Continuation of the great joeorb! :)

Ok so it's taken me a while to continue the story on how the weekend in Chicago/Milwaukee went. I read Ann's blog and I think we've summed up how the weekend went, all the emotions involved, and now how we have to finish up with school and off to a wonderful summer God willing.
So after poker night we all went back to the Diekmeier's and proceeded to pass out after trying to watch "The 6th Day." Mrs. Gregory told us the next day that the movie was probably the reason we all fell asleep but I think it was the fact that it had been a long, long week for most of us (I know it was for me because I hadn't slept since last Wednesday). I know Jon and I were tired because we stayed up talking until 5am that Saturday morning about a lot of things and it's one of those conversations that we all need. Plus, he's my best buddy so the convos are always funny, serious, deep, important all at the same time :)
So we just chilled at the Dieks on Sunday and watched a breathing workout video that had me laughing pretty hard. We also got Kim to belly dance for us (good thing I had Shakira's Spanish Cd with me :)) and that made Jon laugh and we all did the "tip of the hat" towards Kim. I love her so much, and is an integral part of the nerrdy crew :) Aaron, Jon, James, and I decided to play h-o-r-s-e outside and according to the girls we provided them with a lot of laughs. They could see us through the living room window and since we were trying all these difficult shots so we could eliminate each other we did some pretty silly stuff. James had the shot of the day with a deep shot behind Aaron's car while standing on top of a rock...nothin' but net. *I tip my hat* :) I ended up winning the game only because I got luckier than James but I have to say that was the most fun game of h-o-r-s-e I had ever played. Good times, good times.
After hanging out most of the afternoon at the Dieks we all said our goodbyes and left towards Chicago to pick up our stuff and head out to Iowa. Halfway to Chicago I start worrying about where I left my keys and so we search the car and the bags but I couldn't find them. So we turn around and head back to the Diekmeier's and start looking again and then I head out to the car to search through the bags again. It wasn't in mine and it wasn't in Ann's bag but I hadn't thoroughly searched Kim's bag since it had....girl stuff that I don't think she'd be comfortable having me look through it, lol. So I decided to look through it and found my keys in the bottom of her bag and Ann and I proceeded to celebrate saying *so seductive* :P So back to Chicago we went and got all our things and said goodbye to Jon and Mrs. Gregory and thanked them for everything. A wonderful, amazing, fun, much needed weekend is my description of everything. Hopefully Jon and I will be traveling to L4T and LYC together if things work out that way and who knows what will happen from there.
So on the way back I decided that even though it's my car I will not drive since I needed to study so Ann drove the first leg and Kim drove the last half as I attempted to study for my US Foreign Policy final that was on Monday at noon and let's just say that I wasn't able to read much. I kinda knew the material but felt that I needed to read everything since I didn't know the format for the test but I was also thinking of the History test I had that same day at 9:45.
Yes, two tests back to back and I hadn't done much studying for any of them. I go to class, I participate, I take good notes so I'm always thinking that will get me through. So I got back to Ames at about 1am and then I started reading till 2 and slept for maybe 3 hours and then hit my lecture notes for history hard. I had 16 lectures to go through along with understanding the material of a book I hadn't read plus not forgetting the stuff I read for Foreign Policy that was right after the History final.
Mayhem I tell you, but my History professor was really nice and actually offered extra time to finish the essay for the test but I told him I had a test right after his and he was really really nice. He is probably the best professor I've had in college and he actually offered me to come back later during the day and finish the essay because he didn't want me to rush while writing. I had come in 15 minutes late but I told him I felt confident enough about it and thanked him for everything and for being a great instructor. I told him I wish I could have been more detailed on some of my I.D. answers but I told him that it's been a tough semester and I had been traveling during the weekend. He said that he appreciated my participation and observations I made in class about the readings we were assigned and that I was an exceptional student. I was like, "Wow" and I thanked him for his kind words and offered me help in talking about career opportunities when classes resume and I will definitely take him up on that :) Then I went to my Foreign Policy test and I hope I did well enough on it to finish up with an A. I got my paper back which I had turned in late because of the whole miscommunication of assignments (I posted earlier about it) and I got an A- on my paper!!! Woo hoo!! I thanked God for allowing me to do well on that paper and the prof commented that it was an "excellent paper, although I have to make cite my sources correctly." I never understand what profs mean by that because every prof has their own way of explaining things but I was glad the paper was a good one and that I received a good grade for it. Glory be to God for that because I really don't think I did anything special.
Well I've procrastinated enough on the 2 papers I have due tomorrow by noon so I will proceed to start them and do a decent job on them. Here's to a long night of writing :S

