monday monday....

monday. the worst day of the week. 

here is the dictionary's definition of monday:

Monday |ˈməndā|

noun

the day of the week before Tuesday and following Sunday

here's my definition:

the weekend is over, teachers love to give you tests on this day, ruining the two days you have off before this day, ie. your WEEKEND. most often, said tests ruin the rest of your week until it starts over next monday.

if you didn't guess already, i am not a fan of mondays. i don't think i ever will be. i had a midterm in UCOR today (two essays + 10 short answer questions + one hour & 20 minutes = DEATH) and a spanish test (which i'm pretty sure i BOMBED. awesome....)

one positive: today is the last day of january, FINALLY. i hate january more than i hate mondays. finally it will be february. which brings my favorite holiday.....not. good thing valentine's day (i.e. S.A.D.....single awareness day) is on a monday this year. two things i don't like, put together! perfect. the upside to this is that nobody does anything fun on mondays. that way, i won't have to worry about the date that i'm not going to have on friday/saturday night with the cute boy that does not exist. also, i would like to extend a thank you to group-on/shutterfly/every store that has a sale emails for reminding me, once again, that i have no significant other and am FOREVER ALONE!

i know, i sound so bitter. but this is a monday, so it's okay to rant, right?? well i'm on the subject, pandora, please allow me more skips on your stations. when i chose 'the beatles' as a station, i DID NOT want pearl jam or the rolling stones. come on! SERIOUSLY.

this week is not off to the best start, but i am praying for a turn around. lord willing. i base too much of my self esteem on school. it's something i've always done, because i've always been pretty good at school. it definitely was not athletics (coordination = non-existent) and i never really got into a hobby/extra curricular activity. i'm not saying school is my life, because i've never been a 4.0 student. and this is college, i realize that. it's just frustrating when i get my tests/papers back and get half the grade i was expecting. but that's life right? what doesn't kill you makes you stronger? something like that. i'm working on it....

here's to the rest of my monday !

with love (and frustration), C

success.

SUCCESS. i was one of the first 100 people to get a t-shirt. unfortunately, they only had sizes L and XL, so i was basically swimming in it. but that's okay. i also learned why these shirts say 'looney bin'. while watching the game later on FSN, they mentioned our coach's name was Ryan Looney. Hence the student fan section being called the "Looney Bin". hahahaha. we beat WWU 69-61 and i'm proud to say i was on TV more than once. the last two pictures of are pictures of the TV screen (you can click them individually to make them larger....sorry for the poor quality).....and yes i am waving at the camera in one of them. My dad texted me and said he saw me, which is all that matters!! in the last picture, my face is kind of blocked but i am right next to hope with the 'go falcons' sign. so exciting to be on tv!!! it was such a good game, we came back from behind beat western.....my ears hurt because of all the screaming and noise but it was so worth it!

yours in falcon land,

C

groundbreaking.

guys. it's 54 degrees in seattle. and the sun is even out a little. i might have to break out these:

my $6 sunglasses from forever 21 that broke the second time i wore them.  good thing my handy dad saved them! thank you!! :) 

i'm procrastinating....but what else is new? after this, i'm going to study for my math placement test. remember me saying 'kill me' about taking this? well, as of yesterday i found out that you aren't allowed to use a calculator. KILL ME x480802749814719419273191. 
on a positive note; i finished/turned in my essay for UCOR today, which is a huge weight off my shoulders. granted, it was not the best essay i've ever written, but it wasn't the worst either. too bad my UCOR professor has her master's in English.........
tonight is the basketball game against WWU. i need to be one of the first 100 students. i need a t-shirt. if you know me, you know i pretty much only wear t-shirts when i work out (which is rarely) or to bed. i don't find them exactly flattering on me, or particularly fashionable for that matter. but if it's a free t-shirt, then i'm in. plus, i can look really cool on the elliptical and people will wish they were one of the first 100 students. maybe it's a pride thing. kind of strange, but whatever. 
i will keep you posted ;)
LOVEloveLOVE

homecoming: college style.

