The US of A

Well, life in the US has been interesting.

For one thing, I tried a chicken-fried steak and some ochre the other day. Two Texan dishes. The chicken-fried steak wasn’t bad, and the ochre was pretty much tasteless. Not too bad…

Oh, and did I mention that it hailed? Well, there was a storm, and apparently there was hail the size of golf balls falling in some parts of Texas, but where we were the hail was smaller… About half an inch. Caleb ate it. Here’s a pic -->

Well, its still freezing, we’ve been eating good, and we’ve done some shopping. I got some lovely body butter that smells like kiwis (no, not you, Abby, not the bird either, the fruit.), and also got a new awesome Skillet cd, two books—“Tolkien’s Ring,” fully illustrated by Alan LeeJ and “Grail” by Stephen Lawhead—and a t-shirt that says “On the 6th day God created Dinosaurs!” and has a big T-rex on it. So me.

We’ve also been eating lots of luvverly food… strawberries, grapefruit, whoppers, cheerios, etc. Yum yum.

Well, we’re in Arkansas now. It’s gorgeous here, was gorgeous in Texas too. I miss you all back in Cambodia, and I can’t wait to see those of you who I’ll be seeing while we’re in the US!

~Manwathiel

Through the Stargate

And back into the USA. You know, LAX even *looks* like Cheyanne Mountain Complex. *stops rambling* Ok, so Caleb and I played the stargate game while traveling... Traveling...for 27 hours! Ack, it was horrible. But I survived. And watched I Am Legend and Unimatrix Zero. Which were both totally awesome. And survived.
And now I am freezing. So all you need to know is that we are alive, we have reached Dallas, and we are eating strawberries. Whoohoo! Lets hope I survive tomorrow when jetlag *really* hits me.
Well... goodbye.
!me!

Sickness, disease,

Sadness, disaster.

Life moves on.

Nothing can break me down

When I'm being held up

By One so strong.

Heartbreak, sorrow,

Heartache, sin.

I'm breaking apart,

Fallin' to pieces,

Bending, breaking.

Being glued together again.

Life moves on.

Farewell

So I've been saying goodbye... Goodbye to people, goodbye to places, goodbye to life as I know it. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to cry. Actually, more than sometimes. I can barely imagine living in the United States... leaving my friends here in Cambodia... Leaving everything I'm used to... It'd be horrible, at the very least. But just in case that happens, I've been saying goodbye.
We already had two goodbye parties and I said goodbye to many, many people in church on Sunday. I started to cry at Le Duo. This is highly unusual for me to actually *cry*. I went and hid in the bathroom. Depressing. Well... I might be leaving Cambodia forever... alas.

Goodbye.

Earrings

So I've been wanting to get a second piercing on one of my ears for quite a while... And I finally got parental permission. But being me, I'm too cheap to pay to have it done, or to pay for new earrings. Several of my friends recently got their ears done at Toul Tom Poung, where someone just took the earring and popped it in, no machine or anything. I considered doing that, but I'd still have to buy a new earring. So I came up with a simple solution: Have Dad pierce it! Dad said ok, but later changed his mind... So I decided to pierce it myself. I cleaned off an old earring with rubbing alcohol, fiddled around with making different dots on my ear, finally found a good place to pierce my ear, and started to stick the earring in. Well, long story short, it went through, and I now have joined the ranks of those-who-have-pierced-their-own-ear. I was going to do the other ear too, but after doing one I kind of wimped out. So now I have two holes in my right ear and one in my left. Yup yup. I'm probably going to regret it later... But for now I am very happy and very proud of myself =).

For the Federation!

So some of you may know, and some of you may not know, that a forum I'm on played a wonderful April Fools trick (definitely the best April Fools trick I've ever seen), in which the Trekkies took over, confined all of the Gaters and their sympathizers to the Brig, changed everything to everything Star Trekkie, and overall were as geeky as possible. I, being a Trekkie, had an utter and complete blast. I think everyone did. Of course, the Gaters did break out eventually and us Trekkies were defeated... But then it was revealed that it was all an April Fools joke (I knew ahead of time). But goodness, it was fun.

With that brief history, allow me to say that I am having trouble getting out of my Star Trek-mood. I've been walking around all day thinking up wonderful Spock-like phrases, saying "Live Long and Prosper" to several people, and seriously considering painting a bunch of Borg cubes and spheres on my door. But I figured that since we'll be leaving soon I'd better not, I don't think the house sitters would appreciate it. Right now I'm wishing that I had been able to watch a Star Trek before American Idol started... Sadly it is now too late. Oh well. I love Star Trek. Definitely the greatest science fiction ever. I'm also wondering what would happen if the Trekkies staged another takeover... Probably banning for all, so no need to worry--my Vulcan logic forbids me to do anything of the sort. Highly illogical. The chances of actually getting away with it are extremely low (0.005%, according to Lieutenant-Commander Data). And of course, there is the little fact that I *like* other science fictions (including Stargate!) and the people who run the forum are too awesome to really overthrow... So instead of taking over the forum, I've considered taking over youthgroup. What do you think would happen if I walked in tomorrow wearing a Bajoran earring, dressed in full Starfleet uniform, and muttering into a combadge? It might be worth a try... I really need to get myself those things, though. Or maybe I should just force my family into having a Voyager marathon! That would be fun. Plus we finally have season 2 (which I haven't seen all of yet)

Ooh, Dad is back from a chip run. Maybe he has some Klingon Bloodworms... Nevermind, I'm not that weird. But for now...

Live long and prosper! \\//

Lieutenant Katherine of the Federation Starship Voyager