kelsey\’s \”what\’s so great about wordpress\” blog

Waffles (and not the kind you eat with syrup) July 29, 2006

Probably one of the coolest things about my apt in Midland is my cat, Waffles. He came to me by way of my bro Joe, and he survived a trip that including 4 destinations and 2 different vehicles without giving me too much grief. I do have a lot of cat fur in my car, though.

Here are some pictures of the crazy cat:

Back by popular demand July 25, 2006

Ok, the title of this post doesn’t make sense, since I wasn’t gone, but oh well. When have my titles ever made sense?

Oh yeah, it was the whole popular demand thing that made me think of that. People demanded that I post some pictures of my apartment. Actually, it was more like 1 person (maybe 2?) and they asked, not demanded, but demanding sounds better. Anyway, the point is that I’m giving in to these so-called demands and posting some pictures for you RIGHT THIS INSTANT. I took them the first day I moved in (last monday), so it’s changed a little since then, but not a lot. There are less people for sure. And a cat. I’ll have to post some pics of him, too.

Chalso looking a little worn out on the big cool chair that I stole from Amy. As you can see, behind her is my window sill with random pictures Amy decided I needed to have out. And the view through the window is of the ground since I live in the basement. I mean garden level.

This is Amy on the sweet ugly rocking chair. It’s a cool chair — don’t let its ugliness fool you. Note also the tight orange chinese pillows that Amy gave me just for being her sister. I guess that probably makes her cool, eh?

That’s Dad checking out the TV, apparently before the really talkative cable guy stopped by. That’s my $20 garage sale entertainment center, along with a TV provided by the one and only Jason Gaffke. He must be cool, too. Also note the cool llama. He’s from Peru. Again, that was Amy’s decorating, so I’m not sure if it’ll all be that way permanently, but for now I’m too lazy to change much.

That’s my bathroom. Unfortunately you can’t really see the cool towels, but they’re there. I’m still working on getting a shower curtain. Amy gave me half, but I still need the plastic thingy. Hmm, I should get one before I try to take a shower tomorrow. Anyway, I think the bathroom’s a little small, but then again, what do you do in a bathroom that you’d really need a lot of room for? My point exactly. One crazy thing is that the light switch is on the left by the sink instead of under the towels like in my old apartment. It throws me off a lot.

There’s another view of the living room with Chalsie, Mom, and Amy. They (along with my dad and grandparents and later Josh) were all nice enough to help me move in and consolidate all my stuff from 3 different locations. I guess you could say I have a pretty cool family.

And last but not least, there are my grandparents, chillin on a couple of the dining room chairs. Behind them is, surprise surprise, the dining room. It looks quite a bit different now because I have a hutch (with no fancy dishes to put in it) and more chairs. All this cool furniture was donated by my sweet grandparents, including a bedroom set which is not featured in any of the pictures because someone was sleeping in it when I first got out the camera. Oh yeah, there’s Sarah’s room, too, but it’s empty so I didn’t take pictures. And the kitchen. I forgot about that. Ok, so really, this isn’t a good tour of the apartment, but I guess that means you’ll just have to come visit.

I have more exciting things to talk about, but I’m getting tired and I really want to read my book, so I’ll postpone the excitement until a later date (i.e. probably tomorrow). G’nite everyone!

Can’t keep up with all this craziness… July 20, 2006

Wow, I have an apartment now. And a cat. And a cell phone (!). And soon I’ll have a job. When did things start picking up like this?

As you probably know, I’m back from Cleveland. Did I ever tell you about being in Cleveland? It was fun… hanging out with the Benish family. We even got to help paint Rachel’s room and visit an Asian food market. We got some good “ready in 5 minute” bubbles for bubble tea, along with some coconut flavoring. I also found out Will works at a loading dock. At least that’s where I dropped him off for work. Supposedly he’s working in administration at the Cleveland Clinic or something, but I think it’s all a big cover for really just working at a loading dock. Who knows the real story… We also went out for Chinese for dinner one night, where Amy and Rachel attempted to order some things in Chinese and get us some authentic Chinese food. Of course there was more meat than you’d ever get over there and things weren’t exactly the same, but it was all pretty tasty.

After Cleveland we did some stuff. Oh yeah, Friday night I got to hang out a little with Bizzle and Emily. They were in town for the Maritime Festival and they walked up to our house, so we sat on our porch and talked for a while. Heather (from across the street) tried to sneak over and joing us, but I took her home while she whined about wanting to stay outside. Gotta love 5 year olds. On Saturday, we hit up the Maritime Festival for some jet-ski racing action. I like the races where they jump the tires and go up the ramp. We also talked to some people from school that we hadn’t seen in a while… that’s always fun, trying to make small talk. I’m no good at it. An F for me in conversation skills. Our cousins showed up about the time Amy and I decided we needed some slushies, so we ended up getting 8 and carrying them all back to the beach. I had to make Amy start all her sentences with “I’m happy because…” so she wouldn’t be all negative on me. She ended up just complaining anyway, but at least it made us laugh. It was fun seeing the LaValleys again. We watched some more races with them, then headed home for dinner and hanging out before the fireworks. We even got in a couple rousing rounds of 20 questions. Do you realize how hard it is to figure out something like “mario”? “paper” and “a wick” were kind of tough, too. The fireworks were sweet, and I saw even more people I hadn’t seen in a while, along with some I had.