last weekend was homecoming! a little weird having it in january, as opposed to october, but i liked it. to kick off the weekend, the talent show was on friday night. i have been to my fair share of "talent" shows.....sometimes they're great, sometimes they aren't. this one however, was great. i heard it was a pretty difficult audition, and they picked the best 9 acts. about 2/3s of the acts were bands, and surprisingly none of them ended up winning. third place went to a "stage painter", second place went to a mime act, and the winner was this ukelele duo. they played two original songs and one mash-up. it was cute and funny at the same time. and they were freshman! shout out to the class of 2014. even though there were only 9 acts, with intermission and several funny videos interspersed in, it was almost 4 hours. moving on....saturday was the homecoming game (s). the guys game was at 3:30 against montana state. we left like 10 minutes before it was over, but apparently we won in overtime. ha wooo! we left to go shopping at northgate.....you can see how important athletics are to me ;) for dinner, we went to the macaroni grill! SO GOOD. i cannot express how much i love the macaroni grill. so so delicious. who doesn't love writing on the table with crayons?!! and the bread. don't even get me started. after that, we quickly got changed for the homecoming dance which was from 9-11pm. it was only $1, so if it sucked, it didn't really matter. but it didn't. it was SO fun. it was a nice change from high school; no awkward dates, slow dances, and elaborate, unnecessary dresses. semi formal, just dancing with your friends. there really aren't enough guys to go around anyhow hahahaha.....gotta love that 3-1 ratio. not. oh well. after that, we had an after dance party in the bathroom....please do enjoy the shots :)

from L to R: hannah, kim, stephanie, jubilee, me, hope, victoria, courtney, kfunk (our PA) & beth

so so fun. and sweaty.
this week is crazy busy for me; midterms are almost here...yiiikes!
today: i had class all day, [kind of bombed a test :(], had an advising appointment, bought a planner that was 75% off!!! (best part of the day....my birky is shining through!) and now have an essay to write...
tuesday; my friend jourdan is coming up to visit me before she goes off to college in california in a week! :)
wednesday: along with having small group, there's a boys' basketball game against western washington that's going to be on TV (FSN to be exact).... and the first 100 students there get a t-shirt.....free t-shirt + tv. what more could you ask for?? haha
thursday: i have a math placement test (kill me) and i have to go see godspell (the winter play/musical) for my UCOR class
friday: menchie's hopefully, and a little bit of relaxation!
sprinkle in homework everywhere, and you have a packed week! the upside is that i get to go home this weekend...and see my baby niece get dedicated at church :) 
please pray for me and my overload of schoolwork :)
loveLOVElove 

quoted.

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." 
— Audrey Hepburn

nicknames.

whilst spacing out during my fashion history class, i got to thinking about nicknames, and decided i should write a post about it.....

nicknames. defined in the dictionary as :

nickname |ˈnikˌnām|

noun

a familiar or humorous name given to a person or thing instead of or as well as the real name.

i don't go by my middle name. i don't have a ton of nicknames......my dad calls me 'channy' my siblings and mom call me 'chan' so does my friend katie :) other than her, my friends don't really call me anything other than my name. my grandma wanted to call me 'cc' because those are my first two initials and she thought it would be cute. some people call me 'birky' which was what my sister was called often before she got married. there was also that period in middle school of 'channyface'. my brother also used to call me 'chan the man' and 'shipping & chandlering'. thanks bro....i've never had a nickname that  has to do with a funny (or embarrassing) experience thankfully (except there was 'gumby' from my best friend carly freshman year of high school when i sat on gum)....i feel like those are awkward to explain. 

it's weird to think what my name would have been if it weren't chandler. i was going to be chandler whether i was a boy or a girl because my parents didn't find out my gender until i was born. if i was a boy, my name would have been Chandler Christian, instead of Chandler Christine. my parents (or maybe it was just my mom) liked the name Bailey, which i really like. it would have gone nicely with my last name. Bailey Birky. but i think that got nixed pretty quickly when they realized my siblings' names were chelsea and chase. not only am i 9 & 6 years younger, but i would've had a name completely different from them. thank you for not leaving me out on that one ;) next up, we have Chynna. that's right. as in Chynna Doll, the wrestler. thank god my parents decided no on that one. i am proud to say that i am the only chandler - boy or girl - that goes to spu. and yes, i looked it up. 

so here i am, chandler. chan. channy. birky. whatever you want to call me.

and i wouldn't change it!

a complaint (s).

