interesting

I spent the summer at Southwind, a Young Life camp in Florida. (Many of you know this as our theme song is printed below.) I was reminded today as I perused through a book at work that the name "Kansas" means "People of the south wind." As Shay Meck would say, "Isn't that interesting?" I guess being a Kansan, I would be considered "a person of the south wind." I could get use to that. It appears I was in the right place this summer.

famous (or soon-to-be) quotes

"I basically own Target." Max Jensen

"Well the 26th year of me was on Wednesday the 19th." Sara Reese

"You're trying to assign a line where it's really a region (of time)." Sam Montoia

These are the three best things I heard today.

How I spent my summer (in song form)

Music by Tim McGraw
Lyrics by Leslie Montgomery
reprinted without permission
(I'm sure Leslie won't mind. Not so sure about Tim.)

THE SOUTHWIND INTERN SONG
(Poorly sung to “Live Like You Were Dying”)

I was in my early twenties
With not a lot of money
When I got a chance to go work for Young Life
We were 32 palm trees from no where
Weren’t really sure how we got there
But man, we had a great time

We went alligator chasin’
And golf cart racin’
Spent 37 minutes in the freezer with our butts on frozen chicken
And we fried deeper
And we ate sweeter
And stole that nurse’s bike again and again
Said, “Someday I hope you get the chance
To be an intern at Southwind”

We lived in a house with each other and bugs
Had a dirty floor with no rugs
And I’m pretty sure there isn’t anything that rhymes with Cleetus
At the hospital, saw a puppet show
Found out Coffee Mate is flammable
And that was just the beginning

We went cop evading
Learned Waffle House is shady
Stood in the Atlantic at 2AM
And we cooked cockroaches with a blow torch
Hung out on our front porch
And broke the waterslide rules again and again
Said, “Someday I hope you get the chance
To be an intern at Southwind”

And we got pierced and tattooed
Wrote a book that was rude
Rented eighty bucks worth of movies and slept through ‘em all
We pulled a few all niters
Blew up Bic Liters
We went to Camo Wal-Mart again and again

And we made goofy t-shirts
Made friends but didn’t flirt
And we spent 90 days having the time of our lives
We got scared over at the Island House
Then had to get the sulfur smell out
And we played cards ‘til 3 AM
Said, “Someday I hope you get the chance
To be an intern at Southwind”
Said, “I know I’ll never forget
When I interned at Southwind.”

Maybe Tim McGraw will add this version to his next album. Leslie says she'll call him and see how he feels about doing shameless rip-off tributes...

fam

Here is my family and me. I love them very much. As one can already tell, I have two brothers (Sam and Paul Ab.) and a mom (Leila) and a dad (Paul An.). I am the favorite daugther, though I am not the favorite sister. Skeeter says I'm after Fa2 and Christin (not pictured, who technically aren't blood family, but there's no arguing with Skeet.)

I'll pay more for Charmin.

So I've thought lately that there should be something serious to post about, but I have decided that there are more pressing issues.

I attend school at a small university of about 9,000 students in western Kansas, where there are more students who live on the other side of the world (i.e. China and Turkey) than there are who live on campus. It offers the lowest tuition of any regents/state school in Kansas, and is highly publicized for it. In fact, when driving down I-70 (the fastest way across our state) one would spot five billboards with our "Affordable Success" slogan on them. Let me assure that these billboards are not false advertising, our school does provide what it offers.

I have recently discovered how it is that a regents school of our size can use said slogan while I was in the restroom in Tomanek Hall. You guess it: the toilet paper. The title of this post effectively conveys all of my feelings about the subject. Might I suggest a new slogan: "Moderately Expensive Success with the Highest Quality Toilet Paper".

Apparently, all of the students who attend our college virtually have already figured out what I just expressed in this epiphany.