Vernus est in Aero!

Ah! The beauty of a spring Day! Today the world has been bathed in warm sunlight! The birds have been out and everyone is in high spirits! I love Spring! Nothing out of the ordinary happened today but I am in such a good mood I'm not sure anything can bring it down. I took the most energizing nap today while laying outside Watson Library underneath a huge tree and with the warm sun bathing my skin in some much needed Vitamin D. I wore shorts and flip flops today! What a wonderful day!

Spring is in the Air!

Fraser

Sun Beginning to Set.

Watkins bathing in the Sunlight.

Sun peaking out behind a tree.

St. Valentine

It is only appropriate that today's post be about Valentines Day because today is Valentines Day. Every February 14th millions of red roses are bought and thousands of pounds of chocolate is bought to be given to wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends, and family.

I still think that it is a money making scheme but it does hold some value. It does make us take time to pause and think about those we love and take some time to say 'I love you'. This is my second most special Valentines Day. The first would be back in 2008 when my first boyfriend Joel asked me out. I thought it was cute and rather special that he asked me that day. So that takes the cake for best but today is a close second. While I have been asked out once on Valentines Day I have never (until today) received a Valentine. I expected to day to be like every other one...Valentine-less. I was proven wrong this afternoon.

My Grandmother had just texted me asking me if I had received any Valentines today and I was in the process of texting her back "no-I have no one who would send me one". Just as I was getting ready to send the text Hillary (a girl staying in Watkins with me) knocked on my door and told me that I had some flowers. I told her that she must have the wrong Jessie because no one would send me flowers....she then said that they had to be for me because there was only one Jessie Olsen-Stice living in this house. So I took the flowers and set them down smiling....I read the card. They were from my Grammy and Grampy.

I was delighted to have gotten something! So this is a thank you to my Grammy and Grampy for giving me my first Valentine! I love you both so very much! You have no idea what these beautiful flowers mean to me.


              Happy Valentines Day to my Friends and of course my Family. I love you all so much!!!!

Timeo

Today is day number 5 of being sick with the flu and it does not seem I am getting better. I am so tired, worn out, and sore. I had hoped that the medicine would just take care of the problem and I could go about my days as normal but that has not happened. I don't feel like the medicine had done any good. The doctor says that it really should start taking effect really soon and if it doesn't to come back in and he'll prescribe something else. I hope it just starts working. I need to get back into the flow of working and class and homework without running to the bath room every ten minutes. Lets all keep our fingers crossed!


I had felt that this semester would take so much longer than the fall semester because we have fewer breaks and I am so impatient for summer to arrive but I feel that this semester is not as bad as last. Spring break is in only 5 weeks! I have alot going on this semester which I think is helping with my feeling it will go fast. I have either class or work from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. every day except for Friday. I have work at least 4 days a week and more when there is a show going on (I would be working right now if not for this flu!). I have plans for most of the weekends from here until the end of the semester. Some are boring like work but others are fun like this up coming weekend where my friends Kate and Carrie and I are going shopping for Carrie's wedding! I think we are trying on bridesmaid's dresses and Carrie's dress and picking which ones we like best. I am really looking forward to it! The wedding is not until June of next year but I am still very excited. I wish it was sooner! I've never been in a wedding before much less a bridesmaid! So excited. My birthday I just calculated is in 12 weeks from tomorrow! Insane! It feels like i just turned 18....now I'm going to be 19! I know that 19 is not a magical number or anything but it is another year older and it is a big deal for me.

Anyway...those are my ramblings for tonight. :)

The Picture for today is of my Tattoo. I thought that I would post it because I really like it and am very proud of it. And there is not a picture of it on here yet. It is of a Phoenix with Ohana written above. Ohana means family is Hawaiian. I'll go into detail about my tattoo and what it means another day but here is what it looks like.  

My Tattoo

Pummelvision

Oh and here is a video that I made on Pummelvision! I thinks its pretty awesome!

Aeger

I have been sick these past few days and I have been really out of it. I am not much better today but I managed to get in 3 naps, a load of drugs, and a few nice long talks with a few friends. I can not say today was very productive on the homework front though. I have not had the energy to focus on anything except getting better. It really blows to have the flu. I only remember one other time that I had it and I was something like 5 or 6 and really the only thing I remember from that is being really cold the whole time. Absolutely terrible.

Why is it when you are sick everything tastes and smells funny. I really wanted cheddar broccoli soup and i made it but it smelt odd and when I tasted it I was immediately put off. Not fun. So sadly I did not eat my soup.

Here is a crafty picture of my Medicine

Anyway I have little else to say except for I'm going to watch a movie and go to sleep!

Spectans Sursum (Looking up)

Someone today asked me who do I aspire to be...It seems that this question has been popping up a lot. I'm not sure if it is so common because I'm in college and need to figure out what I am going to do with my life or if I am just more aware that the question is being asked. It was asked on several questioneirs and in person by various people ranging from professors to other students. The person who asked today was a TA for my Logic class. He went around asking everyone in class and wrote it down and then used it to show us how "logically" we think. But I thought that because this question is popping up so often I would write about it today.

