My dad's gone missing....

It was Saturday night up at my dad's house, and we decided to go to Target to buy a DVD. We get there, eventually find the movie, and just kind of wander around some more. Cody and I were looking at a sweet speaker system, and our dad was just an aisle farther down. When we looked in the aisle, he was gone. Since he was holding the movie, we figured he might've gone to the registers. After walking past each and every one, he wasn't there.

We decided to entertain ourselves a little bit. There were two security guards standing by the entrance, so we walked over there. We put worried looks on our faces and said to the male guard, "We need your help. Our dad walked off somewhere in the store, and we can't find him anywhere. He's been diagnosed as clinically insane, so we need to find him quick."

Needless to say, our dad wasn't too happy with us, but at least we got a good laugh out of it.

Pre-Christmas school day

For the last two years, my school's choir teacher has played Christmas music in the Commons on the last morning before Christmas break. It's kind of a cool idea and all, but very random. I never really thought much of it meaning anything until I walked into the school today. As soon as I heard the music, I realized how close Christmas actually is.

I had one-act play auditions on Monday, and I ended up with 4 different parts in the play. We're doing "High School for Dummies." Sadly, our competition date is the Saturday of the upcoming TEC weekend, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to Rochester in time for Saturday night's festivities. I'll definitely be praying for everything to go well.

That's all I've got. Not sure how much I'll be online leading up to Christmas, so I'll say this now:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Remember the real reason for the season. We celebrate Christ's birth through love, not gifts. Be joyous this season, and don't worry about being politically correct in wishing people a good holiday. If they're offended by you saying Merry Christmas, they can feel free to say Happy Hannukah or Happy Kwanzaa right back to you.

God bless you all!

Mariah's English assignment

I had nothing interesting to blog about tonight, so I chose to use Mariah's English assignment as a quiz of everyone's knowledge. Figure out which common phrase corresponds to each of these:


1. Surveillance should precede saltation.

2. Freedom from encrustation of grime is contiguous to divinity.

3. The stylus is more potent than the claymore.

4. Eschew the implement of correction and vitiate the scion.

5. All articles that coruscate with resplendence are not truly auriferous.

6. A revolving lathic conglomerate accumulates no diminutive glaucous saprophytic plants.

7. Missiles of ligneous or petrous consistency have the potential of fracturing my osseous structure but appellations will eternally be benign.

8. Pulchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity.

9. Exclusive dedication to necessary chores without interludes of hedonistic diversion renders John a hebephrenic fellow.

10. Individuals who make their abode in vitreous edifices would be advised to refrain from catapulting petrous projectiles. [Hint: Chuck Norris does both]

11. Neophyte's serendipity.

12. Members of the avian species of identical plumage congregate.

13. It is fruitless to become lachrymose over precipitately decanted lacteal fluid.

14. Scintillate scintillate astral minific.

Bob and Giesenbauer

I noticed Tim's random Threeve in his own blog comments that stated how long it had been since Bob had commented him. That made me wonder how long it had been since she had commented my blog also. How long has it been? Counting this post, it is 15 posts and 117 days. I'm pretty hurt by that.

I also learned yesterday of a website offering random "Bad Commercials" for radio broadcasts. I decided to fill in the questions and see what they had to say about Giesenbauer, Inc.



Hey!

It's the season for sheer randomness, and Giesenbauer, Inc. is your sheer randomness headquarters!

Are you really, really gullible? Then call us today at 507-317-2081!

Yes, it's that time of year again at Giesenbauer, Inc., where you'll find Death second to none.
So for all your sheer randomness needs, call us at 507-317-2081!

This offer is illegal in every state except Minnesota and Iowa, and you won't believe our friendly, knowledgeable staff!

Yes, you've got us screwed six ways to Sunday, because we've got to get rid of this crap before the auditors discover our two sets of books.

So hurry on down to Giesenbauer, Inc., where we haven't had an employee freak out and shoot innocent customers for over 2 months and with prices so low, you know our stuff must really suck!

So call now at 507-317-2081. That's Giesenbauer, Inc.. 507-317-2081.

And remember our motto, "But our shenanigans are cheeky and fun..."

