What a GREAT day! It started out on the wrong foot. I had planned on getting up 1/2 hour earlier than usual, because I scheduled an appointment with my advisor 1/2 hour before my first (and only) class today. I ended up sleeping in 1/2 LATER than I usually do, so I was rushing around to get ready. It was a successful attempt, though, because I dried my hair and everything today, and it looked good! Megan called me "Pretty Pants" before chapel, which made me laugh.

I'm not sure why I bothered to set that appointment with Springer, because he is my prof for my class that I had today, and I could have just waited until after class to ask him my question, which is what I ended up doing. Dang, that's a longer-than-usual sentence.

Dad was on campus today. He came to meet with Brent about CPT and his internship, I think. I ended up eating lunch with them, which was nice. We talked about the price of tickets for our trip to Cyprus this summer, which have gone up to almost double what they were 2 months ago. Yeah, he wasn't happy. Oh well.

I have another knowledge quote a friend sent to me today. I'm not sure if he is the one to actually say it, but he gave himself credit for it. He's usually honest, and it sounds like something he'd say:

"Knowledge is the ticket to the train ride that will bring us to the stations of human sensitivity and/or death." - Andrew Taylor

I left campus at about 6:45. I planned on doing some shopping before I went to Encounter. I have lots of gift certificates from Christmas, so I decided to hit up the last of the winter clearances. And hit them up I did. I went with the intention of buying some pants, but walked out of Kohl's with 3 sweaters. My wardrobe is almost officially complete, as I bought my first cashmere sweater. Woo hoo!! It was on sale for $23, which is a steal. Those bad boys are expensive, sometimes running in the multiple hundreds. There is no way I could ever bring myself to spend $300 + on something I'd probably ruin in 2 months. Not going to happen.

Encounter was very good, too. Kalee did an excelent job of speaking. Way to go, Kawee. :) It was good to see Brittany, my favorite ex-roommate (by ex, I mean no longer attending school here. Sorry for any possible confusion Janeen. You are wonderful.).

After Encounter, I went home to show my mom what I bought. My grandma was there, I guess she came up for Jeremy's basketball game. She was staying the night. Seriously, my grandma is awesome. Everybody should meet her. Maybe then you'd have a better understanding of why we all are the way we are.

It's 12:45 now. I'm not very tired. My group interview for the RA positions was moved from tomorrow until Tuesday night. That's good, I guess. At least it means that I can sleep in tomorrow morning. Wheee!! (Greg? Insert the winking smiley face here. You know who you are.)

Janeen and I spent 3 hours last night (from 11 until 2) reading a stupid Spanish assignment. What's worse than devoting my quality IM chatting time (because I am pathetic) to this assignment, was that it was only 8 pages long. I don't know if we just lost all ability to read and understand or what, because we worked on that for a really long time. Of course, we got distracted a little and I was tired, which means I laughed even more than I usually do. The lines started blurring together, too, which made it even harder. BUT! Want to know what was worse than all of this? I know, you are probably thinking, "How could that possibly be any worse? Who honestly wants to devote 3 hours of their night to 8 flippin pages of the mythological beginnings to the Incan empire?" but trust me, it's worse. We didn't even go over it in class today! We touched on the very first part, but that was it. Anybody else peeved? I was.

I ate dinner with Betsy tonight, which was so good! I just love that girl. I like it when we can make time to sit down and chat, one-on-one, instead of in a big group. I mean, I like big groups too (when I'm not shy. Hehe), but usually good heart-to-hearts are more likely to happen in smaller crowds. Two is definitely a smaller crowd.

Tonight in my history class, I found myself having some pretty interesting debates inside my head, so I thought I'd share what I was thinking:

1. Who would I rather be, Alexander the Great or Leonardo da Vinci?

Alexander conquered most of the known world in 10 years time, was an amazing leader, had influence like few others have ever had, had numerous cities named after him, and paved the way for Christianity to spread as quickly as it did. The last thing, of course, he was not aware of doing. On the other hand, he was also seen as a power-hungry, blood-spilling tyrant, who died shortly after acquiring all of his territory, which was split up between his 4 self-seeking generals after his death.

Da Vinci was a genius. He thought of things that people in his day didn't even dream about: he was before his time in almost every area possible. He was an incredible artist, whose famous Mona Lisa is considered to be the most well-known piece of art work ever done. Not to shabby, way to go Leo. However, da Vinci was always viewed as eccentric and flighty, and he rarely devoted enough time to his scientific schemes to see them come to fruition. It's argued that he was more popular after his death that he was before it.

Therein lies my struggle. Why did I choose these two people? I'm not really sure, but whenever I talk about famous people from the past, I usually throw ATG in the mix. We didn't talk about him tonight, so I guess I just find him fascinating. I don't know.

I also thought about the validity of the following two statememnts and which one I hold to more:

"Knowledge is virtue." - Socrates

"Knowledge is power." Francis Bacon

While I was having these fun mental discussions, I still managed to pay attention in class. You should see my notes; they are immaculate. Oh, and I didn't come to a conclusion on either one of these questions I pondered.

I want to crochet something. Anybody want a scarf?

Summit. Enough said.

Today I ate lunch with Megan, Megan, and Brent, who I call Brenital (and sometimes, Brenitalia). Megan Iazeolla called him Focker, because his last name is Faulkner. An old nickname. I put the two together: Brenital Focker. Innuendo, much? I said I never wanted to hear myself call him that again.

