I'm on spring break, and I am loooovin' it. :) I'll be back after the 4th of April.

Posted by Joanna at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Instead of going into detail about everything that's happened lately, let's just summarize with categories and bullets:

LOUISVILLE
- delicious Qdoba dinner with Ben, Ben's mom, Pat
- delicious steak dinner with Ben, dad
- church service, saw John and James
- Ben taught me to drive a stick ^_^
- delicious meatloaf dinner with Ben, Ben's mom, Pat
- quick trip to Taipei Cafe for delicious chinese food
- shopping with Anna
- craving for fried chicken

KENT
- Ben comes up
- classes
- delicious chinese dinner with Ben, Ashley, Amy
- toured Downtown Kent (all 4 blocks of it)
- semi-delicious green tea bubble tea for me, delicious White Russian bubble tea for Ben
- craving for fried chicken

CLEVELAND
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; made it to the entrance
- walked around harbor behind Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- DEAD FISH, LOTS OF DEAD FISH
- Tower City Center
- craving for fried chicken; food court KFC only serves original recipe
- delicious japanese fast food dinner

back to KENT
- Princess Bride, Donkey Konga, Rolling Rock
- Ben leaves
- craving for fried chicken

COLUMBUS
- Casey's 21st Birthday
- delicious Bento GoGo bento lunch box
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- made delicious greek pasta for potluck party with David
- potluck party most awkward event of my life
- VG Cats
- severe craving for chocolate; chocolate run at Kroger
- Wet Hot American Summer, Half Baked, chocolate
- craving for fried chicken satisfied with Popeye's combo #1
- realized that after a week of non-stop fun traveling, only had five pictures of me and David to show for it.

Alright, that's over with. First off, a shout-out to David, my little brother, who turns 20 today. Happy Birthday David! He doesn't read this.

So I just woke up about half an hour ago, at 12:30. And while that's not terribly late by college standards, I always feel awful when I wake up this late. I wake up sore and halfway sunken into the bed, and I feel like most of the day has been wasted. There was a brief period where I would wake up at 10am and go work out, and that felt wonderful! But after all these trips, my clock's been pretty off. Maybe I should start waking up at 8am. The problem is, I just don't have that much to DO. I might have wasted half the day... but I still accomplish everything I need and could ever do. Oh well... I guess I shouldn't complain; I could be sleep-deprived and stressed all the time and have homework or something.

Since I have all this free time, I'm starting to read again. I just finished The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Very quick read, I finished it in about four hours. If you like a heartwarming, hope-filled story, you should read this book. I was so engrossed in the story that when I finished it, I felt so incredibly lonely because it was like Eddie, the main character, was gone. He was in my life for four hours, and then he was gone. Oh well, I guess that's the effect of good storytelling. I don't know what to read next, any suggestions? Some people at that ridiculously awkward potluck party suggested Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice To All Creation, which sounds really interesting. This lady acts as a sex advice columnist for insects and animals, and in turn you get a hilarious biology lesson! You can read an excerpt at the website. It'd be nice to educate myself for pleasure rather than have to for school.

So, spring fever. I've been counting down the days to spring break, which will start this coming Thursday for me. Everyone always goes to Panama Beach or Cancun or some warm summery area, and I've never gotten to do that. And if they don't go to a beachy place, they at least travel somewhere, to NYC or California or somewhere in Europe. What will Joanna be doing? Staying in Louisville. This would usually be fine if anyone, ANYONE was in town, but it looks like it's just going to be me and my dad. I could have gone to Biloxi, Mississippi to build houses or South Carolina with Ashley and Amy, but visiting Ben is a priority for me. Soooo I'm trying to come up with stuff to do at home. Reading is a given... I'll probably end up shopping at some point... watch a gazillion movies... cooking? Maybe I'll just cook all spring break, become a master chef. Mmm actually now I'm pretty excited. I just wish I had someone to cook for. Maybe next year's spring break will be more interesting. Even if no one comes with me, I'm just going to go somewhere ridiculously exotic by myself. Hmph! Maybe I should start working on that bakery I'm going to open. And make a website for it! :)

Okay, by this point I'm pretty much just rambling. I'm really tired of school, tired of not having a car, tired of being jobless, tired of having nothing to do. It's gotten to the point where I've pretty much watched every NCAA basketball game so far, haha. Guess it's time for Joanna to start an RPG or something. Kingdom Hearts comes out soon! And so does Tetris DS! :) Which is just like TetriNET, but not free. Anyone up for a game of TetriNET??

