FOCUS and other pre-orientation/orientation stories
ahh... I finally get a chance to write about the great week I had... I've decided I'm not posting on this blog for the sole purpose of informing other people about my life, but more as a record of the great times that I've had. with that said, on with the stories...
Freshman Orientation Community Serivce was absolutely great/awsome/magnificent/etc. etc... I've decided that our group (environment) was the best trip this year, we are just so damn "chill" (heheh, like my new slang?) anyways, we arrived at Tufts on thursday (the 21st) and got to meet all of the FOCUSers and play ice breakers and what not. Haha, some of the icebreakers were "hella" fun... bear hug is an awsome game by the way, I reccomend that you should all play it sometime if you get the chance. After dinner and whatnot, we went into the gym to sleep for the night. All of a sudden we see our leaders running to the gym doors and opening them, the next thing I see is a mass of naked flesh!!! Apparently its tradition for the support-staff of the Wilderness Pre-Orientation Program to streak the FOCUSers on the first night... it was soooo crazzzyyyy... and since our group was sitting right in front of the gym doors, we got the most exposure time. Hahaha, it was all good though. The next morning we woke up and what not and set off for our first work place by foot (we walked and took the T everywhere). For the first two days we worked by the Charles River clearing away brush and other invasive species. It sounds sorta boring, but me and Julie had a great time trying to tear down some of the vines on the trees... hehe, and also kyle and his weedwacker. The second day with the Charles River Conservancy was really fun. We were clearing brush away by a part of the river where there was this canoe/kayak livery, and they guy gave all of us free sodas and free rentals! Apparently he had been wanting to clear away the plant-life by the banks of the river for a long time now, and just hadn't gotten the chance to do it, so he gave us free stuff as a token of his appreciation! How awsome is that? Our third day was our DIB (or day in Boston). Basically, we didn't have to do work and spent the entire day meandering around the city, learning the lay out and just relaxing. It was really good times all around... Between the wading pool (enough with the food coloring already), the great italian pastry, and the yummy vietnamese dinner, it was a great day. The last two days we spent doing beach clean up with the Boston Harbor Conservancy. It sounds sorta hard, but it really wasn't. We only did two hours of work each day, so we get to spend the rest of the day bumming around the beach or other places.
at the rate this is going, I'll never be finished or get to everything, so I'll just write little bits 'o information...
Mike while playing psychiatrist: yeahhh, I like people that have two legs... and are female... oh yeah! and are pretty in the face!
Kyle and all his weird slang like hella, chill, and crunchy.
The flying bunny!!!
All of our late night laughing fits.
defrosting eggs for banana bread with Jenn's hair dryer... ewwww...
T-surfing with Megs and playing sexual fantasy on the T (haha, everyone was looking at us.. it was so embarrasing/funny)

Friday Five a day late
1. Are you going to school this year?
Of course!
2. If yes, where are you going (high school, college, etc.)? If no, when did you graduate?
Tufts University baby!
3. What are/were your favorite school subjects?
Math, comp sci, science, and music.
4. What are/were your least favorite school subjects?
History.
5. Have you ever had a favorite teacher? Why was he/she a favorite?
Yes. One of my favorite teachers was Dr. D. for AP Calc BC... not only was he a really good teacher who knew his stuff, but he also made learning fun. :)

Wow. I'm offically a student of Tufts now. hella yeah. ;) FOCUS was absolutely amazing, i'll write more when it's not crazy late and i have to be ready to run by 7 the following morning...