I'm thoroughtly enjoying being able to wake up at 8:30 everyday. It's amazing. I can sleep later than that, if necessary, because classes don't start until 9:25 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then 10 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So, in all actuality, I could roll out of bed at 9:10-ish and 9:45-ish and still manage to make myself presentable (as presentable as the hi-I-just-rolled-out-of-bed look can be) and get to class on time. So far this semester, I have done exceptionally well at waking up on time. I'm slow in the mornings, so it's nice to be able to loaf around, especially when Noz stays up all night and decides to take her shower at the exact time my alarm goes off. That's frustrating, but I guess it doesn't really matter. Nozy Noz. She's so great.

I went home to go to church today. Janeen wanted to see the new building, amongst other things. Stroup was there, which was good. She had been in Texas, visiting Andrew since the day before New Year's Eve. I saw her across the lobby, so I walked over to her. After we hugged, I said, "So?" She smiled at me, then pulled a diamond ring out of her pocket. I almost passed out! AAHHHH!! But then, she grabbed my arm and laughed a lot, then said it was fake. No, she isn't engaged. What a horrible trick to play!! She and Andrew bought it at Wal-Mart right before she flew back home, and she planned on tricking her friends who thought she might be coming home with a rock on her finger. But no, it didn't happen. However, it will sometime, soon. She promised I'd be the first one she calls when it finally does. And when that day comes, I will cry like a baby. My little Stroupy is all grown up!! It's crazy to think that I met her when I was a freshman in high school. Some friendships last a lifetime. Of course, six years isn't a lifetime, but she is the closest friend I've ever had. Sigh. Life is good.

It's 3 in the morning. Noz is having a hard time getting over her jetlag. She sleeps all evening, from 8 or so until 2:30, then wakes up. Right now, she is sitting on the floor in the closet, talking to someone in Japan. I love hearing her talk in Japanese. It's beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, a conversation I had earlier tonight tied into a book I am reading, which made me think of this. You know that feeling you get when you see a piece of artwork that takes your breath away? Or when you hear an incredible piece of music? Or when you look up at the sky at night and all you can see are stars? The one you feel when you watch a sunset from the swing on your back patio? For some people, the feeling comes at different times. The ones I listed are what does it for me. It's just this incredible feeling that makes something inside of me come alive. I want to live more like that. It cannot be put into words, and phrases like "wow" and "awe" seem to cheapen this experience. It's like something is calling to the deepest recesses of my heart, wooing me to come out. It makes me want to sing, actually. To sing with my arms back and my chest out. To sing until I am no longer physically able to get any sounds past my lips. Deep calls to deep, I guess. I've been reading a book that my mom bought for me for Christmas. The chapter I read tonight talks about this, which is why I kept thinking about it all night long.

I suppose I should head to bed. Again. I've already tried twice.

I hope what I said about that indescribable feeling makes sense, and that it wasn't just a late-night ranting of a semi-psychotic mind. Even if it doesn't, it does to me, so I am ok with leaving you in a state of confusion. Mayhem. Terror. Chaos. Unrest. Hysteria. Or maybe you just shake your head and say, "Oh, Keenan." That happens.

Baby,
I get chills when I'm with you.
Baby,
My world stands still when I'm with you.

I find myself humming this song every now and then. It's called "When I'm With You," by Sheriff. For a long time, I had no idea who sang it (actually, someone told me it was Styx, but I wasn't sure), until I watched Joe Dirt, and heard it as Brandy came riding up on the horse. I was like, "Whoa! That's that song!" so I came back and looked up the Joe Dirt soundtrack and downloaded it. And now here I sit, singing it. It's fun. It's a good one to listen to when you're driving around. I have a habit of singing as loudly as I can in my car, and I'm sure the people in the cars next to me at stoplights laugh at me, but that's ok. Once, I rolled down my window and sang to the guy next to me. He rolled down HIS window and sang back. Ah, memories.

Speaking of memories... Janeen and I found ourselves at Lake Michigan last night. Our road trip was AWESOME! 12 hours and 361 miles after we headed out, we pulled back onto campus, saying, "We for real just went to Lake Michigan?!" I was thinking, 12 hours for only 361 miles isn't very good, but then again, we stopped a lot. We drove up Indiana 9 toward Sturgis, MI. Once we got there, we decided to head west on Michigan 12, to New Buffalo, which is on the shore of the lake. So we did. It was beautiful! There were huge slabs of ice (of course, it IS January), and the sand was frozen. I caught it on film, too. Yay for videocameras!

After I could feel my hands again, which took a few minutes, we decided to go home. After refueling both the car and our empty stomachs, we headed home. I think that the only thing that would have made the trip better was if my stupid CD player in my car would have worked. Sometimes, it decided to work, sometimes it will only play non-burned CDs, and then sometimes, it is really anal and doesn't play anything. Of course, they day we decide to spend 12 hours in it, the blasted thing opts not to work entirely. So we sang. Mwahaha. Janeen has a knack for harmonizing, which is fine, but it's when she decides to harmoize in a different key that I get all messed up. I ended up laughing more than I sang. She's so funny. I'm glad she likes to be spontaneous, too, because I'm not sure who else I could convince to drop everything and take a drive with me. We've made it a goal to visit all of the neighboring states in the next 2 years. Also, we think it'd be fun to drive to her house, which is a nice 10 or 11 hours away in Buffalo, Minnesota. Mom, I'm home!

As I was typing that, something really weird happened. I heard the sound the phone makes when you press the buttons, 4 times. Like when you make an on-campus call and you just press 4 numbers. I jumped, because it was completely silent in here. I thought Noz must have gotten back from wherever she went. But when I turned aroun, she wasn't there, and the phone was sitting on it's stand. I went over to it and picked it up, but there was no dial tone. I hung it up and still, no dial tone. Eventually, I got one. Weird, eh?