I've rediscovered The Softies. The sound of their music (not their lyrics, some are way sad) describes my perfect escape. I always imagine myself in the middle of a big grassy area, the sun shining down with a gentle breeze, picnicking with a friend. And I'm just lying in the grass and staring up into the endless blue sky, completely content with my life and everything around me. I love spring :) (I think I'm also wearing a polka-dotted dress.)

Listening: The Softies - Holiday in Rhode Island
Reading: Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
Watching: Whisper of the Heart

Posted by Joanna at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Ok ok ok, due to high demand (Anna ^_^), I will provide a legitimate update. Also, my Shakespeare class got cancelled, so now I have a few hours before I leave for Columbus for the weekend. Yay!

First off, an important event. I thought to myself, do I want to start or end this post with something so heavy? I figured that even though what happened is sobering, it's also a cause for celebration, so I will start this post off by telling you. My friend Gabriel died last Saturday morning around 3:30am. His family discovered that he had a brain tumor sometime last summer and it was too massive and in too delicate of an area to operate on . His doctor told him that he had only a few weeks, perhaps a month or two, to live, and ever since then he's been on steroids and radiation (I don't think he had chemotherapy). But more and more months passed and he was still with us, and his mother prayed that he could live to celebrate his 14th birthday, which he did, on December 30th. Miraculously around this time he seemed to be getting better, and everyone thought that a miracle would happen any day now. But then his eyesight began to deteriorate, and then his speech, and eventually I think one half of his body was paralyzed.

My mother always kept me updated with Gabriel's status, but since she left for Taiwan in January, I hadn't really heard anything about him since then. So I went home last weekend with thoughts of Ben, my dad's steak, my own bed, shopping with Anna. On Saturday morning my dad came into my room and gave me a kiss on the cheek, like he normally does before he goes to work. Then he told me, "I wanted you to know, this morning Gabriel left us. He's gone back to the Lord." And then he left the room. This is my first experience with death. My grandfather, who I never really met, died when I was very little, but I only cried because I saw how much my mother was grieving. An old lady at church who my mother frequently visited died a few years later, but I didn't have any personal connection to her. Then at the end of high school, my friend Shawn's mother died. She was very active with our orchestra, but I still wasn't personally close to her. That's about it for my experiences with death. I admit I wasn't terribly close to Gabriel, but yet I was. When his mother first had him, I think she had some personal issues that she had to deal with in her life, so Gabriel, who might have been less than a year old at that point, came to live at our house for a few months. I got to change his diaper and feed him and put him to sleep, and he was essentially a younger brother that I never had. (Though we all know that David is my "real" younger brother ^_^) His mother was always very close to my mother, and over the years we frequently had them over for dinner. Plus, his mother has the same birthday as me, so for the past few years our two families have gone to Shogun to celebrate our birthdays. It was very difficult to see Gabriel turn from a rambunctious, sometimes bratty boy to essentially, a helpless child.

It's awful when terrible things like cancer and tumors happen to young children. You think, what did they and their families do to deserve such pain and hardship? His mother was single, and was already having trouble juggling work and her two children. Now she has to deal with a handicapped child? What about Raphael, his younger brother? How will he deal with losing his older brother, someone who he looked up to? But these aren't the thoughts that we should be thinking. I mentioned that Gabriel's death is also a cause for celebration, at least according to my beliefs. Christians view this life as temporary, just a phase we have to deal with before we go to heaven. We don't view diseases and illnesses as punishment; instead they are just signs that we have to rely on God even more, or else we will have died in vain, for nothing. When my dad told me the news, I cried because of the loss. But then I pictured Gabriel kickin' it with Jesus up in heaven, and I wasn't sad anymore. I had a particular dream a few months back, the only dream I've ever had that really moved me. In it, Gabriel, along with a bunch of other people, had to be taken up to heaven. He looked like he used to, before the medication and radiation. I was crying and trying to say goodbye to everyone that was leaving, and I told Gabriel to remember me when he went to heaven. He told me he would save me a seat :) And then he left. I think after that dream I finally felt at ease knowing what my fate would be.

