hahaha!

i looked up my sign and it made me laugh. it was pretty well spot on, but it really sounds like they're selling a pet!

http://zodiac-signs-astrology.com/zodiac-signs/gemini.htm

"Gemini make very interesting and exciting friends. They like to leave their mark on everyone they meet. They are very flighty and will disappear for a long time as they meet new friends and explore new places. But when they come back, they will have new thoughts, opinions and interesting things to share and ideas to teach. Life is very interesting and fun with a Gemini friend.

"If you need any advice, Gemini is the one to ask. They are masters of communication and they can help you get what you need by helping you with persuasion and enthusiasm, and they give good advice too. Do not however, bog a Gemini down with all of your emotional problems, they are not want to deal with it because it depresses them and steps on their freedom if you need too much long term help, support and follow up. A Gemini friend can fill you in with the latest gossip and if you love conversation, the Gemini delivers! They are very generous with their friends, they will spend lots of time with you and share everything with you. Even though Gemini is a social butterfly, they always need time for themselves and that should be respected."

my favorite quote is: "Gemini tends to disperse their energy on different tasks and not just focus on one thing thus leaving a trail of unfinished projects in their wake."

Gemini have the ability to react instantly to situations, and as a result, they have a very nervous temperament. They can be compared to a wound up spring as they attempt to absorb everything they can about their surroundings at once. The fact that they enjoy various situations and people add to their nervousness and that means they are almost constantly wound up. However, if they experience boredom and have nothing to survey, they get the same emotions, the need for excitement and variety. This is the Gemini duality, constantly conflicting emotions in one spontaneous, excitable package

names

i have always loved my name, nicole, and since i'm writing on one of my quick little 15 minute breaks and i already blew half of it, i'm just going to patter out something i was thinking about during our meeting today. please don't be disappointed as i write, because it's going to read cheesy and flat! it already "sounds" like a second grade paper!

nicole means victory of the people and it is rooted in the French language. nicole, french. victory. i come from passionate people: norwegians, germans, italians, and wild native americans (i.e. cherokee), so joel says i'm viking, nazi, mafia, and warrior. killer! i know that's totally stereotypical and not even sensible to link those meanings to those people, but don't you think it means victory? victory! nicole! arrrrhghghah;sdlkjfa;sldhfgha1!!!!

well, ever since i can remember, people have randomly called me michelle. everywhere. people who haven't even seen me, but talk to me on the phone at my job have called me michelle! haha! people who have known me for years have accidentally called me michelle, or at least wanted to! i don't think i really look like a michelle, but today i looked up the meaning and it made my heart flutter; every time they say that, they're saying, "close to God," that's what michelle means.

i love it.

Convicted

please take the time to watch all of this video. i'm sure everyone has a different response to it, but i couldn't hold back my tears, i couldn't look away from the state of my heart without grieving.

oh, no!

what??

i thought i had more than three posts here!

i know that every time i sit down to write a post, i'm in a rush to get through it in order to be somewhere else, so maybe that's why i felt like there should've been more?

anyway, it's exactly 8:00am right now and i have been awake for about 15 minutes. it was a late night for me last night: right after work i went to joel's house just as kyle was leaving for bekah's house and momma was headed for a date with sophia. poppa d is in florida for pastor stuff, so the house was just stuffed with joel and his sickness. he's been sick for three days! he's missed two days of school and one day of work...that never happens! whenever i'm sick and dying, he is always healthy and bouncy - even weeks after i've been over my illness, he's still going strong without ever having encountered a chink in his savvy immune system.

honestly, there have been times when we're sitting right next to each other on the couch - i'll just have conquered a virus - and study i'll joel. i'll fold my hands in my lap and peer at him from the corner of my eye while he's zoned into the tv or the computer, and wonder how long the incubation period might be for the little monster that's inevitably wriggled its way into his body. surely he'll be showing signs of the flu, or some itty bitty snicket of a lung-rattling hack, but no. he never ever ever gets sick. i could have snot pouring out of my face for days, and be coughing up blood...he'll kiss me! he'll kiss me when i have a fever! NOTHING! nothing!

it baffles me to no end! he doesn't even take vitamins!!? i have two sour gummy vitamins a day (finding nemo ones and superhero ones) and a glass of vitamin c every morning. i drink about 3 green tea drinks a day. it doesn't seem to help me at all...although i suppose perhaps it has saved my life, since i get sick so often, but have not yet died? maybe those vitamins are keeping me from total destruction, and only stave off the possibility of a life-sucking plague while rolling over at the feet of bacterial and viral infections.

