The Perfect Surprise

Sorry about the delay in posting. It's been one ridiculous week and I'm just now recovering, but that's another story.

Last weekend, I went to California.

Yep. You should have seen the look on Dr. Williams' face when I told him in class Thursday that, "Je vais aller en Californie ce week-end."

My mom turned 50 on Tuesday, Feb 5, and Uncle Mike had a crazy idea. Back in November, he emailed me with the beginnings of his birthday plans for my mom. The whole family (and several friends) were in on it. And everything went off without a hitch.

I flew into LAX Friday evening, where Uncle Tim picked me up and drove me to Uncle Pat's house where I spent the night.
The next day, we decorated the house, and everyone showed up around 11:45.
At 12:30 my mom, who thought she was coming up to sort photos (and couldn't understand why the whole family wanted to tag along), got to the house. I can't tell you just how excited she was when she walked in to her whole family shouting "surprise!" but it sounded awesome.
She seemed a bit bemused, though, when they made her open presents first. The first was a beautiful claddagh necklace and earrings. The second was a huge box that I jumped out of when she started to open it.
That expression of surprise, I can tell you all about. And I must say, her face was priceless. I think it's safe to say that Uncle Mike is pretty good at this whole surprise party planning thing.
I went back home with my family for the night and left the next morning out of Lindbergh Field.

So that's what I did with my weekend. Everything went perfectly, except that I finally decided to get sick Saturday morning.

Oh! And Milo Ventimiglia was on my flight from PIT to LAX. I didn't talk to him, but he was there!

And I've a few more posts bouncing around in my head, so you'll hear form me again soon!

God bless you guys,
-Rebekah

Plato is hard to understand, but really fascinating once you internalize what he's saying.

Aristotle's writing style is much easier to understand, but the guy's just plain boring.

Bug

There's a flu going around campus. More than half of the students are either sick or recovering. Fortunately, most people are still able to walk around and go to class, but I can't imagine it's fun. Now that my roommate is under the weather, I think I'm the last one on my wing who's avoided getting sick. I overheard someone saying that her early experience students had all come down with it. They're calling it "the plague". I just hope the entire city doesn't get sick.
So, with this warning, hopefully you'll be able to buy all your canned soup and ginger ale before it spreads all the way to California! :)
God bless,
-Rebekah

My very own very first youtube video!

Yes, that's right! I mashed up some photos and music and and cute little clip of Beth, and I did it!
Dad had suggested that we make a video because of the way the Continental Divide photos look when viewed consecutively. There were others on my computer that worked sort of almost as well. So, after several hours of drag-and-drop-and-resizing, this is what I came up with:



So, whatcha think?

Unprecidented Phenomena, Long-Expected Guilty Childhood Pleasures, The Oh So Very Very Wrong... and More!

First off, yes. I do realize that I have yet to comment on either the Tridentine Mass or the March for Life, but I refuse to let that stop me any longer from blogging about so many interesting little things...

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First off, we're having some foul weather today. Last week it snowed and was cold and all that fun winter stuff. Then it was 45 degrees out for two days which melted the snow. Then it was 23 degrees for two days which froze the ground, puddles, etc. Then, last night, there was some sort of rainy, sleety, hail-type stuff which crunched underfoot on the way out of my Theology night class. This morning, that turned into rain and slushy stuff underfoot, made worse by the fact that the ground is still pretty frozen, causing more flooding than usually on sidewalks. I've never seen weather quite like this before. It's quite an experience.

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I found out just today that the third of Paolini's books has a cover, title, and release date! (and an amazon page)

Probably most of you have either heard of or read the Inheritance Trilogy by the boy writer, Christopher Paolini. I read the first two at the recommendation of some friends and siblings. They are standard, mid-quality, children's fantasy fare. I have long said that they were and are so popular only because Paolini started Eragon when he was 15 years old. I personally don't think his writing style has improved much since then, but the books are an enjoyable read, especially for children (and I do enjoy reading lighter things now and then for a break.)

Now, reviews aside, I was very impatient to see the third book come out. I didn't read Eragon till Eldest had already been released, so I had to sense of how long it was between books. Eragon was published in 2002, and Eldest in 2005*.

There had been much internet buzz over the potential name and cover of Paolini's third and final book. Now it's resolved, and it looks like the series won't be over till its author is about 40. I recommend you watch the video on the amazon page for details, but, to put a long story short, there will now be 4 books in the Inheritance Cycle because of poor planning.

All I really wanted to say was that the release date for Brisingr is September 20, 2008. amazon.com has a really good price on the preorder. Only $15.68 after discount and 5% bonus savings on preorders. That's off the list price of $27.50. I was impressed.

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In other news, I got an email from our residence director the other day that included the following little gem:

" BYOB (bring your own bowl) - Thursday, February 7th. Come to 3rd floor at 9:00pm for
fellowship over a bowl of cereal! (we also get lactate milk for those who need it) "

Oh so very very wrong!

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I also wanted to make it clear that I will no longer be intimidated by disparaging remarks about my multilingualism. I will stand up against anti-Spanish-class sentiments. I will sing Juanes in public and darn the stares. I will compose facebook statuses in French and not be intimidated by wall posts.

I AM LINGUIST, HEAR ME ROAR!

Thank you.

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Finally, I leave you with this simple thought...

Isn't it great that google is non-partisan?

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As I was writing this, the network all over campus totally crashed. They were very nice about it, though, and sent us all an email letting us know that we didn't have internet.

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God bless,
-Rebekah