dear floor above me,
please please PLEASE for the love of all that is holy, SHUT UP. I'm not sure if you were aware of what time you were singing along to 'marry me' by bruno mars, 'hey soul sister' by train and 'forever' by chris brown, practicing for Ashton Cup or whatever, but be assured that NORMAL people were trying to sleep. Also, the screaming/slamming of drawers was also uncalled for. Please don't let it happen again.....
sincerely,
room 128


dear people shooting hoops last night/this morning,
i really really hate you. along with the people above me, you were also dribbling your basketball on the court, which if you haven't figured out, is right next to my room. but that's not where it stops.....you were also out there again at 7:30 AM dribbling for way too long. normally, this wouldn't bother me that much since i have to get up anyway, but today was my morning to sleep in. i was tempted to go out there and tell you to shut up, but i was too lazy. next time, though......count on it.
sincerely,
the room right by the court that can hear everything perfectly

recap.

yikes, sorry for the lack of constant updates on my life!! ha ha ha....
i haven't had much time within the past few days to blog (or procrastinate, PTL)
let me catch you up on my life a little....
on friday night, we went to the gymnastics meet against illinois state. (weird, right? a school of 4,000 vs. a school of 20,000+) one of the girls on my floor, stephanie, is on the gymnastics team and although she wasn't able to compete, we were there to support! i've never been to an actual gymnastics meet, i've only watched them on tv....and it's usually the summer olympics. it lasted about two hours. both teams competed in vault, uneven bars, floor, and balance beam. unfortunately, we didn't win, but we only lost by a few points. i was glad i went!
throughout the weekend, a bunch of girls on my floor and i have been playing a card game called ligretto. i had never played it before a few weeks ago, and i love it. it's like speed, but you get points. (or negative points in my case, hahaha) it's really fun....and not hard to learn! :)
yesterday, my best friend sierra came up to see me! thank goodness for 3-day weekends. last night, we went to u-village and went shopping. i love u-village. we were going to go to this really cute store downtown that is going out of business (=SALE), but i got the hours wrong and it was closed when we got there haha....oh well. after u-village, we met up with taylor (my friend from high school that goes to spu) and lauren (a friend from church who goes to school with sierra) because she was visiting spu also! we went to menchies....which was packed, as usual. people love their frozen yogurt, i guess! (side note: i REFUSE to say "fro-yo". i'm sorry. i can't do it.) i went there on friday night, so i didn't get any on saturday. i'm working on this thing called willpower.....wish me luck.
this morning, hope, sierra, and i went to mars hill again. i wanted her to see what it was like and she wanted to go too, and since she had a car, we drove there. it was good, again. there were baptisms - but not planned ones. you simply went up as you felt called to be baptized. we sat more towards the back, so it was harder to see (well, maybe just me since my long-distance vision is AWFUL). there was also communion.....i've always thought communion was a first-sunday-of-the-month-only kind of thing, but that isn't always necessarily true. she just left, and although i'm sad to see her go, i'm so glad i could spend a least a little time with her!
here are some "glamour" shots....and by "glamour" i mean photobooth:

so thankful for her, and that she got to meet some of my college friends! :)
as for the rest of the day....my plans look somewhat like this :
Homework [but not too much since i don't have school until wednesday :)]
laundry?
a movie?
hopefully ligretto!
& who knows what else, it's college....
have a wonderful rainy day!
loveLOVElove <3

i love the 90s.

tonight while sitting in kim, suz & steph's room around 11:30ish we were discussing peeing our pants. i recalled the last time i peed my pants and remembered it was at daycare in 2nd grade. i don't remember much about it except for the fact that it was before school, i was extremely embarrassed because i didn't have any of my own clothes to change into, and i was wearing these:

that's right. these beauts are the one and only doc marten sandals circa 1999. i know, i would be jealous too if i were you....i remember i wore these shoes ALL THE TIME until i (thankfully) grew out of them.

while i'm on the topic of recalling my favorite childhood memories, here are a few more gems.

sprink'lins. how dare dannon stop the production of this wonderful after school treat! they had sprinkles that you would mix into your yogurt.....the best part was the question mark, and the mystery of never knowing what you would get. love them!

next up, we have one of my favorite childhood memories, Discovery Zone. i think the one in salem closed when i was like 6 or 7...so i was really young. but i still remember it and how much i love it. i affectionately referred to it as 'scubby zone'. i think i had my 4th birthday party here. the best part was winning the prizes and playing in the foam pits.

