It's 1:09 and I just got out of the shower. I can proudly say this is the latest I've gotten up since I've been at school. Which is very impressive since I can, easily, sleep until 2 in the afternoon every day. So basiclly it means that I have NOT been a lazy bum this year. Well, to a point at least.

Last night was a fairly unprofitable evening. I went over to Peter's house with Jessica and some other people and played Phase Ten. It was a long game and I was real tired, but it was nice to talk to Jess again. I miss her, it was so easy last year when she was on my hall and we could always just hang out. This year has proven to be a lot harder when it comes to things like that.

So tonight is the show. I'm excited. I'm definitely going to take some of my "depth of focus" photo assignment picture, hopefully even though I'll be indoors I can still do some cool ones. In case you're wondering, next week I will finally learn how to actually make prints with my pictures--I have the negatives developed, but we're a week behind because of Hurrican Isable cancelling class last week. So don't worry, it won't be long now (not as though I feel like there will be much to be impressed with, but to each his own).

Alright. Need to get ready and go eat lunch. If you think of it, pray for the concert to night--and if you can, come! :)

// listening to: The Velvet Teen "Out of the Fierce Parade" //
I just finished getting a 76 on my typography test for Graphic Design. I'm a little dissapointed, but I don't think I should've expected anything more when I didn't even look at the material. Before you go writing me off as a slacker, I just want to defend myself in saying that I've had the exact same prof. before with the same notes on typography and the same vague test--different class though. Sadly, you'd think that would mean that I'd do wonderfully on the test, but apparently just seeing the notes again in class doesn't automatically mean you'll get an A.

The past two days have felt like Friday to me--which is wierd. I mean, usually one day will feel like Friday, and you'll wake up the next feeling cheated and dissapointed. So it's almost kind of nice because even though it isn't Friday, when I wake up tomorrow--it will be! And by then, I'll just be so relieved that it's actually Friday that I'll disregard the fact that it's been "Friday" for half the week. It isn't too hard for me to figure out why it's seemed like the weekend is within such close grasp--I have work off from yesterday till Monday. Mainly because I thought we'd be in Florida, but even though I'm not it's nice to just be "free" for a weekend.

Plus Gunsmoke Dialogue (Caleb's band) is playing.

I'm real excited about that, I haven't seen him play a show since last April. I don't know how much I've really mentioned about the band, but allow me to expand a little--Caleb wrote most of the songs his freshman and sophmore year of college, then when he came here to Liberty last year, he met a guy named Andy who played in a metal band in Jacksonville. Andy was an amazing guitarist with some very slick picking skills, and they started playing together now and then. Caleb threw some of his songs in, and Andy added some great stuff--making for some amazing acoustic duets. They began playing shows now and then, and named themselves "Gunsmoke Dialogue" [Watch the Ocean's Eleven--At the end of a fight scene in a bar, Danny Ocean tells one of the men that if he wants any help, he needs to cut out gunsmoke dialogue]. Unfortunately, Andy didn't return this semester, so Caleb saw back where he started (with more songs and some better chords). Cut to the beginning of this September, when my friend Cameron transferred to LU from Cedarville. He plays guitar and shares Caleb's musical tastes (along with the ever-popular, fun-to-listen-to elitism views). They jammed (hate that word, but else would you say?) a few times and the rest is history. Cameron is officially the new Gunsmoke Dialogue guitarist, and they're looking into a drummer and possibly a bassist. Still, I've had the opportunity to hear them practice a few times and even with just two guitars, it sounds great--especially since they've only played together for less than a month.

Oh, and another happy thing concerning that--we finally got the CD demo that Caleb and Andy recored last semester, and I did the cover art and everything. Fifty cds ready to go for the show, very cool stuff. Needless to say I'm really looking forward to Saturday night. Also, Caleb's friend Nathan has a band called Shapiro that's playing--very Ben Fold's piano-rock, which is something that I really enjoy. So if you live in Lynchburg, come to David's Place on the LU campus at 9pm Saturday night. Free music, good people, oh yes.

I just realized that I still haven't done the concert review of Five Iron Frenzy, etc. I think I'm going to try and finish the layout for the "reviews" page and then just post it on there. I have a free day Saturday (before the show) so that might be a nice time to get that done. I also want to post the cd cover, but I need to get a layout working for the "Portfolio" section. Yeesh.

The mac lab is slowly being overtaken by "Digital Illustration" students, so I'm going to vamos to another computer in the main part of the lab. Hopefully i won't have to wait in line....

