Less time = more posts.

I have successfully completed my passport application. I have the ability to fly out of my own country into another, despite the increasing strictures on any sort of travel. And, consequently, where shall I be traveling in a mere ninety-one days? Oh that's right . . . The Bahamas.

Although reaching day ninety-one is not particularly significant, today just happens to be slightly more exciting with the impending arrival of my passport (to adventure!). This is the spring break vacation of my dreams. Had you asked me, the girl from small-town Saskatchewan, if I would be traveling anywhere outside of Canada on spring break, I would have answered a trite "no". Well ha ha! Look at me now! Off to the Bahamas in less than one hundred days with nine of my closest friends to have the greatest adventure.

Speaking of adventures? Now I'm going to do my homework?

--- chRistie

"You huggle a muggle snuggle. Fugly ugly oo."

"chRistie has gone away to do homework. Don't try to come after her. It's like Frodo in the Lord of things... except don't be Sam. And don't try to carry me. This is not the end... there is another path we all must take... to a secret location of homework completion. Peace. ♥ C"

The quotation above is quoted directly from a message that I wrote on my whiteboard before I left to do homework at Starbucks this evening. One, it is now 1:09 am. Two, I did not realize until after I returned at approximately 11:30 pm that what I wrote did not make much sense at all. At this point in the semester, I have a very large number of assignments left to complete. I have five assignments that I must have completed by tomorrow, plus a very stressful paper draft to write by Wednesday afternoon.

I am a very, very happy person; however, I am (underneath the surface?) very, very stressed. Nevertheless, and most importantly, God is sustaining me. That is the only reason I am still breathing right now, and am not curled up in a ball on the floor weeping. Now I must return to reality and the writing of yet another paper. Wahoo!

Love, chRistie

Perpetual neglect.

I promise I am still alive.

It (somehow) is already November.

I have lost the ability to keep my blog up-to-date.

In approximately three and a half months, I will be in the Bahamas.

In approximately five and a half months, I will be a university graduate.

There is currently a power outage on campus, and our power may not be restored for two days.

Sincerely, chRistie

Monsters!

I will admit that I have basically nothing to say in this blog; however, I find the above photo very entertaining, and thus I thought I should share it with the rest of the world wide web. Good idea, no? Oh the things that happen when you are a fourth year university student...

The moral of the story? It is nearly October and I have been overwhelmed by and behind in my classes for a couple of weeks already. Don't get me wrong--I'm certainly loving it. Regardless, I am looking forward to the sabbath I am taking tomorrow. Mmm. Sabbath.

Until then, I am off to Starbucks to churn out papers and projects and analytical responses like there is no tomorrow. And, come to think of it, there isn't really a tomorrow in regards to homework. So. Here I go.

Life is good!

Dream --> Reality.

As of Monday, I started my Education 402 practicum placement. 2.5 hours every week for ten weeks, so definitely not a big deal... you would think. However, this placement happens to be at Langley Fundamental Middle and Secondary School... with the most amazing sponsor teacher ever... who teaches grade 10 English... and will let me observe History 12 and English 12 when she is busy teaching PE or in a prep period. The first day went so incredibly well that I stayed for four hours instead of the standard 2.5.

Wow, and double wow.
I am just so thankful.

I have far too much homework for it being the very beginning of the semester, and thus I cannot justify spending too much time updating this blog o'mine. I apologize to my non-existent readers for my blogging inconsistency... rest assured that my excuses are always good. Being a senior in university does present me with far too many responsibilities. BUT. They are responsibilities I love.

Farewell.
I'm off to nurse a cold, and finish homework for Education 400. And yes, it is after midnight. Why are you surprised.

Oops?

Two months later, here is my (significantly insubstantial) blog update. I apologize if anyone doubted whether or not I was still living, but things have indeed been quite chaotic. I have had many an adventure in the past two months, some of which include seeing the Vans Warped Tour at the Gorge Amphitheatre (teenage dream = fulfilled), and driving down to Oregon for a few days to celebrate the nuptials of two great friends. Innumerable other fun activities occurred, but these beg to be explained in person.

As of today, I have now been moved out of my lovely basement suite for a couple of weeks, back at TWU for Student Leadership Orientation Week and Orientation Week. I absolutely love my job as SOS coordinator, am extremely elated to be living on campus again, and cannot wait to fully immerse my self in the world of academe again. As much as I dread homework, and the many late nights that will undoubtedly ensue, I am incomprehensibly excited for my senior year at Trinity Western University.

Friends? God is amazing.

I am so blessed.

Photo montage anyone? Done and done. :)

Post-mini-golfing fun gangster photo op.

(NB: Notice my Aldo bag? Yeah, I'm so bad.)

Twenty-first birthday celebrations obviously call for limo rentals.

(Sarah, you are a beautiful woman.)

Oh The Fray. Oh Deer Lake Park. Oh Summer

Celebration of Light? Symphony of Fire? Fun fireworks excursion.

Mrs. Natasha Crozier and myself.

