, and the food is by far some of the best food I’ve ever had. I’ve gotten used to incredibly spicy dishes, and being practically a vegetarian (my amma and apuchi both don’t’ eat meat). I got matched with a perfect family. Theyr’e really friendly, and their family’s are very political. My amma’s brother is the governor of the province we live in, and her uncle was the head of the military. I cant’ talk to her from 7:30 to 9:30 on weeknights though… that’s her “teledrama time” where she watches soap operas… they’re addicted to them here. My apuche is one of the nicest people I have ever met, and will sit down and talk for hours about politics and he has very strong opinions about everything. He is obsessed with Singapore… his son lives there, and he will often make comments when he sees something awry and say “In Singapore, this would never happen!” My favorite example was when we were at the elephant orphanage with all these birds around. His comment was “in Singapore they shoot the crows!” I was a little taken aback
For our break my family took me to the elephant orphanage… there were about 40 elephants there, so I saw them bath, eat, and wallow in mud. It was amazing… I think I took about 80 pictures on that alone.
Tomorrow we leave for a week trip to the northern country up by Anarandpurah, where we will explore some relics and religious structures there. We are being led around by our material culture teacher, who is also the head of funding for historical sites… in other words, we get unprecedented access. It should be a lot of fun.
I have so much more to say… but I promised I’d keep these to under a page.
I’ll write again sometime after we get back from our trip.
Hope all is well,
Chris |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 2nd, 2008|05:28 pm] |
Hey guys... this has to be REAL short because I've gotta get back to Sri Lanka life... It's amazing and 4 months will not be NEARLY enough time here.
I jsut wanted to let anyone know who's payign attentino to Sri Lankan news that I'm doing fine. there was a bombing 2 hours notrth of where I'm staying (Kandy) and the bus originated from Kandy. Monday there's a UNP (the majority party) rally here for independence day, and we have to avoid the town because there's a good chance something might go down here or soemwhere else. the bombing was in response to a government invasion in the north.
Honestly, I still feel completely safe here. I know all teh people back home only hear about the bombings... but tehy're few and far between, and the west paints a horrible picture of Sri Lanka that's no the case. We're being careful, and no llonger allowed to take public transportation.
Sorry, taht's all I have time for now... More so I can't organize all my thoughts here, becasue SO MUCH amazing stuff has happened here... SO I'll get time in about a week to compose all my thoughts and let you know what's up! I meet my ghost family tomorrow... terrified and excited all at once!
I could see myself living in a place like this and being completely happy
take care all! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 3rd, 2008|11:32 pm] |
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Well... my annual political post post-election. Oh well, I think I did everything I could do in order to get Edwards to win. I earned Edwards an extra delegate in my precinct, and I'm proud of it. But man, it hurts to lose this bad... We had alot of hope in the past month, and none of that came to fruition. So that sucks. On the bright side: I'm now free to hang with people!! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 13th, 2007|02:22 am] |
Hmm this is a tad emo, but I feel like "Golden Slumbers" really matches my mood right now. I jsut cant' really jsutify any of the work I have to do before the end of the year, and it's slowly weighing down on me. I'm really frustrated with myself, and I can't help but feel I don't really make much of an impact at all on anything. With that it's really hard to justify doing this work, or fuck, even not sleeping until 5 pm (like I did today) I dunno. I'm really appathetic right now.
Yep, this is really pathetic.. but meh, I haven't been down and open about it in awhile, so why not now? |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 26th, 2007|09:21 am] |
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Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. My computer's not responding... Iv'e done diagnostics and the best things that's come out of it is I know WHY my computer will never work again. Goddamnit. I can't live without my computer!! |
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| ITS A GIRL!!!! |
[Nov. 1st, 2007|05:04 pm] |
YEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEyYEY YEY YEy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
teeehee and I get another one in a couple weeks!!! pictures later...
Also: she has no name yet... it'll come so right now.. yey for noname baby!! |
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| dumbfounded |
[Oct. 10th, 2007|11:05 am] |
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Oh...My...God!!! I found out when I talked to my dad today that I was INCREDIBLY close to sitting with Elizabeth Edwards at the U of I-ISU game! My dad heard from a friend that they wanted her to go to the game... my dad said he had a ticket. He told the Edwards campaign... So it was set up, but then she ended up sitting somewhere nicer... but DANG! I was incredibly close to being next to Elizabeth Edwards for the football game! Sometimes, my parents can be awesome. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 19th, 2007|03:21 pm] |
[date]
I GOT MY PICTURE TAKEN WITH JOHN AND ELIZABETH EDWARDS!!!!!