anyway, he's finally sick and i wish he weren't. it bothers me all day. i want to bring him water and make his tummy stop hurting and give him headache medicine, but he just wants to sleep. i try to let him sleep, but also, i just want to play, and he's too dead to play. he's lifeless. sapped. withered away and he hadn't showered until late last night, so his hair was sticking out and lumpy all over...and his eyes were quite glassy. from what i can tell, he's feeling better. but whenever i ask him, he says just a little bit. i, however, believe he is a lot bit better, but he just hasn't embraced that the worst of it is probably quite over. i think men wait until they're bouncing off the walls again before they're able to admit that they're not as sick as they were a few days previously. he's definitely not there, yet!

anyway, i came over and everyone left except my half-dead boyfriend, and we snuggled on the couch for a little bit, watching espn, talking and resting. i was waiting for robin to call me when she got to red roof inn. she called around 7:20 and said she and percy had made it safely in. there was much rejoicing and with much deliberation, joel and i finally decided that we would drive to go pick up chipotle for all three of us, joel would meet (and i said, "and maybe come in and eat dinner together with") robin at her hotel and then he would go write his paper and return to nab me from robin's room when he was finished. we got chipotle and joel seemed to be just fine. we pulled up to robin's room and he just sat there, buckled, and looking at me while rummy (his car) puttered and chugged beneath us in park position. i said, "you're dropping me off?" he said, "well, yeah.."
"i thought you were coming in to at least meet robin? i thought we were going to eat together?"
he looked at me.
"can't you at least come over and meet her? yes, yes you can. you don't even have to go inside - i thought that was the plan?"
i guess i was wrong, but he did come and meet her, which made robin very happy. she was so cute! i love robin! joel went home to work on his paper and i listened to robin's adventures over the last 6 months or so, and was entirely enraptured. she had me captivated for three hours! every time she tried to throw the ball back to me, i tossed it right back because even the exciting things that have happened to me are boring. robin can make the most ordinary things sound like indiana jones wrote the script.

her cat, percy prowled around, licking our food and hunched in a chair, mostly glaring at things. and the tv whizzed and cheered with nascar for most of our conversation.

joel came and got me around 11 and i think i'll have a chance to say goodbye to robin this morning. but last night, joel finally let me do one of his english assignments while he went upstairs to take a shower. momma came home and disclosed all the wondrous events that had unfolded in her magnificent date with sophia, and kyle slumped in, having just watched x-men. ARGH! i wanted to see that movie!

i lay down with my lovely, dying boyfriend while he fell asleep and then went downstairs to watch tv with kyle. kyle cracks me up - i really like hanging out with him. we watched everything from underworld to jimmy kimmel until 2:15. then i went to bed in joel's room. he was sleeping in the office (there's a twin in there, and he likes that bed much better than the bed he has in his room...he's so silly! i like him a lot!). i fell asleep about 2:30 (put new sheets on bed so as not to get sick) and woke up at 7:45. yay!

ugh i think i'll go back to bed.

jibbah jabbah

it's so hot today! i'm really sticky. elly said that the temp outside was close to 90 degrees, but joel checked his g1 and said it's 84 degrees. well, i'm right. i just stepped outside and my body guaged the heat to round up somewhere close to 100.9.

momma d and i are about to go shopping for burgers and brats and hot dog buns for a cookout. she asked poppa d if he could grill tonight, but he just said no. then joel said no. and then when she asked kyle, i'm not sure what he said, although it could have been yes, since he got really excited about brats.

i'm talking about stuff that doesn't really matter because i have a feeling that at any moment, momma d might be done puttering in the kitchen and doing the dishes and leave for the grocery store without me! type faster! let's see....

this morning, as i was driving down the damon's street, i was speeding. going about 35 in a 25 mph zone...i've gotten a ticket down this street before - and let me just say that it was a better cop experience than the last one i had in oregon! (the one where i wasn't doing anything wrong and the cop pulled me over for no apparent reason! then he found out i didn't have my license with me...and then he yelled at me and said he would take my car away if i tried to drive it again without a license with me). anyway, down this street, there usually are cops, but they pick on you only on certain times of the day, and i didn't suppose this was one of them. i wasn't paying attention.