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Vans Warped Tour in the Gorge Amphitheatre.

(Love!)

Beautiful ladies, beautiful wedding, beautiful life.

Ultimate cheese.
(This is what happens when everyone starts dating at the same time.)

Two of my favourite SOS coordinator co-workers.
(Sigh. Goodbye red shirt... I shall miss thee.)

Four years and finally a Banana Challenge champion!

Okay. I give up. Find me or give me a call or something if you feel you require more details of the life of Christie. I love you all--you're fabulous. And hey, my apologies if spacing is weird... I still don't understand blogger and all of its intricacies.

I love summer.

Although technically speaking, my 'summer holiday' began more than two months ago, I would argue that the fun is only beginning. I am still hopelessly in love with my job working as a (mock if you must) Success Coach at TWU, procrastinating finishing summer course work, and spending much time with my amazing friends. This weekend in particular stands out as a memorable one, simply because it seemed like a long weekend even though I had the regular Friday evening to Monday morning work-free. But anyway... on with the details and such.

After work on Friday, I checked off another important thing on my "to do" list of life: I went to a major sports event. My lovely boyfriend Graeme and I took the sky train (NB: In my brain, the sky train is synonymous with The Jetsons) to BC Place and watched the BC Lions' home opener against the Edmonton Eskimos. I will readily admit that I am not a very sporty girl; however, watching sports is an entirely different story... especially football and hockey because of my small-town experiences. But even more enjoyable than the game itself was watching the hilariously dedicated football fans around us. I can be pretty dedicated, but I don't know if I'd ever wear a football on my head.

Having returned from the football game via sky train (and realizing that it is much easier to ride a very full sky train with one's boyfriend because holding hands to avoid falling down isn't awkward) at a very late hour, my friend Chelsea and I headed to sleep. After having some glorious sleep in time, doing some laundry, and cleaning my house, Chelsea, Rose and I got pretty and had some quality girl time, and then proceeded along with my beautiful roommate Sarah to go to Vancouver to celebrate our friend Amy's birthday.

Post-getting lost, hating parallel parking and waiting for what seemed like an eternity to get into our restaurant, we spent a glorious hour or two eating what I call 'man pizza' and polishing up our gangster moves. As Liz would say, we were 'straight thuggin'. Thug adventures continued on Kitsilano beach where we encountered a very wet and droppy ocean on the Vancouver coast, and then we rolled out with happy hearts and sandy feet to the home we know as Langley.

Come Sunday, Sarah, Chelsea, Conner, Graeme and I went to church at Parkside (as per regular), and then grabbed some lunch. My lovely Sarah headed off to work as she does seven days a week, and the four of us headed to Cypress Provincial Park to climb a mountain. Despite the warm weather (hence the shirtlessness of the male-types), snow was still very present on Mount Cypress, yet will still managed to reach the summit with relative (?) ease. Props to Chelsea for being the biggest trooper I know and hiking in flip flops. Most memorable = our descent, which ended up being more of a punctuated slide downhill than a standard return hike. I have discovered that a) boys have better balance than girls, b) falling is easier on snow than on rocks, and c) that pants grow longer when wet.

That's it, that's all... that's my weekend. The rest of my upcoming time will be consumed by work and then the remaining summer adventures that simply must be completed (aka: camping, movie marathons, kite flying, et cetera). Despite all of the many difficulties that go unmentioned in this lovely blog o'mine, I am so happy and so incredibly blessed to be where I am in my life... its just mind-boggling.

NB: Football Adventure night coincided with Christie and Graeme Have Been Dating For Four Months night. Sweet.

Indescribable!

Now would be an appropriate time to play some of that traditional "hallelujah!" type music.

Blindside is releasing a five-song EP.

!

I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am about the release of this EP. Cannot. Even. Explain. Last summer, I went through a stage of full out obsession with these Swedish musicians of brilliance, listening to Silence literally every day from May until September. And now, having set the glorious album aside for a number of months, I was greeted with a wonderful message courtesy of MySpace alerting me to the JOY that is The Black Rose EP.

If you haven't heard any of Blindside's musical stylings, please change that.

I started listening to Blindside in my first year of university, having acquired what were then their two most recent albums (Silence and About A Burning Fire respectively) from a couple of friends in the dorm. Largely, I paid little attention to the albums... hard rock-screamo-emo-hardcore WHATEVER wasn't really my style. But things changed? Quickly? I bought their last album The Great Depression when it was released, obsessed a little, and then quickly educated myself in the works of what is now, hands down, my favourite band. Of all time.

Blindside has been a band for almost fourteen years. Five full-length albums, an EP and two re-releases later, they return. I am like a CHILD! I am so excited... excited beyond comprehension. One of my life goals is to see Blindside in concert, and I will legitimately travel overseas to do so if it is necessary. [Yes. I'm aware. I'm crazy.] When (if?) I get a tattoo this summer, it will read "remember every word," which happens to be a portion of the lyrics from one of Blindside's songs that has spoken into my life in the past four years.