this is just for my sister. i never had the pleasure of enjoying these treats, because they were long gone by the time i was a child. but i hear they were pretty delicious.....and, like the sprink'lins, out of production. shout out to you, dunkaroos! RIP.

paradise.....

i could really get used to this right now......
summer come soon :)

first facebook fast of 2011

started: sunday night @ 11:45pm
ends: wednesday afternoon @ 4:30pm


i know what you're thinking......a facebook fast? are you kidding? the answer is no. i am not. 
the reasoning behind my facebook fasting is not just singular; there are many reasons as to why i'm abstaining from it.
reason number one being:
procrastination. simple as that. if you knew how many hours i waste on this website, i'm sure you would be appalled.
reason number two being:
an unnecessary annoyance. let me explain: sometimes people on there annoy me, or frustrate me, and it really does nothing for me to keep looking at their pages/posts and get frustrated because i can't control anything in their lives. especially people who live far away from me.
reason number three being:
to see if i can do it. and wean myself slowly away from it. i know three days isn't that much, but i'm taking baby steps here.


this is going to give me more time to do my homework, especially in an orderly manner. granted, i have been on blogspot, yahoo, and even perezhilton.com (wth?) way more than usual, but the important part is that it's not the same as facebook. even if i want to get on, (believe me i've tried) hope changed my password. and i changed hers. we're in this together - strength in numbers! wish me luck; i'm doing alright so far :)
LOVEloveLOVE

snow day......almost.

this morning as i dragged myself out of bed, i walked over to my window to crack my blinds......and i saw snow. i told my roommate, who is absolutely fascinated with snow and i started to see some life in her as she started freaking out. i immediately checked my email and didn't see any school closures (boo!) and realized that i still had to go to class. what a bummer :( i hear it's supposed to snow on wednesday, so we'll see how that goes....
i feel like my last few posts have been extremely wordy and not super exciting. i apologize for that.....i'm more into writing than visuals i guess. although i like both....on saturday night, we had access to a car and went to the cheesecake factory downtown. at 11:30pm. now if that doesn't say college, i don't know what does....let's just say i can't wait to have a car next year :)
 we got some choice pictures....of which is to follow:

                                                               pre cheesecake factory shot.

 that delicious brown bread they give you.....

 holy cow. can you imagine eating this by yourself?!!! chocolate truffle cake. divine.

 so excited.

 demolished. hahahaha kidding. we only ate a few bites before we were stuffed. but don't worry, we saved the rest for later :)

 victoria (my roommate) & our new floor member, courtney :)

 erika (next door neighbor), hope, & me.

droool.

sunday morning, rain is falling....

......well, that sentence is half true. that song is stuck in my head!


this morning i had a revelation. hope & i decided to try out a new church this morning and we had access to a car (thank you sammi!) so we decided to go to mars hill in ballard. that experience i will explain further later - moving on.....we had gone to sleep around 2am and decided to go to the 9am service as opposed to the 11:15am one to have more time in the day. that being said, we woke up around 8 to make it there in time.  so we're talking less than six hours of sleep. as i dragged myself out of bed, literally, i had an extremely selfish thought. i thought "wow, the things i do for Jesus!" how terrible of me. that should have been the other way around - "the things JESUS does for ME." how many times have i complained about the smallest things, and gotten mad because things weren't exactly how i wanted them?? unfortunately, wayyy too many times to count. Jesus is ALWAYS good and wonderful to me, and so often i am too blind or selfish to notice and appreciate them. 


something i heard recently that really clicked : "Don't count the times you've been hurt and people left. Think about the times you've hurt God and he never left you."


i constantly rely on humans and get frustrated if they let me down. but that is nature. people are going to fail you. God never will. i think i look to humans so much because i know i can get a straightforward answer. it's not quite the same with God. you have to stop and listen to what He is saying and doing in your life. it definitely is not going to be the easy route; but life isn't easy either.