suddenly, i noticed two cars chugging along slowly on the opposite lane, floating by me bumper to bumper. the second car was a clunky old lincoln. i peered through the front windshield, trying to catch a glimpse of the driver, who seemed to be motioning something at me. i could barely see a white, fuzzy little head perched over the steering wheel. two knobby old hands were waving in a semi-frantic warning to slow down. a little old man was telling me to pay attention to the cop sidled up along the road behind them! he was parked, lying in wait for drivers like me - but a tiny, wrinkled stranger saved my life! i didn't get a ticket!

ah, i have to go!

love.

jelly beans!

nothing spectacular happened to-day.

i slept in too late, finished a movie i was watching last night, went shopping at target for food and clothes, lifted weights a bit, talked with mum and buttercup (becca :), took a shower, tidied up my house, bought too many things at borders (a book about the ocean was one item; i had to add it to my collection because i've been pining for the sea all day!), and now i'm at the damon's, having been stuffed to the brim with taco bell.

poppa d is in the dining room on his computer, smacking on something while he does pastorly things, and momma d is on the phone with grandad, catching up. when joel gets home, we're going to go to the store to get some nummy candies! then we'll come back home and watch fool's gold! i've already seen it, but i really really want to see it again! i saw it with mum and dad around my birthday last year - that's why i liked it so much; we saw it in the heavenly house they rent in san jose. mmmm!!!

oh! joel's back! we have to go get candy! i'll write a lovely piece about what i learned in the Bible today. i spent just enough time to catch on something beautiful. love love love!

little bit late tonight

all day today i thought about starting a blog - i've been toddling around with the thought of cancelling my facebook/myspace just because i don't have very much time in my hands to consistently check in on it.

blogs are nice because you can spit out some words and they'll stick to the internet - no one has to be your friend to see them! no obligations, just little parts of my thoughts scrawled into life on the web.

i like blogging because not only is it a "say it when you want to, when you have the time," without all the distractions of an ad-cluttered "friend-place," but after a long day of work, i like to spread out all my collected wonderings and look at them. and let other people look at them! i like input, advice, and opinions.

one last lovely catalyst has spun me in this direction, and that is my new job. in it, everything i type down must be abbreviated, and i'm terrified of forgetting how to spell a whole word - whether it be involuntary or determined by the power of my will. for instance: i've worked at this new place of employment for approximately three days where typing was involved. in those three short days, i have already trained myself to think like this:

1 lst lvly ctlyst hs spn me in ths drctn; tht is my nw jb. evrthng i wrt mst be abb, and im trfd of frgtng hw to spll (wll cll spll...i think like this, now! it saddens me greatly) a whl wrd - wthr it b invlntry or dtrmnd by the pwr of my wll....

oh, it's horrific! i am not a fan! i like it, to some degree, but i LOVE whole words! no offense, short words, but i LOVE a word as it stands - vowels and everything! i'm determined to keep from falling into this pit of lopping out beautiful, vital sounds; my typing time won't slow down, either. i have decided these things: to maintain the integrity of my vocabulary by honoring their entire state of lettering, and also continue typing a lot faster than i do at work. i don't want to be a slowpoke writer!

see, now. i am quite happy to have this blog going. i feel better already; my spelling is no longer in jeapordy, and i have some place to spew when i need to.

THANK YOU FOR THE EASTER BASKET, MOM AND DAD!!!!!!!!!!!

i ate a bunch of jelly beans before i had mac and cheese and peas, tonight! i'm about to sink my teeth into the chocolate easter bunny :) i wish i could give you guys the ears!

when the ups man came today to make the final attempt to drop off your package to me, i had surprised him by leaving a note at the bottom of my door with my signature on it. he, in turn, graciously gifted me with the brown box filled with treats from you both :) the one thing that threw me off guard was the fact that he had lain my bright blue lawn chair across the top of it, guarding it from potential thieves, i suppose. however, if i were a thief and spotted a bright blue lawn chair crookedly propped up against the metal bottom of a door, i might inspect it further, and decide to take the present AND the chair.

although, maybe it was a very wise attempt to disguise the box, making it look junky, because that was the second thought that popcorned in my brain: i'm such a messy homeowner! i'm becoming one of those people who throw garbage out their windows into the trees outside - one of those who let grass and trees root themselves in their rusted, downtrodden tomato trucks! (or worse: couches and mattresses!) so, if that were the case, i suppose i would not have investigated the box, because it just looked peculiar in its sloppiness.

oh, man. i gotta go away from this screen now. LOVE YOU.