I'm in class, so not too much time to expound, but I just wanted to post that Caleb's band (Gunsmoke Dialogue) is going to be playing this Saturday. More info will be put on the "shows" page as soon as possible, but if you live in Lynchburg, come to David's Place (on the LU campus) to see them play, it will be a great show.

I'm doing well, the tooth is better, work is busy, I'm not going to Florida this weekend (we're too poor), I have an english paper due tomorrow that i have yet to start. However, I want to post soon about the Five Iron Frenzy show on Saturday, so I'll shoot for doing that tomorrow afternoon. I hope everyone is enjoying the last smidge of summer that's hanging on before things drop back into deep-freeze. Hasta!

// listening to: Jars of Clay, "Jars of Clay"//


And the saga that is "Crystal's Life" continues...

With the story of a really, really painful tooth. Yes, my front tooth (the right one, for those of you taking notes) has become increasingly painful over the course of the past few days. I don't even recall anything in particular happening to it, it just gradually hurt more. And more. And more. Until my upper jaw felt like it was one big glowing tooth that blinks with the pulsating of my heart. (Good thing that's just a figure of speech, cuz daaang that would be one ugly mouth.)

I went to the dentist today, and after the typical poking, prodding, and x-rays he came to an enthralling conclusion: it's too long. Yeah. Apparently when I had my left front tooth smoothed down a little, it left my right front tooth a little longer, so I've been biting on it funny and causing undue amounts of pressure on it. I guess this has been going on for a very long time and finally culminated in the past couple of days. So he smoothed out my right tooth a bit and now...well, it still hurts. He told me to give it a week for the swelling to go down, and if it still hurts then I'm too call him and (oh the sheer joy) make an appointment for him to take the old filling out and replace it. Bleh. Hopefully it won't come down to that.

In other news, we're in the middle of Hurricane Isabel. Which, I must say, is nothing but a rainy windstorm in this part of Central Virginia. Nonetheless, I'm happy for it because it meant no class tonight and Caleb and I got to chill at Barnes and Nobles after a lovely dinner of Sheetz subs and Vanilla Cokes. Yum.

Ok, so one more thing before I go finish my much-procrastinated math homework:

I might possibly be going to Florida next weekend to see Unforsaken play with Cool Hand Luke, visit Caleb's family and friends, and just take a weekend off. Unfortunatly, money is a bit of an issue and gas is expensive, so there's a very good chance that it won't happen. I'm still prayin' though; the weeks I spent in Florida this summer were two of the happiest weeks of my life and I can't wait to go back again. One good thing--if we don't go, Caleb is going to be playing a show with some other local bands (more info on the "shows" page if it happens). So that's awesome for him, especially since it will be the first time he and Cameron (the new guitarist) play a show together. I'm excited for them, so even if I can't enjoy Florida, I can enjoy good music and a weekend off from work.

Arright. Math time. Good thing this isn't real math, just ven diagrams and dumb "problem/solutioin" things. Time consuming, but not extremely hard. Yet. (Here's to hoping that "yet" is not the key word...)

I'm sitting here, tapping the keys of the keyboard with my nails, wishing I knew exactly what it is I want to say. I'm just feeling so melancholy today. I think staying up last night until 2 am in the lab (helping Caleb design his cd cover) and getting up at 8 has something to do with it. And the fact that...I miss my friends! My girl friends (although yes, Andy and Jay, I miss you too). I mean honestly, I get along with guys much better than I do with girls. Girls just have a tendancy to be petty and catty and ditsy and other bad qualities that end in "y". If you catch me on any given day I'll probably have had conversations with twice as many guys as I have girls. And it's not becuase I'm a big ole flirt or something like that. Guys are just funny and easy to get along with--they don't hold grudges or read into things the way girls do. And yes, I know I'm making generalizations, but it's true. And while there are plenty of amazing girls on my hall that I'm friends with, i really don't have any extremely close friends at college that are girls. Good girl friends are hard to come by, and today I'm just really missing some of the girls I was so close with in high school that are now thousands of miles away from me.

Granted, some of this is my fault--with school and work and Kairos and Prayer Leader-ing and Caleb...there's not much time to do random things with people. My days all feel extremely planned and scheduled so that I barely have any free time--and when I do, it seems like nobody else does. Unfortunately, that's how it has to be for me to get things done. And I feel bad, because I had so much more time last year and I know that there are those who think I've ditched them just "because I have a boyfriend". But that's not the case. There are so many days when I see Caleb for five minutes after convo, half an hour for dinner, and then the ten-fifteen minutes when he drops me off/picks me up from work, and that's it. I don't think they understand that I genuinely don't have much free time to just do "whatever" anymore. But I don't, and while I hate that, there's really nothing I can do about it.