It's time
In approx 5 hours I will board a train that will signal the start of my life as a college student. Coolness. Just in case you were wondering, my adress is:

140 Carmicheal Hall
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155

I lovveeee getting snail mail.... ::winkwink nudgenudge:: anyways, wish me luck on FOCUS... :) can't wait to start my new life...

wow. I really don't feel like I'm starting my college life on thursday.... thursday as in 3 days from now (or 2 depending how you look at it). That's such an insane concept. To paraphrase Adam, I feel like I should be more mature or something... I guess I should start packing, maybe that's why I don't feel like I'm going to college yet. But packing now is just not true to my procrastination tendencies. Its funny, I'm not that worried about academics, well I am, but not as much as other things. I think I'm more worried about soccer and dealing with my alopecia away from home. Soccer, well, I'm still not sure if I want to commit the huge amount of time required to it. I don't want soccer to be my life at Tufts for the first semester, especially since I'm not going to be doing anything serious with it once I get out of schooling. And as for my alopecia... i dunno. I'm I bit of a spaz when it comes to that. I can't exactly walk around the halls w/o a hat or a bandana anymore (well, techincally I could). And I dunno, I feel like the world has bad pre-concieved notions about wigs and what not. Oh well. We'll see.
And one more thing. Is it bad that I'm not all mopey that we're all leaving dear old T-neck (note the sarcasm) and going away to college in different parts of the states? Seriously. It's not like we won't see eachother again. ::shrug:: coldhearted? maybe. probably not though. I'm just ready for some change...

I started writing a post about how I smell faintly of Curve because of ray and how I love that smell, and how smells can bring up past memories, and what smells I love... halfway into the post I realized that my mind really isn't on that anymore, and to continue to write about that subject matter would be pointless. Well, my mind is still on that subject, but it's more focused on the smells of guys, and on the subject of guys and dating and faith in general.... bah, screw this.

Friday Five
yeahyeah, I'm bored...
1. How much time do you spend online each day?
wayyyy too much. i don't think i can put a number on it.
2. What is your browser homepage set to?
Google.com
3. Do you use any instant messaging programs? If so, which one(s)?
yup, AIM
4. Where was your first webpage located?
it was an AOL homepage.. really really stupid
5. How long have you had your current website?
about a year (if a blog counts as a website)

part of history
cool. I can now tell my kids about how I was in nyc during the famous blackout of 2003. I was about 30 seconds away from getting caught on a subway, pretty lucky if I say so myself. Ahhh, and I went to the only concert that was going on in the city that day (yeaaaa Indigo Girls via Summer Stage!)... I'll just say that it was a lot of walking. From port authority (4nd) to 68th and 5th for the concert, and back down again.
In other news, expect my new posts to be shorter in length. I'm getting to lazy to write everything out, so it'll prob be pretty short from now on unless I have something major to vent about or I think there is something very news-worthy. ::shrug:: Jamie said it very well on his LiveJournal... check out the link if it suits you to... ->

wow. that stunk. it was so cloudy that we couldn't even see the moon at some times, let alone the Perseid Meteors... oh well, maybe next year. Regardless of our failure of spotting meteors, it was still a fun night. We all drove over to Overpeck Park on the edge of Teaneck around 3:10ish. Without fail, Bergen County Cops enter the parking lot 5 minutes later, spotlight illuminating the 5 cars that are parked there. "Do you know what time it is?" Time for you to get a watch officer. Come on. No ma'am, we don't know what time it is, we actaully thought it was 10 pm or something. Or was that a rhetorical question? I really don't understand why that ask stupid questions like that. or how bout "Do you know how fast you were just going? If we confess that we know we were speeding, are we not going to get a ticket anymore? Or maybe we could play dumb and answer, "no one ever actually taught me how to count," and get off because of sympathy... Righto, anyways. we get kicked out of the park so we make our way to a lookout point off of the the Palisades Parkway. It was really pretty, but still no meteors. The Bridge was quite stunning though. And we took tons of pictures... I'd like to see how those turn out. After we have our fill of fun at the lookout point, we pile back in our cars and proceed to Riveredge Diner to have an early breakfast. Hehe, Justin and Andrew sang a delightful rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, which was quite entertaining. Ahh, but you know, getting there is always half the fun, especially when driving with the boys. Hehe, I won't implicate anyone specific, but going 120 on rt 4 is quite a rush. I would have to say that accelerating to fast speeds is more exciting than actually driving at those fast speeds that you were trying to achieve... ahhhhh, twas a night, or rather a morn, to remember...