Today was an awesome, exhausting day, but not jsut becasue of that. We went down to Des Moines at about 230 in the morning for the debates to set up for sign wars (basically each campaign tries to get a good cnn shot, lots of cheering when candidates come for the debate, and good other shots too) We all chilled until about 630, then did about an hour and a half of cheering. It was cool to meet other Edwards people... and the energy when Ewdards drove by was great... and our cheers beat out other campaigns, which only offereed thigns like "Obama 0-8" and "D O D D Chris DODD!" We had such gems as:
"We love elizabeth, we love john, we want to see them on the white house lawn", and
"e-d-w-a-r-d
s, oh yes cuz john is the best" ... kind of catchy and to the tune of hello, I love you won't you tell me your name" It was alot of fun... if not ridiculously exhausting. Alas, a red bull was enough to make the morning come without a nap. I lost my voice.
The debate party was great too.. there's nothing like watchign the debate with other people who laugh at everything Mike Gravel says. A highlight came when They panned over the audience... and even the audience was laughing at good ol MG. Also, other highlight was Bidemduring his final speech... a fly landed on his white hair, contrasting nicely with the black of the fly as it slowly climbed down his head. youtube and Jon Stewart, here you come.
Finally... I got to get my picture with Johhn and Elizabeth.. hadn't been able to do that yet. and I'm really happy I did. Hello finally having a pictyure of me be my profile picture on facebook! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 14th, 2007|05:06 pm] |
i feel itd be a cri,e to not post here... but itll be short because i hate french keyboards!!! the a is in the entirely wrong place... so its a pain.
ahhh europe this place rocks... but computers are confusing... the computer has just enough keys out of place to ,ake typing i,possible zithout looking at the keys (why the hell is q in the home row!!!!)
but yeah this rocks... my time heres amazing!!!! cept ny trip up... weather made ne nuiss ny flight... i was rerouted through munich... and that flight was also cancelled... thank GOD sole people spoke english!!!!!!!! but yeha its awesome... and todays bastille day which apparently has somze of the best fireworks on earth so im excited
we chose between 2 apartments before coming and decided on the one with more night life.... which means apparently the moulin rouge... and other questionablz shops. its adult shop center... kinda funny. ok typings too frustrating to continue... but ill catch you soon
i also did a bike tour... saw notere dame have NOT seen the hp movie. this is great. its almost worth the fact im in a city of 200 when HP 7 comes out so i wont get it til u guys are done:) |
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| Sometimes it just happens... |
[May. 19th, 2007|04:08 am] |
Tonight was one of those nights I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. For so many reasons. It was one of those nights where things fell into place in a way that could only happen if it was meant to happen. It stunk, because it was the last night here, so it was a bittersweet joy. The greatness was not in the partying since 11 am, or the 1 am barbecue, or the wal mart trip, or the harris party... it was the closure with a best friend who I hadn't caught up with in awhile. Just made me really happy, and walking back just felt surreal.
So my week was strangely satisfying... I had alot of projects and a test. I felt overwhelmed and antisocial. I had no reason to complain, because I did it to myself... I sacrificed this weeks laziness and it manifested itself in week's no choice but to pound my head repeatedly against the keyboard until a paper came out. So yeah it was stressful... but in a satisfying way... I felt very accomplished. I took a paper and decided I was unsatisfied and wrote the entire thing again... I took a linear project which other people gave up on and perservered and figured out every problem... I flunked a comp sci test, and I can't justify that one... but It's a learning and character building experience... RIGHT?!!?
So yeah, it was a great time... I look forward to seeing everyone soon! IT's goign to be a great summer, I can feel it! |
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| woot |
[Apr. 25th, 2007|01:41 am] |
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Life is good! Paper's coming together, Comp sci is comprehendable, and life is spiffy. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 18th, 2007|01:11 am] |
So, I'm not sure whether you have heard or remembered me telling you about this earlier, but they found the body of the Grinnell student who went missing. He was found in a pool at the country club about 2 blocks away from Grinnell College. I'm not sure how I really feel about it. It's good to have closure for Paul's family and friends.
We had a candlelight vigil tonight for both the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting and for Paul. It's really refreshign the community of support that is here on campus. I love the amount of people who showed up, whether they were directly effected or not. I guess i don't exactly know how I feel, which I kind of feel bad for because I like being open about that kind of thing... but I'm kind of numb right now. It's not flashbacks to Stephen, direct empathy for Paul nor the Virginia Tech shootings, so i'm kind of distrubed... I can usually find where these types of feelings are at least partially coming from. Despite this great community and caring, I feel like something great is missing and I'm feeling kind of hollow right now and dont' know why. It's a really frustrating feeling.
Oh well, I shoudl eventually get some sleep.
On a final note, please know I love you all, and I hope nothing ever happens to any of you. If life is down and you feel there's nothing, please always remember you have the support of others. A strong network that you may nto always know is there... but it's always there. I love you all bunches, and know things will work out for everyone.
WOw... this is a loopy post... so be it. |
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taintedshadow's journal
anxious