i've been wanting to go to mars hill basically since i've been at spu and this morning i finally got my chance. there are about 6 locations in the seattle area, but i wanted to go to the one where mark driscoll was actually preaching at. it happened to be ballard. when he came onto the platform, i kind of felt like i was seeing a celebrity because i've seen several of his videos in high school youth group. it was kind of strange, but still awesome. there were a ton of people there for being 9am, but i understood because, after all, it's mark driscoll. anyhow. his sermon was the parable in luke of jesus healing the demonized woman. i definitely learned a few new things, and he confirmed a few things also. one thing i know for sure: there is a difference, a BIG difference between being religious and having a relationship with God. to be religious is to commit yourself to a cause; not Christ. don't get me wrong; it isn't bad to support causes that are important to you; but it isn't Jesus. it should not come before Jesus, or instead of.
i really enjoyed mars hill, and i definitely want to go again sometime. it's a little hard to get there without a car, but maybe i can make some upperclassmen friends ;) 
i've got some homework calling my name, so i should probably get on that.
loveLOVElove

TGIF.

guess who woke up 7 minutes before class started? this girl. guess whose phone(/alarm) decided to turn off while it was charging? yep, that was mine too. 
let me give you a run down of my day thus far: my roommate had class at 9:30, and i normally would have too, but our class was canceled in order to give us "more time to read" our book, My Name is Asher Lev. (status: page 1. i've only got 368 more to go by monday!) and obviously, college students are going to take the opportunity to sleep in! so i did, and was sort of half awake wondering what time it was/when my alarm was going to go off. i looked at my phone and it said 'charge complete'. "hmmm, that's weird i thought".....normally, it just says the time. then i began to realize that it was off and began to panic. i turned it on, and saw that it said 10:53am. i jumped out of bed faster than i have since this happened to me in 7th grade and threw on literally anything in my sight, ran out the door and booked it to class. luckily, my class wasn't super far away, and i could have woken up way later. which i am thankful for. so i walked in my class as my teacher was taking roll and sat in the back with my hood on, no makeup, and looking like i woke up from the dead. awesome, right?


it doesn't end here.....so i had about two hours before my spanish class at 3, and i needed to get a few things at the store so i thought i'd catch the bus to safeway and make it back in time for my class. i left campus at 2:20 and was gonna come back on the 2:42. it was not the 2:42. it was the 2:54. 12 minutes late. COOL. after i got on/off the bus and booked it half way across campus (all uphill) i was only 5 minutes late.....


today was just not my day hahaha. waaahhhhh. hopefully tonight we will finally make it to menchie's (the new frozen yogurt place in queen anne) so i can eat my feelings/sorrows/have a pity party for myself. we are also having a meeting to plan what our floor is doing for Ashton Cup, which is the last weekend of january....it's like a giant mash-up of movies that you have to act out and it's supposed to be like 10 minutes long. or something like that. yiiiikes. it's about time to actually start looking presentable for the rest of the day, so i will leave you with this: TGIF.
yours in collegeland, C

it's t shirt tiiiiiiime!!!

season 3. it's here. 10 pm.

back in action.

i apologize for the dramatic, melancholy, and boring last few posts.....all is better. or is getting better...
i got back to school today! as much as winter break ending sucked, i'm so so happy to be back. i love seeing everyone again, and just getting back into a routine. 
a few ways i can tell i'm back:

• the loud people above us are still loud.
• i can hear mumford & sons in the distance somewhere
• my roommate is back to her messy ways :)
• i still have difficulties walking up the hill to ashton.
• fb creeping has become a regular habit with hope again
• i am back to playing pandora/grooveshark 24/7 

tomorrow at 9:30 am, my break officially ends. but i'm ready for it. i think. if you haven't already figured it out, all of my classes are on MWF and i have tuesdays and thursdays off.....that's not exactly how i wanted it, but those were just when my classes were scheduled. so tomorrow i have ucor from 9:30-10:50, seeing history through clothing from 11-12:20 and spanish 1103 from 3-4:20. three hour-and-20-minute classes....PTL i don't have any 2+ hr classes and/or night classes. amen.

the bummer....i was not very smart/proactive in ordering my books so i only have 1 out of the 4 that i need for tomorrow.....ooops. not one of my smartest moves....let's hope we don't use them right away.

here's a verse to get me through the week:

1. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

1. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God."
   more soon. 
   loveLOVElove, C

the funny thing about goodbyes......

......they never get easier.
no matter how hard you try.

truth.

"and all at once the crowd begins to sing
sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same"