edited on Thursday, Aug 14, at 12:22 AM

At this moment 18 years ago at 1:41AM in Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, New Jersey, a baby by the name of Tara Beth Espiritu was born to Tony and Gloria Espiritu. Today, she becomes a 'woman.' :) Happy Birthday to me!

one night special
I write today bearing news about this great show on wednesday. Its totally free, and I'm watching the show from Overpeck Park. One small thing is that the show is around 4 in the morning, but I hear it's going to be spectacular... how often to you get to watch a meteor shower anyway? ;) so do I have any takers? Come on... it'll be a good chance to bond and whatnot before we go to college... haha, a chance for all of you love birds too... ::winkwink nudgenudge::

"To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends."
~Benjamin Franklin

hahaha, oh how true that is sometimes... I will readily admit that girls love to gossip and are sometimes very catty :) hehe, at least i don't deny it

Once again, its past 12 so this will show up for the wrong day... When I say today, I mean yesterday, yesterday being sunday the 10th of august...
Today was my late-graduation/early-birthday/send-off party. To sum it up in a few words, lots of people, lots of food, lots of fun. Despite the torrential downpour for a few hours (well, maybe more like 1 or 2, but ya know how everything stays wet and yucky), it was great times. Seeing the look on fil's face when she saw the lechon was absolutely classic, and DDRing in the basement was also good times. It was really nice to see my relatives and some old-friends-of-the-family that I haven't seen in a while. I would write more on the subject, but honestly, I'm not in the mood to elaborate (I'm quite sticky and tired), so I'll leave you all now. I'll be back when I think of something more profound to say. . .

Friday Five
Fudgers, I'm really late with this one
1. What's the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?
The last state I've been to out of NJ is CT (for the awsome Jars of Clay concert that I went to). The last country that I've been to out of the US is the Philippines.
2. What's the most bizarre/unusual thing that's ever happened to you while traveling?
Uhhhh....
3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?
I would go "home" to the Philippines... I have a lot of relatives up there and all of my grandparents are there, and I'd like to spend as much time is possible with them before.. well, ya know..
4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?
It depends where I'm going. In most cases I would say by plane however. It's the quickest. But then again, it's usually the most expensive. Road trips can be a lot of fun too with the right people though...
5. What's the next place on your list to visit?
The Philippines

doing my daily browse through blogs, I came upon a new post in To Whom It May Concern which talks about the movie being produced by Mel Gibson about the last 12 hours of Jesus on this earth. If I remember correctly, it's entitled "The Passion" or just "Passion." I remembered seeing something about this movie a little while ago, and meant to blog about it, but never got around to it or just plain forgot. I definitely want to see the movie when it comes out, mainly just to see how good it is in depecting the story of the Crucifiction... after looking at a few pictures though, I think i'll spend a good part of the movie with my eyes covered, and about 75% of the movie bawling my eyes out. Pastor Greg ____ wrote in Harvest Online:

It was recently my privilege to view an advance unedited copy of Mel Gibson's new film "The Passion". Mr.Gibson was present during the viewing and welcomed input as he is now in the editing process. Let me just say that "The Passion" is the most powerful and effective portrayal of the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ I have ever seen. I was moved to tears a number of times and was on the edge of my seat for the entire film.

And this is what Mel Gibson said about his movie:

I'm not a preacher, and I'm not a pastor, but I really feel my career was leading me to make this. Making the Passion was a strange mixture of the most difficult thing I've ever done, along with this incredible ease. Everyone who worked on this movie was changed. Many people working on the set were converted while working on this film. The Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, and I was just directing traffic. I hope the film has the power to Evangelize.