That’s also when I found out that I’ll have a roommate starting in August. Sweet, eh? Sarah’s for sure transferring to SVSU, so she’ll be in the 2nd room at my new apt. I’m pretty excited. We also have a 3rd roommate, in feline form. His name is Waffles. One of Joe’s friends had him but couldn’t take him wherever he was moving, so it was either give him away or put him to sleep. I decided I’d rescue him. He’s a year old, so he’s not quite a kitten anymore, but he’s still pretty cool. And he’s orange.

Ok, I’m getting tired now, so I’m going to end things here for now, but if you want my cell phone number, first you have to give me yours. IM it to me (sekiy82) or email it to me (hillkels@gmail.com) or something. And then maybe (just maybe!) I’ll give you mine.

I burned myself and now it itches July 16, 2006

Hi y’all. No, I have not moved to the South or even visited it recently. That’s just what popped into my head. Scary, isn’t it?

I just wanted to give you a little update of where I really have been and what I’ve really been doing since I last posted… just in case you care and just in case I feel like pressuring someone else to post something on his/her own blog. So let’s see… Last weekend, I helped wire the new church. This guy, Randy, was pretty much in charge and knew what he was doing, and I just assisted and didn’t know what I was doing, but it seems as though most of it will work when we need it to. Hopefully, most of it translates into all of it because I wouldn’t want to make someone do it again. And I just realized that the compost bin is right outside my window, so when the breeze is coming from the north, it smells like rotting food. Coolness.

I don’t remember what I did after working on the church on Saturday… oh, nevermind, my memory has been jogged. Lance invited us over to swim in his pool! I’d never used it before (nor had Amy or Josh, as far as I can tell), but it was a pretty nice experience. Ah yes, the benefits of having friends with pools. Amy’s always into exercise, so we swam some laps, but it’s not quite like back in my days at the IM pool and the CCRB where I could swim miles. Or maybe just one mile. Or a half a mile. Or 2 laps. On Sunday, we got to use a different pool — the Tobey’s. Sarah and I needed to go thru our financial bible study with Mrs. Tobey, but our whole family was invited out to swim/hang out, so Amy and I (and Lance, I think) headed out there, along with two of the MAPS couples. We didn’t even go through our bible study until about 5:40, and then we wanted to leave at 6 to go see Pirates 2, so it was pretty quick, but Sarah and I are fast learners. At least we pretend. Pirates 2 was sweet, but I say even if you know you’re going to have a sequel, you still need to wrap things up a little bit better. I didn’t feel like anything got resolved in this one, but I suppose it’s all part of their crazy money-making scheme.

Monday morning was the most excitement I’ve had in a long time (Note: sarcasm is dripping here) — an eye exam at the eye doctor’s! Yes, fun times were had by all. Actually, I really appreciate my eye doctor because he doesn’t putz around and take forever. He gets right to the point of what you need and gets it for you. They even had my contacts in stock this time! He also seems to be good at “bedside manner” or whatever it’s called when you’re an eye doctor. He talked to Amy about China; he talked to me about U of M, starting a new job, etc. Then he asked if I could help him with a computer issue. At least it was an easy question to answer, but in the future I think I’m going to pretend that my job is something that no one would ever want to ask me about, like cellular molecular biology or chemical engineering or waste management or mortuary science or something. The problem with mortuary science is that if the other person tried to make small talk about it, there’s a good possibility it would be something disturbing and I would pass out and my cover would be blown.

The rest of Monday was uneventful (mostly because I can’t remember what I did), but I do know I burned myself trying to help make lasagna. At least the meal turned out well, and my burn is healing (but itching!). Oh yeah, I also did some “linux speak” to help my dad out over at school. I’m not sure it helped a lot, but it was fun Yes, I just said linux is fun.

On Tuesday, Amy and I decided to make the trip to Cleveland. We had been going back and forth on it for a while, but finally just decided to go. It was a rather unplanned trip, to say the least, but those are the fun kinds. (Planned ones can be fun, too. Pretty much trips are fun.) We called my grandma to see about stopping there, but she wasn’t home and never called us back, so we went to Ann Arbor instead, so I could start the packing-up-my-junk process. I forgot Bizzle had class on different days this term, so she was gone when we got there, but we did get to eat some No Thai, and eventually the Bizzle showed up and we got to talk/hang out for the first time in a while. I also managed to get some stuff packed into the corner of my room, and now our apartment looks even weirder than when Shawsy moved out.

Going to church now, be back later.