That number once again is 507-317-2081!
That's 507-317-2081!
507-317-2081!

"Chem is cool....if you like drug addictions...."

Chemistry has been quite the interesting class these last couple days. Yesterday, we spent a good amount of time learning how to build molecules of caffeine, nicotine, codeine and cocaine. Great fun! We then spent almost an hour talking about 1 of the 5 groups we intended to cover in our notes. Completely avoiding ethers, aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids, we spent that hour taking about alocohols. Think that says something about where some people's minds are?

Today we had a "Code Red" drill test during chemistry, and it was decided we should definitely be in chem if there is ever a real "Code Red" threat because we have a small storage room to hide in. When we got back out from the storage room, we finished covering those groups that just happened to be left behind yesterday (and of course people had to complain that it was taking forever to get through them....and whose fault is that?).

That's my rant on the randomness of chemistry these last two days, and I'll end this blog with a quiz. Name each of the following four compounds by their more common (household) name:

1. CH2O -- methanal
2. (CH3)2CO -- 2-propanone
3. C2H4O2 -- ethanoic acid
4. C4H8O2 -- butanoic acid (this one's a tough one)

Battle With Worry

The above title is actually the title of my first completed composition essay (remembering an event). I have nothing better to blog about, so I'm posting it on here. It's roughly 4 pages on Word, so it's a little long (just a heads up).



Of all the adult women I have ever met, I see my mom as one of the strongest; her mentality, emotion, and will power are all characteristics that show her tough shell. Only something like a natural disaster would ever cause me to feel like I needed to worry about my mom. This last summer happened to be when she first encountered the dilemma of “her boys,” my brother Cody and me, having to worry about her, and it happened to be one of the most practical yet scary reasons there could ever be.

On June 2nd, like most other lazy summer days, I was lying in my bed when two soft knocks sounded at my door, followed by an immediate turn of the doorknob. Since my mom has been the only person ever to enter my room that way, I knew she was the one behind the dark wooden door. Her expression as she opened the door instantly told me she was not having a good day. Knowing my brother Cody lie in his bedroom next to my own, my mom sat down, called his name, and asked him to shut the door after he entered.

Sitting down next to me on my bed, my mom began to tell us about a former problem she encountered. Some years ago, a lump had developed in her breast. She did not go to the doctor at the time to have it examined, and it eventually disappeared and ceased to bother her. Then, just a few months before this conversation, my mom had discovered a new lump. At first, she thought nothing of it, but she finally decided to hear the doctor’s opinion. That led to the conversation in my bedroom.

With her voice starting to crack and tears forming in her eyes, she said to my brother and me, “This time it’s cancerous.” I could not think of any time when I had seen my mom shed a single tear, so when she started crying, I knew she feared what would happen. Silent and worried, Cody and I choked back our emotions as we had been doing in tough situations for as long as I can remember.

After a few minutes in silence, the small refrigerator in the corner started with a hum, and my mom continued the conversation by telling us not to change our plans for the summer. Cody would still be traveling on a theater tour, and I would still be camping at Whitewater State Park with my youth group. Unlike my brother, I could have easily changed my vacation plans in order to be with my mom at the hospital in Mankato during her surgery. Instead, she insisted I still attend my camping trip, just as I expected.

Seeing as though Cody and I are both devoted to our belief in God, Mom asked us to pray. Not only would we pray that her surgery succeeded in its purpose, but we would also ask God for peace, courage, and a positive attitude for the three of us. Knowing we also had a large Christian community to utilize because of our involvement in Teens Encounter Christ, Cody and I later decided to ask those friends, through phone calls and e-mails, to pray for our family.

Finally, my mom exited my bedroom without saying another word. Cody, wearing a black t-shirt and the jeans he borrowed from me, scratched his chin as he continued to sit on my bed solemnly. I quickly realized he was having the same issue as me; we both wanted to say something, but neither of us had the right words. My head buzzed with loud thoughts that muted out the sounds of the television. Before either of us could think of the words that we hoped to say, Cody left in sheer silence.