This should be interesting...

hmm... I was just looking at my sitemeter account (they track how many hits I get on this website) and I was looking at this part where I can see which websites referred people to my blog, and it seems that quite a few people have been searching my name on google... who are you and why are you hounding me!?!?!
ahaha, just kidding. I was a tad surprised when I learned this fact though. very strange... Oh, and just incase you stalker people are tufties, leave me a little message (click the "talk back" link below) to say hi, hehe, I always enjoy hearing from you guys.

bits 'o stuff

FREE MOVIES IN THE PARK - WOW!
Mark your calendars for this first time family event where will feature on Wednesday, August 13 "Shrek" - rain date August 14 and on Wednesday, August 20 "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" - rain date August 21
Movies will be screened on a 200 sq. ft. movie screen.
Start time - 8:15 P.M. at Votee Park Bandshell
Bring your blankets or lawn chairs and we will supply the popcorn!
Teaneck Township

I finally saw "Pirates of the Carribean" tonight with leigh and fil... pretty good movie I would have to say. Haha, I think one of the main reasons why I enjoyed it so much was that because Orlando Bloom is absolutely gorgeous. Hehe, he definitely looked like a muskteer during the final scene of the movie with the hat and cape and all. Johnny Depp's character was also really funny, or at least I thought so. Some of the lines were really predictable though, ah well. it was still good

Oyeeee, I refuse to get myself into this type of situation again!!! Like I don't have enough things to deal with already...

I talked to my roomie for next year today/yesterday. She seems like a pretty cool girl. Her name is Kerry Thorton and she live in MA, about 20 min from Tufts actually. One blah thing is that she has a fridge too, hehe, my wishful thinking was that my roomie wouldn't have one and would therefore have to get the microwave... come to think of it, I don't even know if we're allowed to have both a fridge and a microwave at the same time... ::shrug:: Tuft's rules, not mine. And another blah thing, from the map we were looking at, it looks like me and beccs are far from eachother on campus, which sorta sucks. Hehe, I guess I'll be doign a lot of bike riding ;)

reasons
I was talking this over with leigh tonight, or rather earlier this morning, and I got to thinking about why I'm really playing soccer next year. It really must be for the love of the sport, I've come to terms with the fact that I won't be doing anything serious with soccer when I get older, I just don't have it. And ya know, that's fine, cause I love the sport. But since I'm doing just for the love of it, is it really worth putting myself through the stress of playing a varsity sport in college? I'm already behind in training this summer, especially now that I sprained my ankle again. And I hate training by myself. Sure, I can run as much as I want, but its not the same as scrimmaging and drills and whatnot. I think I'm really afraid that I'll show up in September for tryouts an get my butt totally kicked, and then I would feel like scum. Why not just do intramurals? I guess I'm looking for something more competitive, and I know that intramurals just won't cut it. I like playing soccer against opponents that are good, playing hard, sweating up a storm, and coming home knowing that I played my butt off. Its times like these that I forget why I play, and why I have been playing since I was five years old. But part of me remembers the feeling of stepping on a field with cleats and being somewhat decent at something. I know I'm not all that good, but then again, I'm not all that bad either. I held my own against the best of them during these past four years of HS, but will my best really cut it? I don't want college soccer to be another stressfull activity, just like HS has been, but I want it to be something fun that I really love doing. I also don't want it to take up all of my free time. What about a capella and IV and all of that? I want to get the full college experience at Tufts, just not part of it. Ach, I worry to much....

ps: Marissa! if you're reading this, call me sometime to train! I don't know if your still working or not, but I'm off this entire week from work except from 2 - 6 on thursday. You know how to reach me!

Oh man, the Jars of Clay concert that I went to earlier tonight was sooooo incredibly good! Haha, to quote myself from an earlier time, "they were more than amazing!" The lead was fabulous, he put so much heart into the songs and he really knew how to work the stage. The other members were so great with their respective instruments, and their harmonies were so beautiful. Not to mention that their songs are all spectacular and heart-touching. Sixpence None The Richer was pretty good too, they did about three covers, but it was okay, because I liked all of their cover songs. I think the thing I like best about Jars of Clay is that their music has really meaningful lyrics, I'll leave you to ponder one of my favorite songs from tonight's set...