New addy… x2 July 11, 2006

Hey, I’m at my new blog address now: http://kelseyhill.blogspot.com

But I’ll also soon be at my new snail mail address, so come visit sometime after next week:

1911 Eastlawn Dr, Apt E2
Midland, MI 48642

Changing locations! July 11, 2006

Hey everyone, this is important if you want to continue reading my blog in the future. I just remembered that I lose all my umich space on the 17th or something, so I’m moving this blog to free hosting by blogger. Thus, the new address will be http:// [something cool here] .blogspot.com. I’ll try to get back to you (or at least update kelseyhill.net) with the new address.

What’s going on? What’s going down! July 7, 2006

How long has it been since I last posted? Over a week? Sweet.

I’m tired. And I didn’t even do anything today. Seriously. Other than talk about mayo.

Amy’s home, by the way. She got back from China sometime while we were in DC… I think maybe Sunday, but don’t quote me on that. Since we only have 3 bedrooms (well, 4 counting the rents), I’ve been relegated to the computer room to sleep on the couch. Actually, I volunteered since I’ll be moving out more permanently in a few days. That seems crazy to say. I’ve realized, though, that other than the sleeping on a couch part, I’ve made a step up from my previous bedroom. I mean this room is easily twice the size of my other room (or at least close to that), plus it’s got a computer in it, and it’s downstairs near all the action. It’s also got a ceiling fan. I’m thinking I should have made the move years ago!

DC was SWEET. Other than the chaperoning part. Which was quite a large part. Ok, rewind. Thursday we (me, my bro Josh, my “sister” Chalsie, and some other people) left for Washington, DC on a bus loaded with teenagers from the surrounding communities. We also joined up with 2 other buses, and we were on our way. I had some reservations before going when I heard that I have three middle school girls in my room along with Chalsie, but everyone seemed innocent enough on the bus ride, and other than feeling sleep deprived, things were going well.

And don’t get me wrong, the conference was really cool. There were some pretty cool speakers, although don’t ask me to name them. The only name I actually remember is Louie Giglio, and I don’t even know if that’s right. Oh yeah, these two guys named Ted and Lee were also there. They did short skits as two of Jesus’ disciples (Andrew and Peter, I think), and they were pretty funny. And talented. And the bands were SWEET. TobyMac concerted (let’s pretend that’s a verb) the opening night, and over the course of the conference we also got to hear/see Superchick, Hawk Nelson, Sanctus Real, Bethany Dillon, and Jeremy Camp. Guess who led worship while we were there? The David Crowder Band. (Or was it Jimmy Crockett?) Yeah, it was sweet.

We also did some sightseeing, which was nice. A little less rushed than the 2 hour parking meter tour of DC that Melissa, Bizzle, and I did two years ago, but a lot hotter! We got to take in some monuments, Arlington, the Museum of American History (or something like that), and the Holocaust Museum. Everything was cool. I took lots of pictures (what’s new?) of people re-enacting the monuments and of random graves at Arlington and the changing of the guard and some interesting relics at the American History museum. The Holocaust museum was very… [insert adjective here that refers to making you think a lot about things]. How could people just kill innocent human beings like that? I mean it’s one thing to kill other soldiers in war or something, but to herd innocent women and children and grandparents and young people with futures and fathers and sisters and tiny little babies into a room, pretending to be all about de-lousing showers, and then drop in canisters of pellets that release toxic gas? Or to use people for scientific experiments as though they were lab rats, just because of their heritage? I feel like you’d have to turn off all human instinct and emotion to become that sort of killing machine. I just don’t get it.

And as I think about that, I realize my problems with keeping track of and dealing with a few middle schoolers really aren’t that bad in the grand scheme of things. In fact, despite the frustration and sinking levels of patience, I think they taught me some things. And of course it all gave me some good stories to tell. You’ll have to ask me about those in person. Typing them just wouldn’t do them justice, I think.

One cool thing that the whole trip taught me is that God doesn’t expect us to do everything on our own. I mean, if it came down to my own level of patience, I think I would have strangled a couple of those kids. There were times when I felt like I was running on empty, but I’m betting that’s where God works best — during the times we realize we can’t really do it on our own. I don’t know how many times I sent up silent prayers asking for the patience to make it through just another hour or another day. Or to ask for understanding so that I could relate to these girls who seemed worlds apart from me at times. Or just to say thanks for the little things like the ability to send the girls off to any seminar they wanted to go to and go to a different one myself. Maybe I need trials like that more often. It sure kept me in closer contact with God than when I’m settled in my usual routine and feel like I can handle anything that comes my way.

I’m a little nervous about this whole new job thing, with it coming up at the end of the month and all, but now I’m a little excited about another chance to lean on God and His goodness. He’ll bring me through the start of this new experience just like in the past, and I’m sure I’ll have some good stories to tell. Let me tell you… God does not keep life boring.

Well, it’s later than I wanted it to be because I still want to read and get to bed before my eyelids just decide that they want to stay closed. So goodnight, all.