I don't even know where I'm going with this. Heh. I guess it will suffice to say that I miss the close friendships I've had in the past with other girls, but trying to get to know someone well enough and hang out with them enough to be good friends takes more time than I have right now. Maybe that sounds terrible, but it's the honest truth and I can't do much to change it.

it's 1:35, and thanks to Math class getting out early, I already ate lunch...so it's back to the dorm with me, to take a nap, do homework, and get ready to go to work. C'est la vie...

I don't understand weather like this. For the past few weeks, Virginia has been extremely hot and nasty. All of a sudden, over the weekend, it turned into fall. And I don't mean nice, breezy, early fall the way it's supposed to be. Oh no. I'm talking downright cold, nasty, cloudy November weather. It's only September! I shouldn't have to wear six sweaters to go outside.

I'm still in a bit of a daze right now. I just got out of my Graphic Design class, and having it at 9:25 in the morning is killing me. We do these long, in-depth critiques of each others thumbnails and sketches that take up the entire hour, fishing around for things that don't even exist. It's like really bad literary criticism, only we're looking at college students' rough sketches instead of pages filled with text.

This past Saturday was me and Caleb's six month anniversary. Oh yeah. We've been together for half a year, which doesn't amaze me as much as it really just makes me smile. I can't help but be happy that I'm the longest relationship he's ever had, I have to admit there's something nice in knowing that. We spent the morning in this old house that has been converted into a used bookstore, and I bought an amazing 1960's era book on how to make home movies--complete with lots of stylized pictures and cliches. It will be great for making some of the covers for Caleb's cd...I might scan some of it to use when I redesign the site over winter break (yes, it probably will be that long...time is not abundant around here).

After the bookstore, we at lunch and then drove to Roanoke. It's about forty minutes from Lynchburg, and while it isn't exactly a booming metropolis, it has a really nice movie theater and a good mall. Not like we don't have versions of those things here, but it's nice to get a change of scenery. Plus, one of Roanoke's trademarks is a giant neon star that's nested on top of a mountain overlooking the city. After an afternoon movie, wandering around the mall (with me getting frustrated about not being able to find anything) and dinner at Applebee's, we drove all over the city trying to find the correct way to get up to the star. We're pretty quick, so it didn't take too long, and the view was amazing. Before you start thinking this is some 'lookout point' sort of thing, let me just say that while yes, it does have that potential, you'd have to be unabashedly brazen to start making out under the Star. There were at least thirty people wandering around when we got up there--mainly thirty or forty year old couples trying to recapture their romance, high schoolers with nothing better to do, and other college students looking for a different view than the crowded campus they live on. Either way, it was still beautiful and I'm really glad we went. Caleb is incredible and I am so lucky that God let us find each other.

Speaking of God, this week is Spiritual Emphasis week here at Liberty. David Nassar is the speaker, and he is amazing. I don't think I have ever been so blessed by a speaker. To put it bluntly, he cuts the crap. He gave a salvation invitation at the end of his message yesterday morning--"Heads up, eyes open," he said. "There's no music playing softly in the background, no eyes buried behind hands so that you can stealthily slip out and tiptoe to Christ. If you want to come forward and accept Christ today, you'll have to do it with the entire student body watching. This is not going to be easy, but this is reality."

At first, I couldn't help but feel a little tense--nobody was moving. Then, after a few minutes (as he continued to invite those who needed Christ to come), a girl stepped out of her seat and began walking boldly across the floor, stopping to stand below the stage--arms folded, eyes squeezed shut, shaking with tears. Immediately two other girls left their seats and began to pray with her. After that it was as though somebody had opened a faucet and people began coming and coming. I've seen invitations ten times as large as those who went forward that morning, but I will never ever forget this one and the way God worked. I have such a great amount of appreciation for that first girl. It took guts, but it is an experience and a testimony that she (along with the others who got saved that morning) will never forget. And that's how it should be. Listening to David's preaching is showing me more and more how "easy" we as Christians try to make things. Yes, we want the lost to find Christ's light, we want to tell as many people as possible about the gift God has given them. But even though accepting Christ is the simplest thing, we don't need to under-emphasize the importance of the actual act of acccepting Him. We need to show people that God is not always going to be in their comfort zone--that becoming a Christian is not going to make your life on earth "easier" persay. Following Jesus is hard, harder than some people ever realize it will be. But is our life really so much to give to One who has presented us with Eternity?

Needless to say, I'm right there with those who don't sacrifice enough, this is me talking to myself too. God's really been convicting me about complaining--which I do a ton--when I have so much to be thankful for.

