i'm about to go to sky lounge for the first time in over a year.  it will be interesting.  apparently they regretted not having breakers ect. there and have been trying to get that crowd back.  it should be fun even if it's not like it was cause it will be dancing with friends.

on another note, i'll be home in 3 days.  i'm glad i stayed here for a while, but i'm definitely looking forward to leaving too and seeing my family.

i am dancing a lot, my whole body is sore now.  it's the good kind of sore where you know you're doing something.

on a random note:  sometimes people really surprise me with very childlike moments.  it really makes me wonder what creative ideas are being withheld out of a fear of the lack of acceptance.

it's still sinking in.  i'm so amazed and excited.  i have to sleep now tho. yesterday was amazing tho.  more later. 

i'm about to be in a locking battle for fun at joe squared tomorrow.  i've been excited about it for a couple of weeks.  talbolt's birthday is the same day.  this guy buda[sp?] has been teaching me some.  he knew some of the people  who invented the dance and has his own take on it.  he's been helping me break out of my shell.  as much as i have loved to dance, i still fear dancing in front of people some.

 hey,
i've been really exhausted from this class, it's fun, but the heat will wear you out.  i'm making goblets right now and adding copper to my glass.  copper has a similar shrinking rate to glass so it won't likely shatter.  i'll get to see a couple of them today when i go to class.  our proffessor has started letting us use his pool passes at lunch so i've started swimming a little.

i got drenched on tuesday on the way to joe squared, i danced anyway -just waited 20 minutes or so so i wouldn't drench the dance floor.  the funny part about it was that it had apperently stopped raining while i was in there and then when it was time to go home, then, it started pouring again.  i like rain tho.  even when it's inconvenient i still usually don't dislike it much.  it thunderstormed last night while i was in the studio, too, but i didn't get caught in that one.  it ended by the time it was time to come home.

well it's time to get ready for class now..  o but i found out last night that people who are glass blowing are called gaffers.  so i'm a gaffer now.

 i got to see travis on saturday for a few hours anyway.  he got a day pass on saturday and took a couple buses and subways to baltimore.  it was good to see him and talk to him in person and let him see some of this last semester's artwork.  after he left i halped ellen get ready for her potluck party which was fun and lasted for a really long time.  i ended up going to bed with earplugs in so they could keep having fun and i could get some sleep.

yesterday after i went to church i had a really good talk with eunice about why she left and got everything out and we are both completely at peace with each other now.  it was hard, but good.  i went to an art market with a few friends of mine and it was really fun.

i'm sad, but oddly at peace anyway.  tra isn't going to be able to come to baltimore this weekend as we had both been hoping for.  in order to be able to leave his training base he had to pass a physical test and a STAR test [i for get what the letters stand for].  his drill sergeant who was in charge of judging or whatever was the same one that gave him the assignment to guard the memorial day parade [which tra successfully switched with his roommate]   well apparently the drill sergeant was sore about it as part of getting even, he only counted half of tra's pushups on his physical test [tho he passed it anyway] and i have yet to find out the details, but i think he probably did something similar for the STAR test, which tra failed.  i'll find out later today what really happened, but i'm bummed.  he won't have another chance to take that test for a month and i really want to see him again.

 the movie was pretty good.  i should have gone to bed as soon as i got home cause i was too tired when i was in class [not so much that i couldn't do it, but so that a lot of input was too much for my brains].  i just had a nap so now i'm calmish again.  i said i would go to dinner and dancing today a while ago and now that today is here i want to chill instead.  i'm going to keep my word i guess, but i'm really tired.

so i went to my first glass blowing class and it was pretty cool.  we learned how to handle small amounts of molten glass on the rods and shape them with the jacks [a tool that pinches and is also used to shape the glass].  we are slightly ahead of schedule too.  i'm excited about this class.  my friend melissa is staying in our living room while the class happens [she's in it with me].  she's super excited too.