Awesomistic weekend...beginning of the week of Hades

Ok so it has been a while since I posted on my blog and I have to apologize for it. I wanted to spend the end of Unleavened Bread up in Chicago with Jon and his mother because it would be a while (maybe until July) until I would see them in the summer because I'm going to spend it in Florida. So Ann, Kim, and I decided to visit them this past weekend and we left on Friday afternoon. I had 2 finals that I had to study for on Monday but I thought that there was nothing that was going to keep me from seeing Jon and I thought of it as a risk worth taking. The semester has really been a blur for the last half of it so I really didn't worry too much about not being able to really study until I got back Sunday. I think I had enough good grades to pull it off.
Anyways, I took my books just to make the effort to maybe study and met Ann and Kim in Newton, IA so that we could all leave in my car. The trip went well, smooth, and there was good weather and I know we all appreciated that because it makes the trip so much better. We talked quite a bit, sang along with Destiny's Child, Aaliyah, Alicia Keys, J-LO, Will Smith, Ciara...we had all the girly music going on and I knew the words to all the songs I think. Plus I think I scarred Ann and Kim with some of my Carlton-like/white boy/nerrdy moves but they laughed a lot and we had a great time on the way up.
I really can't describe the feelings I had when we got to Jon's house because the last time we were there it was right a day before 3/12. I was so happy to see Jon and his mother again, especially to see Mrs. Gregory walking around and being such a living inspiration. Now that I write this it's such a surreal feeling that comes upon me because I still have problems coping with it and I can't imagine how they're able to. This is why I admire them so much because they seem to be able to handle life and put a smile on when things are difficult. It was a weekend I wouldn't have traded for anything in the world because I knew we all wanted to see each other and this Feast of Unleavened Bread was something we all needed at this particular time.
Sabbath services were awesome with great sermons and a great lunch in between. We had services in a very nice fancy place and Jon and I decided to bust out the pinstripe suits :) Mr. and Mrs. Millich were up there for services so it was great to see them and talk to them for a while since I won't be seeing them for a couple of months at least with my whole Florida experience.
So after services Jon, Ann, Kim, me, Mike and Aaron Diekmeier, and James Scott all decided to go to Dairy Queen because it apparently is the tradition up in the Milwaukee area. Not a bad tradition at all if you ask me :) So we all caravaned to Dairy Queen's and talked for quite a while and cracked some more nerrdy jokes and gave each other a "tip of the hat". It was the best Dairy Queen ever because they had Linkin Park's Meteora playing and then proceeded to play Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits while we were there. Classics playing during the whole time, something that I can't complain with.
After Dairy Queen everybody except the Diekmeier boys went to Jon's house so we could change from our Church clothes into our "poker clothes" for the traditional Milwaukee Saturday night poker event. So off we went and proceeded to have an awesome night of poker, beer, pizza :) It was the first time I ever played with real money and we had a $10 buy-in with about 13 or 15 people. There were two tables with Texas Hold 'Em going on and I had such a blast. We called James Scott "The Jackal" since he was bluffing his way all the way to be bank basically and it was his first time doing this. It was crazy!!! I think we ended up playing until 2 am and we decided to cash out and James and Jon basically split most of the pot by themselves with about $70 each, I got $24, and I think Mike Deikmeier ended with $15 or so. It was a successful first poker night if you ask me...I'm definitely doing it again soon and making it a tradition :)
So this is pretty long already...I will continue to write later on and say what went on after poker night because after the party, it's the afterparty!!! :) You know what I'm sayyying????!! ;)