I aspire to be/look up to my Mom. Those of you who know me or who have read my blog may be able to deduce that I really look up to her. I am not sure if she knows how much I look up to her but I do quite a bit. I don't want to be just like her-because she is ever so slightly nuts :) -but I want to be as giving and open as she is. She is willing to do whatever she can for anyone she knows...even if she has not known them for a long time. I am a prime example of this...I was one of her theater students and she got to know me and I her and there came a time when I needed her and she was there for me-every time I needed her. God knows that happened very often through out high school. Whether it was simply needing someone to talk to or a place to go. She supported me in every endeavor and always told me how it was. I knew that when she told me I was overreacting I really was overreacting and I needed to step back and reassess. I knew when she told me that it was going to be okay that she was willing to do whatever she could to make it okay for me. I know that when she promised me that she and my family were always going to be there she was not lying and they will be.  And I know today that when she says she loves me she really does.

I have never seen her not help someone in need. Never. She has the biggest heart of anyone I have ever known. She cares. She is compassionate. I strive to be as open minded, caring, giving, loving, and supportive as she is. She has taught me what it means to be all of those things and more. I am a better friend and person because of her. She has given me what self confidence I have, a hope for the future, strength, and has taught me that it is okay to be me.....most of all she has given me a family. Which is what I feel matters most. Without her compassionate heart, self-less nature, or determined attitude I would not be able to call myself a daughter, granddaughter, niece, sister, cousin, and eventually an aunt. All are things which I have desired to have since I was very young.



So I look up to the woman who has given me so much and for all intents and purposes is my Mom.

My First Day of College

Ode to Life

Around and around a wheel goes, 
following along its everlasting cycle on 
that endless path; a path which calls 
me as if it were meant for me, a song 
sung with the sweetest tunes which fall 
like rain from pregnant clouds 
above, round and round it touches again 
reaching for what will never come. 


They walk to the melody the wheel plays 
day and night, it leads them to the places 
they must go; they go because they know they should, 
they go for it is what is sung to them, they go never 
expecting more than before: an endless world 
ever focused upon what is yet to come. 


The wheel turns and turns, ever turning 
rarely stopping, continuing with little pause, 
it does not consider or wonder; for all who follow do so 
because it is what is sung to them, that sweet rain 
falls upon the faces of all, calling them 
along the path: all are blind to what passes beside them. 


The journey forward is rarely halted or stalled, 
only pushed forward with valor for they are called, 
when the clouds above are emptied of their tune 
the wheel is brought to an arrest: the people look about and are shocked, 
what is laid out before them is vast and beautiful, a new song 
to be listened to; a calm to be had and to be indulged, but all 
too soon the clouds open again and the wheel begins to turn. 


Some remember the new tune sung to them, 
they remember the beauty it possessed and the emotion 
invoked; yet as the wheel continues they 
fall back beside it and listen to its song, the tune falling from 
the once more pregnant clouds to the earth below, ever pushing 
it forward, pushing it to forget beauties song. 

-Jessie Olsen-Stice

Cordis

Have you ever sat back and thought about what protects our hearts? Not the literal heart which pumps blood through your body, but the figurative heart which sits close to your physical heart. The one which allows you to feel emotions whether the emotion be pain, joy, sadness, happiness, love, hate, or contentment. What protects it? Unlike other things (for lack of a better word) which reside in our bodies our "heart" is not something which can be protected by bones, skin, or white blood cells. It is unprotectable in this way...so I ask again, "what protects our hearts?" Can it be our frame of mind? Can it be our life experiences? Or does it simply have its own defenses?

I feel it is a combination of all three of my proposals. How you set your mind up to perceive something does a great deal as to how you feel something. My mind set on various topics effect how I feel in regard to them. In addition I also feel our life experiences set up the foundation for our "heart's" protection. What you have gone through helps shape how you see things and thus how you in turn feel them. And in a round about way one could consider the "heart" has its own defenses which it sets up...based on frame of mind and past experiences. So I think the "heart" is protected by life. From the day you are born to now you have experienced things and done things which have shaped how your heart deals with day-to-day pressures and emotions.

Now, what your heart feels is a different matter. While I think you can train your "heart" to protect itself based on the things you have done and gone through I do not think you can train your "heart" in what it feels. Everyone feels the same things...joy, sadness, happiness, love, hate, mirth, and loathing....everyone of these emotions are universal and are felt by everyone. It does not matter gender, race, religious views, sexual orientation, or age...all feelings are universal. Moreover, you can not tell your "heart" what to feel. It feels on its own accord and will not be swayed because of what you desire or what you have been told or what another person wants you to feel. Your "heart" feels completely on its own without interference from outside itself. It is because of this I think that your emotions are the only true and singular thing about a person. It is the one thing which is not tampered by an outside force. Now while I say this I must say that I am not trying to discount my earlier statement of how feeling is universal. I stand by that statement and I do not say that we are unique in that sense but we are unique in our own ways of how we feel. Not what we feel.

I may be talking in circles because it is so late but this is what was in my head. So I hope you enjoyed.