Worlds Apart
I am the only one to blame for this / somehow it all adds up the same / Soaring on the wings of selfish pride / I flew too high and like Icarus I collide / With a world I try so hard to leave behind, to rid myself of all but love, to give and die...

To turn away and not become / another nail to pierce the skin of one who loves / more deeply than the oceans / more abundant than the tear / Of a world embracing every heartache / Can I be the one to sacrifice / Or grip the spear and watch the blood and water flow

To love you - take my world apart
To need you - I am on my knees
To love you - take my world apart
To need you - broken on my knees

All said and done I stand alone / Amongst remains of a life I should not own / It takes all I am to believe
In the mercy that covers me / Did you really have to die for me? / All I am for all you are / Because what I need and what I believe are worlds apart

To love you - take my world apart
To need you - I am on my knees
To love you - take my world apart
To need you - broken on my knees

I look beyond the empty cross / forgetting what my life has cost / and wipe away the crimson stains / and dull the nails that still remain / More and more I need you now / I owe you more each passing hour / the battle between grace and pride / I gave up not so long ago / So steal my heart and take the pain / and wash the feet and cleanse my pride / take the selfish, take the weak / and all the things I cannot hide / take the beauty, take my tears / the sin-soaked heart and make it yours / take my world all apart / take it now, take it now / and serve the ones that I despise / speak the words I can't deny / watch the world I used to love / fall to dust and thrown away / I look beyond the empty cross / forgetting what my life has cost / so wipe away the crimson stains / and dull the nails that still remain / so steal my heart and take the pain / take the selfish, take the weak / and all the things I cannot hide / take the beauty, take my tears / take my world apart, take my world apart / I pray, I pray, I pray / take my world apart . . .

Friday Five
1. What time do you wake up on weekday mornings?
Recently I have been waking up around 7:50 so I can be on the road by 8:20ish to get to work a little before 9. Before I started working at Claires, I would wake up around 11:30 each day :) hehehe, I'm such a slacker and a night owl.
2. Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late?
Since when is sleeping in reserved for the weekends? Haha, I sleep in every chance I get. I usually sleep till 11:30ish as I said before. I really have no motivation to get out of bed in the mornings... its so darn comfy!
3. Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning?
Go to the bathroom, wash my hands, and then wash my face. I hate all the gunky stuff that forms around your eyes when you sleep. After all of that, I usually try to do my quite time, i've been bad with that recently though.
4. How long does it take to get ready for your day?
It depends. If the situation calls for it, I can get ready and be out the door in 5 to 7 minutes. It usually takes me around 10 to 15 minutes though, not including breakfast. I usually never have time for that if I have to be up earlyish (early is anytime before 10 by the way).
5. When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast?
IHOP all the way! ::big grin:: or if I'm broke (which I usually am) then the Grille, you can't beat their prices/food. Matthews in Bergenfield is pretty good too though.

Oooo... I went to the sold out Manchester United v. Juventus game tonight. One word. Awsome. Many thanks to Zach, who had an extra ticket and decided to be nice and let me tag along. We got to the Meadowlands around 5:45ish, and proceded to do some yummy tailgating... steak, asparagus, corn, rootbeer, fresh lemonade, finished up with chocolate cake with an orange glaze.. very yum. haha, this guy tailgating next to us teased us for making lemonade and having cake, but it was muy bien so I don't care :) Hahaha, european soccer fans are so great though! so much rowdier that regular MLS american soccer fans, hehe, so much fun :) A lot of screaming, a lot of booing, a lot of standing up, a lot of cheering, and a lot of good times. Hehe, we also got a pretty nice wave going too. Man U ended up winning 4 to 1, but its okay, cause it was a great game. Juve actually had a lot of scoring opportunities, but they just couldn't get the ball in the back of the net.... that and Tim Howard totally kicks butt! ahhh... what a great sport.