Well, that's it. I apologize, this came out a lot heavier than I expected, and it wouldn't make sense to follow it up with my bumblings around from the weekend, so I guess I'll save my trips to Louisville, Cleveland and Columbus for the next post. Please also keep in mind that this is only my belief; I am not trying to preach to anyone. Death isn't something to be feared; I feel sorry for the people who spend their days worrying about the "dreaded" day they will be taken away. It is also not a reason to curse God, nor is it God's way of punishing people. All Christians know that they will die, whether young or old, painfully or without suffering; it is only a shame to die without Christ. Gabriel, you will be missed, but we will all be reunited in the future. :)

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." Luke 13:1-3

Posted by Joanna at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

American Politics is so fascinating! For serious. The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court and all of its rulings... I love it! I have no way of explaining this, other than it's really cool to see how the Supreme Court has fine-tuned its beliefs over the past few centuries (sort of), and how the national government is slowly trying to take control of the state governments, and how controlling the government really could be because of the Constitution, and how we have all these rights and liberties but not really and yet everything just WORKS... Okay, maybe not cool, but ...fascinating! ::nerd:: It's like a disaster that might never happen.

--- and joanna finally goes to sleep after studying american politics for 10 hours---

Sorry for that short and stupid post that resulted from last night's haze of consciousness. I am officially American Politic'd out. Oh wait, I need some picture for this post, here, I'll google "FEDERALISM" and let's see what I can find.

Yea, that's nice.

But honestly it is a pretty interesting subject; I think I'll try to take a few more political science classes before I graduate. Which gets me thinking, there are still so many classes that I want to take, like fashion photography, japanese language, a gazillion history courses... What if I still want to take college courses? Can you graduate, and then re-enroll and just take random classes here and there? Or do you always have to have a declared "major" or whatever? What about the parents who "go back to school" and are only taking say, art classes? I know that taking these extra courses will cost money, but if I could, I'd just keep taking courses until I've learned everything that I've ever want to learn; all photography, design, culinary, Chinese and Asian American courses, most history, political science, biology and oh the list goes on. I'm in a huuuuge rush to graduate (which now looks to be around Spring 2009, keep your calendars open) and get a degree, but there's still so much to learn! Argh.

But anyway, I took my American Politics and Sociology midterms today, that was a doozie -.- Art History is on Thursday, which is my faaaaavorite class so I should do spectaaaacularly ^_^ And then I am going to Louisville for the weekend! ...again! Yea I know, I've left almost every other weekend this semester. But that's just it, Kent is so...small! Plus Jackie's going back to Cincinnati for the weekend so I figured I'd hitch a ride and chill with the dad and the bf. Next weekend I might be going to Columbus to celebrate Casey's 21st and see who else is in town, maybe stop at Zen Cha for some delicious bubble tea, mmm. Can't keep me down! Next stop, Hawaii? Iceland??

I'm in a really strange nostalgic mood, we'll see how this develops. I feel like I had something else to say (I've had the MOST bizarre dreams in the past three days or so, even more bizarre than your typical Joanna's-dream fare. Let's just say Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, red vines, pirate ship cabins, goombas and sex.) but I'm bored of the internet. Byebye!

Listening: Bonobo - Dial "M" for Monkey
Playing: Chrono Trigger
Watching: VH1's I Love Toys!

Posted by Joanna at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My new favorite food: string cheese. Why? It's de-licious, cheap, portion controlled, portable, and looots o' fun to eat! (Most of that taken from Marc "Unwrapped" Summers when they unwrapped string cheese). Whoever invented it was genius; I think I'm losing weight simply by eating a stick of cheese instead of oh, oreos for a snack. Which is good, because apparently I said I was going to lose 15-20 pounds by May 11. I'm so stupid sometimes, setting goals for myself and crap.

Well Ashley and I went to Cleveland with Jackie and crew to celebrate Mardi Gras. It was fun, but I definitely spent all yesterday paying for it. Oh Jack, you sly devil you. Though now that I think about it, I have a problem with the idea of Fat Tuesday. You spend the day splurging on whatever because the next day is Lent, when you have to give something up for a number of days. I mean, technically you're satisfying your faith, but isn't it contradictory when you go sin-crazy the day before? Oh well, the Catholic faith seems so dumb to me sometimes. Sorry John.

I had an awful dream last night where my parents decided to relocate Taipei Cafe to Oxmoor. I think I spent the entire dream defending Louisville's downtown and how bad of a mall Oxmoor was. It was stressful. I really need a puppy. >.<

Listening: Kinky - Kinky
Playing: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Watching: Kiki's Delivery Service

Posted by Joanna at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)