I have no articulate words with which to properly express how much I really do love and respect this band. So, now, I'm going to stop blathering like eleven-year-old me would have over *Nsync. Buy the EP. June 27th. Its going to be a happy day for me.

Receiving this musical notification drastically changed my not-so-happy disposition. Hoorah.

Endless Connections

Life is not about toning down and repressing your God-given life force. It’s about channeling it and focusing it and turning it loose on something beautiful, something pure and true and good, something that connects you with God, with others, with the world.

What do you want more?

How can you make your life about that so that you won’t be tempted to give in to this?

To make a very long story short, I just finished (voraciously) reading Rob Bell's newest composition, Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality, and I highly reccommend it. The necessity of sleep does not permit my divulging my many frustrations in regards to the evangelical Christian fear of sexuality; however, let it be known that said frustration most undoubtedly does exist.

Moral of the story? An unwillingness to openly discuss important issues drives. me. bananas.

Why I Love Johnny Depp

By entitling this entry as I have, I am undoubtedly entering the ranks of women of all ages who adore the aforementioned actor, and would gladly throw themselves at Mr. Depp's feet in any and all circumstances. Nevertheless, after a recent expedition to a certain local movie theatre and my subsequent reunion with everyone's favourite pirate, I can no longer allow my sentiments to go unheard (or, rather, unread). Thus, herein follows my confession of sorts--I am a lover of Johnny Depp (in a purely platonic and non-sexual sense of course).

The world loves Johnny, and Johnny loves the world. However cliche it may be for me to say that I adore John Christopher Depp II matters not--his acting prowess and general capability to entertain are enough to not only please me but to allow me to forget the pop culture phenomenon of which I have become a part.

Johnny, Johnny Johnny... what a man. Any individual that can select films such as Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Pirates of the Caribbean only to turn the unsuspecting into blockbusters is a man after my own heart. Johnny's selection of what I have come to recognize as the most obscure characters allows me at least a tiny piece of mind when it comes to the world of film and entertainment.

Johnny Depp made the world love pirates again! He is completely capable of hypnotizing the masses with his drunken swagger and unkempt demeanor... AND magically pulls off black eyeliner (as only a handful of men can). The most memorable line from my experience of At World's End last Saturday is, hands down: "We are having a garden party, and you are not invited." (Sigh. I love witty comments.)

I recall finding myself entirely transfixed by Johnny's role in Edward Scissorhands, as his portrayal of everything broken and untrusted by our twenty-first century culture. Edward broke my heart, but captivated me with a dark beauty that is not found in many films. And even despite my distaste for the disturbing images found in Sleepy Hollow, again I found Johnny Depp to be an inescapable genius of acting. And moreover, his role in Finding Neverland captured the child- and literature-loving part of my heart. It seems as if his talent has seeped into my soul, and every time I think that he has left the limelight of life, Johnny returns--as obscure and brilliant as ever.

I am intrigued by and in awe of Johnny Depp. The films found in Johnny's acting repertoire encourage me on a fairly regular basis that despite the fact that America (and essentially the entire globe) is head-over-heels for our piratey friend, I think I would love Johnny even if he was an award-winning success in the entertainment world. Coming from an obscure musical background, adorned with miscellaneous tattoos of great meaning, holding his children closest to his heart, Johnny Depp has swaggered his way into mine.

An introduction

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.

--- Jack Kerouac ---

After thoughtfully perusing the vast resources of Wikipedia in my quest to know more about those categorized by Robert Inchausti as "subversively orthodox", I stumbled upon the brilliant words of beat poet Jack Kerouac as read above. I am, to say the least, far from being well-versed in Kerouac's compositions; nevertheless, with my brief understanding of and experience with this brilliant writer, I create my own composition and interpretation of this small portion of Kerouac's genius.

Essentially, Kerouac describes what I want to exemplify in my life--complete and utter enthusiasm and commitment to all that it is important to me. I want to live a life of adventure and excitement, and live that life for not only myself but for the glory of God. And, as much as I despise the nasty little arthropods, I really do want to live my life of complete madness as exploding, spider-like fireworks. With all authenticity and truth, I want to live a life of passion and exuberance free from all things commonplace.

Thus, I have come to a place of new things in my life. For the first time in my twenty-one-plus years of existence, I am not living with my parents for the summer. I am an employee of my university, and I am going to spend the next two months empowering first year students to succeed in their post-secondary experiences. Ergo, my own understanding of who I am, where I want to go, and how I want to get there is inexplicably essential to my being an effective TWU staff member. I can't promise that I'm never going to yawn--especially when training calls for being at the school by 8:00 am--but I will vow to do everything with the utmost enthusiasm and fervor for the One that I love.

I, Christie, am mad to live. I am mad to live, mad to talk, and mad to be saved by the saving grace of Jesus Christ. I will burn eternally with mad enthusiasm for the excitement of my future.

NB: Readers of this blog can anticipate very sporadic postings--unless procrastinating is on the menu, I am unreliable when it comes to updating my thoughts. Your understanding is appreciated greatly.