i found out that tra might not be around on memorial day cause they put him on gaurd at a parade in dc.  we'll see tho, he and his roommate are trying to switch cause he doesn't want to go and his roommate does.  i'd like to have the extra day with him, but at least i get to see him this weekend at all so i'm not going to complain.  he's in the army being trained right now so i don't really get to see him.

i'm going to go see prince caspian with  ellen eunice and stephen and some random people they know today.  it should be fun...  i've gotta go so i can get random supplies for the week [like sandwich stuffs] and get ready.  i'll talk at you all later.

i'm in baltimore for much of this summer.  i'm going to be in a glass blowing class starting on thursday.  i'm sooo excited.  i've always wanted to learn and never thought it would actually happen.  this weekend tra [my boyfriend] is going to be able to come back to baltimore for a few days so i'll be able to see him.  we're gonna go to a movie on saturday.  it's kinda funny i had no idea what movies were in theatres until today cause i've been looking them up online and asking kelly/i the media queen and random other people.  i'm so media deprived, tho i'm happy to keep it that way for the most part.  someone suggested ironman.  i think we'll probably see that.  i'll save prince caspian for a different time.

all the senior just graduated today.  it's weird, i'm gonna do that next year.  well hopefully... i need to magically be able to fit a science or math class into my packed schedule.  the difficulty is that it can't be over the summer around here.  the schools that have classes that don't conflict don't cooperate during the summer [when i have time], only the fall and spring [when i already have the max amount of credits per semester].  i'm not sure how this is going to work.  i wish i knew they didn't cooperate a year ago instead of finding out last month, but o well.  this is life right now in a nut shell.

i was reading http://www.branchescc.blogspot.com/ on teusday when i was feeling awful because i knew i had let down a couple of friends of mine because i didn't  have the courage to call them.  the entry talks about aching for goodness and at the end brice prays that whoever reads it will be filled with fullness of God's love and i began to ask God to fill me with his love, peace, and courage so i can overcome next time. that night i went to a small group as is my custom on tuesdays, but this week most of the people in that group went to another house where other believers were gathering and as we worshiped and praised God together, we became more aware of his presence in the room and people began to prophesy what he had shown them during worship.

the word of God he sent me through another  member of the body was that i was on the brink of a real breakthrough in a lot of areas, but the enemy was trying to cause me to become despondent and discouraged. he told me don't be like the isrealites before the promised land that were grumbling/murmuring instead of trusting me. stop that; the breakthrough is close at hand, not 40 years off [figurative]. a new burst of creative energy was among the things to be expected very soon.

i took his words to heart and repented of my murmuring and praised him for his amazing quickness in redeeming me and for giving me the desires of my heart as he has always promised.

after the meeting another rachel came up to me and encouraged me in exactly where my insecurity about making art at mica had been and began the breakthrough of the stronghold [thought pattern] that kept me from putting my whole self into my art. i no longer fear putting my whole heart into my art nor what people will think of it. that's where the faith comes in; i have no control on how it will affect people and how they will react to it.

he filled me up with encouragement that i so desperately needed, promised me much more that i thought he would grant me, and even told me i didn't have to wait long for it.

i love you all and pray that this encourages you and causes you to expect God to answer your prayers because he surely will do what he has promised and his answer will dwarf your request if you truly believe he will do it. God can do it and he will do it for you.

Mark 11:22-23: Jesus answered saying to them, "have faith in God. truly i say to you, whoever says to this mountain, "be taken up and cast into the sea," and does not doubt in his heart, but believed that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him."

more will come later...