For instance, the fact that I'm about to go meet my handsome boyfriend and eat a full lunch before going to a computer lab so I can learn more about how to write.

I really need to get more sleep. Right now I feel as though somebody grabbed my feet and dragged me out of bed, over the concrete sidewalks that lead to DeMoss (the academic building), up the stairs, and tossed me haphazardly on to the computer chair at which I sit. I'm thinking it's time for some coffee. It's also sad when I think to myself, "I'll come down off the caffiene high around four and then I can just have another cup at dinner so I'll make it through my 6:30-9:30 photography class." Bad, very bad. I do not need caffiene, especially when I'm already dehydrated....

I can't believe this. I actually have an hour in which i don't have anything to do. I work at 5:30 and all of my homework is done. Woooo hoo! THe only bad thing is...now that I actually have time, it's hard for me to decide what to do. Write in my journal, plan what I'm doing for Prayer Groups tomorrow, read more of my photography book, read some of Lord of the Rings... endless possibilities.

I have this gigantic bruise on my leg, and I can't for the life of me figure out where it came from. It's just annoying, because my messanger bag has been brushing against it all day and making it even worse. I think by the end of the week, my entire thigh will be black and blue. And I don't think there's a worse mental picture anywhere on this blog. Heh.

I finished designing a flier for Kairos movie night yestderday. We're watching "Signs" downtown at the Connecting Point this Friday at 6:30. I wish I could put a link to the flier, but I have yet to learn how to convert a Quark file to JPEG format. I'm sure it's possible, and I'm sure that I'll kick myself at how easy it is once I know, but for now--I don't. The end. Oh, but if you want more info, just email me at redbottlecap84@yahoo.com.

I'm listening to the Velvet Teen right now, waiting for Caleb to come by and drop off his cd so I can burn copies for him. That's right, HIS cd. He and Andy (from Fallen Not Forsaken) recorded a cd last year--Caleb did vocals and guitar and Andy did the other guitar and some background vocals. I can't wait to hear it; I'm constantly amazed at how talented he is. He's going to do great things and I can only sit back and watch to see what.

Well, I'm going to go take full advantage of my free time, so hasta for now. And also, I was asked about when I'll be updating the Photography section (or the rest of the culture section in general) and the answer is....sometime. Photography probably won't happen until I start developing new film in BW Photo class (somewhere from two weeks to a month from now). And as far as Culture, I'm hoping to have a free night at the lab soon. So we'll see. Things are unpredictable, that's just the way it is.

I've decided that the Mac Lab is officially the coldest place on campus right now. Okay, yes, aside from meat freezers and other such places where the contents are supposed to be kept below zero. I, however, am not a frozen food and I would like to avoid being a frozen person if at all possible. So it will suffice to say that I am very much regretting wearing a sleeveless shirt today.

My graphic design class just ended, and I now have an hour until I'm supposed to meet Caleb for lunch. Unfortunately, I only have about ten minutes until the next class comes in to use the lab and I am left without a computer. I'm finding it harder and harder to post or update or whatnot, becuase I'm rarely in my room and when I am, my computer decides not to work half the time. I want to buy a desktop. With memory. Only, I'm not exactly sure where I'd put it.

Last night I was feeling verrry led to move off campus next year. Alright, so "led" probably isn't the correct word, but I'm really not enjoying the chaos that has enveloped the university this year. Thousands of new students and despite our raise in tuition, no more parking, longer lines, still not as many facilities...it's quite frustrating. Not to mention the fact that I really want a house. I miss living in a house--I got used to it again this summer and now I'm feeling withdrawls. I want to buy an old house, with at least two stories and rooms that I can aint. Lots of bright colors with unique furniture from flea markets...I can't say working at Pier One helps any, seeing as how I help people buy things to decorate their houses all day. And I think, "I would buy that--if I had any place to put it. Which I don't."

So yeah, I got to see Mae this past weekend. Dang. They were absolutely amazing. I've loved that cd ever since I got it last March, but they were so much better to watch than I'd thought. The venue, Ally Katz, was an incredible place for a show too. I kept kicking myslef for not having my camera, but I didn't have any money for film. It was so hot, though; I doubt that I would've wanted to haul the bag around.

We also went to Panther Falls again this weekend. Caleb, Stephanie, Cameron and I drove down there in Stephanie's car. It rained quite a bit until we got there, but once it cleared up it was gorgeous. We also investigated this really cool dam on our way back, and I saw the meanest spider on this side of Virginia.

All in all, I had quite a relaxing weekend and now I'm forced to end this post because the other class is about to begin. So hasta for now...