Nearly two weeks later, I reluctantly started my camping trip. The hilarious car ride to Whitewater took my mind away from the bad news, and few thoughts about the situation entered my mind until Wednesday, the day my mom scheduled her mastectomy. Because of my worry, my breakfast that morning lacked taste. I knew my grandma had accompanied Mom to the hospital, but I still felt uneasy about not being there. “How will I know everything is going well?” I thought. Luckily, the arrangements to receive phone messages from my grandma were in order, but I had to travel almost four miles into the town of Alba to get a signal on my cell phone. My youth director took me aside on that warm Wednesday morning to pray with me; the words, “she is a strong woman,” flowed from her mouth during the prayer and sang to my heart like a beautiful chorus. An idea arose as we were finishing the prayer, and I chose to hike to a glorious cliff, appropriately named Inspiration Point, later that afternoon. I only hoped my phone would receive even a slight signal there so I could check my messages. My phone showed enough of a signal to make calls, but my voice mailbox was void of any message from my grandma. The desire to know whether the surgery ended successfully or not burned inside me like a wildfire; I called my grandma to find some information.

“The doctor said everything was perfect. They took out some lymph nodes, and they’re pretty sure they got all of the cancer,” Grandma said quickly. She then added, “Your mom’s asleep right now, but I’ll have her call you as soon as she’s awake enough to talk.”

Two hours later, as the sun began to set, I was still perched on the edge of Inspiration Point, sitting quietly in the presence of God, fighting the tears of joy creeping to the rims of my eyes, and glorifying the fact that the surgery went well. The steady vibration of my cell phone in my pocket brought me out of that euphoria and back into reality. A huge smile stretched across my face as I answered the call from Mom. After deciphering her quiet, raspy voice for fifteen minutes, she told me it was time for her to receive a check-up and some medication, ending our conversation.

Before she lost all of her hair, my mom donated it to Locks of Love. The rest began to fall off of her head quickly, so she chose to have her head shaved instead. Seeing my mom without any hair continues to be somewhat of a strange experience, but I know she is bald because of the treatment that is helping her. Anxiously, my mom counts down the days until the end of her treatment, and at the same time I think about the reasons she, Cody, and I stayed so strong during the ordeal. My mom admits she would do anything in the world for my brother and me and that she sees us as the most important part of her life. Similarly, my brother and I have had to grow up fast and be strong adults because we have lived without a father figure in our house for nine years. She may have to “worry about her boys” more than we need to worry about her, but I believe Cody and I have an unending need to protect our mom during troubling times because we had to rise to the level of mature adults quickly. Mom has continuously shown a strong mentality, emotions, and will power, but all in all she stays strong for “her boys.”

I made the switch

I decided to switch over to Blogger Beta. I had wondered about the changes for a while, and tonight I finally checked it out. I liked some of its easy features that make it much more like Wordpress now (sorry, Greg). The most interesting feature I found is the one I'm using right now. I think it might've been available for the original Blogger, but I just never found it. What is it? Well, I'm typing this blog via e-mail. Gmail to be more specific. I love Gmail (thanks for the invite way back when, Bob!)....

"Run, freedom, run! You gotta run away!"

Tonight was the last of my performances for the 2nd play I've ever been in. I joined the Town & Country Players in their dinner theater show. It was "Earth So Rich the City Grows," and it told the story of how Blue Earth was started. We had some interesting songs, but they weren't all that exciting. It was a really lame show, but at least the costume was more comfortable than the one I wore for "Once Upon A Mattress."

On that note, and continuing with the musical aspect of this blog, I struck up a conversation yesterday with the guy who directed our school musical. I asked him if he had ever heard of the Broadway show "Avenue Q," which is basically an adult version of Sesame Street. He had, and we talked about it for a few minutes (and sang some of the songs) before he introduced me to "Urinetown." It's about a city where a drought occurs and people can no longer own personal toilets. They must pay a fee to use a public restroom, and if they get caught urinating (or deficating) anywhere else, they are sent to Urinetown.

I must admit, it's a strange concept. I borrowed the soundtrack from Kurt, and it has some good songs. All in all, I like it. It would probably be an interesting show to see. He said it was the only one he saw while he was in New York, and he really enjoyed it.