yo everybody,
this is rachel, i'm still alive, in fact i'm more alive than i've ever been before.  i've also decided it's time to be honest with everyone on here about something.  the most important person in my life is Jesus, the anointed one of God.  when people ask me what's going on in my life, most of the time the answer has to do with how he has answered a prayer more incredibly than i ever could have expected or how he changed the way i see myself and others.  but instead of telling people the truth about what's going on in my life, for fear of being discarded as kooky, i tell them half the story.  i think i'm done with hiding my life in the closet as if it's shameful.  strange coincidences after talking to God about what is going on in my life and asking him for help are the norm of what happens in my life.  worrying has become foreign to me because i know God's character so much from my experiences with him that i know whatever seems to be wrong is going to be worked out and i'll be better off even than when things started as long as i look to him and listen for his words and follow them.  i obey him not because he said so, but because i trust him, he has never led me the wrong way, [not that i follow him every time or even the majority]. sometimes i move without waiting for the peace of the Holy Spirit and cause some real damage to myself and my friends.  i'm sorry for all the times i've done something that hurt you or didn't do something when i knew it would have helped, but God is changing me one day at a time and i'm learning to follow his promptings and wait for his peace.
getting real, rachel

wow i haven't been on here in a while. sorry. um ... well i cut my hair about 10 or 11 inches shorter. i like it a lot it's so much easier to deal with.  i dressed up for halloween not yesterday, but this saturday and i afro-ed my hair out and wore 70's plaid bell bottoms, that blue and orange patterned shirt i stole from leslie,  orange heels, and and silver chain. it was solid and i wanted to quote undercover brother and austen powers all night.  i went to the mica halloween party with kelly/i who came up from vassar friday night/ saturday morning. it was fun, she like looking at all the freaky art kids dressing up.  it was so fun for me cause people started to breakdancing to the music playing and would form little circles to dance in and i hadn't  seen anybody breakdance as much in a while.  it was so fun, i joined it a little bit and later was pushed into the middle by tybalt and the polar bear.  they also played edward scissor hands in the other room on repeat and i watched some of that with kelly,  but i think the best part of while kelly was here was when she first got here and we were watching this crazy anime with my roommates/friends. it was hilarious. elevator rides with never be the same. well i'll catch you on the flipside.

hey all,

 i just got back to school in baltimore. i'm making new friends and getting closer to old ones. it's awesome. i've been through my firstday and i was so tired afterwards.  my mondays are going to be very full.  i have a class on modernism and the movements after from 9-11:45 and then a break from 12 to 3:30 and then i have intro to wood from 4 to 10. today was an intro day so the second class got out at 5:30 or 6, but in the break i went to get my id because they apperently don't give them out straightaway once you're no longer a freshmen. there was this huge line and it took 2 hours to get through it, but now i can get into the stairs with out assistence in my building, so that's good. i miss you guys back home, but i'm so glad to be back in maryland. it is indeed merry. tomorrow/[later today] i have intro to sculpture, i can't wait.

i'm going back to mica soon. it's amazing how much i have been growing in the past few weeks.  i came back to ohio as a different person than i was when i left and i'm going back even more different. this break has been good for me. i can't wait to see my micans again, though.

kingdom hearts 2 is consuming my life. that is all.

Leave your name and:
1. I'll respond with something random about you
2. I'll challenge you to try something
3. I'll pick a color that I associate with you
4. I'll tell you something I like about you
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of
7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours

i got tagged and here are six weird habbits i have:
  -i sing random phrases that i hear in conversation around me like the guy from the real men of genius commercials without thinking about it anymore
  -i meow
  -sometimes when i relive moments of my life in my mind i act out the gestures without realizing it
  -i dance like the maupets to some music
  -i dance like the peanuts gang too
  -i burst into laughter at random

i tag these people: keepontruckin11, lindsayrice, grindvsemo, iced_green_tea, foxeni, stuck2myshoe

the thing about this is you don't only have to think about weird things you've done, but that you keep on doing, it was harder than i thought it would be.

i packed my life into a million suitcases with much help from my dad and my room mate's parents and brother and am about to drive with my dad to cincinnati in the morning. i'm so glad i'm done with school for a while. o my goodness. i get about a month off of everything and then i begin work at la patite again. i can't wait to see the little people. there is so much to do and i'm so glad that none of it is due. i visited my grandparents with my dad and my aunt carol was there with my cousins. it was so fun and i learned about cousins in canada and why kelly/i is asian. i can sleep now ...well after watching the red hot chili peppers on saturday night live... goodnight all.